False Start (Virginia Valley University Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Newsletter

  Chapter 1

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 2

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 3

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 4

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 5

  Becca

  Chapter 6

  Carson

  Chapter 7

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 8

  Becca

  Carson

  Carson

  Chapter 9

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 10

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 11

  Becca

  Chapter 12

  Carson

  Chapter 13

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 14

  Becca

  Chapter 15

  Carson

  Becca

  Chapter 16

  Carson

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 17

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 18

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 19

  Carson

  Chapter 20

  Carson

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 21

  Becca

  Carson

  Becca

  Chapter 22

  Becca

  Carson

  Becca

  Chapter 23

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 24

  Becca

  Carson

  Chapter 25

  Carson

  Becca

  Epilogue

  Carson

  About the Author

  Other Books by Jessica Ruddick

  Copyright @ 2020 by Jessica Ruddick

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Content edits provided by Marnee Blake.

  Line editing suggestions provided by Red Adept Editing.

  ISBN 978-1-946164-21-6

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  CHAPTER 1

  Becca

  I RAISED MY Diet Coke with a wry grin and clinked it against my friends’ glasses. The noise was barely discernible in the crowded bar.

  Nicole shot me a sympathetic look. “Just a few more months, right?”

  “Less than four. Not that I’m counting.” My brother and I were Irish twins, meaning his birthday was in January and mine was in December of the same year. My parents had forgotten the Irish part and raised us like we were actual twins, enrolling us in school at the same time. So I was always the last of my friends to reach new milestones, sometimes by over a year.

  “Look on the bright side, Becca,” Evan said. “My twenty-first was lame because no one else could drink. You won’t have that problem.”

  “Instead, people will be mourning the loss of their designated driver.” I was joking, but it was sort of true. However, the crowd I ran with wasn’t exactly wild and crazy. Case in point? It was nearly ten on a Saturday night, and Jian and Joey were already closing out their tabs. No doubt Chris would be close behind.

  The six of us—Nicole, Evan, Jian, Joey, Chris, and me—were all that was left of our freshman-year engineering cohort. We’d started with fifteen, but the major was notorious for its high dropout and transfer rate. Some people referred to it as survival of the smartest, but more than likely, it was survival of the most stubborn. At least that was how I’d made it to my senior year.

  A commotion toward the front of the bar caught my attention. When towering figures made of pure muscle filtered in, making the already crowded space seem instantly smaller, I cursed. I’d chosen this venue specifically to avoid this.

  To avoid him.

  I could turn away, but that wouldn’t make a difference. My sixth sense always knew when the guy I’d been in love with half my life was nearby.

  Nicole nudged me. “Carson is over there.”

  My friend had a grade-school-style crush on Carson, so I tried to keep her as far away from him as possible. She had no idea about my feelings for him, but that wasn’t why I kept her away. Nicole wasn’t his type. He preferred easy girls, ones who were satisfied with a one-night stand. If for some odd reason he did go for Nicole, he would chew her up, spit her out, and leave me to pick up the pieces. No, thank you.

  I wouldn’t wish that on anyone—not my friend and not myself. Carson was firmly in the friend zone. If I had any intent on keeping my already compromised heart intact, that was where he needed to stay.

  “Trust me,” I told her. “You want no part of that.”

  Evan shot me a puzzled look. “Isn’t he your friend from home?”

  While I sometimes joined Carson’s crowd, he rarely joined mine, so Evan had only met him a few times in the past three years. I caught the gist of what he was saying, though—he was wondering why I would talk smack about a friend. Maybe it was bad form, but I called them as I saw them.

  “My brother’s best friend, yeah.”

  During his teen years, Carson had spent more time at our house than his own, which didn’t make sense on the surface. His house was practically a mansion, complete with a media room, swimming pool, and home gym. Though once I’d met his parents, his desire to spend his time elsewhere became understandable. They were nice enough people, but the sheer intensity they radiated was enough to make the most secure person nervous.

  Nicole flipped her hair over her shoulder. “What she’s trying to say is he’s way too hot for a nerd like me.”

  I gasped. “That’s not what I meant.” Nicole was on the nerdy side, but then again, so was I. It came with the territory of being in the engineering program.

  She put her hand up. “Let me revise. He’s way more than a nerd like me can handle. I know he’s out of my league, but a girl can dream, can’t she?”

  “He’s not out of your league,” I corrected. “He’s a player.”

  “Eh.” Nicole chewed on her straw as she watched him and his friends, who were most likely all football players for Virginia Valley University. “It might be nice to be played.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to that. It had never occurred to me that Nicole might want to dip her toe in the water of one-night stands. To each her own. Still, I didn’t know if my heart could handle Carson and Nicole hooking up. It was bad enough watching him with girls I didn’t know.

  Evan drank the last swallow of his water. “On that note, I’m heading out.”

  Nicole laughed. “We can talk about girls you want to play with if it makes you more comfortable. We’re equal opportunity.”

  Evan balked. “I’m not uncomfortable. I’m just…” His mouth kept moving, but no words came out. “I got nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  As soon as Evan left, Nicole put a hand on my arm. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to throw myself at Carson or anything.”

 
“I’m not worried.” All it would take was one word from me for Nicole to put Carson on her never-ever list, but not a soul knew about my feelings for him, and it was going to stay that way.

  “With that expression, you’re either worried or constipated.”

  My eyes widened, and my cheeks flushed. “Jesus, Nic.” I looked around to see if anyone had overheard her. Her lack of a filter was usually one of the things I liked about her, but at the moment, it had lost its appeal.

  Laughing, she leaned forward on the table. “We’re seniors. Soon we’ll have to be responsible adults. Like real ones. Our window for random hookups is closing.”

  “I don’t think we’re missing out on anything.” Plus, I didn’t believe there was a limited window for making mistakes. There were plenty of screwed-up adults who made questionable choices, not that that was something to aspire to.

  Shrugging, Nicole looked longingly at Carson and his friends. “Maybe. Maybe not.” She patted my arm again. “But don’t worry. I would never hook up with Carson. I know that would be weird for you.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. I could have told her it wouldn’t be weird for me, but that would’ve been a bold-faced lie. So I let her think it would be weird because he and I were old friends and not because I had my own eye on him.

  “Come on.” Nicole drained the last of her drink and pushed it back on the table. “The boy nerds are gone. Let’s go mingle.”

  Mingle? It was supposed to be a quiet night out to reconnect with our engineering friends whom we hadn’t seen all summer. Now all of a sudden, I was Nicole’s wing woman on her quest for a random hookup. Lord help me. I silently cursed my December birthday. I needed a drink.

  I watched for a moment as Carson flashed a roguish grin at a girl who had sidled up to him. She was pretty and dressed appropriately for a night out, meaning her dress was tight and short, and her heels were high. In contrast, my outfit was geared more toward Sunday afternoon grocery shopping—shorts, a T-shirt, and sandals.

  Carson was wearing the guy equivalent of my outfit, but it worked. Everything he wore worked because of his muscular physique. The bottom of his tattoo peeked out of the sleeve of his gray T-shirt, giving him a slight bad-boy appearance. Only slight, though, because that night, he was clean-shaven and had that all-American look nailed. But once he let his face get scruffy, he would leave all-American behind and claim badass status. He looked good no matter what persona he was trying to pull off, and the trouble was he knew it.

  He must have felt me staring at him because he glanced my way. His face lit up, his grin meeting his green eyes. One look from him, and my carefully constructed wall turned to cellophane—I felt exposed, as if he saw my darkest secret.

  But he’d never given any indication that he saw me as anything more than a pseudo-little sister. Our relationship was complicated. One minute, he was my best friend, and the next, he was irritating me so badly that I wanted to throttle him. For instance, he took his promise to my brother to watch out for me way too seriously and scared off any guy who dared to talk to me. That was a big reason why I’d never had a serious relationship. Well, that and the fact that no one could ever be Carson.

  I gave him a little finger wave, and he jerked his chin up, still smiling. The girl who’d been trying to claim his attention followed his line of sight, and when her gaze landed on me, she shot me a dirty look. Her eyes gave me a once-over, and the dirty look dropped off her face as she dismissed me. Bitch.

  “Becca, you coming?” Nicole asked.

  I shifted my gaze back to Carson and his lopsided smile. What was left of my cellophane shriveled into nothing. The girl put her hand on his shoulder, staking her claim, just in case I actually was a threat. I definitely was, but not in the way she thought.

  My lips stretched into a slow smile. Perhaps it was time I repaid Carson and saved him from himself. I might not be intimidating like he was, but there was more than one way to get the job done.

  “Coming.” I threw my shoulders back and ran my hands through my hair.

  This was going to be fun.

  ***

  Carson

  “ZIZZO!”

  Shit yeah! My night just got a million times better. Ziz was my best friend, Roman’s, little sister and the only person at VVU from home that I’d kept in touch with. It had been almost a month since I’d seen her. Way too long.

  She tossed her hair over her shoulder as she sauntered toward me, swinging her hips and attracting the attention of several guys she passed. I scowled and instinctively cracked my knuckles. Those dudes better tuck their eyeballs back into their skulls before I was forced to knock their teeth out.

  Beside me, Demarcus grinned. “Damn. Who’s that fine thing?”

  Before I could set him straight, Jimmy shook his head. “Do yourself a favor and don’t even look at her, man.” Damn straight. I’d taught my teammates years ago that Ziz was off limits. I knew better than anyone that no VVU football player would ever be good enough for her.

  Ziz came in for a hug and wrapped her arms around my neck, which surprised the shit out of me. Her tits pressed against my chest, making my pants suddenly feel too tight. What the hell? Ziz and I were close—she knew me better than anyone else at VVU—but we didn’t hug on the regular.

  As she pulled away, she trailed one arm across my shoulder and down my arm, leaving the other arm wrapped around me. She cozied up against me, practically purring.

  Fucking shit all to hell. Not much took me off guard, but her behavior was throwing me for a loop. The upper half of my body stiffened, and the lower half… Well, let’s just say the lower half stiffened as well. Fuck.

  Ziz was like my sister, but times like these made me remember that she was very much not my sister. She was the prettiest girl I’d ever laid eyes on. Her hair was gorgeous—long, wavy, and golden blond. She had big brown eyes and thick lashes that, as a kid, she’d used to get her way with her parents. Lord knew she could bring any guy to his knees with just a bat of her eyelashes. But my favorite part about her face was her mouth. She had lips that were made for sin—full, plump, and pink.

  I pitied the man who ever tried to tempt her to sin, though. His funeral.

  I looked at Ziz out of the corner of my eye, confused all to hell. She wasn’t even looking at me, though. Instead, she was smugly gazing at the chick that had come up to me a few minutes ago. Kayla? Carly? I couldn’t remember. In fact, I’d forgotten she was still there.

  Despite my alcohol-fueled haze, the reality of the situation finally clicked. I burst out laughing, wrapped my arm around Ziz’s waist, and pulled her closer. The skimpily dressed girl’s eyes widened and then narrowed in anger. She turned on her heel and walked off without a word.

  “You know,” Ziz said in my ear, her breath warm against my skin. “I just did you a favor. She isn’t nearly good enough for you.”

  I laughed harder. I’d said almost those exact words to her before. The difference was that when I said them, they were true.

  The girl who’d walked over with Zizzo cleared her throat and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. I’d met her before, but I couldn’t remember her name. Damn. I was sensing a trend.

  “Carson, you remember Nicole, right?” Ziz asked.

  “Of course,” I said smoothly, silently thanking Ziz for her good social graces. Most of the guys I’d come in with had wandered off, but I introduced Jimmy and Demarcus. They started chatting up Ziz’s friend, who was cute for guys interested in nerdy scientist types.

  Zizzo extracted her arm from around my shoulders, and I stifled the urge to stick out my lower lip like a petulant child. I could have gotten used to having her tight little body pressed against me. Better me than some other guy. At least she would be safe with me.

  She nodded toward the drink in my hand. “Shouldn’t you be eating clean, going to bed early, and all that other stuff?”

  I shook my head. “Not until Monday.” Classes started then, and our first game was the foll
owing weekend. Some of the guys didn’t bother altering their routines during the season, but football was one of the few things I took seriously because it was one of the few things I was good at. Hell, it might have been the only thing I was good at.

  Nah. I was good at drinking too.

  “What’s your schedule look like this semester?” Ziz asked.

  Talking about the classes I was taking was enough to kill my buzz, but I owed it to her to give her a heads-up. A semester hadn’t gone by that Ziz hadn’t helped me with something. Not only was she the most beautiful woman on campus, but she was also smart as fuck. She fit in with my family better than I did. I didn’t hold that against her, though.

  I took out my phone and pulled up my schedule. “There. I sent it to you.”

  “You could have just told me.”

  “I don’t even remember what I’m taking.”

  Ziz probably had her schedule memorized, including the full course titles, numbers, and locations, but I was the quintessential jock. My major was interdisciplinary studies, which basically meant I was getting three minors. Best-case scenario, I would enter the draft and be playing pro football at this time next year. Worst-case scenario, I would wind up a college dropout, embarrass my family, and be forced to take a position in the mail room at my dad’s company. The thought made me want to get shit-faced.

  I drained the last of my beer then looked at Ziz. “What are you drinking?”

  “Diet Coke.”

  I made a face. “Coke? Why are—” That’s right. I was a moron. Since she’d always been in the same year as me at school, I often forgot she was a year younger. She wasn’t a big drinker anyway, so it didn’t usually matter. But tonight, I wanted her to be able to cut loose. “Hey,” I said to my friends to get their attention. “Let’s move the party back to my place.”

  Ziz put a hand on my arm. “I’m fine, really. I’m about ready to head home anyway.”

  “No way. As you pointed out, this is the last weekend to get crazy for a while.” Unlike me, she didn’t have football, but her engineering course load was grueling. And again, unlike me, she actually gave a shit about getting A’s in her classes.

  Tucking her hair behind her ears, she appeared guilty as she looked toward my friends. “I don’t want to ruin anyone’s time.”