Holy fracking frack!
I stared at my phone in mortal shock and wheezed as I tried sucking in a breath. Then bringing the phone to my ear, I whispered, “Hello?”
“Yo.”
“Um, Loch?” I kept whispering.
“Ryker.”
Oh, holy yikes!
I felt all the color drain from my face before saying, “Oh. Hi, Ryker. It’s, um, Simone St. John.” I was going for casual.
I don’t think I achieved it.
“Huh. Thought that was you last night. Can’t believe Loch didn’t figure that shit out.”
At least Ryker hadn’t told on me which was one good thing. Well, would you look at me finding the silver lining and all! Ergh.
“Um, yeah. I’m sure you know what I was planning… uh, not telling him who I was then leading him on only to tell him to take a hike because he’d been mean to me when we were young.” Hearing it all laid out like that just made it sound so lame now.
“Yep. I figured as much. Hey, did I just hear you say ‘jackwagon’?” I heard him snort which kind of ticked me off because the last thing I need was him making fun of me. And seriously, all of this just needed to be over with. Now.
“Yeah, I guess you did,” I replied a bit testily. Then gathering all the courage I had and facing my fears I forged ahead. “So… is Loch there?”
Ryker chuckled. “Yeah. He’s here.”
I waited for him to give Loch the phone. Then I waited some more. Then a bit more.
Well. Ryker was either not a very smart man or he was a man who was going to make me say what I wanted. When he still stayed silent, I knew it was the latter. Jeez.
“Can I talk to him?” I said semi-exasperatedly.
He chuckled again. “He’s kinda indisposed right now.”
What the heck did that mean?
Then I heard a girl giggling in the background before she let out a squeal of, “Loch! Stop!”
Ha. Indisposed indeed. I felt my entire body get tight as my breathing got shallower. I was such an idiot to put myself through this thinking I even mattered to him.
“Oh. Well, okay, I’ll, uh, let you go then.”
“Simone?”
“Yeah?” I choked out.
“You give it some time, maybe call him when he’s not so fucked up on Jack Daniels he can’t fuckin’ see straight, he might be willin’ to work shit out,” Ryker shared.
“He’s drunk?”
“Came home, soakin’ wet and pissed as hell, grabbed the bottle from the cabinet not botherin’ with a glass then downed half the fucker right there, wet clothes and all. Asked him what was up, all he said was, ‘Simone St. John.’ Knew things had turned sour then.”
Ya think? I didn’t dare say that to Ryker, though. He was scary enough as it was. Just having this conversation with him was scary in itself. He’d never talked much when he was little and the fact that he was telling me all this was just weird.
“But he’s got a woman over there now,” I whispered, pointing out the obvious.
“Nah. That’s just Nikki. She’s a, uh, friend of mine.”
Oh, I’m sure Ryker, as hot as he was, had lots of “friends” but I didn’t say anything because I was listening to Loch and Nikki in the background arguing over what I guessed was a video game, my limited knowledge from Game Traders coming into play for once.
“Tell you what,” Ryker began. “You text him tomorrow, early. He answers or not, call him tomorrow night, I guarantee he’ll be up to listen.”
“Why’re you being so nice to me after what I did?” I blurted then cringed.
He barked out a laugh. “First of all, you caught me when I’m pretty fuckin’ fried myself. Second, my little brother doesn’t give his time to just anyone. Obviously, you mean somethin’ to him or he wouldn’t be drinkin’ away his sorrows right now. Third, you owned up to shit by callin’ which shows me you got character and just might be worth his time.” He paused for a beat as I sat stunned at what he’d said. “And I know how you felt about him when we were kids. He told me what he did at that dance, felt bad he did that to you. Just took the ‘jackwagon,’” he snorted at his use of my ridiculous word, “some time to figure that shit out. By the time he did, you were gone. You’da played shit straight up this time, you’d be here right now instead o’ sittin’ at home lickin’ your wounds.”
Well. Ryker did not mess around with his words.
But he was so right and I was a dumbass. “Thank you, Ryker,” I said, seriously grateful he’d picked up the phone.
“No problem, babe.” I heard Nikki let out a loud giggle then Loch shouted, “Fuck yeah!” and Ryker spit out a, “Fuck!” Then I heard him blow out a breath. “Gotta go. They’ve busted out the tequila. Shit just got fuckin’ real. Might wanna wait on that text ‘til tomorrow night.”