Page 59 of Looks Real Good Now
“Yeah, I got a little hard. The guy doing it told me that it wasn’t an abnormal reaction.”
“You busy today?” I asked, aware that I was changing the subject, but a thought had just occurred to me.
As always, Liam didn’t bat an eyelid at the change of direction. “Not unless you’re busy today.”
“You wanna find out what perks come with being the Coach’s daughter?”
“What perks are we talking here?”
“It’s a game day, right?”
“For some people, yeah. I don’t know if you remember, but I retired this year.”
“And you don’t miss the arena at all?” I would always think he made the right choice, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate that the right choice was sometimes the hardest.
“I don’t miss this particular game of the season; it was always a bit rough. If we’re talking big picture then yeah, I miss itsometimes, but mostly I miss the energy of the arena the moment my skates hit the ice for the first time.”
“I can give you clean ice. No crowds, but clean ice, I think.” I had to talk to my dad first, but I was pretty sure he would say yes. I was his favourite daughter, after all.
Liam was oddly silent.
“We don’t have to go. I just thought—”
He reached out his hand and laced his fingers through mine, squeezing them gently.
“No, I do want to. If Rob says yes, then I want to go. Just…” I waited. “How much like game day do you want this to be?”
“This a superstition thing?” I knew Liam had a few. I never knew all of them, but I knew that his game day mornings had to go a certain way, or he was convinced the world was going to end.
He nodded.
“I used to have to jerk off pre-game, and then before the first game of my professional career, your wonderful father called me in the middle of it. I shouldn’t have answered it, but it was your dad, and he was instrumental in me even thinking I could get on the ice professionally, so I didn’t want to ignore him.”
I laughed. “Was he aware you had your hand around your dick just before you answered that call?”
“I doubt it. Anyway, that phone call took up the rest of my time before I had to leave. So, I went without release. We won that game. The next game I carried out my ritual as usual; we lost.”
Heat was settling low in my core.
“Therefore, you had to start edging yourself before everygame?”
“Correct.”
“So, what does this have to do with today?”
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to,” he said, his voice was huskier now. I squeezed my thighs together.
“Okay, when did you let yourself come then?”
“Whenever I got back into my own bed.”
“Wait yourownbed? What about away games?”
“I mean, it went soft eventually, so it was fine. Made coming back home a little bit sweeter, though.”
“What would be the rules here then?” We were in New York for a few more days.
“The main thing about it is that I needed to feel at home. There is nowhere I feel more at home than when I’m around you, Alana.”
