Page 85 of Rebound

“Exactly. They haven’t said anything to either of us. I’m unclear if they’re waiting for us to make a move or something.”

Over the last few months when we’ve talked, it’s been focused entirely on Reach for the Stars and not about our hockey careers. It’s been really easy to not talk about the stuff that scares me. I’ve never considered my life after hockey. Now I have Tamara and our baby, they’re already filling me with so much joy. That’ll continue even after I’m done. Right? I release a shaky breath as the image of her standing at the front door when I left fills my head. Her mouth was turned down as she stood there in one of my T-shirts.

“Whoa, what happened?”

I blink and shake my head. “Just…I want to go home.”

“So go. What’s stopping you?”

“Nothing. Everything?”

He leans forward and peers into the screen. “You want to get back to your girl, Pat. Then do it. You’ve made your appearances and your opinions clear. Go home.”

“Yeah. I’ll uh…talk to you in a few days?”

He nods and disconnects the call. I instantly load up the airline website to see if I can get a flight out tonight. After thirty minutes of scrolling through all the airlines, I discover that to get home soon, I’ll have to fly Delhi to Mumbai, Mumbai to Chennai and still only reach a day later. I do another run through and then slam my laptop shut as my phone pings twice.

When I retrieve it from the bed, I smile at Tamara’s name. Sometime in the last forty-eight hours, she changed her contact name.

Daddy’s Girl

When do you get home? I’m lonely.

[image attached of a wet, bright purple dildo]

“Jesus,” I mutter to myself and dial her number.

“Hi, Daddy.”

She sounds like she’s been fucked and I’m annoyed it’s happening without me. “I see someone’s been keeping busy.”

She laughs and the sound makes me smile. “Did you know this is the first time I’ve masturbated in months?”

“How come?”

“There was nothing going on in my life to turn me on. Then you walk back in and suddenly I’m horny all the time.”

I groan and collapse onto the bed. She sounds husky and dangerous. “I think this hotel bathroom has seen enough of me jerking off to you, Lotus.”

“That’s why you should come home and jerk off onto me.”

I sit up with a start and my lips spread into a smile. It’s the first time I’ve felt this light since I left home two days ago.

“I have something to tide us over until I’m home tomorrow. Got your laptop or iPad close by?”

“Yeah.”

“Make sure your vibrator’s charged, Lo. And pull up FaceTime. Back in a minute.”

Twenty-Nine. Making you shake

Tamara

I thought being in a long-term relationship meant I would never be starved for sex. But I was. It was worse since masturbating lost its appeal when I didn’t have anything to fuel my fantasies. Not even the romance novels I devoured could offer the ideal book boyfriend or girlfriend.

Then Patrick happened.

And everything changed.