I close my eyes. “Me too. The distance isn’t forever. Promise.”
“I know. I’m not sure if I’m more terrified of seeing you again, or that the distance is going to get to be too much.”
“We’ll figure it out. I promise.”
“You make a lot of promises,” he says barely above a whisper.
“You’re worth every promise. I won’t stop working to keep them.”
Caulder sighs. “Get me off, Lo.”
“Gladly. Do exactly as I say.”
His orgasm is sweet, even over the phone, several hundred miles away. I can almost taste him on my tongue. Fuck. I need to see him again.
CHAPTER 21
CAULDER
The door slamsloudly behind me and I wince. I hate how hotel room doors do that. It’s unnecessary to announce when someone comes and goes. I’m pretty sure they could be silenced.
As soon as I step inside, I hear my tablet ringing. “Coming. Coming,” I call out while I try to kick out of my shoes on the way and nearly land on my face.
Pulling the tablet from my bed, I tap the accept button and Lo’s face fills the screen. I sigh, a smile spreading across my lips.
“Nice game, hot stuff. That was a sexy goal you made.”
I grin. “Thanks.”
Buffalo is back in Florida, playing the Manatees. We won 3-1. I had scored the first goal, which admittedly was very sexy as Ethan distracted their goalie with the puck only to pass itbehindhim, straight to my stick, where I slung it in the open side before the goalie had time to turn his head.
“Have a good night?” I ask, setting up my tablet so I can strip out of my clothes and still see his face.
“Meh. Hung out with some friends. I didn’t score any goals, but it wasn’t bad.”
“I’ve always been fascinated to hear about the guys on other teams,” I say. “When Jakub joined us, he told us about his timewith Vancouver. They’ve got some cool guys, but they sound less cool when Jakub talks about them.”
“Isn’t Jönsson on that team now?”
I nod. “Yeah. He’s made a couple friends, but overall, he says the same. One of the first things he says to me whenever we get together after playing them is that he misses the family we have here.”
Lo smiles. “We’re more cliquey than family. I’d say there are maybe three or four groups within the team that are closer friends than they are with the rest of the team. It’s not high school cliquey or anything. Just… how we broke down, you know?”
“Yeah. I guess that’s the same with us to some degree. But we do a lot of things as a team too. Not just the smaller friendship groups.”
Once finished stripping down and brushing my teeth, I drop on my bed with the tablet and prop it with the pillows.
“Different room, huh?” Lo asks.
“Different hotel. I’m not sure they could convince me to stay at the same one.”
He shakes his head. “I’ve been wondering what’s come of that. Just out of curiosity.”
“You don’t get on social media much, huh?”
“Nah. It’s mostly just gossip and lies. Who needs that in their life?”
I laugh. “It’s been silent,” I say. “No, I don’t spend a lot of time online, but Ethan’s been watching. He and Creed were musing about it the other day.”
