Page 63 of On Thin Ice

“Ok, I love you, be safe.” I sigh and his face splits again, bright smile almost blinding me.

He blows out a sharp breath. “I’m never going to get tired of hearing you say that,” he leaves a kiss on my temple. “I love you too by the way, incase you were unsure about that.” I press my lips together to stop my laugh as he turns to walk away.

“Don’t finger yourself too much whilst I'm gone.” He warns as he reaches the staircase that will take him away from me for a month.

“Oh, I will.” I say, wiggling my eyebrows and electing another deep laugh from Sean.

He shakes his curls, looking at me once more. “I know you will, at least film it and send it to me so I have some good jerk off material.” I flash him a wink and he leaves, his panty dropping grin and his godlike body disappearing down the stairwell as the pit in my stomach widens a little now he’s gone.

Chapter 50

Sean

Pretty much all I’ve done since I left Redwood three and a bit weeks ago is mope around and think about Callie. Mainly just replay the moment she finally told me she loves me, it was like the hallway started moving underneath me when she said it, like my mind went foggy for a second and all I could hear was a ringing in my ears. Her face was so vulnerable, unwavering as she let those words finally fall from her lips like it was the most natural thing in the world to say. I can’t lie, a few tears almost escaped down my face before I collected myself and instead launched myself at my girl, holding her to my waist and vowing to tell her how much I love her every single day that she'll let me. It made all the months of waiting to say it worth it, I'm so glad I let her say it first, even though I had promised myself I would share my feelings with her once she was moving past her grief. But it seems she didn’t need to wait, she was ready to tell me and she did, and since that day it’s all I’ve been able to fucking think about. Luckily I've had enough time between our hectic game and training schedule to call Callie at least once per day, obviously texting her as much as possible through out the day too but it’s nowhere near enough to satisfy the constant craving I have for her. Being away from her for all this time is putting me in a shit mood, the thunder cloud that’s started following me around is getting closer to bursting every day and I'm at the point now of counting the fucking hours until I can go home. I’m also stuck sharing a hotel room with Nick as Lewis had to stay home, icing his injured leg and Kyle paid for his own room. Snobby prick. We’re all praying we have Lewis back before the end of the season, but I have to say, it’s not looking good for him.

It’s coming up for 9pm and I feel like a fucking zombie walking down the hallway to my hotel room, Nick trailing behind me, dragging his bag along the floor. The sound of the leather dragging across the tiles is making me irrationally irritable and I have to crack my neck to one side, squeeze my eyes closed for a moment in order not to punch Nick square in the face. The second we step into our room Nick groans loudly and falls back onto his bed. “Jesus, I'm fucked after that. Coach really spanked our asses after that colossal fuck up of a game.”

He’s not wrong, we got our asses kicked by the other team today and Coach didn’t hold back the fire when he got into the locker rooms after the game. He totally let rip on us but I didn’t stand up to him like I usually would, knowing he’s clearly still deep in grief and if he wants to take it out on us then I'm happy to receive the wrath of his feelings.

“Maybe you should have kept your eyes on the puck then, rather than constantly scanning the stands for girls you’d like to fuck.” I mutter, rolling my eyes out of sight so Nick can’t see my distaste. I know, that would have been me too not that long ago, but I guess I’ve grown up. “First of all, that’s not what I was doing, I have a girl keeping me busy right now” Nick picks at his fingers sheepishly, staying tight lipped about this mystery girl again. “And second of all, you’re one to talk. Didn’t you get purposefully sent into the penalty box when you first saw Callie, leaving us a man down?”

I huff a laugh and shrug. “Ok, you have a point.” I hate admitting when Nick is right.

“Exactly, so shut up and sit down so we can play COD for an hour before we both collapse from exhaustion.” He says, reaching for my controller and tossing it across to my bed.

“Alright, your charming demeanour has convinced me. Let’s see if Lewis is free to join too, the poor fucker has been in that house all by himself for almost a month now.”

Nick nods, slipping the headphones over his ears and flicking at his controller, starting a game for us and inviting Lewis to join.

“Come on man, you’re so fucking boring.” He groans after a moment and I know before I put my headphones on that Lewis has joined and he’s likely complaining about being disturbed again.

The man has done nothing but sit on his royal ass at home for the last three weeks and every time we try to call or get him on a game with us he moans that we are interfering with his ‘rest’ which pretty much includes him jerking off twice a day and watching chick flicks on the sofa like a big girl.

“You two are fucking annoying, can’t I be left in peace for more than five minutes at a time without you two boner killers calling me and begging for my attention?” Lewis grumbles through the speakers of our headsets. I snort a loud laugh, headphones now securely in place. “We’re not interested in how many times you tug it per day Lew,”

He huffs something I can’t decipher before joining the game and quitting his winging, the three of us quickly becoming engrossed in the TV screen. After about an hour and too many animated bullets coming my way, blood splattering the screen soon after, I'm ready to listen to my stomach’s incessant rumbling and eat something. I slide the headphones off, getting up from my cross legged position on the bed and stretching my aching muscles, competing so many times in such a short space of time really takes it’s toll on my body.

“Going to grab some food from downstairs, you want anything?” I say, patting Nick on his tattooed shoulder as I pass him, making my way towards the hotel room door.

“Just get me a burger or something please man, I'm fucking starving.” I nod and leave the room, the door closing softly behind me with a click as I step out into the quiet hallway and begin towards the lift.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and check my messages, I have one from Callie that was sent nearly two hours ago.

“Shit,” I mutter under my breath as I read her words, telling me how much she misses me and more importantly how much she loves me. I still can’t believe she actually loves me.

I call her immediately but she doesn’t pick up so I shoot her a text back instead, apologising for taking so long to respond and telling her to call me back whenever she can. I of course tell her how much I miss her too and how much I love the fucking bones off her.

When I finally get back to the hotel room my hunger pangs have been overtaken by the tired mist that’s clouding my brain. I’m so fucking zonked I can barely see straight and the worst part is that I still haven’t heard back from my girl, maybe she’s mad at me for not replying to her for two hours earlier. I couldn’t blame her if she was, as here I am checking my phone every two-seconds to see if she’s responded to me. Each time I see the empty lock screen my heart beats a little quicker with worry that I’ve upset her and she’s sulking with me. Usually I find her sassy attitude and sulking endearing, but not when I'm a shit ton of miles away and I can’t force her into a bear hug to pull her out of her mood. I drop the paper bag containing Nick’s requested burger and chips into his lap where he sits on the bed, still immersed in a game with Lewis. I can’t be fucked to play anymore violent shit with them tonight so I lie back on my own bed, closing my eyes and resting my hands behind my head with a deep breath. I need to talk to Callie before I can sleep, the gaping pit of anxiety in my stomach is widening the longer time goes on without hearing from her. I can barely keep my eyes from drooping as I try my hardest to watch Nick play, fighting to keep my mind awake as I listen to him and Lewis yell to each other through their headsets, Nick’s mouth crammed with fries like the pig he is.

After a few minutes of fighting sleep I hear Lewis mutter through Nick’s headset, “Someone’s at the door so I better go,” then the two of them call it quits, Nick turns off the console and lies back against his own pillows with a sigh.

“Are you just as fucked as I am?” I grunt, peeling my eyes open to look over at Nick as he pulls his t-shirt over his head and tosses it to the ground. “Uh huh,” he nods, flopping back against the mattress, his tattoo covered stomach contracting. “I’m so ready to go home and chill the fuck out for two weeks.”

We have two weeks off when we get home, two weeks of no games and barely any training, I can’t fucking wait for a rest.

Ping!

“Oh thank fuck for that,” I breathe a sigh of relief, grabbing my phone from the nightstand and reading the text from Callie that appears on my screen.

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