Page 64 of On Thin Ice

She’s telling me all the things I needed to hear, that she’s not mad at me, that she couldn’t respond because she was driving and that she can’t wait to see me at the weekend.

When the shit eating grin splits my face in two, Nick laughs. “You’re wrapped around her fucking finger you know that?”

“Yeah I know,” I grin lazily at him, “I fucking love it, and I love her.” Nick rolls over with a fake gag and turns off his light, plunging his side of the room into darkness.

I shoot Callie a reply, asking where she was driving to at this time of night and letting her know she can call me if she wants. I’ll have to go out into the hallway to talk to her now that Nick is passed out and already snoring obnoxiously, but I’ll do whatever I need to just to hear her soft voice before I go to sleep. The second I press send another ping breaks the silence in the room and makes me jump slightly, shoving my phone under the pillow to try a mute the sound from waking Nick. Luckily the man sleeps like a fucking elephant, a tornado could rip through this hotel room and it wouldn’t wake him. I’m surprised to see a text from Lewis when I look down, squinting my eyes into the bright light of my phone screen as it filters through the darkness around me.

Lewis:

‘Your girl just showed up at my door, she wants to sleep in your bed tonight, she’s missing you man.’

Oh god why is she so damn cute all the time? I just want to wrap that girl in cotton wool and keep her in my pocket. I tap against my screen, replying as quickly as I can.

Sean:

‘I fucking love that girl, look after her for me Lew.’

I check Callie’s message thread again…no reply yet but she’s probably getting undressed and climbing under my duvet, snuggling into the scent that drowns my pillows. My heart beats so hard for her it’s crazy that it doesn’t spring out of my chest and go running back to Redwood to find her. Only five more days until she’s back in my arms, and she doesn’t know this yet but we're 100 percent spending the entire weekend naked and wrapped around each other. I can’t fucking wait.

Chapter 52

Callie

I don’t know how I got here, all I know is that I'm missing my 6-foot-4, irritatingly handsome hockey player more than I'd like to admit to myself. I’ve had to claw out every smidgen of inner strength that I have over the past three weeks without him, navigating my grief as well as missing the only person who can comfort me in the way I need has really taken it’s toll on me mentally. The funeral was the absolute worst, standing there next to my dad in the drizzling rain as they lowered my mum into the ground. My hand tensed beside me, searching for Sean’s comforting grip when it wasn’t there. I just need to feel like I'm near him, even though he’s hundreds of miles away right now and won’t be home until the weekend. I guess this is how I got here, standing outside his front door and tapping lightly against it with my fist, an overnight bag slung over one shoulder as I shiver on the spot. The January wind is slicing at my bare arms as I shudder, banging slightly harder against the wood just before the door swings open and Lewis stares out at me, a confused expression clouding his eyes. His chestnut hair is blowing as the winter air invades the house, so he quickly gestures for me to come inside. I smooth my curls the minute I step foot into the quiet hallway, Lewis shutting out the icy chill behind me.

“Can I stay here tonight please?” I blurt out, my cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment for needing to be here for the night. I know it’s clingy of me to need to sleep in Sean’s bed when I'm missing him but I don’t care. Lewis raises a honey coloured eyebrow. “You know he’s not back yet right?” I nod, feeling the heat spreading across my entire face. “Oh,” he whispers, “that’s why you want to stay here, you want to sleep in his bed.” Fucking hell, can every guy at this university just read me like a book or something?

I sigh, resigning myself to the embarrassment and meeting Lewis’ eyes. There’s nothing there but a soft understanding and it’s then that I remember Lewis having a serious girlfriend last year who broke his heart. The poor guy was depressed for months after she left him, pining after what they had. He’s not like his friends, he loves relationships just like I always have, we’ve always had that in common. Looking into his soft, green eyed gaze right now reminds me that he’s probably one of the only people around me that deeply understands how I feel right now and that I don’t need to be embarrassed about needing Sean.

“Can I?” I mutter, “Please?” My voice is still quite as a mouse when I speak but Lewis’ bright face splits into a smooth smile.

He nods as his smile widens and he shoves his hands into his pockets. “Of course you can,” he tips his head towards the stairs, “make yourself at home and I’ll be down here if you need anything, can’t get up the stairs with this stupid fucking leg.” He nods down at the strapped portion of his knee, his toes a light shade of purple from the tightness of the strapping. “Ok, thanks Lewis I do appreciate this.” I smile, heading for the stairs. Lewis titters a laugh. “You and I both know he’d rip my balls from my body if I didn’t let you stay here.”

“Yeah,” I laugh, “he probably would, but thank you all the same.” “You know, I never see him happier than when he’s with you,” my heart’s grown wings again, “he loves you so much, he’s like a lost puppy when you’re not around.” Lewis chuckles under his breath, raking a hand through his short, brown bristles.

There’s my bashful smile coming back with a vengeance, pink cheeks following suit. “He makes me happy too.”

“I can tell, he brings out a totally different side of you, one I’d never seen before you guys met.”

He’s right, he’s so right.

I shrug. “I guess I was never really happy before. All those parties were just a way to keep me sane when I was training and dealing with Joel’s shit all the time. I never really knew what it was like to be properly loved, even with all my faults…until I met Sean.”

Lewis ponders my words and I know he’s reminiscing his own failed relationship, but after a beat he simply nods and throws me a lazy wave, heading back to his indented place on the sofa. I head up the stairs, hearing my phone ping after a moment and reminding myself to respond to Sean before I go to sleep, hopefully he can stay awake long enough to say goodnight to me. I pull my t-shirt over my head, digging in Sean’s draw for one of his to wear to bed, loving the warm, mushy feeling I get when I slip it over my head and curl up under his covers. His king sized bed swallows me whole as I bury myself in the centre of it, the pillows smothering my face in Sean’s manly scent that I want to drink up every drop of. But instead of letting my eyes win the battle and fall closed, dragging me into a well deserved sleep, I check my phone first. Sean’s message makes my heart skip as usual and the second I hit send on my reply he reads it, like he was staying awake, waiting for me to respond to him. A moment passes and he hasn’t sent anything back so I stuff my phone under Sean’s pillow and turn onto my side, letting the thought of sleep overwhelm me as it drags me under. My eyelids are drooping, the smell that surrounds me relaxing every muscle in my body as usual and I just know I'm going to have the best sleep of my life since Sean left almost a month ago. But he has his own plan, which includes waking me from my almost peaceful slumber as my phone starts to ring, vibrating through the pillow and giving me an unsolicited face massage.

“Hi you,” I croak, my voice already rough from my near sleepy state. “Hey baby, I'm so glad you’re still awake I was trying not to fall asleep so I could talk to you. I’m out in the hallway so I don’t wake Nick, although to be honest the man snores like a fucking elephant so he’d probably sleep through a little bit of phone sex anyway.” He murmurs, his sexy voice making my stomach burn with desire.

I breathe a muffled laugh. “We’re not having phone sex Sean and I’d love it if you’d hurry up and come home so you can actually fuck me, playing with myself is getting pretty boring.” I smirk to myself, knowing that I can get him going so easily.

“Yeah well, you still haven’t sent me that video you promised me,” he huffs, “I don’t know how I'm expected to jerk it without some sort of motivation and nothing makes me fucking hard anymore other than you, I think you’ve broken my dick.”

I laugh, imagining him leaning back against the wall in the hallway with that bright smile across his face as he talks to me, his torso contracting as he laughs, his dimples deepening and his arms flexing a he moves the way he does. Fuck, I'm so damn horny without him.

“There’s nothing broken about your dick,” I hum softly, desperate to turn him on as much as I am even though there’s not much either of us can do about it right now.

“Hmm,” he muses, still a smirk to his husky voice. “You’re right about that, I’ll show you when I'm home in…” he pauses, “ninety-six hours.” I blow out a tired breath, not only tired for sleep but exhausted from constantly missing Sean. “I miss you,” I sigh, “I can’t wait another ninetysix hours,”

“I know baby, it’s fucking awful being away from you, I can’t concentrate on the ice either, not when I'm missing you so badly.”

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