Page 8 of No Rhyme or Roughing
Something hard slammed into me from behind, and then I was in the air, my feet dangling as the world spun around me. “Can’t breathe,” I wheezed dramatically, trying to break the hold on me.
My feet finally hit solid ground, and I turned, punching my brother in the stomach. “What is wrong with you?”
He dodged out of the way of another attack. “She’s home, ladies and gentlemen. She’s really home.”
“Shut up.” I reached for him and tried to cover his mouth, but he bit my hand and backed away. It had always been this way with us—easy and a little violent. There was no one else who brought out this side of me.
“Ew, gross, you slimed me.” Wiping it on my pants, I couldn’t help smiling. He’d stopped now, his chest heaving as he grinned at me. Our family hadn’t always been the most stable. Dad hadn’t been a part of it in years, Mom lived in denial, and Stas and Kristen, our older sisters, pretended the rest of us didn’t exist.
But Teddy. Oh, Teddy. He was my person. The only one I would turn to when I needed a reset, like now.
Tears dampened my cheeks, and then solid arms pulled me into them. Warmth, comfort, and safety. Acceptance. Teddy was the only person who loved all of me.
“I don’t know why I’m crying.” I sniffled. It all cameout of me in more tears. The weird situation with Jameson. Coming home. The accident.
His chuckle vibrated through me. “Maybe because you haven’t been back in years, and you’ve missed my face.”
He pulled away and looped an arm over my shoulder. “Where are you staying?”
“I was planning to find a random guy and trade lodging for se?—”
“My ears! Stop right now.”
I pinched him. “Only kidding. You have spare rooms, right?”
“Nah, roommates, remember?” He looked back over his shoulder. “Ry! Look who it is. Our Sydy has returned to us.”
Ryder’s gaze burned into me, heating the back of my neck, but I didn’t turn.
“Sydy,” he said, low and a little growly.
When I was a kid, I’d called myself Sydy, unable to say my full name. They never let me forget it. But now, it felt different.
Teddy squeezed me tighter to his side. “You okay with the couch?”
I nodded. I was okay with whatever put me back into his orbit. And if Ryder happened to be just down the hall, well, worse things had happened.
CHAPTER FOUR
RYDER
Sydney Valentine.
I’d hit on Sydney fucking Valentine.
My first thought when I realized it was that Teddy couldn’t find out. Best friends or not, some things were just not okay.
Now, as I sat in my room at his house, I couldn’t get the image of her standing uncertain in the street, looking like every fantasy come to life. Maybe I had a problem with shy women. It was like an aphrodisiac. She wasn’t a little girl anymore, that much was clear.
I groaned and laid back to stare at the blank ceiling. Maybe it had been too long since I’d gotten laid. Or maybe it was the frustration of yet another loss in yetanother nearly empty building. Either way, I couldn’t sleep—not without feeling like a total jackass for pulling out a pickup line on a kid I’d once claimed as my own sister.
Having only Sullivan as a sibling would have been lonely after what he did if not for Teddy. While Teddy used to get annoyed that little Sydney followed us around, I’d let her do whatever she wanted. She’d had me wrapped around her tiny finger.
The last time I saw her, she’d been in pigtails, tears rolling down her cheeks as I left for college. I hadn’t looked back, not once, until I returned to the Bay Area thinking my career was over. Then came the phone call with one final chance to play.
A last year or two had somehow turned into three.
Reaching toward the bedside table, I grabbed my phone to check the time. Just after midnight. With a sigh, I sat up again, staring at my blank walls. In the years I’d been here, I hadn’t put up a single picture or bought any decorations. Teddy hadn’t asked why. He knew.
