57 pages • 1-hour read
Pucking Wild
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Chapters 38-52Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 38 Summary: “Tess”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, ableism, sexual content, physical abuse, substance use, and emotional abuse.
As Tess gets ready for a costume party Shelby is hosting, she hears the doorbell and gets ready to give someone a scare in her sexy devil costume. However, it is just a mail carrier delivering a package addressed to her. Knowing that the only people who know where she lives would not mail her something, she expects that the package is from Troy and opens the box to find the shredded remains of their divorce papers. The box also includes an envelope with the tabloid pictures of her and Ryan and a message saying, “Whores don’t get to make demands” (277). She calls her lawyer, Charlie, who speculates that Troy has someone following her in Jacksonville. After hanging up, Tess calls Bea, who still blames Tess for the messy divorce. Tess threatens to bring all of her information about Troy to the public if Bea can’t get Troy to agree to an uncontested divorce.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Ryan”
Poppy St. James, the Rays’ public relations manager, approaches Ryan while he sits and watches his teammates practice. Poppy asks him to volunteer for a promotional commercial for the Humane Society that will require him to read the card on a pet’s carrier. Ryan is nervous because he has dyslexia and feels he doesn’t have adequate time to prepare to read the card he is given. He asks Ilmari for help; though Ryan doesn’t explain the problem, Ilmari agrees to read the card for him while Ryan holds the kitten.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Tess”
At Shelby’s party, Tess continues to think about the package Troy sent her, and Shelby finds her trying to avoid crying in front of the other guests. Shelby asks Tess if she wants or needs to talk about anything and tells her she doesn’t need to deflect her feelings, as Shelby is a therapist who has also gone through a messy divorce. Tess opens up about her issues with Troy, and the women bond, with Shelby inviting Tess out with the other WAGs later that week. Shelby also tells Tess to go easy on Ryan because he has feelings for Tess and because Shelby doesn’t want to see him get hurt.
Chapter 41 Summary: “Ryan”
Ryan gets to Shelby’s party late with two other teammates, Morrow and Novy, who he notices are both tense around Poppy. (The relationship between these three characters is explored in the next book in the series, Pucking Sweet.) He runs into Ilmari and wants to confide in him about what happened during the commercial filming, as Ryan didn’t mention his dyslexia. However, he sees Tess in her devil costume and can’t think of anything but her.
Chapter 42 Summary: “Tess”
Tess and Shelby discuss when they are going to go out to sing karaoke together. Yet when Tess spots Ryan, he preoccupies her entirely, and she knows that she wants to be with him tonight.
Chapter 43 Summary: “Ryan”
As Ryan goes inside to get some food, a drunk woman who came with one of the rookies tries to flirt with him. Tess comes into the kitchen and is momentarily hurt when she sees this. However, when she realizes what is going on, she helps Ryan get the woman into a guest room where she can sleep off the alcohol. While looking for a room, Ryan walks into one where Morrow, Novy, and Poppy are having sex before shielding his eyes and leaving.
Ryan and Tess deposit the drunk woman in an unoccupied bedroom, and then Tess begins to cry. She admits that she missed Ryan after the tough day she had, and Ryan tries to assure her that she is safe.
Chapter 44 Summary: “Tess”
Tess feels vulnerable around Ryan; she knows she wants to let him in but is afraid she can’t. She admits that the last man who touched her did so in anger; that is why she has been so scared to be vulnerable with Ryan. She wants Ryan to help her reclaim her body and take away this fear, so they look for another room to have sex in. Tess gives Ryan her consent to do whatever he wants to her, and they have sex in a child’s nursery. Afterward, Ryan admits he is afraid of how much he wants to be with Tess but says that he won’t push her to give him more than she wants to. As they are about to leave, they discover that there is a nanny cam in the room.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Tess
Early the next morning, Tess slips out of Ryan’s bed and goes to the Prices’ house to talk to Rachel about her sex life; however, Rachel’s husbands all want to hear what happened as well. Tess is surprised when Caleb and Ilmari correctly guess that she slept with Ryan. Tess tries to escape as quickly as possible, asking Rachel to ask Shelby to delete any footage from her nanny cam without looking at it, but Rachel stops her, surprised by Tess’s relationship. Tess wants Rachel to talk her out of a relationship with Ryan, but Rachel believes that the relationship is not inherently bad and that Tess shouldn’t try to run from Ryan. As Tess tries to leave again, Ilmari advises her that life is short.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Ryan”
When Ryan shows up to observe practice, the Prices warn Ryan not to hurt Tess, saying that she is practically family to Rachel, so they have to defend her. However, as they pressure Ryan to admit what he wants from Tess, he admits that she is everything to him and that he injured his knee because he thought he saw her. As he asks Rachel for advice on how to show Tess that he wants to be more than friends, he admits that he thinks he loves Tess.
Chapter 47 Summary: “Tess”
Tess is training volunteers for Out of the Net with Joey, Nancy, and Cheryl when Ryan shows up to volunteer, which warms her heart.
Chapter 48 Summary: “Tess”
The volunteer day is a success, and at the after-party, Tess and Ryan have sex in a restaurant bathroom. Afterward, Tess still fears that she and Ryan can’t have a relationship and tells herself that she will have to end things between them.
Chapter 49 Summary: “Ryan”
The team doctors clear Ryan to skate at practice and during the game that Saturday. He calls Tess to tell her the news and invites her to the game, but he knows that she is trying to slip away from him.
Chapter 50 Summary: “Tess”
Tess goes to the karaoke night that Shelby planned, and Shelby immediately approaches to tell her that she knows what happened. As punishment, Shelby makes Tess sing “Careless Whisper.” Before she takes the microphone, Ryan approaches Tess affectionately, but she is still worried about giving others the impression they are anything but friends, especially because she thinks Troy is having someone follow her.
Tess continues to push Ryan away the rest of the night, but Ryan knows what she is doing and leaves when she tries to set him up with another woman. Caleb berates Tess for pushing Ryan away; he recently did the same thing with Jake, whom he had loved for years. He tells Tess to stop living life as if she were scared of it, and Tess knows that she needs to go home to Ryan.
Chapter 51 Summary: “Tess”
When Tess gets home, Ryan confronts her about pushing him away. She tries to repeat what she said at Rachel’s wedding about how she can’t give Ryan a marriage. However, Tess has never asked Ryan his feelings on the subject, and he now reveals that he does not want or need to be married. Ryan argues that Tess is afraid that he offers her hope that she deserves to come first. Ryan knows that she still can’t tell him what she feels for him, but he asks her to show him how she feels as they have sex.
Chapter 52 Summary: “Tess”
As they have sex, Ryan demands that Tess promise never to push him toward another woman again; he doesn’t want to be with anyone but her. When Ryan asks Tess to tell him, “I’m yours,” she does so readily. After they are finished, Ryan tells Tess that he will never hurt her, and Tess finally tells him that she wants him.
Chapters 38-52 Analysis
Throughout Pucking Wild, but especially in these chapters, the closer Ryan and Tess get to one another, the more Tess tries to run away from their relationship. Tess even hides things that could impact their relationship and Ryan’s safety, such as Troy’s threats and the fact that they are being stalked, underscoring the depth of her insecurity. Tess herself recognizes these tendencies, thinking, “I’m not good at being vulnerable. I’m not good at letting people in” (312). Knowing this, however, does not make Tess any more confident that she can handle a relationship. On the contrary, it merely confirms her sense that she is too flawed to be a good partner: At one point after she and Troy have sex, Tess thinks, “[T]his can’t last. This won’t last. Nothing ever does. I’m broken, and I break things. We’re holding on to each other so tight because we know this ship is already sinking” (350). Significantly, she also connects these struggles to Troy’s abuse; her remark that the last man who touched her did so in anger alludes to him choking her in her office. That Tess not only feels emotionally vulnerable but also physically vulnerable deepens the novel’s exploration of Navigating Romantic Relationships After Trauma.
Rath illustrates Tess’s ambivalence toward relationships by means of one of the novel’s recurring motifs. When Tess literally pushes Ryan toward another woman—another way of sabotaging any relationship before it begins—Ryan accuses her of “running” from the relationship. Similarly, Tess asks Rachel, “Do you see me bolting?” in reference to her relationship, to which Rachel responds, “Your running shoes are on, and you’re waiting for the sound of that starter pistol” (385). The running metaphor shows just how fearful she is that things will go wrong and how sure she is that she is unlovable.
However, as Tess tries to pull away, Ryan’s convictions about their relationship only become stronger. When he enters Shelby’s party, all Ryan wants to do is see Tess, and everything fades into the background when he finally spots her: She has become the center of his world. He frequently reaffirms that he doesn’t want to push Tess to give more than she wants, yet this also signifies how seriously he takes the relationship: He is laying a groundwork for their future by helping Tess to feel safe with him. Similarly, his volunteering with Out of the Net shows that he cares about Tess’s interests and wants to validate her choices, demonstrating his difference from Troy while also aiding her in her efforts at Overcoming Self-Doubt.
This sensitivity to Tess’s needs does not make him a passive participant in the relationship, however. When the Prices confront Ryan about his relationship with Tess, he fights back boldly, standing up for what he knows he wants. Even more significantly, when Tess herself tries to push Ryan away, he fights back. After storming out of the karaoke night, Ryan does everything he can to convince Tess that he wants a relationship, however she will let him have it. He brings up fears that she hasn’t dared voice when he tells her that he doesn’t need to get married, showing the thought he has put into their relationship as well as his insight into Tess. Ryan’s willingness not only to show Tess that she can rely on him but also to push back against her defense mechanisms is key to the long-term success of the relationship, as it puts them on equal footing and lets Tess experience what healthy disagreement looks like.
Finding a Home and a Community also remains a key theme in these chapters, as both Tess and Ryan realize just how impactful their support systems can be. When Ryan is anxious that his dyslexia will prevent him from reading the card for the commercial, Ilmari helps him without question. The support Ilmari shows continues in Chapter 41, when he sees Ryan talking about what happened. By giving Ryan the space to share his secrets or keep them to himself, Ilmari shows unconditional support for his teammate. Similarly, Shelby helps Tess work through her feelings about her divorce in Chapter 40. Though the women did not get off to a good start, Shelby still offers Tess advice and empathy, highlighting the way the Rays community supports one another (the juxtaposition of Ryan and Tess’s struggles also highlights their shared insecurity, demonstrating that the relationship is not simply about Ryan “rescuing” Tess but about them helping each other heal).
The Price family serves as a microcosm of the Rays community, showing Tess and Ryan unwavering support. The Prices continually stand up for Tess, as when they confront Ryan about his intentions, but Rachel also stands up for Ryan when Tess considers ending things without a good reason. This care these characters have for one another continues to cement itself throughout the remainder of the novel.
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