Page 43 of Bad Crush
“All right. Stand up. Maybe that’ll help.” Adam helps him to his feet, and Maverick slowly puts pressure on the leg with the cramp.
“Damn, that was a bad one,” Mav says once he’s hobbling around a little.
“You need to make sure you’re stretching out really well every day.”
“Sure thing, Dr. Scott.”
On the way back, Adam sticks near Maverick. He’s walking on his own, but slowly and stopping every twenty feet or so to rub the muscle.
Ginny and Heath make their excuses as soon as we’re back and head to bed. Rhett starts up the Xbox. I sit next to Maverick on the couch. He’s screwing off the top of his Mad Dog when Adam comes from the kitchen with a Gatorade. “Perhaps you should try this instead?”
“I’ll use it as a chaser.”
Adam laughs quietly and sinks into the cushion beside me.
“I think I’m off, too,” Dakota says with a yawn. She stops at the door. “Are you sleeping here?” she asks me.
“Yeah. Running after classes tomorrow?” I’ve seen less of Dakota this week, and I think that’s harder on me than her. I need her, and I need us to be close like we’ve always been.
“I’ll meet you there.” She says good night, and then it’s just the guys and me.
Adam places a hand on my thigh, and I nuzzle into his side. He’s talking to Rhett and Mav about practices and then the game they’re playing on the Xbox. The long week of late nights has caught up to me, and at some point, I fall asleep only to wake when he lowers me onto his bed.
It’s dark with just a small amount of light from the sliding glass door that leads out to the deck from his room.
“Sorry,” I say, my voice is deep from sleep. “I guess I was tired.”
He strips down to his boxers and gets into bed next to me. “It’s okay. Been a long week.”
He draws me against him and kisses me. He tastes like toothpaste.
“I need to brush my teeth and wash my face,” I say as I pull back.
I also really need to take off this bra. It’s pretty and lacy with some awesome padding that makes my boobs look A-plus, but the comfort is more C-minus.
“Hurry back.” His tongue sweeps into my mouth, and he kisses me deeply before letting me go.
I do hurry, but by the time I get back, his eyes are closed, arm thrown over his face. I grab one of his T-shirts and change into that. Carefully, I get into bed, trying not to wake him. One arm reaches around my waist and pulls me tight against his chest. His nose nuzzles into my hair, and he places a kiss on my neck. “’Night, beautiful.”
13
Adam
I’m stretchingout as the rest of the team arrives for our morning skate. They take the ice slow and quiet.
“What do you say, boys?” I force a pep into my voice that I definitely don’t feel.
Last night was the first time I got more than a few hours of sleep all week. I’m not complaining. Far from it. I’d do it all over again, but it makes being a leader and setting the tone for this weekend’s games a little tougher when I’m fighting back a yawn.
We’ve got the team playlist going—a mix-up of songs submitted by each guy that Maverick puts together. We skate for thirty minutes on game days—no more and no less. It’s a light skate. We go through a few drills just to get the nerves out, and, in the case of some of the guys, work out the alcohol from the night before. Food and a nap and they’ll be good to go tonight.
Rhett’s dragging today. Not surprising considering the breakup and the amount he drank last night. I’m glad he finally ended things with Carrie. Not liking your best friend’s girlfriend is a real bummer. I tried to warm up to her, really, I did.
He gave so much, and it was never enough for her. If he called her twice a day, then why wasn’t he calling three times? She hated that he played hockey because it meant he couldn’t travel to see her on the weekends, but did she visit? Rarely. Maybe once a semester. It was hard to watch him with her these past four years we’ve been teammates and roommates.
Not that my relationships have been the picture of excellence. Hopefully, that’s changing, though. Things with Reagan are going so well I have to remind myself that I’m trying to break my cycle of jumping in and getting too serious too fast. From night one, I planned to take it slow, but there’s just no doing that with Reagan.
We’re spending every night together, I think about her during the day, and it still doesn’t feel like enough. I want to be with her all the time. I don’t want to date anyone else, and I sure as hell don’t want her to date anyone else. I should probably mention that. You can have a casual but exclusive thing, right?
