Page 66 of Off the Stick
“Ah, fuck, Cherry.”
Without releasing his hand from its invasion between my legs, he spins me around so my back is flush to his chest.The hard ridge of his erection presses into the crease of my ass as his thumb works magic over my sensitive nub, expertly coaxing it toward the edge of euphoria with every swirl and tap.
With one hand down my pants, Dane tunnels the other under my sweater, cupping my breast and flicking my hardened nipple.I cry out from the rush of sensation that skitters through me like lightning striking.It’s electric and powerful and if Dane didn’t have me in his hold, I’d absolutely collapse to the floor in a heap.
I whimper out a small curse as he circles one nipple and then the other, all while his other thumb plays my clit like a harp.He strokes and caresses, flicks and massages, until I’m wound so tightly, I know I’ll unravel before we reach the second chorus of the song.
He plunges a second finger deep, moving both in and out through my wet heat.I’m breathless and dizzy, already seeing stars emerging from the back of my eyelids.Pinpricks of pleasure scatter wildly as I reach the top of that precipice.Then I swan-dive off that cliff into the euphoric nirvana.
As if it’s written in the stars that shine in the night sky.I am, without a single doubt, falling hard again for Dane.
And there is no stopping it this time.
33
Dane
With a week on the road playing three different teams on the East Coast of the US, it’s been a challenge finding time to talk to Halle in real time.We’ve mostly resorted to text and Snapchat, and have only been able to get one video call in so far.
It’s not enough.
Halle is like a drug to me.She consumes my thoughts in a way no one else ever has.
After our date, which ended soon after I made Halle come, we picked Lenni up from the Lundrens’ house.Since it was late and Lenni was asleep in seconds after we got her into the car, I quietly carried my sleeping daughter into the house and put her to bed.
Something in my heart splintered open that night, like a stick splitting and breaking out on the ice after a hard connecting hit.
This little girl and her mom have changed me.I am not the same man I was before they came into my life.
Although there’s still a twinge of resentment associated with how it all went down, Halle made the right call at the time by not telling me she was pregnant.I wasn’t mature enough back then and I would’ve fled the responsibility, no matter what I tell myself now.
I wouldn’t have wanted to take on the responsibility at that age and likely would have been an absent father, only sending child support and a birthday card every year.
I want to believe I would’ve done the right thing.I was raised by good parents and had strong familial support throughout my childhood, even when I lived apart from them during juniors.I know the indelible mark of a good father, because I had one.
So does Halle.And that means I understand her hesitancy to not let me get too close to Lenni.A pro hockey player’s life is not the most stable.But my hope is that with each moment I spend with them, she cracks the door just a little further until someday soon, it’ll allow me to step in and be Lenni’s dad for life.
I’m back at the hotel in Cleveland tonight after a piss-poor game that we lost one to five.It was embarrassing and the team left the ice defeated and grumpy.
Of course, Rossco still argued we should go out to the clubs to erase our sorrows with booze and women.It took me fifteen minutes and a dozen excuses to get him off my back.He and Brewer, Wolf and the rookies—who I think might still be underage in the US—went to the bars without me.
So now I sit alone in a semidark room, stretched out on the bed with my phone in my hand, hoping Halle is available to chat.
Me: Hey, Cherry.How was your day?
While I wait for her reply, ESPN recaps in the background all the highlights and lowlight moments of the games tonight.There’s a clip of the horrible off-the-stick shot I made that wasn’t even close to hitting anywhere in the net.
The phone in my hand vibrates, and a smile overtakes my face.
Cherry: It was a day, for sure.But we watched the game.Lenni rooted for you.She did the Ax dance and cheered for her friend Ax.
My chest constricts.I’m literally still in the friend zone.
Me: And how about you?Did you cheer for me?
Cherry: Maybe…
She adds a wink emoji with a tongue sticking out.I chuckle.
