Stealing Ryder (Sharing Harper, 2)

by Murphy, V

  How the hell do I know she’s not out there fuckin’ other guys already? It made me disgusted to think that some sick fuck would be tryin’ to hit on MY woman. And the fact I couldn’t be there to help her out because she wouldn’t let me drove me insane. I knew I fucked up, but that shouldn’t have stopped her from loving me. In fact, nothing had stopped me from being madly head-over-heels in love with her.

  In the meantime, I’d been goin’ through the motions of life, and kept surfing longer and harder to ignore the fact I woke up without Harper layin’ there in my bed. The very scene I would ache to see wasn’t there for me, and I didn’t think it ever would be again.

  I had a lot of time to think about the shit I pulled on Harper, and it was fucked up of me. I shouldn’t have done it. I was disrespectin’ our relationship, and it wasn’t how I should have been actin’. I should have treated Harper like she was the fuckin’ queen of my castle. I should have respected her boundaries in our relationship, and I didn’t. I was selfish and not thinkin’ when I placed my lips anywhere near Kylee’s face.

  Harper loved being kissed on the forehead. She did this cute little thing with her nose where she would wrinkle it up in order to signal that she wanted to be kissed there.

  Shit. I missed those cute little faces she made, and I had no one else to blame but myself.

  I put all my frustrations and general pissed off attitude into my surfing. My shit impressed Finn, and tonight he was finally going to treat me to a night out. His exact words were more like:

  “Brah, let’s go pick up some ladies and get your balls back before they sink farther up into you. Time to celebrate the mad waves you’ve been taking out there.”

  Finn was a fuckin’ joke, but even he had been acting weird as fuck lately. As much as he jokes around and shit, he kept tiptoeing around me. Probably ‘cause he knew before I went to Texas, he over-spoke when his drunk ass told Harper about me going out there with Kylee. I was still pissed about that, but whatever. We were “bros” so it’s a ‘move on’ kinda moment.

  The night was already slow, and I dropped Evelyn off at Kylee’s, who was surprisingly very abrupt about the whole situation. When I pulled my truck into her driveway to drop off Evelyn, she was already outside waitin’ for me.

  “Come on, Evie. Let’s go. Say goodbye to Daddy.” She brushed me off like I wasn’t even there.

  “Hello to you too, Kylee.” I said sarcastically.

  “Ryder.” She said coolly, while grabbing Evelyn out of her car seat and snatching up her backpack.

  “Always a pleasant experience seeing you,” I barked.

  “I hear you are going out with Finn tonight?” she asked, clearly changing subjects.

  “Sure am. What’s it to you?” I questioned.

  “Oh, just heard you were. Well, good luck.” She winked and walked away.

  What the fuck? I swear to God I think that chick is fucking crazy. I never understood her when we were married, and I certainly didn’t understand a damn thing she said now.

  I pulled my truck out of her driveway and drove to the bar where I was meeting Finn. Tryin’ to shake what that crazy bitch said, I was focused on getting to the bar and getting a damn beer. I was sick of women constantly fucking with my mind. One second she was rubbing up on me like a cat in heat, and the next, she was all about this new man of hers. Who, I might add, remains a fucking mystery to all.

  When I finally pulled up to the bar, I threw the clutch into park and walked into the dive to find Finn sittin’ in the corner with two Bud’s on the table.

  “Hey, bro. What’s up?” he shouted over the loud music coming from the DJ booth in the corner.

  “Fuckin’ Kylee. Crazy motherfuckin’ bitch.” I was so pissed that I pounded the beer.

  Finn surprised me with his reaction; it was weird because his face suddenly turned completely blank. He just sat there drinking his beer silently. I half expected him to agree with me, but he just sat there, so I decided to change the topic, because clearly, he wasn’t about the shit-talking.

  But hey, that was Finn. Sometimes he could be a real obnoxious piece of shit, and other times, he was all about getting along with everyone. Some kumbaya bullshit, or along those lines, ya know?

  “I haven’t heard from Harper.”

  He perked up a little bit, and was glad I had shifted the conversation. Fuckin’ weirdo.

  “ Why don’t you go out and find yourself another lady, my man?” Finn asked.

  “Because there is no one else for me, dude. When you are in love, there is no one else who can replace the person who is in your every damn thought, and for me, that’s Harper.”

  “Dude, you haven’t even tried to mack on any other girls. I think it’s time. I have a little competition we should do.” Finn’s eyes looked mischievous, and I knew the bastard was up to something, but I played along for the sake of continuing the conversation, and providing some sort of entertainment for the night.

  “Aight, dude. Lay it on me. Let’s play your little fuckin’ game,” I half-mocked in his accent.

  “Okay, don’t get feisty now.” He laughed but continued with what he was sayin’. “Now, you gotta go pick up the girl of my choosing here. You cannot say no. You gotta buck up and do it. I don’t give a fuck about Harper or what she might think because, dude, you’re not with her, so you gotta branch out.”

  This was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to show Harper that I needed her back in my life, not pick up some strange girl. Plus, with the wedding, I learned my lesson that picking up girls doesn’t mean that Harper won’t stop by at any given moment. And it would kill me for her to see me talking to some chick, when really all I wanted to be doing was talking to her.

  “I don’t know, man. I think it’s a pretty fuckin’ stupid idea.” I confessed truthfully.

  I honestly wasn’t into tryin’ to pick up other chicks. I wanted one girl in my life, and that girl didn’t want me back; so I was going to sit here and wait my entire life if I had to, in order to convince Harper that I needed her in my life.

  “Just for shits and giggles.” Finn laughed and pounded the rest of his beer. He waved over the waitress, who came bouncing over with her perky round tits popping out of her shirt.

  “My buddy here is newly single,” he started talking to the attractive waitress, but he kept glancing over at me, “and he needs a couple of your best shots because he needs to loosen the fuck up.”

  She laughed and started to turn away, but not until Finn stopped her and pulled her back.

  “He also needs to grow his balls back and start flirting with some girls. Now, you are a girl; so tell us, which girl in this bar is going to talk to my man Ryder?”

  Ah, here was the douchebag-Finn that I knew and fucking loved. I knew this son of a bitch would eventually come out.

  The girl just laughed and smiled at me. “He shouldn’t have any problems picking up any ladies in the bar here.” She winked and walked away to grab our shots that Finn had so graciously ordered for me. What an asshole.

  “Come on dude, just one girl. I am not telling you to go over there and sleep with her; just get your juices flowin’ a little and go talk to her. There isn’t anything wrong with flirting. It never harmed anyone,” he emphasized, and practically pushed me off my stool.

  “Alright, Finn. I’ll have one conversation, but after that, I want you off my D, dude. I ain’t sleeping with no one, and if the girl is a total bimbo, I am getting the fuck outta there,” I announced.

  “Yeah buddy!” Finn pounded my fist and started to look around the bar to pick, I am assuming, the hottest chick at the dive.

  “Them.” I looked to where he was pointing and saw a blonde chick who looked oddly like Kylee, with much bigger and faker tits. I didn’t know what Finn’s fascination with blondes was, or what his deal with girls lookin’ like Kylee was, but I shrugged and walked over there after grabbing the two shots the waitress had just brought over. If he was going to make me flirt with these girls,
the least he could do was provide the drinks we were going to drink.

  “Hey there,” I drawled out, emphasizing my accent that I know girls swoon over. She looked up and giggled emphatically.

  “Hey.” She smiled and stared up at me.

  “Shots?” I asked. I hated this whole forced-flirting thing. It was fuckin’ hard, man. Girls had it so easy. Guys would just come up to them and start talking, but dudes had to actually come up with conversation and have the balls to see it through. We had to make sure we didn’t sound like self-proclaimed douchebags, but then again, we didn’t want to sound like fuckin’ pussies either. Guys have to search the situation out and make sure the girls weren’t there just to have a girl’s night. It was fuckin’ hard. Too damn hard to pick up a damn chick.

  “Sure.” She laughed, and her friends backed away slowly from the table once they realized I was talking to their friend. We drank our shots, and then introduced ourselves to each other.

  Turns out, she was a graduate student at one of the local colleges here. Her name was Morgan, and she was born and raised in San Diego. She had recently been divorced, like myself, and had two kids back at home. Her friends had forced her out of the house, sort of like Finn. We actually had a pretty good time talkin’, and from where Finn was sittin’, it probably looked like we were going to get together. But both of us had this unspoken truth that neither of us was really lookin’ to do anything but talk.

  After about a half hour or so, what I thought was completely appropriate, I headed back to where Finn was watching the game. I shook her hand, and thanked Morgan for the conversation. It was sort of what I really needed.

  I needed to know that women weren’t always out there for men, and that I was capable of talking to a woman just to have a conversation with them. It was something I needed to know to convince myself that I couldn’t love anyone else but Harper.

  There was no one else out there in the world I would have rather been with, except Harper. During Morgan and my conversation, it was nice to talk to someone else, but I couldn’t be with anyone else physically or emotionally. I wasn’t capable of loving anyone but Harper. I needed her with me all the time, every day. I thought of her constantly. She was the light of my every moment. Finn was just goin’ to have to be pissed that I didn’t put out. It wasn’t for me.

  “Dude, did you score?” Finn asked, as I walked over to where he was watching the game.

  “No way, man. I told you. There is no one else for me but Harper. She’s got herself fuckin’ twisted around my heart as fucked up as that sounds.”

  Finn did something I didn’t expect at all. He shook his head and nodded. Before he spoke, he took a sip of his beer.

  “I need to tell you something, dude.” He knocked off the rest of the beer and waved to the waitress, indicating he wanted another round.

  “What’s up?” I asked with some concern. There were very few times when I saw Finn serious. Once was when he told me he thought about leaving his good job to surf professionally, and the other was when he told me the story about how his dad died in a surf accident when he was a kid. Other than that, the dude had been the buddy who could make me laugh hysterically. He was never the serious type. Just a buddy.

  “Don’t freak out, man.” His other beer arrived, and it was clear he was starting to feel the buzz of the booze.

  “What the fuck?” I asked.

  “I need to tell you something about Kylee.”

  “You know why the bitch was actin’ crazy as fuck?” I asked.

  “Promise me, dude, that you won’t freak out. I have known you for years now. It would be really shitty if what I am about to tell you is going to ruin our friendship. Plus, I want to be able to live so I can kick your ass in the surf competition that’s coming up,” Finn half-joked.

  “You’re startin’ to act like a goddamn pussy, so tell me what the fuck is goin’ on before I walk outta this bar.”

  “Okay, okay. I am going to start off by telling you the whole story from the beginning. It was the night after all that shit went down with Harper, when I sorta spilled the beans about Texas. Well, when you guys left, my drunk ass stumbled to this smaller classy-ass bar downtown. I recognized Kylee and walked over there, because honestly, I wasn’t thinking.”

  Fuck. I could tell where this goddamn story was going to go already. I was too fuckin’ curious to make him stop, but a part of me wanted to beat the shit out of him for consorting with the enemy.

  “We talked the entire night. It was fucking crazy. Normally, when I am about-to-pass-out-so-drunk, all my mind keeps doing is thinking about fucking the first pussy that walks by; but all I did with her, and all I wanted to do, was to talk. We stayed out until the bars closed, and just walked and talked. She went home, and I passed out at my crib; but the next morning, she was still on my mind. Like, I couldn’t shake our conversation and how she made me feel…off; so I decided to give her a call.

  “From there, everything just moved so quickly. By the time she had to go to Texas, we were just starting to grow with our relationship. We both decided to be monogamous. We have spent almost every day with each other. I didn’t want to step on your toes, though, because I know Evelyn is spending more time with Kylee, and I felt like I had to tell you I was most likely going to be there too.”

  I felt fuckin’ betrayed by this dude. But at the same time, I thought, if Kylee was with Finn, he must have heard about the big blowup; he didn’t react like Harper did. There was a part of me that held hope from this fucker’s story. Selfish thinkin’, I know.

  “So, y’all are like a thing then?” I asked.

  “Yeah. It’s a strange feeling, dude. I never meant to hurt you, or for this to happen. I guess you don’t expect to fall in love with a girl, but when that feeling takes ahold, there is nothing really you can do about it but ride the wave.”

  I sat for a second so I could see the little shit squirm in his seat. I totally understood what he said, and I understood the idea of falling in love, and not being able to stop being in love. It’s how I have been tryin’ to explain to everyone the feelin’ I have for Harper.

  “This is the same thing I feel for Harper. Now you understand when I say I can’t just stop loving her just because she left me. She owns my body, my soul,

  and my life.”

  “I get it, dude. I totally get it now. Are we cool?”

  I thought about it for a second. I remember how happy and over everything Kylee was at the wedding. It was nice to see Kylee free, so to speak. She looked fuckin’ happy, and of course, I knew Finn was a good guy. He was my buddy for fuck’s sake.

  And around Evelyn? He was amazing. He never disrespected her, and has been around her since she was little. I knew he wasn’t going to press being her dad because he respected me as well. I couldn’t feel anything but happy for ‘em. Honestly. It was really good to see Kylee move on.

  “Dude, it’s all good. I am happy Kylee is off my dick and onto yours.” I laughed—and Finn didn’t look too pleased—but continued with what I was tryin’ to say.

  “Kidding. For real, man, it’s all good. We have been friends for too long for this to affect us. I still need my surfing buddy. Plus, when I was in Texas, I saw Kylee and she hinted that she had a new man. She rubs me the wrong fuckin’ way, but we never worked out and you know that. If y’all work out, I would be more than happy. Plus, you’re amazing around Evelyn. There is nothing really more I could ask for in a partner from her. I’m glad you came to tell me, honestly.”

  “I was worried as fuck dude.” He hesitated, then laughed a nervous laugh.

  “You weren’t mad when I kissed Kylee on the forehead for that photo? I know you know about that, because not only have I complained, but I’m sure Kylee said something.”

  Finn stopped for a second, then said, “No dude. I totally understood where it was coming from. You wanted a moment to show Evelyn what a family unit looked like, because Evelyn will never get that. She will always come from a crazy f
amily of step-mothers, half-siblings and her parents. I understood where you were coming from.”

  “We are being such pussies about this, dude.” I got off my stool and gave him a hug. If we were being such girls about this, we might as well close the deal with a hug.

  “I love you, man,” Finn said, half joking.

  When I sat back down, I said, “Now you know, though, why I can’t be with anyone else. There isn’t anyone else out there for me. Maybe what I realized from this whole damn thing is that Harper is mine. Forever and Always.”

  “Go get her, Ryder. Seriously, stop moping around this joint and go get her. Shit, stalk her if you have to. Go to her place and wait for her if she won’t pick up. Then make your case. She has to feel the same way. I know she has to. There is no one else out there for her, but you.”

  “Your right, dude.” I started picking up my things and shovin’ ‘em in my pockets.

  “Wait, you’re not even going to finish the game?” Finn asked.

  “No time. I gotta go get my woman back,” I said and walked out of the bar.

  I needed my Harper here with me, now. I needed to show her that she was my everything, and I would never do anything to intentionally hurt her. Everything Finn said was right. Kylee was happy with Finn, and that moment we shared was so that Evelyn could see what her original family unit looked like for one second.

  I got in the truck and drove straight to Harper’s house.

  Chapter 14

  Harper

  “What do you want?” I asked when I picked up the phone. What the hell would Kylee want? She wanted to ruin our non-existent relationship more? Fuck that bitch. Did she want to shove it in my face that she was back together with Ryder?

  “Harper, please don’t hang up,” she blurted.