Major Renovations (Ritter University #1) Read Free Page B

One of the brothers secured the sagging roof, but there was no way it would last another semester. It was the dangling porch roof of Damocles.
    Bzzzzzzz... The damn saw screamed and screeched outside the window. He grabbed the remote from the table and jabbed the volume-up button. Fucking useless. The volume was already pushed to the extreme. He jabbed the TV off. What was the point?
    Maybe if they had working AC in the house, he could close the windows in his room and muffle some of the sound pollution. He grabbed his water and downed half the bottle. One thing he'd learned in his pre-med biology class— hydrate. Even with all the windows open and a fan spinning in the corner, sweat still dripped down his back. No way was he closing a window. He'd stew in his own juices. Not that he wasn't already.
    He dumped the rest of the water over his head, and cool streaks slid down his chest. One thing he learned in ten years of wrestling— soak.
    He tossed the bottle in the trash. This was ridiculous. He wasn’t even supposed to be here this summer. But with the frat treasurer hovering over his sick mother, and the president hovering over some horny hotties, neither could break away and— how did Samantha say it? Babysit . Yeah. That's it.
    Not that he blamed Ryan. The treasurer had been watching his mother battle cancer for the past couple years. Now that she was finally in remission, he was a little overprotective. Who could blame him? That shit was scary. Ski wouldn't want to watch his mother fight for her life while he sat by, unable to help.
    The helping part was one reason he’d wanted to go into medicine. At first. Now he didn't know anymore. He couldn't think of a time when he didn't want to be a doctor like his father. But lately, he wasn't sure if he was following the old man's dream or if he was following his own.
    The applications for medical school were sitting on the table, the blank forms howling their need for completion. If his father knew he hadn’t started filling them out…
    He’d thought this time alone would help. Time to figure this shit out.
    Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
    Quiet would help. But that seemed unlikely anytime soon.
    His cell phone chirped to life. Tata . His father’s face filled the screen again. Just what he didn’t need. Maybe he should just let it go to voicemail. It wasn’t like he could talk with all this noise anyway.
    He wasn’t the type to ignore the old man, though, and he’d already ignored him once today. He stared at the screen, heartbeat accelerating, and then jumped in the closet, kicking aside bags and trash before slamming the door. The low rumble of power tools persisted, but he could hear a helluva lot better.
    “ Cześc, Tato . How’s Poland?”
    “Fine. We missed you the other day. We had an interesting case over at the hospital…” His father rambled on and on about a mitral valve replacement. The words might have zipped by, but the awe in his father’s voice didn’t escape Ski. That’s all Ski wanted, to feel that same excitement when he talked about something. Anything.
    “How is class going?”
    “Class?” Right— the only reason his father let him skip the yearly family vacation was because Ski was supposed to be taking Molecular Genetics this summer to get a jump on next term. “Class is fine. Learning a lot.”
    “Did you submit the application to Harvard Medical School? Katia over in admissions is on the lookout for your application.”
    “Not yet, Tato . I’m still working on it.” Ski could feel his nose growing with every lie. He looked around the closet for that chirpy little cricket, just in case. “But you know I’d rather go somewhere closer to home. University of Chicago has a great program…” and other majors if I decide to drop med school.
    “It’s important to keep your options open. A degree from Harvard and you can sign your own ticket. We’re always looking for a good heart surgeon, and that Harvard degree would guarantee