I shake my head, lowering my gaze back to the charms to look at them just another moment before I close the box. I set it on the bed beside me and immediately rise up to my knees on the bed. I scoot in closer to Ryker and drape my arms over his shoulders, clasping my hands behind his neck. A very soft kiss and I whisper, “That’s the nicest and most thoughtful gift I ever received.”

He can hear the emotion in my voice. I think he senses that kneeling before him is a woman that could be on the verge of cracking. But Ryker is a man that is intuitively in touch with his surroundings and his judgment. He knows that I’m the type of woman who would be ashamed if I cracked.

So he lightens the mood again. “So that means I’m still getting the blow job, right?”

I grin and nod my head. “Oh, yeah…you’re definitely getting that, and maybe even a little more.”

His arms come around my waist with sudden speed and then he’s propelling us sideways onto the mattress, where we lie facing each other, my arms still wrapped around his neck, his gripping me by my hips.

Our noses almost touch, and I smile at him. “Merry Christmas, Ryker.”

“Back at ya, babe,” he says lightly, then flips to his back so I can give him my own little present.

Chapter 15

Ryker

I burst through the emergency room doors, absolutely frantic and lost as to what to do. When I got a call twenty minutes ago from Ruby’s school telling me that there’d been an accident, I literally thought I was having a stroke. I broke out in a sweat, my pulse went through the roof, and my vision dimmed. I was at home, having just finished a light workout because we had a home game this evening and was talking to Gray on the phone.

She’s in Boston for a few days and getting ready to head across the Charles River to MIT where she’d be giving her presentation at their Sports Analytics Conference. I was just wishing her luck when another call started beeping in. Although I hated to get off the phone with Gray, because I was indeed missing her, when I saw it was Ruby’s school calling, I knew I couldn’t ignore it.

After a hasty goodbye to Gray, I answered the call and faced my worst nightmare as a parent.

I don’t even remember driving from my house to the hospital. I was still in my sweaty shirt and shorts, forgot to grab my wallet, and was about to come out of my skin with fear because I knew very little about what happened to Ruby. All I was told was that she fell off the monkey bars at school and they thought she had a broken arm. The school nurse thought it was appropriate to go ahead and call an ambulance to take her to the hospital, and that is where I really started freaking out.

How bad was it that it required an ambulance?

I stride up to the registration desk, and when the woman behind it looks up at me, her eyes get big and round with recognition. She starts to give me a fan-girl smile, but whatever she sees on my face makes her back off.

“Can I help you?” she asks crisply.

“My daughter was brought in by ambulance…Ruby Evans,” I say urgently as I lean over and put my hands on the desk. I tap my thumbs with nervous energy.

“Let me look her up,” she says, and starts working her keyboard. “Yes, she’s out of triage and in one of the ER bays.”

Efficiently the woman picks up the phone, hits a button, and within seconds she says, “Yes, I have Ruby Evans’s father here for her.”

After a tiny pause, she hangs up and nods to the left while hitting a button. “Just on through that door and they’ll direct you back.”

The door starts swinging open slowly and my blood pressure starts to rise as I walk through, absolutely dreading what I might find. I honestly don’t know if I can handle one of my kids being in pain. It was absolute torture watching the girls cut their teeth, so I can’t even imagine a broken bone.

A nurse meets me and whether she recognizes me or not, she efficiently takes me back to a curtained room where I can hear Ruby crying. For the first time in my life, my heart is broken. Absolutely shredded, and I think it might be beyond repair.

The nurse pulls back the curtain and I blink my eyes hard not to cry when I see my daughter. A nurse is leaning over her bed, trying to comfort her, and a doctor is starting to unravel the splint the school nurse or EMT must have put on her arm.

I walk up to the bed and the doctor gives me a cursory glance. His eyes flare as he recognizes me but he then turns his attention back to Ruby’s arm. The nurse moves out of my way and when Ruby sees me, she starts crying harder.

Leaning over, I put my hand on her forehead and kiss her cheek. “Oh, baby,” I coo at her, and she sobs hysterically.

Fucking hardest, worst, most miserable thing I’ve ever had happen to me. It’s hurting me so bad right now I have a brief moment of clarity where I think to myself that I will try to dissuade every one of my friends from ever having children, knowing that this type of heartbreak can exist.

But Ruby is reacting to my distress, so I have to slap myself mentally.

Get a fucking grip, Brick. Your child needs you to man up.

“Hey, hey, hey,” I talk softly as the doctor removes more bandaging. Ruby’s eyes hold mine and she gives a hiccup. “What do we do when we get hurt?”

She hesitates a moment and then says, “Rub some dirt in it.”

I smile encouragingly at her and nod. “That’s right. I know it hurts now, baby, but this doctor will make it all better.”

I kiss Ruby on the forehead, and just as my lips are leaving her warm, sweaty skin, the doctor pulls the splint apart and I almost pass out over the sight that greets me.