When I walked in, Bailey was curled up on the living room sectional with her silver laptop propped up beside her. She was wearing black leggings, paired with my dark grey Falcons hoodie. It was adorable. Definitely an added perk to coming home.

She glanced over at me, her hazel eyes lighting up. "Hi, stranger."

I walked around the couch and she closed her computer, standing up to greet me. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I ducked my head down to kiss her. Her warm vanilla scent surrounded me, always smelling vaguely like a cookie or something equally delicious that I wanted to devour—literally.

Her lips parted and our mouths slanted, deepening the kiss. She drew in a soft breath, arms sliding to rest on my shoulders. My hands smoothed down her ribcage, past her hips, cupping her perfect ass. And instantly, I started to get hard.

Maybe I should have done this somewhere else, because I was getting way too turned on in the middle of the living room.

Then Dallas barged in through the front door like a goddamn elephant.

"Don't mind me," he called, clomping on by. For someone so graceful on the ice, he had lead feet at home. "Just going to find Shiv."

Mood-killer.

"Sorry we ran late," I said, gently tracing her face with my finger." Some of the guys took forever to get their act together and check out from the hotel after the game."

She blinked slowly, lips forming a little smile. "It's okay."

"C'mere." I threw an arm around her, tugging her down onto the couch with me. Bailey flopped down beside me, exhaling with a sigh. She shifted 90 degrees, laying her long legs across my lap and facing me.

My eyes swept across her face, drifting down to her torso, clad in my grey sweatshirt. It was a little bit oversized on her, but in the most perfect way. And I knew the curves beneath it were phenomenal.

I wanted to throw her down on the couch and ravage her. But I didn't want it to seem like that was the only thing I was interested in, especially after a few days apart, so I held off.

Our gazes met again and it felt like coming home; being with her felt like home.

"What were you working on just now?" I asked.

"I've just been chipping away at some things for the school paper," she said. "I have a million things on the go this week. Big paper due Friday. Plus several articles, and a group project where no one else is doing their share."

"But you're going to stay over Wednesday, right?" I flashed her a crooked grin, one that almost always got me to yes.

"Yeah, I can." She smiled, suddenly looking a bit shy. "I'll get some of that stuff done early. And I don't have class until ten on Thursday. Unless you need to be up early."

"I have dryland, but I can slip out quietly and come back after. I should be home just after eight."

Crawling back into my bed to find James in it was my literal idea of heaven. For a nap...or other things.

"That works," Bailey said. "I still have a group project to deal with at home tonight anyway. We're having some in-fighting issues between group members and I have to play mediator." She rolled her eyes, letting out a huff of annoyance that was more cute than angry.

I wasn't sure I'd ever seen her really angry. Irritated, yes. But never losing her temper. It was hard to picture. Probably inevitable with my dumb ass, though.

"Unfortunately, I have a lot of schoolwork I have to finish before tomorrow too," I said. "And now that I can kiss you freely, I'm not sure I would be as productive with you here as I was last time."

"Let's be honest." Her green-gold eyes traced my face, pink lips tipping upwards. "You weren't trying to be productive then, either."

Was I that obvious? Damn.

"I may have been buying some time," I admitted. "But Ward has consistently bad timing."

Her jaw dropped, mouth forming a little "o". "So you were going to kiss me." She swatted my arm playfully.

I smiled, because I was busted and I knew it. "I was sure going to try."

"Well, you can kiss me now if you want," she said, voice turning breathy.

Coming closer, I reached over and twined a hand in her hair, pulling her to me. Our lips came together softly. She reached up, placing a cool hand along my jaw as she kissed me back.

I could only describe it as a shut-off switch for my brain, because everything else faded away. The moment seemed to stretch out forever. All that existed was her sweet lips moving against my lips in the most achingly perfect way, and her body pressed up against mine.

Slowly, we broke apart. Her lips curved into a shy smile again. Then her expression turned serious and her eyes traced my face.

"Speaking of schoolwork, how's that probation going?"

"Thanks to you and to the good grade I got on my essay," I said, "I am officially out of the woods on that one."

For now. I was trying to keep it that way.

Unless I lost my cool and beat the shit out of Morrison in the near future, which was a strong possibility.

Ideally, I would be able to clobber him on the ice instead, thereby helping the team while avoiding jail.

"Really?" Bailey's face brightened and she squeezed my hand. "That's great."

"Yeah, but I still have to watch myself. Like at the game against you guys this week."

Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that part. Coach Miller had been giving me regular "stay the fuck in line" pep talks—which we both knew were really warnings.

Her brow creased and she shifted her body weight as if she'd just become uncomfortable both physically and mentally. "Are you sure it won't be worse if I'm there?"

"No, it'll be fine." I shook my head, because that didn't come out the way I wanted it to. Bailey being at the game would so much more than fine. I wanted her there. "I mean, it'll be great," I said. "I'm looking forward to you coming. I can keep my cool with Morrison and the rest of them."

I think.

Dallas strolled into the living room. "Dinner? Yes?" He raised his dark eyebrows, pointing at Bailey, then me. "I can cook."

"Wait. You guys go away all weekend, work your butts off, then you come back and cook for us?" Bailey asked.

I mean, Dallas was the one who'd be doing all the work in this scenario but if I got credit by association, I wasn't going to complain. Grilling wasn't really a two-man job, but I guess I could stand beside the barbecue and pretend to help.

"I'm not thinking anything fancy," he said. "It's nice out so we can pick up steaks and potatoes to throw on the grill. If you and Shiv make a salad, we should be set."

"Sure." Bailey shrugged. "I'm easy."

*

Two hours later, we had perfectly grilled steaks, loaded baked potatoes, and a masterpiece of a Caesar salad compete with fresh bacon crumbled over top.

The company wasn't too shabby, either.

Bailey set her fork down on her plate, taking a sip of water. Her lush lips landed on the glass, drawing my attention straight to them. All I could think of was her lips on my lips. Or, well, other places.

"You know," she said, "I haven't gotten any embarrassing stories about you from your friends yet."

I swallowed my bite of medium-rare steak with no small amount of trepidation. There were embarrassing stories and then there were embarrassing stories. But I could trust Ward not to throw me under the bus. Didn't need some of those tales getting out, least of all to James.

Some of the guys on the team might need a small reminder.

"Hmm." Dallas furrowed his dark brow, pausing briefly. "That's a tough one. I feel like most of them implicate me, too."

"All the better." Shiv leaned over in her seat, nudging him with her elbow. She pushed her curtain of dark hair over her shoulder, looking up at Ward expectantly. "Start talking, Dal."

He glanced over at me. Our eyes met and we shared a brief, silent understanding that he wasn't going to completely ruin my life, and I would do the same for him. Thanks, man.

"I don't know," he said, drumming his fingers on the wooden table. "There are some good ones from that juniors tournament in Finland. Like the restaurant thing."

Ah, that was a fun trip. It was the summer before freshman year, the first time we'd been afforded any real freedom while we were away for a tournament—with the trouble to show for it.

"Yeah," I agreed. "That was kind of funny."

And low on the embarrassment scale, comparatively speaking. At least my clothes stayed on in that one. Nice save, Ward.

Bailey tilted her head, pausing with a fork full of Caesar salad. "Why, what happened?"

"On our first night there, they gave us a free night on our own," I said. "Ward and I headed downtown, far away from any of the touristy stuff near our hotel. You know, to get an authentic local experience."

"Obviously we didn't speak a lick of Finnish," Dallas added, taking a bite of his loaded baked potato.

Shiv and Bailey watched us, rapt, as we continued.

"We rolled up to this restaurant and it was packed, so we figured it had to be good, right?" I said.

"But with the language barrier, communicating with the hostess was an issue," he said. "She pointed at a table, then to large group of people who were already seated. We nodded and were like, yeah, we want a table too. Then she seated us at the end of this long table, right with these other people. We found it a little strange, but we were like, okay, maybe communal dining is the Finnish way."

I nodded. "The other people were giving us funny looks, but we thought it was because we were American."

"The server kept bringing us courses of food, one after the other. We didn't get the chance to order off the menu. Again, we found it odd, but we rolled with it."

"They even poured us wine without asking," I added.

"When we were finished, we went to pay, and they wouldn't take our money." Dallas paused, taking a sip of his beer. His lips curved against the mouth of the bottle. "Because we crashed a wedding reception by mistake."

"We left a huge tip and booked it out of there," I said, snickering.

"What?" Shiv tipped her head back, laughing heartily. "How is this the first I'm hearing of this?" She recovered partially, shaking her head. "Oh, it's a good thing you two are pretty."

"Sure is." Bailey bit her lip, fighting back laughter. Her shoulders shook beneath my grey hoodie.

I waved them off, fighting a sheepish smile. "Yeah, yeah."

Dallas looked down at his plate, cutting off a piece of steak before glancing up again. "There was also the Amsterdam thing on the way home."

"Amsterdam...?" Bailey turned to face me. Her brow knit together, expression turning wary.

I laughed, reaching over to squeeze her thigh gently beneath the table. "We did edibles, James. Magic brownies. We didn't hit the red light district."

That's what happens when someone's father handles the travel arrangements for the entire team. You get stuck with a random 36-hour stopover in the middle of the Netherlands. Obviously, we had to seize the opportunity to check out a coffee shop.

"But edibles are tricky and we had no idea what we were doing. So, of course we overshot and ended up super high," Dallas explained. "Like, super fucking high."

Bailey and Shiv exchanged a look over the table that was somewhere between amusement and "these idiots."

"Then we got the munchies," I said, "so we found a McDonalds. And Ward made me order because he was convinced the girl working the register wanted to eat him."

"What?" He gestured. "Did you see the way she looked at me?"

Shiv laugh-snorted, slapping her palm on the table, and Bailey broke into a fit of giggles.

"We ordered everything on the menu and with the exchange rate, it worked out to like $200 USD by the time we were done," I recalled. "You know, I bet we could have dined at the fanciest joint in Amsterdam for that."

"To be fair, those were the best chicken nuggets I've ever eaten." Dallas's expression turned wistful. "Worth the 25 bucks."

I laughed. "Because you were higher than a fucking kite. You were dipping them in your strawberry milkshake, dude."

"Once we got back to the hotel, Carter lost his phone. We ransacked our room looking for it—using his phone as a flashlight. Finally, I wised up and decided to use my phone to call his. And he screamed when it rang in his hand."

The girls burst out laughing again. I'd admit it wasn't my sharpest moment, but it was funny in retrospect. I'd been pretty fucked up before, but that time took the cake. Or brownie.

I was a little surprised we were able to find our way back to the hotel.

"Then we decided to watch Anchorman," I told them. "We were a solid half hour into the movie before either of us realized the TV had been on mute the entire time."

"Oh my god." Bailey laughed, hazel eyes crinkling. "You two are such a gong show."

Dallas chortled. "I blame Carter. It was all his idea."

"I believe you," said Bailey.

"What?" I shrugged, picking up my bottle of beer. Beneath the table, Bailey shifted her weight and her leg accidentally brushed against mine, momentarily diverting my attention. "It's legal there. When in Rome. Er, Amsterdam."

See? She had a crazy amount of power over my brain. I couldn't even keep track of the story I'd been telling.

"I think the lesson here is that you should never be released into the wild together without proper supervision," Shiv said, still fighting back laughter.

"In our defense, we were only 18," I said. "I like to think we're a little bit smarter now."

"I should hope so." Bailey wiped away a tear of laughter. "You a closet pothead, Carter?"

"Nah, not really."

"That's not a no." Her brow crinkled, expression sobering. "But what about drug tests?"

"I'm talking a couple times a year, max. In the off-season."

Usually.

Ty was another story, with an encyclopedic knowledge about how to outwit drug testing and several successes doing so.

"Ah," she murmured. "You really are corrupt."

"Trying to reform," I said. "Kinda. Why, are you telling me you've never done that?"

She scrunched up her nose. "Once or twice, I just didn't like it."

This actually surprised me greatly as I couldn't picture Bailey doing anything illegal. Or breaking any rules in general, for that matter. Wasn't sure how she ended up with me, but definitely wasn't complaining.

"Ah, my rule-follower." I patted her thigh beneath the table, letting my hand linger on her leg. She shot me a sidelong glance that was more than a little suggestive. I instantly started to get turned on again. Dammit.

Not long after, Shiv drove Bailey home so they could swing by and check out the exteriors of the apartments on their list. To, quote, "assess the sketchiness factor of the area and check out walkability to nearby Starbucks." Chick priorities, I guess.

Wednesday couldn't come soon enough.

Getting pretty close to the big game. Over/under on Luke getting clobbered?

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