Unbreak My Heart (Rough Riders Legacy #1)

“Hell yes. The teaching assistant—I mean my tutor—is here.”


I said, “Tutor? I thought I was the only one who needed extra help.”

Kyler blushed. Then he disappeared around the corner.

I scanned the living room to make sure I hadn’t left anything before I hoisted my duffel bag and entered the foyer.

A tall, gorgeous redhead dropped her hand from Ky’s crotch when she saw me and seemed nervous that Ky would introduce us.

He didn’t.

McKay, you dog. Nailing the teacher’s assistant. She could teach him all sorts of new tricks.

“If for some reason Raj gets delayed tonight, you’re welcome to stay here again,” Ky offered.

“I appreciate it.” I maintained a straight face when I said, “Study hard, but a word of advice. Staying in one position too long will cause back and neck problems. Change positions frequently.”



Late afternoon I paused in the lobby of the apartment building, looking for the buzzer marked Ramos. I pushed #220 and immediately heard a static-filled, “Yo.”

“It’s West.”

The door lock buzzed.

I took the stairs to the second floor.

Raj had left the door cracked open. The instant I stepped inside, I wished I’d left my sunglasses on. The walls and the ceiling were so goddamned pink it felt like swimming in a bottle of Kinky Pink.

“In here,” Raj called out.

I stepped through a doorway into the combination living room and kitchen.

Raj grinned at me. “Welcome to the pink palace.”

“How old is your sister? Don’t most girls grow out of the pink phase at like thirteen?”

“Not T’Quelle. I expected she’d repaint after I mentioned it was like being inside a vagina, but she just called me a pig.” Raj indicated the floral couch. “You’re crashing on the sofa bed.”

“Great.” I dropped my duffel on the floor. “Tell me you picked up beer.”

“In the fridge.”

“Thank you, Jesus.” I popped the top and snagged the chair across from him. The miniature dining table was covered in a frilly pink lace tablecloth. “How was the drive?”

“Long. I hate driving by myself.”

“You hate doing anything by yourself.”

“The result of having two older brothers and two younger sisters. I was always surrounded.” Raj swigged his beer. “Only things surrounding a white boy like you growing up in Wyoming were fences and tumbleweeds, amirite?”

“Pretty much.” I picked up a picture frame and peered at the two cute college-aged girls, one with dreadlocks and one with cornrows. “Which one of these bikini-wearing hotties is your sister?”

“They’re both my sisters, asshole. Quick genetics update; when a black woman marries a Mexican man—none of their offspring look like them or each other.”

Raj joked about his mixed heritage all the time. His genetics seemed evenly split. He had the height and hair from his African-American side, but he had lighter skin and hazel eyes from his Mexican side. We’d gone through basic training together. We’d attended every medical seminar, every college course, every advanced training class together. We even shared an apartment in Fort Hood. Some of our supervisors swore we shared a brain. So the army fuck-up affected us both.

“What’s up, West?”

I set the picture down. “Nothing. Why?”

“I know you, man. You’re brooding. What gives?”

“Woman troubles.”

He laughed. “Right.”

When I didn’t share in his amusement, he stared at me. Hard.

“You’re serious.”

“Yep.”

“Woman troubles,” he repeated. “First time you’ve ever said that in all the years I’ve known you.”

“There’s a reason for that. And she lives in Phoenix.”

His eyes went comically wide. Then he said, “Start talking.”

Raj knew more about me than anyone in my life. But he didn’t know about Sierra. “It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got time and so do you.”

“It’s complicated.”

“You’re stalling. Now you know I ain’t gonna leave you alone until you tell me whatever it is that you should’ve told me a long damn time ago.”

I scrubbed my hands over my face. “You know about my fucked-up childhood. So by my senior year of high school I was biding my time until graduation and I could start a real life.” I swallowed a mouthful of beer. “Then she showed up.”

“Who?”

“Sierra. The instant I saw her all those freakin’ clichés bombarded me—a bolt of lightning, the earth moved, time stood still, my soul recognized hers, my heart stopped, I wanted to fuck her hot little body twice a day for the next hundred years…” I closed my eyes. “I’ve never told anyone any of that.”

“Not even her?”

“Especially not her.”

Raj sighed. “That’s fucked, man, but keep goin’.”

“We became friends. At first because I needed to prove my initial reaction to her was a fluke. I mean, she was beautiful, so in my experience that meant she was either a spoiled brat or a snotty bitch. But she wasn’t. I found out it was worse. Way, way worse.”

“What was she?”

“Perfect.”