I stand in the hall, holding her latte and an oat bar—plus a muffin because Lily is always hungry—and wait. And wait some more. My phone buzzes, so I check to see if she’s messaging. It’s Miller, wondering when we’re going to be there. I send him a voice memo saying we’ll be on our way soon.
Then I text Lily to let her know I’m waiting on the other side of the locked door.
As soon as it opens, I step forward and force her back in. “Are we alone in here?”
“Yes, but you’re not pulling that stunt on me again.”
I close the door and lock it, which makes it look like I’m trying to do exactly that. I’m not.
“I’m sorry.” I set the latte down and take her face in my hands. Then I kiss her. I don’t attempt tongue. She might bite me. Instead I wrap my arms around her and hug the shit out of her. She wriggles at first, but then she just stands there. After another minute she gives in and hugs me back. I turn my face into her neck and drop a kiss there, then another on her jaw, and one on her cheek. She lets me get as far as her lips, but when I add a little tongue, she puts a hand on either side of my face and disengages our mouths.
She purses her plush lips until they’re a straight line. “I thought you said you were okay with me teaching pairs.”
“I am okay with you teaching pairs.”
“Really? Because the locker room pussy diving and flag pole territory-claiming indicate you’re not.”
“I wanted to meet him.”
She gives me a look.
“Do you know the history on this guy? He’s had relationships with his last two partners.” Honestly, when she said she was teaching pairs, I didn’t stop to think that part of it would be demonstrating moves with the fucking dude before he tried them on the other chick.
“But I’m not his partner. And I’m with you, so that’s not relevant anyway. How do you even know that about him?”
“I read it somewhere. And you’re his instructor, which makes you, like, his number-one wet dream. I bet he wants to bone you more than he does his partner.”
“Did you internet stalk him?” she asks, sounding incredulous.
“No. I read a couple of articles because I was curious, and I wanted to see what he looked like—I mean, who you were working with.” I’m digging myself a deeper hole with all this honesty crap.
“First of all, he’s my student.”
“Yeah, but he’s nineteen.”
“He still has acne, and he probably only has to shave once a week. Secondly, I already have a seriously hot boyfriend. Thirdly, he’s not even remotely as attractive as you are. On a scale of one to ten, you’re a twelve, and he’s maybe a—”
“Two?” I offer.
“I was going to be nice and say six.”
I can tell she’s trying to appease me even though she’s still kind of mad.
“So that’s what this whole set-up was about today? Me teaching pairs and you needing to make sure my student knows you’re my boyfriend? And that I live with you, in your house?”
“I figured that was pushing the line. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want you to be sorry. I want you to trust me.”
“I do trust you. It’s the nineteen-year-old bag of hormones I don’t trust.” I take a deep breath and decide to come clean. “My sister called this morning. I think she’s, like, homesick but doesn’t want to come out and say it. I’m kinda worried about her. The season’s starting soon, and my dad called last week for the first time in months. Those conversations are always uplifting, and he called again today saying he might be in the area. I don’t feel like dealing with him, and then there’s this pairs thing. It’s great, and I totally support this because you’re amazing on the ice, but I didn’t realize this guy was gonna get to put his hands on you for, like, an extended period of time and, like, touch you and shit, and that fucking song is our song, and I don’t want him to touch you.” Jesus. I sound like a controlling dick. Maybe I am. I really fucking hope not.
“Oh, baby.” Lily strokes my beard, and her fingertips brush over my lips.
It’s not the reaction I expected.
“Is Brynne okay? It can’t be easy with her so far away.”
“I don’t know. There’s gotta be more going on than she’s telling me. I hate that she’s all the way in Australia; I can’t do anything. I’m not awesome with the talking, as you know.”
“You’re better than you think.”
“I don’t know about that. Fuck. I’m sorry I was a dick.”
“You weren’t a dick…maybe a little possessive and ridiculous.” She stresses the dick in ridiculous and gets a smile out of me.
Lily pushes up on her toes and runs her hands through my hair. Her touch is gentle, soothing. It’s what I need. She’s what I need. Sometimes it makes me nervous how much. Like now. And earlier when she was skating with that guy to our song.
“Why didn’t you tell me your dad called?”
“It puts me in a bad mood. I figured it wasn’t worth mentioning.”
Lily sighs. “You can tell me these things, Randy. You don’t have to keep this stuff to yourself.”
“I know. I just… I get worried.”
“Worried about what?”
“He was talking about coming to Chicago this weekend.”
“Did you tell him we were going to be away?”
“I mentioned I wouldn’t be in town.” But that doesn’t stop him from wanting a place to crash. I could manage that before, but not with Lily living with me. He’s grown progressively worse over the past couple of years—making a mess, being a big dick.
Sometimes it’s hard to be honest. I’m not accustomed to having these truthful conversations about feelings. I haven’t really expressed how much it worries me that I’m going to be on the road. And my dad’s recent phone calls haven’t helped. He’s also mentioned the girlfriend rumors, and I haven’t told him about Lily. But then if he bothered to check the media, he’d know anyway.
When I talked to him last week, he was full of his usual little digs about my playing, about how I handle myself off the ice, about my mom—just everything. And he gets to me; he gets in my head and makes me question what I can and can’t handle. I hate it.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I shove down the negative thoughts. I just want this weekend with my girlfriend without any issues.
I take in Lily’s outfit. She’s wearing a sundress. She’s definitely braless; I know because the dress is strapless, and she doesn’t bother with bras unless they’re absolutely necessary. The top of the dress is all gathered and elastic-y. I could pull it right down, and she’d be in her panties in a second.
I run a finger from one collarbone to the other. “Lily.” Her name comes out all gravelly and low. I’m sure my expression tells her more than words will.
“What can I do to make this easier for you?”
I shrug and ease my finger under the elastic. This time I skim the swell of her breast. I’m pretty close to a nipple.
“You want a distraction from what’s going on in your head?” she asks.
This is one of the reasons I love her. She calls me out on my bullshit, and then makes it better.
“It might help.”
She drops her bag on the floor and pulls my mouth to hers. She fumbles with my belt one-handed while I tug her dress down. Once it reaches her thighs, it drops to the floor and pools at her feet.
I grab her hips, searching for panties to remove. “Where’s your underwear?”
“In my bag. I wanted to be prepared. I had a feeling something was going on.” Her hand goes down the front of my boxers. I’m wearing my favorite pair; the ones she defaced almost a year ago when we first met at Waters’ Ontario cottage. They say Tiny Dick Inside. That’s a lie. There’s nothing tiny about me.
“I love how good you are to me.” I groan when she wraps her fingers around my cock. Turning, I lift her by the waist. Lily wraps her legs around me, and I pin her to the wall with my body. We’r
e all lined up and ready for fucking.
“You need a primer, or are you good to go?” I ask.
“I’ve been primed for the past hour.”
I take her mouth again and ease inside her. Her eyes roll up and she hums, like my being in her is a relief we both need. She’s hot and tight and naked, and I’m still fully dressed, but that doesn’t matter. Later, when we get to Waters’ cottage, we can both be naked, and I’ll take more time with her, show her how much I appreciate what she’s giving me right now.
“All the doors are locked?”
“Yup.”
“So you pretty much called it that I’d come back looking for more of you?”
“You’re always looking for more of me.”
She’s not being cocky. It’s true.
She clasps her hands behind my neck. “It’s your turn to take what you need, baby.”
So I do. Because she lets me. Because I love her. Because she loves me back.
***
By the time I’m done with the taking, and the giving, we both have messages. Lily’s are from Sunny, and mine are from Miller. We both message back to let them know we’re on our way—for real this time.
Alex and another of my teammates, Darren Westinghouse, are already at Sunny and Miller’s place with Violet and Charlene by the time we get there.
“Neither one of you is allowed to use the bathroom before we leave,” Violet says by way of greeting.
“I’ve already taken care of Randy; he should be good until we get to the cottage,” Lily replies with a sweet smile.
I chuckle and kiss the top of her hair.
“Road head?” Violet asks.
“Nope.” Lily’s smile widens until she hides it behind her latte cup. It’s probably cold by now, but she doesn’t seem to care.
Sunny wrinkles her nose. “Please tell me you did not have sex in a Starbuck’s bathroom.”
“God, no. Those are gross. We had locker room wall sex,” Lily says.
Violet’s eyes light up. “Oooh! High five. The locker rooms in the arenas are so clean. I remember when Alex got kicked out of that game and I went to find him. That was some seriously hot sex.” She turns to Waters. “We should do that again. Except let’s not get caught this time.”
“Uh, yeah, I don’t think we’re gonna do that again, and if this is the kind of conversation you plan on having, I vote you girls drive together,” he says.
“What he said.” Westinghouse points at Waters.
“Sunny’s not going with the girls if Violet’s driving.” Miller gives her belly a protective pat.
Violet puts her hands on her hips and pushes her chest out. She’s wearing a tank top that says AWESOME across her boobs. They really don’t need the extra attention. “I’m not that bad of a driver.”
That gets a round of throat clearing.
She looks around at the group. “Oh, come on, I’ve only had two little fender benders.”
“This year,” Miller says.
“You backed your car into an eight-foot fence last week,” Charlene points out.
“I didn’t see it!”
“Because you weren’t paying attention,” Sunny says.
“Because there was a spider on my windshield!” Violet protests.
“Lily can drive my truck, and we’ll take the SUV.” If we hadn’t just had sex in the changing room, I wouldn’t be so open to this arrangement, but maybe a couple hours of girl-bonding time will minimize the number of really fucking weird conversations they need to have after we’re all together.
“See?” Violet turns to Alex and gestures between me and Lily. “Balls lets Lily drive his truck, and I bet she doesn’t even have to bribe him with blow jobs.”
Miller holds up his hand. “Save the BJ convos for the car ride. And Randy lets Lily drive his truck because she doesn’t run into stationary objects. Can we get a move on? I wanna be on the road before rush hour hits.” He turns to Sunny and rubs her rounded stomach. “Sunny Sunshine, you need to hit the bathroom before we roll out?”
“It’s probably a good idea.”
The rest of us pile into the vehicles while Sunny makes one last bathroom trip. Apparently being eight months pregnant means you have to pee a lot more often. I’ve been warned that we may need to stop on the way. In addition to the people, we have Titan and Andy, Sunny’s dogs, along for the ride, plus an extra they’re fostering because Sunny had a weak moment. They’re calling him Wiener because he’s a wiener dog. Titan is a tiny little Papillon, and he’s riding with the girls, along with the wiener, but Andy is a huge Dane, so he’s riding in the SUV with us.
Miller makes Sunny sit in the backseat because he thinks it’s safer. Then he settles into the SUV and proceeds to text her every five minutes for the first half hour of the trip to make sure she’s okay. We can see the truck right next to us on the highway.
“Dude, Lily’s an excellent driver, Sunny’ll be fine,” I reassure him.
“I know.” He pockets his phone and taps on the armrest.
Sunny getting pregnant wasn’t planned, but Miller seems to be dealing with it pretty well. It’s weird to think about him becoming a dad when a little more than a year ago he was notorious with the bunnies. He’s a little overprotective, but I guess that makes sense. Lily and I were the first ones to find out about it. It was a huge shock, and there was some family drama—Waters wasn’t all that excited at first—but things are good now. For a couple of weeks after Sunny got knocked up, Lily and I went back to using condoms out of sheer paranoia.
It lasted two boxes, and then we were back to bag-free sex—because we ran out in the middle of the night and neither of us was willing to settle for oral. Lily’s been on the pill for a long time, and she’s really good about taking them at the same time every day, so we’ve relaxed about the whole thing. I still have no desire to get her pregnant—her mother might actually kill me if that happened. Right now Lily’s mom likes me, and I want to keep it that way.
An hour into the drive, we stop so Sunny can pee again. We all get out to stretch our legs while Waters gasses up the SUV. Miller heads directly for the washroom, presumably to check on Sunny. The amount he worries about her makes me question the whole parenting thing, possibly at any point.
Lily and I have been dating for less than a year. I’m good with the living-together deal, and she seems to be too. We’re both young, and we come from broken families. Statistically that doesn’t put us in the best position. But I try not to dwell on that too much, because it’s a shitty way to think.
I find Lily at the checkout of the convenience store with an armload of snacks. She deposits them on the counter as I pull out my phone to snap a couple of pics of her. I lean down and press a kiss to her shoulder, then run my nose up the side of her neck, snapping photo after photo the entire time. If I printed them out, it’d be like a flip book. The teenage boy behind the cash register looks away.
“You fueling up so you’re ready for me later?” I whisper in her ear.
Lily giggles. “Sunny’s hungry, and she can’t decide what she wants, so I stocked up on some of everything.”
I point to the bag of Doritos. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t eat any of those, unless your plan is to make your breath so bad I don’t want to kiss you for the rest of the weekend.”
“Those are for Charlene.”
“She mad at Darren or something?”
“Doesn’t seem like it, but you never know what’s up with those two.”
“Mmm.” I don’t really get that relationship. They’ve been together almost as long as Waters and Violet, but it still seems pretty casual. Westinghouse is hard to get a read on. He’s a quiet guy, and private. He and Waters are tight, which is why we hang out, but I still don’t know all that much about him.
I pull my wallet from my back pocket, find my credit card, and toss it on the counter.
Lily snatches it up before the cashier does. “I can get this.”
“I know you can,
but I’m gonna steal that bag of gummy bears and the Twizzlers too, so I’d feel bad about you paying for those. Just let me get it, luscious, please.”
Lily gives me a look, but she passes back the card, and I hand it to the kid. Sometimes it’s hard for her to deal with me paying for things all the time. But I have the money, and while her job pays well, relatively speaking, it’s got nothing on my salary. I try not to make it a thing, but she’s got pride, and she doesn’t want a free ride. I understand that and appreciate it. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to spoil the fuck out of her anyway. I just find more subversive ways to do it.
“Thank you,” she says softly.
“You don’t need to thank me for stealing your candy.” I nibble on her shoulder.
The chime of the door opening reminds me we’re not alone.
“For the love of PDA, give this poor kid a break.” Violet gestures to the cashier, who has turned a bright shade of red. “Do you two need ten minutes in the forest before we hit the road, or do you think you can make it another hour?”
I back up off Lily. “We’ll manage.”
“Just making sure. Oh! You got me Swedish Fish! I love you, Lily Pad!” Violet pushes her way between us and drapes an arm over Lily’s shoulder.
“Call me that again and I’ll eat the entire bag in front of you, and I won’t share,” Lily snaps.
Violet raises her hands. “Sorry. I thought it was cute. Maybe not?”
Based on Lily’s comment, I’m going with not, which means I’m going to call her that later tonight in bed, just to get her all fired up.
The kid behind the counter packs the snacks into a bag.
Violet nabs the chips. “Who asked for these?”
“Charlene.”
She frowns and looks over her shoulder to the parking lot. Charlene is sitting sideways in the truck, and Darren’s standing between her legs. They appear to be having a conversation.
“I guess it’s her prerogative if she only wants it doggy-style this weekend.”
The kid behind the counter coughs.
I finish paying for the goods, and we all head back out to the vehicles. Violet tosses the bag of Doritos to Charlene, whose eyes widen as Darren’s expression darkens. He says one last thing to her and steps back. Shifting her legs so they’re back in the truck, he closes the door. The window’s open, so she grabs his sleeve before he can walk away. He doesn’t look particularly amused as he turns back to her, but he sticks his head in the window.
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