nineteen

Darcy glared at Ryan.  She actually was mad that he’d pushed her bag away, as if he could just make her late for work and do whatever he....

Then he was kissing her.  And lowering himself the last few inches until his body was all over hers, twisting tongues the way he was twisting his hips.  Darcy forgot about her phone.

When she had fallen out of bed, Ryan had two instinctive reactions.  One was of course to help her.  The other way to grab a condom on his way.  Now they were making out on the floor and he saw no reason to bother taking all that time to get back into bed.  He pressed the square package into her hand; Darcy tipped her head back and laughed, breaking the kiss.  Ryan didn’t care - he just helped himself to the delicate skin of her throat.  She put the edge of the foil against his back and dragged it up, slightly sharp and catching.  

“So you’re this guy now?” she teased as Ryan humped her leg.

“I was always this guy,” he said from somewhere around her collarbone.  “Just waiting to find this girl.”

Shortly after, her phone rang again.  Darcy was busy calling Ryan’s name.
____

“Dude, you’re la... OH MY GOD!”  Taylor hollered.  He’d been about to give Ryan shit barely making practice but the look on the kid’s face gave everything away.  

Ryan blushed on top of blushing, red to the tips of his ears in a single heartbeat.  He meant to be on time so no one would know.  He meant to keep a straight face.  It didn’t help that he had a full-body fever, burning from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.  Every part that Darcy had touched, and even a few she hadn’t, were on fire with the sense memory of her skin, her smell and taste.  Like skating all day, then laying down only to feel like you’re still moving.  Ryan felt Darcy all over himself.  It wouldn’t break.  Now, faced with the biggest ladies man on the team, the temperature spiked and Ryan’s heart rate spiked.

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” he swung at Taylor’s shoulder.  Happy was one thing.  Broadcasting the Virgin Status Report to the entire team was another.  They all thought he and Darcy had been getting down for a while now, and that elevated status was cool with Ryan.

Unfortunately for him, Taylor wasn’t the only one who already knew.

“Ry, your girl late for work this morning?” Schultz said in a way that meant obviously not.  God damn roommates.

“She, uh...,” Ryan’s tongue felt swollen, “yeah.  Little bit.”

None of these guys missed a thing.  “Little bit?” Abney called out.  “You’re supposed to give her the whole thing!”

They roared with laughter.  Ryan couldn’t even speak to defend himself.  Another minute and he’d need a jersey to hold in front of his hard-on like a kid in Bantam.  An image if Darcy, pinned to the floor, hair tossed out and biting her plump bottom lip while her body fought back just enough... Ryan ran for the bathroom as socks, gear and all kinds of catcalls rained down on his head.
____

Erin sat in in Cox Convention Center, the entire seating area herself.  Her foul mood noted that being alone in the audience wasn’t much different than being at a Barons game.  The thought tasted sour all the way to her stomach.  On the ice, a whistle blew in the Barons practice that she was supposed to be watching.  She was supposed to be cheering up.  Hard to do in the middle of the workday in the middle of the week when she had nowork of her own to go to.

Erin did not get the job at St. Anthony’s.  They’d gone with someone who had more current experience.  At first she felt hollow and sad, then angry.  How was she supposed to have current experience with no jobs currently open?  Was she being penalized for supporting herself in the meantime?  Now she just felt annoyed, like the princess who slept with the pea under her stack of mattresses.  it would not go away.

She wished she hadn’t called them back with Jordan in the room.

He looked so genuinely concerned as she let her face fall in disappointment.  She’d let him see how upset she really was.  Erin didn’t tell him why, of course.  She couldn’t say that the job would fill days when he was gone and her friends could fill the nights.  Now those days were as open as ever, and for a while longer he was in her bed.  She lay back into his comforting arms and knew she shouldn’t waste a moment of their time together being sad.  It was just hard to do when the end lurked around every corner.

Erin came to watch them practice.  She hoped action and noise would make her feel better.  If anything, it was making her feel worse.  This would always be here.  With or without her, or Jordan, the Barons were just one example of life going on.  He would leave this and she would lose her connection to it, easy as you please.  Her mood did not improve.

Jordan could feel it from the ice.  He looked up a few times, expecting to see a small rain cloud over Erin’s head. It killed him to see her upset, especially when he knew she’d be great at her job - even though he had no idea what it really was.  He was simply sure she’d excel.  Instead she’d been passed over, another person dismissing her for being a waitress.  He’d liked holding her though, he enjoyed being needed.  If only he could have helped.

It had been his idea that she come to practice but from ice level he realized his mistake.  The moment practice was over, he practically had his gear off in the hallway and got dressed while still in the shower.  She was still in the same place when he got there, completely empty arena around her.

“Come on,” he said.  Erin was in the same place she sat for all the games, what they all thought of as ‘her seat.’  Anyone could have bought it, if the place ever filled to that top row.  She wore black leggings and a long sweater with boots.  It reminded Jordan of how cozy she was to sleep near, how much laying in bed had become his very favorite thing since moving to Oklahoma City.  It, and she, had replaced a large portion of the life he’d considered normal back in Edmonton.  She had filled a surprisingly empty part of what Jordan had believed to be whole.

“If we met in college, would you have gone out with me?” he asked, swinging her hand as they walked toward his car.  “If I didn’t play sports?”

“You mean if you were just some math major?” she teased.  “I didn’t know you were a  superstar athlete when we met, remember?  You were just a cute guy giving me the eye at the bar.  Your friend had a lot of teeth.  Would you have asked me if I didn’t give you free wings?”

“Yeah.  Of course,” he laughed. “But I wouldn’t have had a hundred bucks.”
 
She squeezed against his side.  “Still have that bill if you ever need it back.”

“At this rate I might,” he joked.  Jordan had a new take on jobs - he knew how lucky he was to have one.  “But I can still buy you lunch.”

Instead of going out, they stopped at Whole Foods and bought bread, cheese, figs and lemonade.  He drove them to Erin’s where he proceeded to lay out a picnic in the middle of her living room floor.  She went along with it, even when he opened every window blind as far as it would go, flooding the space with watery winter light.  Taking a place on the rug, Erin leaned back on her elbows and tried to smile.

Jordan reached over and rubbed the arch of her back.  “I’m sorry you didn’t get the job.  But I’m also really selfish and I want to spend every minute with you, so....”

She laughed.  “So you’re sorry you’re not sorry?”

“Something like that.”  

Erin admired Jordan: thick hair perfectly messy, eyelashes long enough to make a woman cry.  Even the shape of his mouth, smile not included, made her heart race in anticipation.  She didn’t want to miss that, or anything else.  Maybe not getting the job was a good thing.

Maybe I’m fucking crazy, she thought.  Erin knew she felt way too much, way too soon for Jordan; that she’d let herself get seriously carried away.  Jordan caught her eye and grinned, nearly knocking her over.  At least she wasn’t the only one.
____

“So, uh... hi,” Ryan stuttered.  Maybe he should have practiced speaking before calling Darcy.  

That morning, he’d been saying - and doing - all kinds of things with no hesitation.  Just like a pro athelete: put the prize in front of him and he’ll focus.  He had been running the highlight reel all day, alternately blushing and puffing out his chest.  Last night had been the most incredible night of his life.  Sure, he’d won some big hockey games but on those nights at least he knew he was going to play.  Last night was like a pickup game with a superstar where the prize was an actual dream come true.

Now the prize was on the other end of the line, and Ryan was stuck.

“Hi Ryan.”  Darcy’s heart fluttered.  She mentally told it to sit the hell down, she was trying to talk here.  It was bad enough her skin had been tingling all day.  “How was practice?”

“Good,” he lied.  It had been awkward and uncomfortable and yet somehow triumphant, but it had not been good.  He couldn’t think about hockey when he had all these new things on his mind.  “How was work?”

“Fine,” she said, but what she meant was: You’re fine.  If anyone says fine anymore when talking about a hot guy.  And if being nineteen makes you a guy.  I’ll tell you what makes you a.... She forced a  stop.  The inner monologue had been running all day and gotten a little R-rated.  Darcy smiled.  In that same room where they’d been together last night, Ryan was alone right now and probably nervous as hell.  She found his mixture of wit and awkwardness obliterating.  The silence stretched out as he fumbled for something to say.

“Um,” he tried, “what are you doing now?”

Evil, I’m evil, she thought.  “You know, just sorting my lingerie drawer.  Lace on one side, silk on the other.  These panties are really small and it’s hard to arrange them by color.”

He gulped so hard she heard it.  Like the string on a bow it twanged right down into her lap.  Darcy dissolved into giggles.  “Ryan!  Did you have fun last night?”

“Yes,” he said softly.

“So... are you going to invite me over or what?!” she was practically shouting.

Ryan cracked.  The sound of her voice turned him like a screw, from dirty thoughts to the deep ache below his stomach.  Whatever he’d thought was sexual tension before - copping a feel in a car,  getting a little grind on at a party - was nothing compared to the actual physical knowledge of how good it felt to be with Darcy.  He let himself fall onto the bed, trying not to moan.

“Please,” his voice croaked.  “Come over.  And hurry.”

“Okay,” she really did have one hand in her underwear drawer.  “Ry?”

“Yeah?”

“What’s your favorite color?”
____

Taylor peered in the mirror at point blank range.  Amanda passed by the bathroom door.  “There’s nothing.”

“There is!”  Taylor examined his upper lip.

“If you Tweet a picture of that, you’d better say you’re not even doing Movember,” she called from the kitchen.

With Jordan at Erin’s apartment, Taylor and Amanda had the new place to themselves.  It was a little strange, like playing house.  Any nights they spent alone always went the same way - food, movie, sex.  Not that Amanda was complaining.  She was simply surprised to find that she liked the food and movie portion of the evening as much as the part behind closed doors.

“Should I do it?” Taylor asked.

She stopped and leaned against the doorframe.  Taylor’s breath fogged the mirror.  “If you can’t see it from that close, you can’t see it at all.”  He frowned at his own baby-faced reflection.  

“You don’t need it,” she said.  “You’re pretty gorgeous.” That made him smile.  What a boy, so easily appeased.

The first two days in the apartment, Taylor loved it.  Now he felt a strange set of nerves whenever they hung out there alone.  Any minute now Amanda would realize that he was actually quite boring.  He had what amounted to a part-time job, didn’t make a lot of money, couldn’t even go to a bar.  If he’d landed on the moon instead of Oklahoma City, Taylor would have felt about as useful.

The hockey was good.  But unlike the NHL, there wasn’t enough of it here to make a life.  He looked at Amanda in the mirror, her easy smile and the spot beneath her ear that, when kissed, made her do anything he wanted.  She was becoming more real to him as this place became his life.  For the first time in history, Taylor considered that he might be dating up.

“It’s my birthday next week.  Twenty-one.”

She arched an eyebrow, thinking he really was hard to resist.  All blond-haired and blue-eyed, like a picture of a guy that comes when you buy a frame.  “Damn, I was having fun with the jailbait thing.”

“You know who’s having fun with it now?” he asked, holding her gaze.

Amanda gasped, hands flew to her mouth and then she shrieked.  Taylor reached out but missed as she darted away.  Damn girl was fast.  She leapt the couch like a hurdle and grabbed for her phone.

“Don’t!”  he yelled, wrapping his arms around as a straightjacket.

“I have to!  Stop!”  She wrestled to get free.  “Taylor-some ridiculous middle name without enough vowels-Hall, let go of me!”

“What?!” He pulled her down into his lap, twisting his legs around her too.  She was practically mummified in his embrace.  She managed to get a hand free, punching buttons almost at random.  Luckily Darcy was on her speed dial.

The phone started ringing.  Taylor loosened his grip enough for Amanda to hit the speaker button.  They waited tensely... until Darcy’s voicemail picked up.

“This is the AHL Department of Underage Boyfriends, we’ve had a report of a STIFF RISE in activity,” she said, making a face.

“It seems to be COMING to a CLIMAX,” Taylor added loudly.

“So remember to wear protection.”

Taylor grabbed the phone.  “And make sure he spends at least two minutes in the box!”
____

eighteen

Ryan didn’t want to run to the door.  Instead he stood inside it and waited to hear footsteps in the hallway.  He was going for cool in jeans and a t-shirt, no shoes, but he wiped his hands on his pants again just to be sure.

“This one,” he said, leaning out into the hallway.  His fatigue was quickly replaced with a rapidly heartbeat. Darcy had been headed the right way, checking numbers on each apartment.  She wore a red pea coat open over a shirt with wide white and navy blue stripes.  Her jeans made Ryan’s tongue stick to the roof of his partially-healed mouth. Shoulder-length dark blond hair was caught in the collar of her jacket.  She smiled and Ryan nearly ripped the door knob off.

“Hi Ry,” Darcy said.  But she was thinking ‘Oh hell’ because he looked good - better than good.  Tired, sure, but freshly clean, tall and strong with that misleading baby face.  Calling him had not been a whim.  Now she just needed to decide extra fast if it had been a mistake.

“Huhhi,” he managed.  Darcy walked up, stopping in front of him.  She was five, maybe six inches shorter and tilted her head up to took at him.

“Mouth looks better.”

“Getting there.”

The corner of her lip curled into a sassy little smirk.  “You’re getting all cute again.”

Darcy followed Ryan, expecting a total mid-range bachelor pad.  Actually it was pretty plain.  Justin had finished all four years in college and only come to the Barons when Ryan did.  Now he looked quite surprised to see Darcy wandering into his living room.

“Hey Schultzy,” she said brightly.

“Hey yourself, Darce,” Justin got up from the couch and moved to the recliner, giving Ryan and Darcy room to sit together.  She sat right in the middle, so there was nowhere for Ryan to sit but nice and close.  He glanced at Schultz, who looked caught between being impressed and bursting out laughing.  

Ryan sat between Darcy and the arm of the sofa, leaning back and trying to relax.  He felt made of glass, like he couldn’t bend without breaking.  Exactly how did one act around the girl who’d been sleeping in your bed?  They had cuddled and held hands - he may have copped a little feel while she was asleep - but nothing that suggested middle-of-the-living room behavior.  

Darcy almost laughed.  Poor Ryan, he had no idea what to do with her.

Isn’t that the problem? she thought.  But as Justin selected a movie with the remote, Darcy answered her own question.  She scooted an inch closer and settled in against Ryan’s side.

It wasn’t fair that he was only nineteen or inexperienced, but it also wasn’t Ryan’s fault.  At home the night before, Darcy’s mind refused to be quiet as she lay in a big, empty bed.  Sleeping next to Ryan was nice.  It was harmless in the way that only feelings were involved, nothing physical.  Or nothing much.  Darcy had meant what she said about there not being enough nice guys left in the world.  Now that she’d found one, keeping things nice was becoming a problem.

If she could have just stayed home.  If she could have just gone to bed like any other night, she wouldn’t have called.  It was a test of sorts, where failing and winning were strangely the same.  Ryan was a bad poker player.  She heard the smile in his voice when he’d picked up the phone and it went right through her like an arrow.

Now he was solid against as she angled her back against his side.  Warmth bled through his dark gray t-shirt.  One big hand moved to rest against her bare upper arm, his long fingers barely touching her skin at first, then settling just enough for a soft caress.  She let her head fall back onto his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Darcy woke in mid-air, in Ryan’s arms.  Her own were around his neck like a sleepy little koala hugging a tree.  It took a moment to realize where she was, and another to realize that Ryan was carrying her as easily as a bag of groceries.  He set her down carefully on his bed.

“Sleepy?” he asked.  The room was small-ish, and the only light was from the door open behind him.  Darcy figured the sheets and blankets beneath her were new.  Two bags bursting with stuff were piled in one corner - Ryan hadn’t even unpacked, and she was already here.  

“Me too,” he admitted.  There were traces of fatigue in his sharp features.  From the top of the nearby dresser, he took a pile of folded clothes and handed them to her.

He set out pajamas for me.  Jesus H, she thought.  But she took them.  Before  Darcy could get to her feet, Ryan had retreated into the hallway and closed to door to give her privacy.  The shorts were plain black, but clearly boxers and it wasn’t lost of Darcy that she was pulling on a pair of Ryan’s underwear.  The t-shirt was a twin to the one he wore, only dark red, presumably for modesty.  If she’d ever fallen asleep at Taylor’s, he’d have given her washcloth to wear and nothing else.

He knocked.  Darcy tried not to die.  She just slipped beneath the covers as Ryan walked to the other side of the bed.  At the sound of his zipper opening she flinched, but Darcy still watched Ryan push off his jeans and climb in next to her wearing green boxers and his gray shirt.  He reached for her and she moved closer; they settled in the middle, Ryan against Darcy’s back with an arm around her waist.

She knew if she turned, she’d kiss him.  Slightly busted face and all.  Kissing drunk on a cold balcony is very different from kissing while snuggling and half-dressed in a bed behind closed doors.  So she ran her hand along his strong forearm until she reached his fingers, tucked almost underneath her body, then twined her own into them and held.
____

“So this is really a thing?”  Erin reached for the curtain and tugged it open.  It was after nine o’clock and daylight spilled across the bed, making Jordan wince.  But she was practically sitting on his chest, so he couldn’t go far.

“Yup.”

“Hmmmm,” she said skeptically, examining the dark hairs growing on his upper lip.  It couldn’t be called a mustache yet, but it was less than a week into November.  “It’s for charity?”

“Movember is men’s health month, specifically prostate cancer.  Lots of guys do them,” he explained.  Her hair hung in long waves over bare shoulders, though she had worn a tank top to sleep that night before.  Just in case she ran into Taylor on a midnight fridge raid or something.  The straps were thin though, and the left one had slipped down, giving Jordan a lot of ideas for exactly what he’d like to do with all the lights on.  Her pink and white striped panties weren’t helping.  Erin’s dimples were visible even though she was trying not to smile, making her look even perkier than if she’d just grinned.

“God, you’re beautiful,” he said.

That got a smile.  “You’re just saying that so I don’t make fun of your mustache.”

“Nope.  I’m saying that because I’m really impressed with myself that you just woke up in my bed.  Plus,” he tugged at the loose strap, “wait till you see Nuge and Hallsy try mustaches.  I’m like Borat compared to those guys.”

“You’re kidding!  Taylor?  Johnny Bravo cannot grow a mustache,” she laughed.  “Ryan... eh.  He doesn’t need it.  He’s adorable.”

“He’s trying to be manly, babe.  Mustaches are manly.”

“Mustaches are dad-ly.  And Ryan doesn’t even have arm hair!  There’s no way.”  She leaned down, giving Jordan a full view of what lay beneath that fallen side of her tank top.  Then she kissed him lightly.  “Yours oughta be good though.”  And slid her knee between his thighs until she was pressed firmly between his legs.  “You’re pretty manly.”

Erin ground her underpants against his, purring into the kiss.  Jordan grabbed her waist and flipped, pinning her to the bed.  His foot kicked the wall between his room and Taylor’s.  Without missing a beat, Erin kicked it again.

“Jordan! Oh! My! God!” she shouted like she was in the throes of ecstasy, thumping once more for good measure.  

Immediately the other side knocked back.  “Shutup!” Taylor yelled.

Erin did not.  “Eberle! Oh! Yes! Right! There!” she called even louder.

“I swear to God,” Taylor hollered back.  

By then, Erin and Jordan were laughing so hard they could barely breathe.  There was a lot of writhing and rocking, really making it sound real.  Which it quickly became.  Jordan grabbed the offending foot, hitched Erin’s leg over his hip and ground against her.

“Ooh, harder,” she said teasingly, in a low voice just for him.  Without his shirt on, Jordan was plenty to look at.  Even with that mustache starting.  Chest and arms flexed, holding his upper body off the bed so his lower body could move.  Erin bit her lip and batted her lashes.  It did feel really fucking good.  “Mmmm, right there.”

Jordan dropped his shorts and pushed at her panties at the same time.  Erin kicked both away.  Before they hit the floor, he was in her up to the hilt.

“Ohgod,” she gasped.  There was nothing fake about that noise.  He plowed home again, making her back arch.  Blankets were everywhere and it was bright as day in his brand new bed in his brand new room.  Jordan gripped her hips, moved again and didn’t care if they woke the whole building.  But he never closed his eyes.
____

For a second, Ryan didn’t know where he was.  The room was light blue instead of white, there was no TV on the dresser.  The windows and doors were also in a different place.   Then someone breathed.  Ryan remembered he was in his new place, and he wasn’t alone.

Darcy lay on her side, facing him.  Sometime in the night she’d rolled right into his embrace and his arm was underneath her waist, holding her.  She was curled slightly, like no place in the world was more comfortable than right here in his bed.  Ryan started to pull her in closer... and froze.  

His hand was inside Darcy’s shorts.  Well, his shorts.  But they were still on her body and his hand was underneath them, full of nothing but the soft skin of one half of Darcy’s ass.  His heart skipped and instantly Defcon One alarms sounded inside Ryan’s brain.  Her blond hair was a tousled mess that made Ryan wish he could close his eyes until she left and keep this moment perfect in his mind until private time.  He didn’t dare breathe for fear of waking her up while he had his hand down her pants.  

Too late.

“Ryan,” she said softly.

He felt her moving, tilting her face up to look at him.  It was a mistake to meet her eyes but he did.  Just for a second.  Then Ryan panicked and kissed her.

Darcy flinched.  She’d been expecting to wake him up and laugh off that he was copping a feel in his dreams.  It was probably to be expected, since she was the one sleeping in his bed, in his arms.  Ryan smelled like soap and sleep and was very, very warm.  

Now soft lips were pressed to hers.  It only took a second to highlight and delete every reason she’d ever had against this.  Four long nights sleeping together and this was the boldest thing Ryan had tried... and he hadn’t even meant it.  She wasn’t going to find a nicer guy, no more than she’d be able to keep holding out on this one.

Darcy kissed him back.  She wrapped her arms around Ryan’s neck, ran her hands into his hair and let his tongue slip into her mouth.  The inches between them disappeared until legs and feet were tangling together too.

Ryan’s body roared like a race car at the starting line.  He rolled Darcy onto her back and pasted himself heavily over most of her.  From zero to a hundred, his engine was racing.

“Woah,” she gasped.

“Sorry, I’m so sorry,” he stuttered.  

Darcy blinked a few times, eyes adjusting to the morning and the sight before her. “Did you brush your teeth this morning?”

“Last night, before you got here,” Ryan admitted with a sheepish grin, “Twice.” His brown eyes were downcast, almost embarassed. “I, uh, didn’t mean to....”

Darcy interrupted him by sliding her hands under his t-shirt.  Ryan’s apology stopped immediately.  She pushed the shirt up his back and right over his head.  He glanced down in surprise like he’d never seen his own body before.  Darcy was certainly enjoying her first visit.  “You didn’t mean to have your hand in my shorts?” she smirked, running her fingers over the skin inside his shoulder.

“I’m sorry.  I woke up and... I was afraid to move because you were sleeping and...,” he never finished.  She kissed him, occupying his tongue with her own and quieting them both.  Ryan was lanky and limber, his body as strong beneath her hands as it had been wrapped around her in sleep.

Ryan gave up.  His mouth didn’t hurt.  Darcy had seen it up close and didn’t seem to mind.  Instead her hands explored his back, leaving chills in their wake.  Even if she never wanted this again he would gladly take it now.  He poured poured his weight down, feeling her fit into every sensitive part like a puzzle: breasts pushed suggestively against his chest, a slender thigh fit between his legs just shy of where her hip notched in his lap.  He pushed slightly and she deepened the kiss.

Finally, Ryan hoped to himself.  He snuck a hand up her shirt, Darcy purred as her nipple grew taut beneath his palm.  It was heaven to finally kiss her and touch her after so much waiting;  it was the confirmation Ryan needed.  Darcy liked him.  He knew it.  The waiting was the hardest part.

Darcy was done waiting.  She stripped out of her shirt, eyes fluttering closed as Ryan’s slightly rough tongue circled each of her nipples.  He’d definitely done this part before.  God damn it if he wasn’t sexier than he had a right to be, pinning her to the bed with his lower body.  She rolled her hips and he groaned.  Exactly what she was thinking.  She worked a hand in at her hip and pressed it against his erection.

“OhGod,” Ryan breathed.  His body was wound tightly enough to snap.  It made Darcy weak that he wanted her so badly.  She would lose her mind when she lost her pants and so one thing had to be done first.

“Do you have anything?”

Ryan looked down at her, hair stick straight hair falling over his forehead.  When he realized what she meant, he smiled.  A big, dimpled grin like a guy....

Like a guy about to get laid for the first time, she thought.  It went through Darcy’s heart like an arrow.

“Yes,” Ryan’s voice was husky.  “Shit.  Somewhere in there.”  He tipped his head toward the two huge bags.  Condoms had been a hopeful purchase, and the only thing in those bags he hadn’t used yet.  “I have no idea where they are.”  Darcy laughed.  The bright, chipper sound in such close quarters was intensely intimate.  As if Ryan could be cool and funny as well as mostly naked with a girl’s hand on his junk.  As if getting this far and having to stop was hilarious.

“You unpacked pajamas for me, but not condoms?” She was still laughing.  Ryan blushed, pinching his mouth together and looking ever more like a little fox.  He hadn’t even thought of it.  “My God, you are perfect,” Darcy said.  

She tipped in that direction and Ryan rolled off.  He quickly turned his back and faced the bags, shy about pitching a full tent in front of her.  Darcy scooted off the bed, pulling her shirt on.  “Where are you going?”

“Think Schultzy has any?” she asked.

“Uhhh...,” Ryan was ready to die at the idea of knocking on his new roommate’s door and asking for condoms.  Back at the hotel he would have tossed Jordan’s luggage like a burglar to find them.  Darcy looked so amazing with her borrowed shirt on all crooked and her blonde hair mussed like she’d just been rolling in bed with someone really fucking lucky.  For that, Ryan would have done anything.  Even this.

“Don’t worry,” Darcy reached for the knob.  “I’m not going to ask.”

She slipped out of Ryan’s bedroom and leaned back against the door.  I cannot believe I’m doing this, she thought, followed quickly by I cannot believe I lasted this long.  Part of Darcy had always known she would give in.  The ticking clock on the lockout had been part of her hesitation.  Now she wanted to race it, to dare it to expire while she was in the middle of things.  It gave her a new appreciation for how Erin must feel about Doomsday with Jordan.

On her tour of the apartment, Darcy had seen Justin’s room.  The door opened onto a little hallway, with the bathroom just inside to the right.  It was early, he was definitely still sleeping.  A few nights with Ryan had taught her that hockey players sleep like the dead - years of roommates and road trips to blame.  Quietly opening his door just an inch, Darcy heard Schultz snoring somewhere inside the room.  She stepped right into the bathroom.  The medicine cabinet yielded nothing, nor did the drawer on either side under his sink, but on the counter was a shaving kit, complete with stolen hotel shampoo and a little tube of toothpaste.  Working silently in the near-dark, Darcy found a single condom tucked into the side of the bag.  

Sorry to the random road trip girl who doesn’t get any because of this! she said in her mind.  Darcy backed out and closed Justin’s bedroom door, wondering how a girl could sleep with a guy snoring like that in her bed.  She examined the little foil packet.  Not even expired, she noticed.  Get it, Schultzy.

Darcy went back into Ryan’s bedroom, forcing her face to wear a neutral expression despite what she was thinking.  He turned expectantly and she showed him the little square.  From the depths of the bottom bag, Ryan came up with a little black box, unopened.  He knew that Darcy knew, he didn’t have to say it.  This was enough proof of his first time.  At the time of purchase, the need for six condoms had literally been the kind of wet dream that would have woken a roommate in the dead of night.  But Ryan wasn’t really so big a noob that Darcy had to steal a condom just to have sex with him.

Darcy, in her barely-dressed, bed-head glory, just smiled at him.  “Don’t worry, we’ll use them all.”
____

Amanda looked up from around Taylor’s lap.  He was watching quite happily as she went to town down below, even though she made him keep his hands up under his neck.  He hated that almost as she hated being gagged when he tried to hold her head into his lap. “They can’t hear you,” she teased, nodding toward the wall they shared with Jordan and Erin.  The first few screams had been fake but the silence that followed meant only one thing.  No one had gotten out of bed.

Taylor gave her the megawatt smile.  “My hidden camera is on.”

Sex with Taylor was more fun that Amanda could remember having.  And there was plenty of it to be had.  He never got tired, never got bored or boring.  As much as they moaned or sighed, there was a lot of laughing too.  It was the perfect mix of having and holding.  When Taylor left, she would miss his company and his body, but with separate parts of her brain.

Amanda took him deep one more time. Taylor’s muscular legs were locked, his back twisting against the sensation.  She knew a split second before he did, the first drop of salty taste on her tongue.  Taylor groaned as he came, forgetting the rule and threading his thick fingers into her hair.  Amanda let him hold her down, giving him every last strum of pleasure, until he dropped back and she licked her lips.  After all, he wouldn’t be around forever.
____

The next ten things were each more intense than anything Ryan had ever experienced.  He met Darcy in the middle of the room - she was small standing up, he felt manly and capable by size until her shirt hit the floor.  He made a mental note to admire her later, when he could actually focus his eyes.  That was impossible with her hand slipping into his pants.  His knees wobbled.  

“Come here,” she said.  Ryan followed to the bed - he’d have followed her off a cliff.  At the edge of the mattress, he pushed his boxers off.  Now the only thing between them were her borrowed shorts.  That made him nervous - the pulse racing, don’t know where to put your hands kind of panic.  They rolled together, kissing, as his palm settled on her leg and began to inch up.  Finally his thumb grazed the spot where her thighs touched.  Like a castle opening it’s doors, Darcy parted her legs and he was touching her.

“Mmmm,” she mumbled, crushing his mouth with another kiss.  Ryan took that as a sign he was doing it right.  Very right, even, as Darcy pushed his hand out of the way and started to wiggle out of her shorts.  He grabbed the stolen condom, rolled onto his back and closed his eyes.

You can do this, he told himself.  If it broke, she’d be reminded that he had no idea what he was a total rookie.  Save that until the deed was done.  Worse yet she might stop... nope.  Ryan slid the thin film on and Darcy was already reaching.  He made sure she couldn’t ask if he was sure.  Her tongue was in his mouth and her ass in his hands when Ryan pushed inside a girl for the first time.

The tight squeeze of her body forced the air from his lungs, like he’d been punched. She was so hot and soft and deep that by the time his thighs touched the back of hers, Ryan was faint.  Like downloading knowledge from the Matrix, Ryan understood all at once why everything was always about sex.  He was dizzy.  Then she moved.

“Ohmygod,” he said right out loud.  The whole world titled; everything slid and tumbled like dishes rolling down a hill.  She pushed again and it went the other way.  Ryan tilted her hips upward, getting another inch, trying to hold on.  Instead Darcy cried out, an incredibly intimate little noise, and Ryan nearly came as if on command.

Darcy felt it.  Ryan was so much stronger than he looked and every muscle worked together; only an athlete could do that.  But it wasn’t enough to stop the 19-year old virgin in him.  She bucked against him, sliding along his length, feeling his fingers dig into her backside.  He bit her neck hard enough to bruise.  She’d done that to him once, a million years ago.

“Darcy, I...,” he panted.  She kissed him.  He would come first and he would like it, and he’d get plenty of chances to repay the favor.  Another twist of her hips and Ryan groaned.  His knees pulled up as if gathering his remaining energy.  Using all his weight for a big last push, Ryan bottomed out so hard that Darcy moaned.  This time he came when she called.
____

Erin was pouring OJ at the kitchen counter when Amanda and Taylor emerged from his room.  Amanda was dressed and ready in slacks and a button down top.  She only worked a few minutes away.  Taylor looked like a bear woken too early from hibernation.  

“Trying to get us evicted on our first night?” he asked, taking the glass from her hand and drinking half in one gulp.

“I’ll give all your neighbors Barons tickets, now that they know what name to scream,” Erin snatched the juice back.  Taylor blew a raspberry on their way out the door.  Back in the room, Jordan was sitting up in bed, looking at her phone in his hand.

“Was your interview at St. Anthony’s Hospital?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Jordan held the phone out to her.  “They called.”
____

A phone rang.  Darcy sat straight up in bed like a puppet.  It was bright and warm... and definitely late.

“Shit.”  She tried to kick free of the blankets as she moved across the bed in the general direction of the noise.  Her feet and legs were tangled with Ryan’s and with the sheets, pulling just tightened the knot.  Momentum carried her right off the mattress, onto the floor.  Stark naked with one leg bent oddly and her foot still on the bed, Darcy landed on her back.  Her purse was just out of reach.  The ringing stopped as Ryan’s face appeared over the edge.

“Whatcha doin’?” he said with a grin, taking in her position and complete nudity like he’d just found money on the sidewalk.  Falling asleep after sex was one of life’s great pleasures, and Ryan was sampling the entire menu today.  First he’d had Darcy, then he’d had a nap.  Now he had something to laugh about.

“I’m late for work.”  

Ryan freed her foot, then climbed down over her onto all fours.  He reached for her purse... and pushed it.  It slid across the rug until it hit the wall.

Darcy huffed.  So what if his bicep was the size of her calf?  He couldn’t just throw her stuff around.  Or her.  Well, he could, but....

Ryan lowered his body until it was inches from hers, holding in a pushup.  He glanced up at the bag, ten feet away, then back at Darcy and said, “Go get it.”
____

When I started this story, I never expected the lockout to last this long.  I’m glad you guys like Ryan and Darcy so much because I’ve had to really do a lot more than I planned in this story.  I don’t want it to drag, so forgive me if I create my own future in which things happen.... - Juliet_

seventeen

Time ticked down on the third period with the Barons losing 2-0.  The whole team was dragging, showing the effects of three games in as many days.  Erin felt sluggish herself, but that could be the dark atmosphere in the building bringing her down.   “This sucks,” Darcy said, finishing a bottle of water.  “Ryan says they never play three nights in a row in the NHL.”

Erin and Amanda looked at each other instantly and both sang, “Ryan says!”  Darcy rolled her eyes and give them the finger, but it was the first laugh they’d shared in two hours.
____

Losing did suck.  Losing shutouts was worse.  Jordan banged his stick hard into the rack.  He, Ryan and Taylor were supposed to be the firepower, instead they were dragging ass around the ice like the rest of the Barons.  Nights like this he didn’t even feel worthy of the AHL, forget the NHL.  In the locker room, Taylor was grumbling to himself and Ryan was tossing off gear like it smelled even worse than usual.

“What...,” Ryan paused awkwardly, his mouth still not functioning as well as his brain, “what are you guys doing tonight?”

Jordan didn’t feel like smiling after a shitty game, but Ryan was just so obvious.  “Why, got a date?”

Ryan mumbled something that sounded like four letter words strung together.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“I said NO, I DON’T HAVE A DATE,” Ryan announced nice and loud even though it made him wince.  More than one exhausted face turned in his direction.  Cameron Abney threw his jersey into a hamper on wheels.

“Your girl’s here though.  Can’t miss her in those sweaters,” Abney laughed.

“Yeah, does she wanna be our mascot?  I think we could sell more tickets if she...,” Shultz suggested.

Ryan cut him off, “Okay, okay.”  A hot blush had risen to his cheeks, replacing the fading redness of the game’s exertion.  The swelling in his mouth was down some, only to be replaced by a dark blue bruise.  He still looked a mess, but was not about to disabuse his new friends of the idea that he and Darcy were getting together.  If they thought wrong at least it kept them from making a move on her.  As much as Ryan would love to see Darcy wear a Nugent-Hopkins jersey like a ‘Property Of’ sign, he equally enjoyed the figure-hugging, soft-looking v-necks that she favored.

With the conversation effectively lightened, Jordan waited until the topic turned before resuming a quieter one with Ryan.  They were moving in the morning and the hotel room looked like a tornado had hit a Gap store.  Jordan hadn’t spent enough time there in recent weeks to even guess how long the chore would take.  “Really dude, what’s up?  I gotta pack.”

“Me... me too,” Ryan stuttered, as if convincing himself.

“Is Darcy helping you?” Jordan asked.

“I... I don’t know,” Ryan said, giving up trying to hide.  “She just kind of does what she wants.  She doesn’t really tell me.”

Jordan’s grin was a mile wide.  “And you didn’t ask?”

“Not when she keeps sleeping over!” Ryan hissed, trying to keep the volume down.  “I mean, she doesn’t, we don’t.... I don’t know if she’ll want to stay over when I’m at Schultzy’s.  This might be my last chance.”  He did not look entirely convinced he could take that chance, even if it arrived.  

Jordan put his hands up in front of his chest, as if warding off an attacker.  “I get it, Ry.  I’ll pack fast, get out and go to Erin’s.  But you should see if Darcy’s still here first, the girls might not have stuck around.”  Ryan nodded.  They had not been studs tonight.

Sure enough, when they were dressed to head out, the lounge was empty.  Even Amanda was going to stay home tonight so Taylor could be ready to start moving in the morning.  Jordan texted Erin and got the same response.  They headed back to the hotel.

“Call her, Nuge,” Taylor suggested

“Last time I called her, she said she just wanted to be friends,” Ryan leaned forward from the backseat.  “Then she started sleeping over.  So calling doesn’t exactly clear things up.”

At the hotel, their room actually wasn’t that messy.  Ryan would never have let Darcy see how things looked on road trips.  Instead they had filled drawers and closets like people living in the same place for a month.  Jordan didn’t bring it up again, but he figured Darcy would be staying home tonight.  Even if that meant Ryan would be staying alone every night in the near future.  He put on sweats and started folding and piling haphazardly.  After all, they weren’t going far.  Shoes were stuffed into outside pockets, toiletries into the same bag they’d ridden through airport security.  By eleven thirty, he was nearly finished.

Ryan kept glancing at his phone, charging on the bedside table.  He even looked hopefully toward the door a few times.  As it became more obvious that Darcy wasn’t coming, a frown turned his misshapen mouth down harder.  Jordan didn’t mention it as they finished packing the last of their stuff and fell into their respective beds, completely wiped out.
____

The next day, Erin stood in the middle of Jordan’s new bedroom.  The furniture rental company had delivered some boring-but-matched dressers and a side table, which were pushed against the far wall.  Jordan and Taylor maneuvered their way in, carrying a queen-size mattress on it’s side.  Behind them, Amanda caught things as they were knocked over.  They flopped the mattress down with a thump.  Jordan grabbed a bag with a flourish and poured newly purchased, newly washed sheets on the bed.

“Later guys,” Erin said as she pretended to push Taylor into Amanda and both of them out of the room.  Jordan reached to close the door - he was anxious to break in the new bed too.  Something about having a place, about putting down some kind of roots in this place with Erin made Jordan feel confident and excited.

Anchor, he’d once thought of her as being.  Now he had a second anchor.

“Fine,” Taylor called back.  “We’ll just do it on the couch and ruin Jordan’s deposit!”

They spent the day unpacking the apartment.  The boys had few belongings outside of clothes, so they cleaned out a Target buy bath mats and towels and basic kitchen ware.  Erin chose a set of cheap plates with a little motif of ants marching around the edges.

“Who wants bugs on their plates?” Amanda said, putting them back.  She went for white with blue stripes.  Erin gave in on the condition she could buy the Simpsons pint glasses.  Food and housewares filled an entire checkout line.  They left the cart at the door, each of the boys carrying five or six loaded shopping bags.  Erin and Amanda let them walk ahead.  

“Not bad, huh?” Erin said.  Jordan and Taylor were each in jeans and sweatshirts, but there was a still a lot of flexing visible to the female eye.

“Kinda makes me hope we blow a tire on the way home,” Amanda agreed.

“In a rainstorm,” Erin added.

The girls agreed to cook dinner in the new apartment as a housewarming party.  They went to Erin’s for more supplies, filling a plastic laundry basket that it took both of them to carry, while the boys went to the grocery store.  It was getting late, nearly seven o’clock by the time Erin and Amanda dragged their basket up and knocked on the door.

“Welcome.”

Jordan opened the door like a maitre’d, which matched the black suit he was wearing.  Inside, the lights were dimmed.  Erin narrowed her eyes but followed him, Amanda pushing the basket forward with her feet.  She left it in the hall and followed toward the dining area.

“Wow,” Erin said.

Where they had gotten a table she had no idea, but a square four-seat table was set in the middle of the living room, complete with tablecloth and little tealights in glass holders flickering.  Four places were set with as much precision as boys could muster, and a big salad bowl was already filled in the middle of the table.

“Surprise,” Taylor said, emerging from his room in a suit of his own.

“What is all this?”  Amanda looked around at dishes covered on the stove.  The oven was on too.

“Erin threw us a housewarming party before we had a house.  Just paying back the favor,” he answered.  The guys had picked up from a local Italian place, and the new apartment smelled divine.  A bottle of wine was even open on the counter, next to glasses Erin had not seen them purchase.  Trying to be formal, Jordan and Taylor pulled the girls chairs out, poured wine and brought as much of the food as possible to the table.  There was eggplant parmesan, pasta with vegetables and garlic bread.  They made quick work of the salad to get to the real food.

“Did you invite Darcy and Ryan?” Amanda asked.

“He can’t really eat,” Jordan said.  “Not neatly at least.  He’s with Schultzy at their new place.  I think Ryan’s, uh....”

“I think he’s a noob,” Taylor interrupted.  “He’s the only person who can sleep with someone that he can’t actually manage to sleep with.”

“Aw, come on!  Darcy doesn’t just want to...,” Erin started.

“Give him everything he’s been dreaming about?  Literally dreaming for his entire life?”  Taylor turned to Jordan, inviting him to chime in.  Jordan shook his head as if he’d rather stay out of it.  

“He’s just a kid,” Erin added.

“He’s nineteen.  I’m twenty,” Taylor countered.  “And I don’t see Amanda keeping her pants....”

“STOP.”  She held up a hand.  Taylor closed his mouth, grateful to be saved from himself.  “If Ryan wants to make it happen, let him try.  You guys tried.  Some of you harder than others.”  Taylor leaned over and pulled Amanda into a kiss.  With tongue.  Amanda tried to draw back but she was no match for those arms.  Erin and Jordan both winced, looking away.

“Well now I’m not hungry anymore,” Erin said.
____

When the plates were gone and the wine was empty, Erin and Jordan sat on his couch watching TV.  He was behind her, Erin’s head back against his chest, and thinking about actually living in OKC like a real person who could have a life here.  It certainly seemed more real than hockey or Edmonton at the moment.  The idea was like a cliff and Jordan holding onto the edge.  Or maybe he was already dropping into the void.  Either way it made him want to stake a claim, stick a flag in this place and in Erin like he would have them forever.  Like he meant everything he said and did, instead of just making promises he couldn’t keep.  

Erin rubbed his toes through his socks.  “Is Ryan really a virgin?”

“Yup,” Jordan says.  “Scares the shit out of Darcy doesn’t it?”

“Yup,” she echoed.

Jordan was the kind of hopelessly romantic guy that knew the first time should mean something, instead of being a means to an end.  Sure it was destined to be less fantastic than imagined - for the girl anyway, the guy always ended up with the most intense experience of his life.  But thinking too much about it just made things worse.  “Is it more awkward to have sex for the first time, or know that all your friends are talking about it over dinner?” he asked.

Erin laughed.  “Is it more awkward to sleep in bed with someone you want to have sex with or someone you don’t want to have sex with?”

“Is it more awkward to make a move before or after your face gets busted?”

“He already did it before,” Erin pointed out.

“And Darcy didn’t really want him then,” Jordan said.  “Imagine what he thinks now.”

“She did!  I mean, she does or she wouldn’t be hanging around him.  But I’ve never seen her like this.  She’s so....”

“Mean?”

“Careful!”  Erin smacked his leg, turning to face him.  It was a compromising position at best, all her weight twisting in his lap as they sprawled out in the dark.  “She’s being careful.  It’s more than I can say for some people around here.”

Jordan didn’t want to be careful.  He wanted to be hers, here and now, as if the illusion lasting long enough could turn it into something real.  “Careful is overrated.  And overdressed,” he said.

He slipped a hand right down the front of Erin’s shirt, over her breast, and used a grip on her waist to drag her up the rest of his body.  Their chests and laps pressed together at the same moment as their lips.  Jordan groaned in pleasure as the slow, velvet twirl of her tongue made every muscle in his body squeeze.  Using his feet behind her knees, he drew her up to almost kneeling and moved his hands under her shirt.  The soft skin of her stomach led right to the smooth cap of her bra, dotted like an exclamation point with her stiffening nipple.

“Jordan!” she whispered, pushing his hands away.  “You have roommates now.  I don’t know what kind of girl you think I am.”

He pinched her nipples in each hand.  “Time to find out.”

Erin hurried toward the bedroom, while Jordan’s growing hard-on slowed him down.  Already unbuttoning his pants, he passed Taylor’s door and heard the sound of his TV.  Jordan closed his bedroom and Erin was setting his iPod into the dock.

“Hmmm, what should we hear?”

Jordan stepped in behind her, peeling the shirt right up over her head.  His mouth connected with the closest place - along the top of her shoulder - while his big hand pushed right into the front of her pants.  Erin squealed softly as he forced one low enough to touch her through smooth panties.  As she spun the dial on his iPod, he stroked that hot spot till it grew damp beneath his touch.  

‘It Will Rain’ by Bruno Mars came on as he hooked her panties aside and touched bare skin.

“Mmmm,” Erin moaned.  Her head rolled back onto his shoulder.  Jordan used one finger to part her slit.  

“Something louder,” he said, kissing just below her hear.  Two clicks and the first notes of ‘Take Care’ by Drake and Rihanna played.  Jordan gripped Erin’s waist with his free hand then pushed his two fingers into her body.  She rolled with the pressure, her ass grinding into his lap.  Instantly his heart rate spiked and the staccato rhythm and choppy vocals of the song were too much.

“Something slower.”  Jordan’s voice was thick, just like something else about him.  In a minute he wouldn’t care if the neighbors two floors down heard Erin screaming over the music.  She clicked again; Florence + The Machine’s “Breath of Life” started.

“Good.”  He took her hand from the stereo and placed it on the edge of the desk, bracing her.  Then he plumbed again with his hand.  His touch lite a fuse and Erin could feel it burning, racing, through her body.  As Jordan’s fingers penetrated her, giving her just a tease of what his body could do, she pushed against the table to keep her feet.  Jordan only pumped harder.  His warm breath rasped against her shoulder as she worked her ass into his lap with the beat.  

Jordan’s thumb brushed her clit.  “Oh God,” she gasped.  Her knees were shaking and her fingers gripped white.  This wasn’t the usual Jordan, she hadn’t seen him like this before.  Or felt him.  Jordan had always been so straightforward, so sweet and gentle.  She knew he was very strong, maybe he just needed to be more comfortable with her.   She was getting very comfy now, as his thumb hit the target again and her knees buckled.  It only drove his fingers deeper.  Jordan caught her around the waist, holding her up while he worked harder and faster.  His thumb pressed her clit and started making little circles.

“Fuck, Jordan,” she panted.  He was so hard against her backside she thought he might rip right through his pants.  Grinding her against it couldn’t be helping either, but he was clearly determined that she would get there first.  Erin let her head fall forward, stars popping behind her eyes.  He must have felt her breathing get short.  Jordan sank his mouth into the curve of her neck and kissed hard.  She snapped like a rope.

“Godohgohhhd,” she said, bowing forward so had she nearly fell to her knees.  Jordan moved with her, holding her up, milking her body for every last drop of pleasure.  When she was still, he guided her to the floor and kneeled right down over her, straddling the scene of the crime.  His pants were strained by the erection she’d felt battering her soft side.  Erin lay there, chest heaving, more like a chalk outline of a dead body than herself, looking up at Jordan’s thick, muscled body and that gap-toothed smile.  

Jordan peeled the jeans from her hips then leaned down over her sprawled form.  “Erin?”

“Yes?”

“Pick another song.”
____

Jordan was so hard he felt lightheaded.  Erin creaming in his hand was like turning the knob on the door to heaven.  He jacked himself against her backside as hard as he dared, fighting the urge to spill his own hot load.  But there was a better place for that.  Erin’s pants came off in a tangle and she tossed the iPod aside as ‘I’m on Fire’ by Bruce Springsteen started.  Then she reached for him, right there on the floor of his brand new bedroom.

He buried his face in her hair, hoping the muffle the sound of slowly screwing himself into her soaked, searing body.  No such luck.  He groaned in almost-pain at the tight, hot squeeze and heard her whisper something.

“What, baby?”

“I said ‘Mother of God what do they teach you guys in Canada?!’” she panted.  Jordan laughed so hard he almost came; it turned into a growl.  His thrust made Erin squeak and that was the end of talking.  It was nearly the end of Jordan.  He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held on tight.  She reached overhead and pushed against the wall, steadying them, while Jordan plowed a groove right through her body.  Minutes passed, but not many.  He ramped up to the brink of release, that same cliff he’d been clinging to before, and dove right off the fucking edge.

He blinked back to life with Erin tracing the shape of his ear.  They were twisted up on the floor, no blankets, no clothes, no music.  It could have been the middle of the night for all he knew - he’d come hard enough to pass out.  Her hair was a beautiful mess of tangles and tendrils, but nothing compared to the night-stained color of her skin, the curve of her breast, the indent along the side of her abs.  Jordan rolled so that he could admire her properly.

“Are all the boys in Canada like you?”

“Why?”  Jordan asked.

“Well for one, I don’t hear any noise coming from next door,” she smiled.  “And I thought maybe I could put in a good word for Ryan.”

Jordan smiled at the idea.  “I promise, everything is better in Canada.”
____

Ryan hated moving only marginally more than he hated living out of a suitcase.  At least the latter he was used to.  But after three games in three days and a face he still didn’t want to look at, he was completely spent.  Schultz’s apartment was nice enough, clean enough now that he’d helped, and he had his own bathroom.  That’s where Ryan was standing in the shower, head down and water running over his sore shoulders, when his phone rang.

His first thought was: Ignore it.

His second thought was: Darcy!

Ryan hop-stepped out of the tub and ran stark naked into his new bedroom.  He left a wet handprint on the duvet where the phone had been.  “Hey,” he said, trying to sound calm, or at least dry and dressed.

“Hey,” Darcy said.  “How’s the new place?”

Do it, Ryan told himself.  Fucking man up and do it.

“Uhh, would you like to see it yourself?” he asked.  

It wasn’t quite as smooth as it could have been.  Taylor would have said, ‘Why don’t you come over and find out?’ and Jordan would have said, ‘It would be better if you were here.’ but Ryan had to admit that for a guy forming a puddle on the rug, he’d done pretty well.

There was a moment’s pause.  Then Darcy said, “Sure.”
____