It had been almost 10 months since his word diarrhea in Dover and Sean still didn’t know what to do about it. They were having the perfect moment, straight out of a cheesy romance movie. But then he had to go and mess it up with his stupid mouth. As usual. What had hurt the most was that she laughed at him. Not outright like she was making fun of him. But she chuckled, brushing off his words like they meant nothing. “Love you too, Sean” she had said with a light smile as she kissed his cheek and then walked away.

Then to make matters worse, they didn’t even make the playoffs. It was his first time not making them and Sean felt like some of it was his fault. After she left, he became distracted and distant. Some of it had to do with the shortened season, but he and everyone in Philly knew he wasn’t playing to his potential those last few months. And the only person who could fix him was thousands of miles away in the middle of a war zone. Sure, they talked to each other on Skype every few weeks. But it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t enough.

What really threw him was how physically attracted to her he had become. He always knew she was hot. His teammates had never failed to remind him of her military body. But he was surprised that every time they Skyped he felt his eyes wander from her face to her tight shirt that left nothing and everything to his imagination at the same time. His gaze always lingered a little longer on the strong arms she worked so hard for, remembering her beating him in every pushup contest they’d ever had. That was just one of the million ways she could push his buttons. He hated losing anything, even a silly pushup competition. And she always beat him by just a little bit. Every single time. But at least he was losing to her and not someone else. During their talks he also often found himself thinking about how perfectly her perky breasts would fit in his hands. It felt so wrong to think about his best friend this way. But it also felt so right at the same time. More than anything, he just wanted her to come home and be with him.

He often tried to avoid talking to her when he was on the road for two reasons. First because he didn’t want to have to share her time. The guys always found out, and always wanted to talk to her too. He knew it was selfish because they were good friends with her too, but he didn’t like to share. The second reason he tried to avoid talking to her on the road was because he didn’t want to embarrass himself by getting lost in his usual thoughts. While they were his closest group of friends, he knew the guys were always up for chirping him. Especially when it came to their brunette beauty. And he knew the tightness in his pants was always visible after they hung up. No way was he willing to risk subjecting himself to the torture that would surely ensue after getting caught like that. Not if she could wait until he got home.

He happened to be on the road in Dallas for his birthday this year, and he couldn’t just not talk to her. She wouldn’t allow it. He was in a bad mood after losing their day game with the Stars 5-1, and was in an even worse mood that they decided to spend the night instead of heading back to Philly early. He knew he was supposed to celebrate turning 21, but neither he nor any of his teammates were in the mood for it. Fortunately, he had a video date with his favorite ray of sunshine. She was just getting ready to start her shift, so they had to cut it short after only 15 minutes.

“Dude, you totally have it bad for her,” his roommate Brayden Schenn said after they finally hung up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sean stated, turning red.
“Why don’t you go take a cold shower and figure it out, eh? I’m going to Luke’s room.” he laughed as he left the room.

Fuck. He was caught. This was exactly why he avoided talking to her on the road. But he could trust Brayden not to rat him out to everyone. They were friends. Closer than he was with anyone else on the team. Brayden was the one person he knew wouldn’t purposely embarrass him. And if he did, Sean certainly had plenty of stories to share about him that were equally horrifying. It wasn’t like he got caught by Hartsy. Then he’d really be screwed. Sean loved playing with Scott. He was a great player and almost always had a smile on his face. But man did that guy have a big mouth and no filter. Sean decided to take his roommate’s advice and jumped in the shower, turning the cold water completely on trying to clear his mind of everything having to do with her.

The next day when he got home, he was exhausted. He decided to lay down and take a nap. Not even twenty minutes into his nap, he was woken up be pounding on his door. Grumbling, he got up and went to answer it. When he opened the door, he found half his team standing there with worried looks on their faces. Giroux pushed past him and grabbed the TV remote off the couch.

“Well hello to you all too,” Sean said rolling his eyes. “Now what the fuck are you all doing here?”

“You’re going to want to see this, man.” G said turning on the news. “And you’re not going to like it.”

Notes