27. Calvin
CALVIN
“So, are you going to give me the grand tour?” I ask with a cocky smirk. “It’s been years since I got to explore a girl’s bedroom.”
“You’re such a guy,” Sienna teases as she moves around her room. Her face fills the screen, and while I can’t complain—she looks as stunning as ever—I’m desperate to learn more about the girl who stole my heart all those years ago.
“Oh, I’m glad you noticed,” I say, wiggling my brows.
I’m lounging on my couch, my knee aching like a bitch after Darcy pushed me harder in our session today.
I wasn’t lying earlier when I was messaging her.
It was fucking brutal. It also felt good to be taking the next step in my rehab, moving a little more, putting more weight on it.
It gives me hope that progress is happening, and slowly but surely, I’m moving toward getting back out on the ice.
And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take my shirt off before trying my luck and video calling Sienna.
We never agreed to continue talking while she was with her family, but her messages have continued to come throughout the day, and like the greedy motherfucker I am, I’ve replied every time. And the moment she mentioned she was heading to bed, I couldn’t help but hit that little video button.
Honestly, I was expecting her to hit cancel and ruin my night. But to my surprise, she accepted it, and only two seconds later did her beautiful face appear before me.
She had her finger over her lips, stopping me from saying anything for a few moments as the familiar sound of footsteps racing up the stairs spilled from my speakers. A door closed, and then finally she said that I could speak.
Hearing her voice was the best part of my day.
Fuck. I’m pathetic. But whatever. Shit could certainly be worse than spending my evening chatting to an incredibly hot girl who has no idea just how obsessed I am with her.
Her cheeks heat as she settles, I assume on her bed. “Don’t worry, I noticed.”
Instantly, my head goes back to that moment against her kitchen wall when I pressed my more-than-obvious hard-on against her and freaked her the fuck out. Not my finest moment. But fuck, she drives me fucking wild. All she has to do is smile in my direction and I’m rocking a semi.
I swear, it’s like she makes me a teenage boy again. I remember all too well how hard I had to work to hide my boner from her that summer. I didn’t want to freak her out then, either.
“So, are you gonna show me or not?” I keep pressing.
“Ugh, fine. You’re a real pain in the ass, you know that?”
“I’ve been told a time or two, yeah.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” she says before turning her camera around.
“Holy shit. It looks like you never moved out.” I balk at her soft lilac walls, the flower fairy lights that are strung around her vanity mirror, the stuffed animals filling a shelf, and even more photos than what fill her apartment now. Only, in almost all of these, she’s young.
“Do you know what’s worse?” she admits. “I never actually lived here. My parents moved it all from our old house.”
“Wow. Okay, that’s …”
“A lot, I know.”
“Is Garrett’s room the same?”
“If you mean, is it lilac with girly stuff everywhere, then no.” I can’t help but laugh as the image of her brother lying on frilly pastel sheets fills my mind. “It’s painted Vipers green and is covered in trophies.”
“He played?”
“A little. But he’s also a nerd, so they’re mixed in with chess trophies and others for counting and stuff.”
“Counting and stuff?” I ask, curious.
“Yeah, like I said, he’s a nerd.”
Sienna shows me almost all of her room before suddenly flipping the camera around before she gets to the final corner.
“Wait,” I say. “I didn’t see it all.”
“You saw all the important stuff,” she says under her breath. “So, tell me about your day.”
“Darlin’, are you blushing?”
“No,” she states firmly, unable to meet my eyes as she follows it up with, “It’s just hot in here.”
“Right. Yeah. Sure.”
Silence falls between us before I ask. “Sienna, what is in that corner?”
“It’s…” She glances over, and I swear her cheeks only get redder. “N-nothing.”
“Cool, so if it’s nothing, then you can show me, right?”
“Calvin,” she warns.
“Sienna,” I counter.
“Ugh, fine. But you can’t tease me about this until our dying day.”
“I would never.”
She narrows her eyes on me, not believing a word of it.
“Whatever,” she mutters before flipping the camera again.
At first, I’m disappointed the mystery corner isn’t full of posters of me.
But she hasn’t lived in this house, and she’d have moved out before I signed with the Vipers and my face started appearing, well…
everywhere. But as I focus on what I’m seeing, I realize it’s so much better than fan posters.
It’s art…art that she’s drawn of a ranch, sunsets, horses, and two people… two kids.
Holy shit.
She never forgot me.
A lump crawls up my throat, stopping me from speaking. We might be on a video call, but that doesn’t mean I can’t feel her stare burning into me.
Don’t react, Calvin.
Do not let her discover the truth when you’re not there to attempt to bail yourself out of the hole it’s going to put you in.
“They’re cute.”
“I’m not exactly an artist.”
“They’re a shit load better than I could do,” I confess as she flips the camera back again, letting me see her.
“I was just a kid,” she says dismissively. It hurts that she’s able to do that to a summer that changed my life forever. “How’s your knee doing? Did Darcy really work you that hard?” she asks, bringing me back to the here and now.
“Hurting. But nothing some rest and an ice pack won’t fix, I’m sure,” I say, trying to play it off as nothing.
Concern glitters in her eyes.
“Has your mom got everything ready for tomorrow?”
“Yep, the turkey is waiting to go into the oven. She’s getting up at some ungodly hour to put it in. We’ve been telling her for years that we can just eat later, it doesn’t matter to us, but she won’t have it.”
I chuckle with her, but mostly just to hide the pain her words bring.
Despite the state of my family now, we did have some really great times growing up. And holidays were no exception. It’s only as I got older that everything went to shit.
A sigh slips from my lips before I can catch it.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” Sienna asks, her eyes boring into mine.
I want to lie, but I’m already hiding enough from her.
“Nothing,” I confess.
Her eyes soften, and I hate it. I don’t need anyone’s pity over the fact I don’t have anyone to spend the holiday with.
“What about the guys?” she asks.
“They’ve all got their plans. It’s fine. I’m used to it.”
“That’s bullshit, Calvin. You shouldn’t be used to that. I knew I should have invited you here.”
“What?” I ask, jack-knifing so I’m sitting up on my couch.
“Shit. I wasn’t…um…I just…”
“It’s okay. I wasn’t expecting an invite,” I say, although it takes a significant amount of self-control not to immediately look to see if I could get a flight to Idaho tonight.
No. That’s crazy. I can’t do that.
Can I?
“I hate the thought of you being home alone tomorrow.”
“It’s just another Thursday. It doesn’t have to be anything if you don’t want it to be.”
“What do you do at Christmas?”
My hand lifts to rub the back of my neck as I lie back down.
“Uh…”
“Calvin.” She sighs. “Are you really not welcome at home?”
“My parents invite me every year. Not being invited isn’t the problem. It’s the shit that’ll come with it.”
She holds my eyes, begging me to open up.
“When I woke up from surgery after my injury, I had a voicemail from my mom. Of course, she was concerned about me, she’s my mom after all.
But once she was confident that I was okay, do you know what her first comment was?
” I don’t bother waiting for an answer; I wasn’t expecting one.
“She wanted to know when I was coming home now that my career was over.”
Sienna’s breath catches. “You’ve torn your ACL, not lost your leg.”
“Even still. There are plenty of players who play handicapped. The things they can do with prosthetics now is incredible. They just don’t get it, and they’ve already refused to hear a word of what I want.
My destiny wasn’t to stay in my family home and take over the business.
It’s just not me. Even if I’m forced to stop playing—”
“Which won’t happen,” she interrupts.
“One day it will. But hockey is my life. I won’t go back even when my playing career is over. They just refuse to hear it, and whenever I’ve been back there, all they do is try to convince me to stay. It’s exhausting.”
“I can imagine.”
“It’s better for everyone if I just stay away and let them get on with things without me.”
“I’m sorry they treat you like that.”
I shrug, because there’s fuck all I can do about it.
Thankfully, Sienna changes the subject, and we spend a few minutes discussing tonight’s game before she begins yawning.
“I should let you go,” I say reluctantly. It’s the last thing I want to do, but I can hardly keep her up all night talking to me. “Thank you for giving me a bedroom tour.”
“I haven’t seen yours yet,” she says sleepily.
“Jesus, Sienna,” I grunt, my cock swelling as if she could appear and demand to go to my bedroom any second.
“Sorry, I— I just…You’ve spent loads of time in my apartment, and I’ve only ever seen your front door.”
“You clamoring for an invite, darlin’?”
“Just curious, I guess. Is your place a bachelor pad?”
“I guess you’ll find out when I bring you up here.”
Her eyes darken, making me wish I were there and able to kiss her.
“I can’t wait.”
Me either.
“Message me in the morning?” I ask.
“Of course,” she agrees before we say our goodbyes and end the call.
Silence falls around me as the screen goes black. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so cold and lonely in my own home before.
I’ve always done my best to ignore the holidays, but everything feels different this year.
It’s because you’ve met someone you really want to spend it with.
With a sigh, I push to my feet and force myself to relocate to my bedroom. Maybe wallowing in there will be better. At least I’ve got Sienna on my nightstand for company.
I wake to the sound of my apartment buzzer ringing over and over and over. And when it stops, the banging starts.
“What the fuck?” I groan, rolling over to look at the time. “Fuck.”
It’s late. Really fucking late.
I can’t remember the last time I slept this late.
The buzzing starts again and I throw the sheets off and get to my feet.
My reflection catches my eyes as I shuffle out of the room.
“Fuck it.”
Whoever has managed to get through whichever concierge is on shift and dares to make this much noise deserves to get my bed head and boxer-clad body.
The buzzing and banging continue to alternate until I finally get to the front door.
“What?” I bark, finding two sets of eyes staring back at me.
“At fucking last, man,” Rett barks, pushing his way inside without an invitation.
“We were starting to think you’d died in here or something,” Linc adds, also slipping past me.
“Uh…what the fuck are you doing?” I ask as they drop onto my couch and make themselves comfortable. Ideas start flickering through my mind.
She wouldn’t have…would she?
“Waiting for you to get dressed.” Irritation ripples through me.
“W-why?” I stutter, although I have my suspicions.
“‘Cuz we’re picking you up for Thanksgiving at Linc’s place,” Rett says as if it isn’t obvious.
“Uh…”
“No arguments. You’re coming. It’s done.”
“Do as you’re told, and we won’t bring up how you’ve been lying to us for years,” Linc adds, his eyes narrowing on mine.
My mouth opens to argue, but the second I realize I can’t, I shut it again.
“Fine,” I huff, spinning around to shower and dress.
But long before I get to my bedroom, my smile breaks free.