by Piper Rayne
Everyone gets dealt their hand in life. I’ve made the most of mine. I’ve been blessed in many ways I wouldn’t have thought of, based on the shit hand I was dealt at birth. The one thing I love the most in my life is the friendships I’ve made. Friends that are like a family to me. Something I’ve never really had. If I start something with Rian and we can’t make it work, which I’ve never been able to do with anyone, then we split up the group just like a divorced couple would.
I watched it with Sierra and Ethan. The jagged line that divided our close-knit group of friends. Ethan on the outskirts, forced to move out even if he says he did it by choice. It’s not worth the risk. What are the chances a guy like me could make Rian happy long term?
“Dylan,” Knox says, drawing me from my internal thoughts.
“Like, think about it. When you kiss someone, you’re kissing everyone they’ve kissed.” Seth shakes his head, crumpling up the Funyuns bag and tossing it in the trash can. “And how come the women don’t care? Where do they find them to sign up for this? It’s kind of sexist.” He turns his attention to us only because the show has gone to commercial. “What?”
“Get off the Bachelor,” Knox says.
Seth props his feet up on my bed and relaxes back into his chair with his fingers laced over his stomach. “I’m just saying—”
Knox shoots Seth the stern dad look before turning to me. “We’re your friends, Dylan. You can talk to us.”
I blow out a breath and stare at the ceiling.
“Just fucking tell him,” Seth says.
My head shoots in his direction. Knox’s attention shifts between Seth and me, obviously waiting for one of us to spill.
“Shut up,” I say and kick Seth’s feet off my bed.
He props them back up.
“Rian went out with Jax tonight,” Seth says, smirking as he wiggles his ass to get comfortable in the chair.
“Why are you here again?” I ask him.
“Because I’m your in case of emergency. Which I should say, I feel honored about.” Seth’s hand covers his heart. “No offense, but mine is my mom, but you know, she’ll baby me if something bad happens.”
I stare blankly at him.
“I feel oddly offended I’m not your in case of emergency. As pussy as that sounds.” Knox looks down as if he’s examining himself for thinking that.
“You’re a cop. You’ll know when something happens to me. Seth’s got nothing going on in his life.”
“Jeez, thanks.” Seth gives me the stink-eye.
“And no offense, I’m changing my in case of emergency now,” I say.
He flips up his middle finger, his attention back on the television. “Man, I’m surprised there aren’t any cat fights. One rose left. Even my heart is pounding.”
“Is this about Rian going out with Jax?” Knox asks me.
I shake my head. “No.”
He looks at me long and hard. Is this what he does with the people he pulls over?
“You’re trying to intimidate me into confessing. Not ethical, man.”
He chuckles.
“Shit, I hate how they drag out this last rose,” Seth says.
“Do you always watch this show?” Knox asks Seth.
They might live together, but they’re on opposite shifts most of the time.
Seth scoffs. “No.”
Knox picks up the remote from the bed and turns off the television.
“You fucker, he had the rose in his hand!” If looks could kill, Seth just murdered Knox.
“Give me a damn break. Why do you give a shit? There will never be twenty women vying for your heart.”
“That’s insulting,” Seth says. “I like to think I’m quite the catch. Case in point, I don’t think the show is very ethical.”
I let them go on as long as they want even if it’s annoying the shit out of me because who the hell cares at this point? The longer they argue, the less likely the conversation will turn my way again.
Then Knox’s radio squawks and his hand raises to the walkie on his shoulder. Thank goodness—he’ll have to go. I’ll let Seth watch The Bachelor and hopefully the nurse will take me for my damn MRI. After Knox is done talking, he stands.
Perfect. Just as I predicted.
“I gotta get back on the road,” he says. “Seth, take him home. You can stay in Leilani’s bed if you don’t want to stay with Rian and Jax. She can sleep with me.”
“I’ll be in my bed.”
“It’s just an offer. You haven’t driven your bike crazy since Winnie died.” He pins me with a stare.
My hands clench on the sheets. Seth looks at me too. He knows about Winnie. Not everything, just that she was my foster mom who died.
My driving crazy after Winnie died was completely different. I’m actually surprised I’m still alive after all the races I took part in.
“I’m fine in my own bed,” I say. “And please let’s not make some big deal about this.”
“Sure,” Knox says.
“Of course not,” Seth says.
Just as Knox is leaving the room, Rian appears in the doorway. All the rage from earlier refills the empty well inside me when I see her in that outfit and makeup again.
“They didn’t want to let me in.” She rushes over to the bed, taking me in as though she’s examining where all my injuries might be.
“Where’s your date?” I snip.
“Dylan,” Knox says, sighing.
“He’s in the waiting room. I told the nurse at the front that I was your sister.”
“Um… Rian?” Seth asks.
She turns to him, but then looks back at me quickly, looking as if she’s mentally checking off each part of my body that isn’t harmed.
“Where are your shoes?” Seth asks.
I lean over the bed to see her white-sock-covered feet.
She looks down at them. “I couldn’t get my shoes back on. Long story.”
“So where are they now?” Seth asks.
I want to take the shortbread cookies they gave me after taking my blood and shove them down Seth’s throat when I picture the boots she had on earlier on the floor of Jax’s room.
Rian shrugs. “Jax has them.”
Knox waves from the doorway. “I’ll see you at home. Glad nothing more serious happened.”
“Yeah, thanks for the ticket.” I hold up the piece of paper.
Rian plucks it from my grasp.
“Hey, you do the crime, you do the time,” Knox says.
“Har-har, Officer Knox,” Seth says.
Knox flips him off, walking out of the hospital room.
“So is it just your arm?” Rian’s hand on mine pulls my attention back to her.
I hate all the makeup Sierra and Blanca put on her. Rian doesn’t need to change for Jax. She’s beautiful. “Yeah, six weeks in a cast.”
Her shoulders fall. “It’s your left.”
I nod. “Yeah, which means no tattoo unless you want to be my first right-handed attempt.” I laugh.
She doesn’t. “This is serious. What happened?”
She reads over the ticket, her tongue sliding out as she reads. I desperately want to tell her how cute she looks when she does that. Like when she’s trying to tweak a recipe and she thinks about it for most of the day before, her tongue teases me like that the entire time.
Seth clears his throat. “I’m hungry. Anything?” He stands and points at us.
“Nah,” I say.
Rian doesn’t answer.
“How was your date?” I ask once we’re alone so that no one is a witness to me losing my balls.
She puts down the paper. “Failure to yield? The bike is so dangerous.”
I wait because I know she heard me and we’re not going to play this game.
She sighs. “It was good. We went bowling.”
That explains the shoe thing. I’m relieved it wasn’t what I was envisioning.
“I’m not sure why you had to put on all that makeup or dress l
ike that.” My gaze falls over her body. She’s so damn hot, my dick is already on board with banging her. Her tits practically beg for me to grab them, her hard nipples poking out through her bra. “It’s way too much.”
She stands and heaves a breath. “Thanks for the advice. Next time you can do my makeup.”
Of course she takes it wrong.
I grab her hand, my thumb running along her inner wrist. She doesn’t pull away, which has to be a good sign. “I’ve been a bastard.”
“Yeah, you have.” She doesn’t look at me.
“Okay, you ready to ride the MRI train?” A woman I haven’t seen before comes in. She smiles sweetly at both of us. “He’ll be right back.” She unlocks the wheels on the bed, and before I have time to say anything or stop her, I’m being taken out of the room. “You can wait here or go down to vending. We’ll be about thirty or forty minutes.”
Rian says nothing, and I can’t see anything since the bed is already rolling.
On my way down the hall, I get a glimpse of the waiting room. I see Knox and Jax in deep conversation by a vending machine. Seth is with Ethan and Blanca. Adrian and Sierra are just walking in, both with just fucked heads of hair.
It all reconfirms not to fuck with this. It wasn’t that long ago when I was laid up in the emergency room with a horrible case of the flu and there was no one to call. I waited for discharge and I left the hospital all by myself. Back when my in case of emergency was an empty box.
Chapter Fourteen
Rian
I sit in the chair in Dylan’s hospital room. I’d never admit to anyone how scared I was when I saw that message from Knox. How does a police officer not tell you exactly what’s wrong? If he would’ve said Dylan’s conscious, I wouldn’t have been nearly as worried that something horrible had happened.
“Oh, did they take him for his MRI?” A nurse comes in, sanitizes her hands, and stops by the door.
“Yeah.”
Her smile dims into a sympathetic look. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure he’s fine. He’s one of the smart ones who wears a helmet. But he’ll need some help until that cast comes off.”
“Of course.”
“My husband slipped on the ice at his job last winter and had to have surgery on his shoulder. As you know, men can’t handle things like this quite like us women can. He whined and complained his whole recovery. I chalked it up to him having the ‘man flu.’” She puts man flu in quotations. “But turns out he got so depressed, we had to get antidepressants. It’s hard for men like them to sit back and allow their loved ones to care for them.”
She talks as though she knows Dylan. My gut twists when the question pops in my head, and I’m not even prepared to hear the answer. She’s only a few years older than us and I spotted a tattoo on the inside of her wrist when she raised her hands to sanitize them. “Do you know Dylan?”
“No. I just know his type. A replica of my husband.” She picks up the papers on the tray. “Mind if I go over the care instructions with you?”
I sit up straighter. Should I tell her we’re not a couple? Then the haunting thought that might be going through Dylan’s mind right now triggers in my own. Who will help him? He doesn’t have a girlfriend to see him back to health. He’s definitely too proud to ask.
“Sure,” I say, knowing that Dylan’s rehabilitation is up to me.
“My husband loved the sponge baths.” She laughs. “But just wrap his arm in plastic and use a scrunchie to secure it at the top of the arm. If you need to, a bigger rubber band will help. He obviously can’t swim in a pool. No scratching by sticking a pen or ruler or anything down there. He’ll probably go through some itching as it heals, so keep an eye out for that.” She shrugs. “Other than that, it’s just a broken arm. He did say it’s his dominant though, which means he’ll have to relearn to do stuff with his right, I suppose.”
She stands and tucks the doctor’s chair under a table with a computer on it. She scans her badge and types away.
Seth walks in with a Snickers bar in hand. “What’s up, buttercup?” The nurse looks at him and he raises his hand. “In case of emergency contact.” He points at himself with a big grin then sits next to me and holds the Snickers bar in front of my face.
“No thanks.”
“Oh, you look sour like Knox did earlier. All these people vying to be Dylan’s in case of emergency. I know. I was shocked too.”
I stare blankly at him, and even the nurse is eyeing him from the corner of her eye.
“Should I go over the care instructions with him?” she asks, closing up the computer.
“Care instructions?” he asks.
“No, I’m Dylan’s roommate,” I say.
“What kind of care instructions?” Seth asks again.
“Sponge bath techniques,” the nurse says, picking up the papers and handing them to him.
The Snickers bar drops to his lap and he holds up his hands in front of him like a ten-year-old boy.
The nurse laughs. “I think you need to have a conversation about that in case of emergency thing. As soon as his MRI comes back clean, the doctor will be in and you guys can get home.”
“Thank you,” I say.
She smiles and walks out of the room.
Seth picks up his Snickers bar and blows on it. “What’re your thoughts on the Bachelor?”
An hour later, Dylan is released and being wheeled out in a wheelchair by an orderly. Seth is on one side and I’m on the other. All our friends stand as we push through the doors of the waiting room. Each of them hugs Dylan or shakes his hand. Jax is even there, having stuck around, and the two do a handshake thing I’ve never seen Dylan do with anyone.
A few minutes later, we’re all outside and Adrian’s car pulls into the circle.
We shuffle Dylan into the car and the orderly goes back into the hospital. We all split up between Ethan, Adrian, and Seth’s cars. Somehow, I end up with Blanca and Ethan.
“This is a nice car, Ethan.”
“Thanks. It’s nothing like Adrian’s, but it gets us from A to B,” he says with a big smile. It’s not a brand new car, but it’s his first. I know how proud he was when he purchased it last month.
We aren’t even out of the circle driveway of the hospital before Blanca peers at me between the seats. “So?”
“So what?” I ask.
“How was the date?”
Ethan says nothing. I’ve actually known him longer than I’ve known Blanca, so even though it feels a little odd, talking about Jax in front of him isn’t weird.
“It was good. He’s a really nice guy.”
“Nice?” Blanca looks at Ethan for a moment before her brown eyes land on me again. “Did anything happen?”
“Blanc,” Ethan says.
“I’m just asking.” She waves. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“I didn’t kiss him. We were just leaving the bowling alley when we got the call about Dylan,” I say.
I’m not sure if I want to tell Blanca, and Ethan, that Jax saw right through me. That he knows I’m pathetic and have fallen for a man who will never feel the same about me. It’s embarrassing even if Blanca knows my feelings for Dylan. But to deny the attention of another guy because of that crush feels ridiculous. Like I’m holding out for something that’s never going to happen.
“Oh, I bet he knows how to kiss,” she says.
“Blanca!” Ethan yells.
Blanca bites her lip. “Not as good as you, babe.” She kisses his cheek before whispering something in his ear.
“Better,” Ethan says.
“Do you think you’ll go out with him again?” she asks.
I shrug. “I’m not sure. We’re roommates, and I don’t want to mess that up either.”
Blanca turns back around to face forward. Ethan looks at me in the rearview mirror, and our eyes meet. I can tell by his expression that I’m not as transparent as I like to think to him either.
“Dylan’s going to need
some help until that cast comes off,” he says, giving me an out of the conversation about Jax.
I mouth, “Thank you,” and he nods.
“Yeah, we’ll all have to pitch in,” Blanca says.
“I’m sure I can handle most of it,” I say. “Who knows? Jax stayed around the hospital, so maybe those two can kiss and make up now.”
“Yeah, what’s up with them?” Blanca asks.
Ethan looks at me again through the rearview mirror as if he knows everything.
“I have no idea,” I lie because it’s not my business to share.
Thankfully, Blanca isn’t Sierra. She gives up. Sierra’s like the dog that never lets go of the tug toy until you give her something bigger and better.
We pull up to the apartment building and Ethan lets us out before he goes to hunt for a parking space. Dylan and Sierra are already waiting at the doors since Adrian gets to park in the lot designated for his building across the street.
“Here, take your boots.” I pass her the boots I have in my hand. “You can go, Sierra,” I tell her, inserting our key into the building.
“Are you sure?” she asks.
“God yes. Please carry on with your sex fest,” Dylan says, walking over with a mumbled thanks after I open the door.
“Okay, I’ll come by and check on you tomorrow!” She’s already about to cross the street.
“I guess we don’t have to tell her twice,” Blanca says, following us inside.
We ride the elevator, Blanca asking Dylan a million questions about what happened. He only offers one-word answers. She shoots me looks behind his back.
Dylan digs his keys out of the pocket of his jacket and tries to open our door with his right hand, but the tip of the key keeps missing the hole.
“Struggle to get it in? That’s probably a first for you,” Blanca says, laughing on her way down to her apartment.
