38. Calvin
CALVIN
Irest my ass back against the hood of the car and wait, my eyes locked on the street up ahead.
Nerves rattle through me.
I’ve never done anything like this before. Never put myself out there, laying everything I want on the line. Well, apart from hockey. But this is very, very different. If anything, I want it more. And that really is saying something.
The street in front of me is long and full of people spending their afternoons doing a little retail therapy. But despite the mass of people, the second she steps onto the street, I’m aware of her.
Arms linked, they walk toward where I’m waiting with wide smiles on their face as they talk animatedly about something.
Seeing Sienna’s happiness lights me up inside and helps me to push the anger away that’s been buzzing around me since she confessed her past and her fears to me last night.
Whoever that guy was who hurt her so badly, I want to find him and wrap my hands around his motherfucking throat and watch the life drain out of him.
My dark thoughts are interrupted by the sweet sound of her laughter.
The second it hits my ears, my entire body relaxes, and I’d be lying if I said my dick didn’t jerk happily.
They get closer still. Sienna is too distracted by what they’re talking about to see me waiting. But Bea knows I’m here. She helped me set this up, after all.
“I know, I said that to her. But she wasn’t having it. Client knows best, and all—” Sienna’s words stop abruptly when she finally realizes someone’s sitting on the hood of her Mini. “Calvin?” she breathes, her eyes wide with surprise.
“Hey, darlin’.”
“Oh, swoon,” Bea breathes beside her, placing her hand over her heart.
I push from the car and walk right up to her. For the first time in my life, I’m not aware of our surroundings or who's witnessing or taking a photo of this.
I take her face in my hands and brush my lips over hers.
“I missed you,” I say so quietly that only she’ll hear. Or at least, I thought it was.
“Damn, you guys are incredibly cute.”
“Well, we couldn’t have you and Rett winning any awards for cutest NHL couple now, could we?” I taunt, making them both laugh.
“Right, well, this is where we part,” Bea says to Sienna. “Calvin is taking it from here.”
Sienna’s mouth opens and closes like a fish.
“We’ve got a shopping trip of our own to do, remember?”
She narrows her eyes at me as she thinks back.
“Oh,” she says, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. “You really were serious.”
“I was. Ready to get into the holiday spirit.”
“I can’t believe you’ve got her to agree to this. I’ve been moaning at her for years about not decorating,” Bea complains.
“Well, what can I say? I'm clearly better at convincing her.”
“Hmm, yeah. I wonder why?” Bea deadpans while Sienna’s cheeks heat. “Anyway, have fun, you two. Don’t do anything Everett and I wouldn’t do.”
“Like get pregnant in a club?” Sienna teases.
“Bitch,” Bea jokes back before they give each other a hug, and we stand and watch as she climbs into her car and heads off home.
“Are we really going shopping for decorations?” she asks, an unmistakable excited twinkle in her eye.
“We are. I hope you know what you want.”
Threading my fingers through hers, I tug her toward her car, but instead of pulling the door open for her, I back her up against it.
“Hey,” I breathe as I stare down into her gray eyes.
I wasn’t lying earlier—I have missed her. And when I woke up alone in my own bed this morning, I really fucking regretted not agreeing to spend the night. Waking with her in my arms would have started my day perfectly.
“I thought you were at the arena all day?”
“Darcy cut my session short,” I explain.
“Why? Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s good,” I say, grazing my scarred knuckles along the soft line of her jaw. “Fuck, I want to kiss you so badly.”
“Then why aren’t you?”
“You’re perfect,” I breathe before doing exactly as she just suggested.
One hand wraps around the back of her neck, and the other grips her hip, keeping her pinned against me as I lose myself in her.
Our surroundings vanish. The only thing I’m aware of is her—the softness of her body, the wet heat of her tongue as it slides against mine.
Before I know what’s happening, my cock is swelling with the need to take this further.
Sienna stills when she feels it pressing against her and I curse myself for getting carried away.
I shift my foot back, ready to put some space between us, but she reaches for my hips, keeping me in place.
“It’s okay,” she says between heaving breaths.
I swallow thickly as I stare down at her.
“I-I can’t believe I do this to you. Me.”
“You’re everything,” I tell her, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
“But the other women, they’re—”
“Nothing compared to you. I’ve never wanted any of them like I do you,” I tell her honestly.
“And it’s not just because you haven’t had me.”
“Not in the slightest. I already know that when we get there, it won’t be enough. I’m never going to stop wanting you, darlin’. It’s impossible.”
She shakes her head. “How can you be so sure?”
I know what she’s thinking; it’s only been a few weeks. And yeah, that’s kinda true. But it’s also not.
Tell her, a little voice screams. But I swallow it down.
Now isn’t the right time.
She’s not ready.
Or maybe it’s more that I’m too scared to tell her everything and ruin what we’ve found.
“I just am,” I tell her, leaning forward and resting my forehead against hers. “And it’s you.”
I’m about to lean in for another kiss when movement beside her head has me jumping back at such a speed that my leg jars.
“Aw, fuck,” I cry, reaching for it.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“N-nothing,” I state, looking up and glaring at the bird sitting on her roof. I swear the little shit is glaring back and taunting me.
I fucking hate birds.
“Birds scare the shit out of me.”
Sienna chuckles and thankfully doesn’t latch onto my half-truth.
Yes, it made me jump, but the reality is, I’m fucking petrified of them, and if Sienna remembers anything from that summer, then she probably remembers me freaking out when a flock of egrets landed only a few feet away from where we were hanging out in a field.
I shot up so fast that I didn’t register her reaction until long seconds later. When I looked back, she was bent over in two, laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.
“Right,” she mutters. “Shall we?”
I reach for the handle, open her car door, and wait for her to slip into the driver’s seat.
Darcy says I should be cleared to drive by the end of the week, and I can’t fucking wait.
There’s no way I want Sienna driving us to the date I’ve planned. And there’s something very unromantic about having an Uber driver third-wheeling on a date.
“So, where are we headed?” she asks once I’m sitting beside her.
“I guess that depends on whether you want a real tree or not.”
“Is that even a question? Real tree, hands down.”
“Okay then.” I pull up a tree farm on my cell, then sync to Sienna’s car. “Let’s go.”
I hadn’t really considered what it might be like, Christmas tree shopping with Sienna. I kinda thought we’d just choose a tree and be on our way to get decorations. But no, it turns out that Sienna is some kind of tree expert and also has very, very specific taste.
I’m pretty sure we have to look at, at least one hundred trees before she finally settles on one she likes.
The sun is setting by the time we get the chosen one into the back of her car. It barely fits. We’re forced to have the very top of it between the front seats, stopping me from reaching over and resting my hand on her thigh like I did all the way out here.
“Happy?” I ask, unable to miss her small smile.
“Very. Sorry if that was annoying.”
“I think I underestimated your commitment.”
“Why do you think I don’t get one? I don’t have that much time to waste every year.”
“You could just get an artifi—”
“Don’t you dare even finish that sentence,” she warns.
“Is the next part going to be as…”
“As?” she prompts.
“Selective?” I hedge, making her laugh.
“No, the decorations should be easy.”
“Okay, good. Are you a color-coordinated kinda girl or—”
“Random. My mom’s tree is the best. It’s covered in decorations from different vacations and events. Each year it’s like taking a trip down memory lane.”
“I think it’s time for you to start your own collection.”
“I’ve got a few in a box already.”
“I knew you weren’t that anti-decorations,” I tease.
“We’ll just need lights and a few extra tree ornaments, maybe. I don’t really have much spare cash, so I need to be good.”
I don’t want to say anything, but long before we get into the store, I have a feeling that Sienna isn’t going to be able to stick to her “just a few extra” rule. And I’m proven right when we finally get to the checkout with a cart full of decorations.
“Shit, how much?” Sienna balks when the total shows up on the register screen.
Before she has a chance to open her purse, I’m tapping my card against the reader.
“Calvin,” she warns, having already allowed me to buy the tree.
“This was my idea. It’s the least I can do.”
“I wasn’t expecting—”
“I know, but I want to. You deserve all the pretty decorations.”
“They really are pretty,” she breathes as we take everything out to her car.
“What are we having for dinner?” she asks once we’re halfway home.
“I’ve got it covered.”
“Have you cooked again?”
“I promised you I would, didn’t I?”
She sighs happily. “You’re too good to me.”
“No less than what you deserve.”
It takes us two trips to get the tree and everything we bought up to Sienna’s apartment, and then I have to go up to mine to get dinner while she pokes and prods her tree.
“What is it?” she asks when I appear with a saucepan in my hands and bags swinging from my arms.
“How do you feel about nachos?”
“Like everyone else in the world, obviously.”
“So you like them?” I question, unsure what she means by that.
“Love them,” she confirms.
“Okay, good. I made the cheese topping earlier; it just needs to reheat before we can assemble. But in the meantime…” I pull out ingredients for hot chocolate, and Sienna’s eyes go wide.
“What? You can’t decorate a tree without hot chocolate and Christmas music,” I say, mentioning the song that’s already filling her apartment.
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” she states proudly before her expression falls serious. “Thank you for taking me to get all this, for buying it for me.”
“It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for me.”
A frown wrinkles her brow. “But I haven’t done—”
“Trust me, darlin’. You’ve done more than you could ever know.
The weeks after my injury…well, they weren’t good.
I was drowning in fear, but you…you’ve stopped me from obsessing over what my future might look like.
You’ve shown me that life is about so much more than a game, that happiness doesn’t just come from wins and cups. ”
Sienna immediately puts the lights down and marches toward me. She throws her arms around my shoulders and stretches up on her toes. “I think these past few weeks have been pretty awesome, too. You’re pretty awesome,” she adds before slamming her lips down on mine.