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Nicole wasn’t answering her phone or her door so Elle was prevented from killing her friend and neighbor until later in the day. She paced her living room, her feet dragging through the thick rug and building up static. She wasn’t entirely sure what to do. She should probably send Jamie a message, tell him it had been Nicole. Not her. She was confident but she wasn’t pushy. She just-

Her thoughts were interrupted by an incoming text. Her hands scrambled for her phone, sweeping it off the coffee table. She fumbled for a moment, her hands shaking so badly she missed it twice trying to pick it up. She took a deep breath and nabbed the tech.

It was Segs, actually texting her phone number which he never did because he loved messaging services for some unknown reason.

Tyler: Did you, by any chance, get drunk and message Benny this morning inappropriately? You know, there’s a code on Tinder, girl. A code.

Oh Jesus. She collapsed on the couch.

Me: Drunk, yes. Messages, no. I had a friend over last night and she sent them while I was sleeping.

The typing icon appeared for a long moment. She absently chewed on her thumbnail.

Tyler: Dude, you’re smoking hot without your top on. Why didn’t we ever hook up?

Me: STFU. Not funny. Tell him everything before the nice ass comment was me. My friend stole my phone while I was sleeping. No joke.

Tyler: Hey, if you wanna send nudes, who am I to judge?

Me: Seriously. Fuck off. I’m going to kill her when I find her.

Elle took another deep breath and leaned her head back. If Jamie was turned off by the messages, Tyler would have lead off with that. He was so blunt sometimes it made her head hurt. She took a drink of coffee to further soothe her nerves. When Tyler still hadn’t responded, she opened up Tinder.

The long list of ridiculous messages that Nicole had sent seemed to laugh at her while she typed up a quick apology to Jamie and hit send before she could rethink the wording or translate it to another language or further delay, in any way, her attempt at rectifying this gross social media faux pas.

Her phone rang right as she hit send and the vibration almost made her drop the damn thing again. She had to pull her shit together because this was ridiculous.

Almost as ridiculous as Tyler’s name in the caller ID. This had only happened a couple times before, when they’d gotten into texting conversations that had developed into long winded debates about political policy. Tyler could talk for hours about politics, which surprised everyone he knew probably.

She didn’t think he was calling to talk about Harper or the NDP or whatever he was caught on at that moment.

Her finger hit the green answer button a couple of seconds before the call would have gone to voicemail.

“Hello?” At least she sounded like she hadn’t gone through almost an hour of crippling embarrassment.

“Hi. Elle?”

Her voice froze in her throat. Her eyes snapped wide and her mouth worked like she was drowning. The slightly dorky tones of Jamie’s words had paused all conscious thoughts. But it made sense, she rationalized. Tyler would have heard about her messages from Jamie and Jamie would have probably asked Tyler about them. That’s what guys did.

“Elle? Are you there?”

She could to clear her throat. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m here. Sorry, just pouring some coffee and got distracted.” As if she couldn’t multi-task like a boss when not surprised out of her mind. “Hi, Jamie. I am so sorry about this morning. My friend was staying with me last night and she said I was too uptight so she felt like she had to help. Totally not me sending those messages.”

He was laughing by the time she finished her winded apology and Elle could actually feel the tension leaving her body. It might have been a social media faux pas, but it seemed Jamie didn’t much care. “It’s alright, really. I was just confused.”

They were both silent for a second, not sure what to say. The total accumulated minutes they’d actually exchanged words before hovered somewhere around fifteen over the last 4 years. She clearly remembered the first time they’d locked eyes, both proverbial rookies. He’d had a small smile but looked drained; she’d probably looked terrified. He’d mumbled some sort of greeting when handing her his paperwork. She’d thought to herself that this poor kid was getting put through the ringer to do something he loved and he was still smiling despite the exhaustion.

It had made her smile then, thinking that she was going to be great at her job, just like he was. That was the exact moment her crush on Jamie Benn had started. And now he was on the phone with her because he liked her and she hadn’t scared him off. She felt that confidence boost course in her veins, just like it had at that first meeting.

“Although I didn’t send the message, I do think you won the puberty lottery, just so you know.”

-------

Jamie’s grin was so wide it was sort of hurting his face. Elle had sounded nervous, yeah nervous was the right descriptor for her hesitance, when she’d answered and realized it was him. Now she just sounded like pure sass. He loved it.

“I believe a couple thousand women in Dallas would also agree with you and your friend.” He laughed, his bright, happy, pleased laugh that Segs immediately mocked beside him. He gave Segs a pointed look at the banquet room entrance, the site of their catered breakfast that morning, in the hope that he’d get the hint and move along. Segs raised an eyebrow, quirking his lips. Standard Segs attitude. He looked pointedly at the phone in Jamie’s hand, asking with his eyes if Jamie really thought he was leaving without his phone.

“Hey, uh. I hope it’s okay that I called you.”

She was definitely pleased when she responded, “Thrilled. Once I got over the shock. No regrets on this end.”

Well, that was good news. Segs inched closer, looking like he was about to snatch his phone and dash. “I am happy to hear that because Segs sort of wants his phone back. And we have to get to breakfast. I was wondering if maybe it’d be okay to call you later?” He took a moment to realize he was nervous now. Nervous that he was asking her out on a phone date. Sort of.

She was quiet for a beat longer than he was comfortable with. “Um, yeah. I mean, that’s fine. Just have Tyler give you my number. I don’t have any outings planned this afternoon before the game so whenever.”

Jamie let out a breath in a little giggle. “Cool. Talk to you later.”

Segs had his phone back before he could hear Elle’s farewell. He listened to Segs chat with her for a few moments, verify that he was allowed to have her number, and then ended the call. Jamie probably looked stupid with the grin still on his face. He smiled a lot, but this was a whole different look for him.

“Dude. You two are awful. Jesus.” Segs shook his head as he walked away.

Jamie was stuck in place for a second, thinking about her laugh, distant through the phone. Then he remembered that Segs needed to give him her number and he took off after Tyler.

Segs seemed to know better than to fuck with him and sent him a text with Elle’s number as they waited in the buffet line. Really, it was for the best. Segs was spared the humiliation of losing a wrestling match at breakfast and Jamie didn’t have to explain why he was sitting on the other forward to the rest of the guys.

-------

It took Jamie almost an hour to wrangle the team through breakfast and on to the buses for their light morning practice. He felt like his phone, with one brand new number, was burning a hole in his pocket. When they were all safely en route to Rogers, he allowed himself to pull his phone free to shoot Elle a message. She responded almost immediately. It brought that big goofy grin back.

He swept his hair back and away from his face so he could concentrate on texting.

A ball of paper hit him in the back of the head and he lifted his eyes to find the perpetrator. At the back, the rookies were giggling wildly but looked guileless. Not them. A few rows up and on the other side of the aisle, Demmer and Jordie were grinning too. However paper balls were not in their repertoire of irritating behaviors. A couple of the married guys were glued to their phone. The forgetful Eavie was one of those and Jamie off-handedly thought that when they got back to Dallas he’d have to buy the man a steak dinner. It was his nature that caused Elle to run into him yesterday morning.

In the end, it was Eakes, with Segs whispering in his ear. “Would you two cut it out?” Sometimes Jamie had to remind himself not to sounds like an angry 3rd grade teacher. Most of the time his team acted like 8-year-olds so he felt sort of justified when Eakes gave a pout.

“Who are you texting, Cap? Someone important?”

Jamie’s eyes shot to Segs. If that asshole had already talked around about Elle, he was going to leave him in Vancouver. Segs gave him a grin with a head tilt. Innocent enough, then. Segs was just starting shit.

“Your mom, if you gotta know Eakes.” As far as a ‘your mom’ joke went, it was pretty lame, but Jamie wasn’t known for his comedic wit. He turned back to the phone. Elle had sent him a question about his post-practice, pre-game schedule. Maybe she wanted to meet up-

Whap-

“Oh for fuck’s sake, boys.” When Jamie whipped his head around the entire back half of the bus was giggling or hiding their smiles. “Come on, now. We’ll be there in five minutes. Relax.”

Segs snorted, falling into Eakes. Eakes tried to keep a straight face for the most part, but failed pretty spectacularly. “It’s just- when you smile like that with your hair in your eyes you look like you’re in Juniors, talking to the first girl that gave you a hand job.”

Jamie’s face blossomed scarlet, all the way from his forehead, to his ears, and down his neck to his chest. He could feel the burn; Eakes words were a bit graphic but no more than an average chirp on the ice.

He coughed once, twice, clearing his head and letting the color die down. He wasn’t embarrassed for himself. So what if he looked prepubescent. That didn’t bug him. The implication, however, irked. “Right, right. Poke fun. But, I will have you know that I am a gentleman and will always buy a lady a nice dinner once or twice before any touching of any sorts. That’s why I end up with nice women who love my mom and put up with my annoying brothers.” He leveled a look at Jordie, who had been laughing loudly at the ribbing the younger brother had been taking. Jordie gave him the finger.

“I suggest you try to treat women as such, Eakes. You might even wake up to find one still in your bed the next morning.” He turned around with a finality that he hoped looked mature. Horcoff, sitting next to him and shaking his head dramatically, gave him a poke. “You’re gonna make him think you really are talking to his mom with a speech like that.”

Jamie was about to respond when he heard Eakes ask, petulantly, “Why the fuck would I want to see them in the morning anyway?”

Segs patted him on the shoulder, cooing softly. “Oh, you poor thing. You’ve never gotten a wake up beej, have you? Aww, I sort of feel bad. Of course, the rumor is you only get those as a thank you for a spectacular night before.” Jamie could feel what this was winding up to and risked a quick glance back. Sure as shit, Segs had an arm around a distraught Eakes and was grinning wickedly.

“Given the sounds those girls you bring back to the room make, dude, I am not at all surprised they bolt as soon as you fall asleep.” Segs faked some awful high pitched moans, clearly meant to emulate faking an orgasm. Eakes punched him in the chest and shoved him off. Jamie felt strangely validated.

-------

The phone call Jamie had promised never really fit into his schedule. Elle was sort of okay that he didn’t have the time to really talk. She was still a little flustered about talking on the phone. Instead, he’d suggested texting today and perhaps a phone call when he woke up in his own bed tomorrow morning. Just the thought of him chatting her up while lying in bed made her temperature rise. She was hoping the relaxation of a late morning lie-in would cure her butterflies.

There was a part of Elle that kept reminding her that she was going to see him face to face that night. She pushed it away with the hope that everything would be normal. Of course it would be normal.

While Jamie took his pre-game nap, Elle disentangled herself from her phone. She was still in sweats, cocooned on her couch. Around her, the remnants of her morning coffee, her lunch, and her afternoon snack stood like artifacts of her day so far. The soft smile on her face could only be read one way: infatuation.

They’d been texting for hours. Obviously, there’d been breaks while he was on the ice. He’d been sporadic over lunch. But, Jesus she thought, they probably had their own story through text now. It had been a long time since she’d connected so quickly with something.

Nicole was so full of shit. Elle wasn’t uptight. She really was just waiting for Jamie and hadn’t even consciously realized it.

The clock read 3:30. She didn’t have to be at the airport until almost 8. A shower should be the first order of business and then down the hall again to see if Nicole had returned from whatever adventure she’d gone on in order to hide from Elle.

Her hair wrapped in a towel, Elle wasn’t surprised to find Nicole was still not home. She was more frustrated that she still had hours to kill before work.

She felt restless and bored, like cutting herself off from Jamie, if only for a few hours, was the most tedious thing she’d done in months. But this was an average day for her. She was used to being free all day and then at work at eight at night. What would she normally do?

Her eyes wandered her space. It was large and she paid for it. She was set back almost two grand a month for the apartment, but looking out over downtown through her patio windows, she would never regret it. Her furniture, leftovers from her first shitty apartment, had seen better days but it was comfortable. No holes. No stains. Just worn.

She had a small selection of photos over the fireplace in the corner but nothing terribly exciting. She traveled all over the world, every summer. She just didn’t take photos to display. Everything was online these days so why bother putting them up. She rationalized that her apartment was sort of bare because the 8 months she was in Vancouver full time she was always working. There were rarely breaks more than a few days in a row so why bother decorating either? Work was her life until it wasn’t in the summertime. And then she couldn’t wait to get out of BC and see the world again.

Life was pretty fucking good, even with the sparse digs. Adding in the tall, dark-haired man she’d been talking to all day, it was about to be even better. There was a blurry edge to their talking though. Elle knew, without a doubt, that if she wasn’t careful, she’d fall in love with Jamie in a heartbeat.

Elle grabbed the scarf she was knitting and put on Netflix. She didn’t want to think about the consequences of dating someone in another country. She just wanted to bask in the glory of fresh relationship/acquaintance and get over her boring afternoon. She’d had days like this for almost a quarter of her life. Not even Jamie Benn could throw a wrench in her life that quickly.

-------

Time moved strange in the airport. A day could last for an hour and an hour could turn into a week if one wasn’t careful. For Elle, her 8 PM arrival time meant that by eleven she could have sworn she’d been standing behind her Jetz terminal for at least half the day. She’d dressed as she normally would, expensive shoes to compliment her silk blouse and the green pencil skirt that was technically too bright for a professional airport atmosphere. She’d spent an extra 15 minutes on hair and make-up, and there was no denial about who it was for. She wanted to look good for Jamie. She wanted to show off her professional success as well as her legs, which she knew were pretty amazing.

Despite her sharp outfit, she still felt a little giddy. What do you say to the incredibly attractive hockey player who had told her ridiculously cute stories about his childhood all day?

Her phone sat beside her the whole time, at first so she could answer the short, sporadic texts Jamie had been sending since he’d woken up after his nap. Then, when he’d traded the phone for some hockey gloves it had been giving her updates on the game.

Every time her phone buzzed, she dropped whatever she was doing to check the score. She cut off Nobuko, the customs agent working with the Stars that night, with a gasp. Elle was shameless, checking the score while waving the other woman quiet for a moment. The Stars had scored: Seguin to Spezza, to Benn. It took a lot of will power to avoid whooping in joy.

Nobuko, a lovely older woman, laughed at her, holding in the excitement. “I hope that was the Canucks that scored or you might get canned.”

Elle gave her a guilty look and put her phone away. “Sorry. You were saying?”

The Stars ended up winning the game with Jamie collecting points off his goal and another assist late in the third. She liked it when the teams she was running through the airport won, even if she didn’t like the team. It generally meant they were happy and easy to deal with. Except for the Blackhawks. They never scored lower than an eight on her scale of irritating teams.

The downside was that when she sent the Canucks off tomorrow, at least three would be severely morose assholes.

When the buses rolled up outside the entrance to international travel, Elle smoothed down her skirt and checked her shoes for scuffs. Still immaculate. She refused to adjust the silk at her neck, knowing it looked great. Instead she plastered on her best smile and waited for the players to walk through her door.

Spezza rolled in first, Hemsky and Fiddler at his back. Spezza’s arms were raised in victory. He’d had the game winner plus the assist on Jamie’s first goal. Elle couldn’t help but chuckle as he high-fived several airport employees moving around the team. Her smile was welcoming, as always, when he came to rest an elbow at her station.

“Beautiful Elle,” he began, ripping off Tyler’s nickname for her, “We have returned victorious and require a plane to take us home. To where it is warm.”

She laughed again, typing his information into her system. “I am happy to oblige, Mr. Spezza, even if your victory means my own team’s defeat.”

Spezza leaned back, a horrified hand clutched at his chest. “Are you telling me that the Stars aren’t your favorite team, and I, not your favorite player? What travesty is this?” Spezza was always a little over the top with the drama. She quite enjoyed it.

“My heart can only belong to one team.” She gave him a nod and wished him a good trip as Hemsky stepped up. The process was washed, rinsed, and repeated over a dozen times before it was Tyler’s turn.

His smile was so stupidly wide she was convinced he was going to pull some facial muscles. “Good evening, Mr. Seguin.” She always strove to maintain a professionalism with him, even if they were somewhat friends. She could also tell he was doing his best to keep from exploding in joy about her and Jamie.

“Howdy Belle Elle. How’s your day been?”

She gave a noncommittal shrug, her eyes glued to the screen as she pulled up his pass. “Not too bad for a winter day. How about yourself?”

He leaned in conspiratorially. “Benny is gonna be shy when you see him.”

Her gaze snapped over to Tyler. He was wiggling his eyebrows comically. “Give him some shit.”

Her snort was pretty unladylike but it cracked up Tyler and at least three other guys waiting in line behind him. “I’ll do my best.”

“Promise?!” His shift from sneaky to over eager puppy was almost alarming. She’d be willing to place a bet, 100 to 1 odds, that he was going to hang around just out of sight to see the post-texting reunion.

“I promise. As much as I can.”

Tyler looked like he wanted to kiss her. She settled for giving him a high five as he left to find a hiding place.

Finally, finally the line wound down, the players and the staff all through her security check point except for one. When she handed off one of the assistant coach’s boarding pass she knew the next smile she would see would be Jamie’s.

Even with this foreknowledge she was almost bowled away by the sight of him. He’d brushed his hair back off his forehead, and gelled it to keep it down. From the wide breadth of his shoulders, fitted so nicely in a perfectly tailored jacket, to the thighs straining in pants probably a size too small, to the tips of his highly polished shoes, Jamie looked every inch the secret agent.

She swallowed hard at the killer smile he had leveled her way. He certainly didn’t look shy. Not one bit.

He stood at the counter for a long moment, not saying anything, just looking her up and down with those honey-colored eyes. Finally, he broke his inspecting to laugh a little under his breath and leaned forward, resting his forearms on her station top. “Hi.”

Did he sound a little breathless? She gave a hi back. Did she sound breathless? What in the world was going on?

“I-“

“Welcome-“

They both spoke at once, laughing at themselves. He gestured for her to continue. She really wanted to, but something in his eyes mesmerized her. He sounded bemused when he waved for her to continue again and said, “Go ahead. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

She felt herself leaning forward, watching to catch a whiff of his cologne, which she had once believed to be one of the Burberry line. Yup, still smelled like ginger and the woods. She could have sighed. Instead, she held out a hand. “Welcome to Vancouver International. May I see your papers?” She’d given him this exact line no less than a half-dozen times before.

He’d never made a show of removing said papers from his jacket and laying them across her hand before, however. The backs of his fingers grazed her palm. She didn’t shiver, she swears, but she really wanted to.

As soon as she started typing he leaned forward again. Fuck, he was like sex on two feet. This was ridiculous. “I wanted to say that I really enjoyed texting today. I don’t think I’ve had that much fun with a phone before in my life.”

She laughed, a little flabbergasted, and gave him a quick grin. “I was just thinking that earlier. Seriously, I need to send Tyler a fruit basket. Could you hook a girl up with his address?”

“Only if you promise to never send anything but that fruit basket. Absolutely no surprise visits.”

When she risked another glance, his face hovered even closer. He was halfway across her counter. She dicked around a little on her computer, delaying the inevitable conclusion to their interaction. “Absolutely no surprise visits to Tyler’s house. Promise.”

She could only click the wrong thing so many times. He still had to clear security and customs. And he’d been standing with her for twice as long as necessary. Jamie didn’t appear to be in much of a rush however. He looked like he knew exactly what she was doing, grinning like the Cheshire cat. “I’ll text you his address while we’re on the plane. Long ride, you know?”

“Four hours and seven minutes, sir.” Her response was automatic, practiced. He smiled at the familiarity and she finally printed his boarding pass. “Here are your papers. Security is right through that corridor.” She held out his documents, grinning like a fool.

It was no accident when his fingers cupped the back of hers for a long second. They grinned at one another, reveling in the skin-on-skin contact. And then he rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand. She almost jumped in surprise. The tension inside of her was wound tight, ready to spring free at any moment. She knew several very good hiding spots where they would never be found. And hell, she could probably have him back for his flight with time to spare.

Jamie pulled away, looking almost regretfully. “Will you be up for a while?”

Elle cleared her throat, trying to ignore the tingling in her hand. “I should be. I don’t have to be back here until tomorrow afternoon.”

“Can I text you on the plane?”

“If you don’t, I’ll tell Tyler about how often you forget your cup during practice.”

His response was to laugh, low. The sound shot straight up her spine. “He’s sharp; I think he always notices and takes care to keep pucks away from my crotch. I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”

Elle nodded at him, sort of dumbly. The view as he walked away was spectacular. Right as he was about to turn the corner and out of her sight, he glanced back, that grin still in place. He was finally able to see her lower half, the corridor perpendicular to her check-in area. His eye brows shot up as he checked out her shoes and legs. His smile was appreciative as he disappeared towards security.

She was so fucking gone.

The back of her hand still vibrated from his touch. She should have given him a hug, or a handshake, or offered to blow him in the back room. Something.

Her phone vibrated on the desk next to her and she glanced down. She grinned.

Jamie: Nice foot ware tonight, Miss Merchant. Do those heels come with thigh highs?

Me: Maybe you’ll find out one day.

Logging out of her station, she gathered her checklist, helpfully attached to a clipboard. She wanted to give Jamie a few minutes head start before following. For whatever reason, she didn’t want to walk in right behind him. She caught up momentarily with the security guard as she removed her shoes. By the time she got to the players’ lounge, the doors were open and boarding would start at any moment.

“That did not look like shit giving, Elle. You’re off your game tonight.” She could have screamed at the voice in her ear, sudden and unexpected. Whirling to her right, she found Tyler, giving her an audaciously stern look. Until he grinned, ruining the effect.

“Well, you know, when your teammate is the epitome of sex in that suit, it’s hard to give him shit. Also, he was not shy one bit, I will have you know.” She tried to keep her voice low but she noticed a couple of the other players giving the two of the speculative glances. Jamie hadn’t seen her yet. She took a long moment to follow the line of his suit once more. Fuck.

“That’s gross, and way more than I wanted to know. Save it for the texts.” If Tyler had long hair, he would have flipped it in her face with his turn. She shook her head after him as he walked over to Jamie.

Elle looked away. She knew Tyler would send Jamie over. Maybe she could finally get that hug. Mentally, she cataloged the seven different places she knew to be scattered around within twenty feet of the lounge that offered privacy.

Jamie was a couple dozen steps away when the agent called for passengers to start boarding.

He had to feel her regret half a room away. He quickened his pace and situated himself right in front of her. “Hi. Again. Didn’t think you’d be seeing us off tonight.”

She beamed up at him. “I forgot to give you something before you left.” She steeled her courage. The agent called for passengers again, as though more than one person had yet to step foot towards the jetway.

Jamie quirked his lips, almost daring her to kiss him. And god, how she wanted to. As Coach called for Jamie to board, Elle threw her arms around him, holding tight. It was like hugging a pylon, solid and strong. She felt his traps and biceps flex and he wrapped her up in return. The smell of him, the feel of him, made her head swim. She felt like he could crush her with one good squeeze yet he held her as though she was the most fragile thing in the world.

Elle could even feel his heart hammering in his chest. It was enough to make her lift her head to tell him, to say something about the intimacy of all of this. Instead, she successfully bought her mouth almost level with his. She really still just wanted to kiss him. “Um- I-“

“BENNY, COME ON!” Coach’s words pulled them both back to reality and they separated reluctantly.

“Have a good flight home.” She tried not to look bereft. That brief contact was going to fan the flames for a good long while. Hopefully long enough that the time until the Stars were next in town flew by. She knew they weren't due back in Vancouver until early April.

He grinned back in response. “I’ll text you when we get in the air.” He half-turned away, then turned back like he wanted to say something else. Do something else. Thinking better, and hearing his name hollered one more time, he just nodded at her and walked to the plane.

From her angle, she was able to see a dozen heads pull away from the turn in the jetway; they had been watched by half the team it appeared. She could actually see the jetway sway at the guys all attempted to get back and seated before Jamie boarded.

Elle let out a dreamy sigh and moved to the window. This time of night the airport was fairly calm so it wasn’t more than a minute or two before the plane was pulling away, carrying Jamie farther away physically, but closer through text by the moment.

She saw Nobuko approaching behind her through the glass’s reflection before the other woman stopped at her side. “You know, you’re supposed to keep the players moving and leaving the airport, not hugging the bejesus out of them and delaying the flight ten minutes.”

“Was it really that long?” Elle sounded wistful, even to herself. “It felt like seconds.”

Nobuko scoffed as she walked away and Elle kept her eyes on the plane until it passed out of sight. Her phone buzzed as the tail lights disappeared. Her laugh was giddy at the message.

Jamie: Only 80 days until April 4th.

Notes

You guys are seriously the best. Thank you so much for the comments and the subscriptions. I'm sure you noticed this update follows quickly on the heels of the last and I'm trying to get these pumped out as quick as I can. I can't gurantee once a day, but it'll be several times a week, for sure.

Again, thanks for reading! Comments are love!