Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy #1)

They’d invited me to crash on their couch until my army buddy Raj got here from Fort Hood, so I’d stopped by to pick up my stuff before my meeting at the VA.

It surprised me to see Kyler sitting at the dining room table. When Ky wasn’t in class he was at football practice, or at team meetings, or watching game tapes, or working out. Everyone claimed I was an intense guy, but I was a candidate for ADHD meds compared to Kyler McKay. Even now he exhibited impressive multitasking skills, performing biceps curls with free weights as he flipped through a textbook. He glanced up and flashed me a sheepish smile. It was really fucking spooky how much he looked like his dad—but a super-sized version. “Hey. Didn’t think I’d see you again today.”

“Did you plan on IDing me in the morgue later?”

“Nah. I figured Sierra would just maim you—that’s more painful than a quick death.” After his methodical inspection, he said, “You don’t look worse for the wear.”

“You sure I don’t have icicles on my face?”

“Icicles in the desert? Dream on.” Kyler laughed. “But dude. You had to expect this from her.”

I ran my hand over the top of my head. “Yeah. I did. But that doesn’t mean I like it.”

“At least you’re not bleeding. So what happened?”

“I blew it. She was prickly as a damn cactus. She acted like I’d assumed we could just pick up where we left off seven years ago.”

The weight in Kyler’s left hand froze midair. “You didn’t tell her that?”

“No.” I scowled at him. “I’m not a complete idiot.”

“I didn’t think so. Did you act all ‘I’m in the army now, I’m a big, badass soldier and you will listen to me, woman.’”

“What the fuck? No, I didn’t do that.” Did I?

“The cold shoulder doesn’t sound like Sierra.” Ky frowned. “Wait, if you were at her office…I take that back. That is exactly how she’d react. She’s got the whole Stepford thing goin’ on at work.”

That description fit. “Why?”

“Since she’s the boss’s kid, she has some whacked-out idea she has to rise above the fray. One night she got a little drunk and told me her male colleagues treat her like a bimbo who’s just collecting a paycheck from Daddy until she gets married and pregnant.”

“Jesus.”

“Which is total bullshit. Sierra is so freakin’ smart and she knows business—especially her dad’s business that she’s been around her whole life. I wish she’d tell those assholes to fuck off and show them bein’ like everyone else and not rocking the boat won’t set you apart.”

“You speaking from experience?”

Kyler lowered the weight to the floor. He sighed before looking up at me. “Yep. And it’s ironic I learned that from her.”

“How?”

“Sierra helped me deal with family shit when it came to picking a college. Dad wanted me to go to University of Wyoming. Period. Then the football recruiters flew me’n Dad down here to talk about the program. After the meeting, while I was getting the tour of the ASU campus, Sierra took Dad aside for a ‘come to Jesus’ chat. Whatever she told him clicked because after that, Dad was completely onboard with me attending school here.”

Now I really wanted to know what she’d said to stubborn Cord McKay to get him to change his mind. “Did she have the same chat with Cam about Anton, and with Kane about Hayden attending ASU too?”

“Those two had it easy after I broke the first barrier. Our folks decided it’d be better, if we had to go away to college, that we were together.”

I wasn’t a social media guy so I knew nothing of McKay family gossip until those two weeks I’d been back in Sundance. But during my time in Wyoming, I remembered my cousin Chassie telling me that ASU athletics had aggressively courted Kyler for their football program. Since Hayden had been named a National Merit Scholar, he had his pick of colleges across the country but had chosen ASU. Anton had decided on the Phoenix branch of Cochise Valley College after he’d been offered a full-ride rodeo scholarship.

“But we weren’t together that much last year. Living in the dorms sucked since me’n Hayden were placed in separate buildings according to our activities and Anton lived like five miles away.”

“Had to be better than living in the barracks, dude.”

“Only slightly. Mase bought this place over the summer and said we could live here this year.”

I raised a brow. “Rent free?”

“Hell no. Even a big hockey star has a mortgage.”

Mason “Mase” Morrison, Kyler’s cousin from his mom’s side of the family, was a hockey phenom. He’d been signed to play professional hockey at age eighteen right after graduating from high school. I couldn’t imagine the pressure the kid was under. He wasn’t old enough to legally order a beer, but the future of an entire hockey franchise rested on his shoulders.

“Where is Mase, anyway?” I asked.

“Scorpions are on the road. He gets back after the game late Saturday night.”