Crack In The Ice - Chapter 46: Chapter 46

"I'm using your underwear today."
I turn around to watch Liam, sure enough, rummaging through my bag for a pair of boxer briefs.
"Why?"
He holds my gaze as he slips them on. "Because they're clean."
"How do you not have anything clean?"
Liam shrugs. "Laundry day was-," he pauses with a grin, "Well, a while back."
I roll my eyes, but there's no real bite to it.
I've practically been living in Liam's room over The Lodge for the past few days. I packed an overnight bag with enough for a week of overnights and we haven't left these walls much since.
I did have a couple of physiotherapy sessions to go to. And I went out with the guys once, a couple of nights ago. It was nice. There were some jokes and jibes about me with Liam, but they didn't feel any different to the jabs at James for buying Chloe a ring, Connor for having personalized pet names with Paige, or Trey and Kate's breakup. It was all just... normal.
Actually, not completely. Liam kept texting me all night while I was out. Even though I'd spent practically every waking - and sleeping - second with him since coming home. And eventually his texts went from 'i miss you' to 'i need you' to some graphic photos that made me shield my phone with my hand before telling them that I was tired and should head out.
"The exit is the other way," Trey had called as I made for the elevator.
But their snickers didn't bother me. Not the way I thought they would. Because they didn't feel targeted.
"Wanna watch that movie from yesterday?" Liam asks, throwing himself on his back over the bed, in just my briefs.
"Which one?"
Liam lifts his neck to give me a deadpan look. "The one you said we could watch today, if I let you watch the game yesterday."
"Well." I bite back a smile. "You didn't let me watch the game, now did you?"
Liam grins unabashedly.
He knows he definitely did not. Instead, he kept trying to distracting me.
And he was successful too.
"Mh. I don't know what you mean," he says, propping himself up on his elbows. "Why don't you come over here and jog my memory?"
I snort, but my feet are already moving. He lies back as I crawl on top of him. The kiss starts slow and sweet until he takes my bottom lip between his lips and pull. His hands slide down to grope my ass over my sweatpants, pulling me down against him.
"Should I get the laptop then?" He asks, breaking the kiss just as he got me breathing unevenly.
I groan, rolling off him.
When I hear him get up with a little laugh, I sit up. "I actually thought maybe we could do something different today."
Liam stops on his way to the desk. "Like what?"
"Like something outside?"
"We are doing that," he says. "On Saturday. With my parents. Dinner and embarrassing baby photos. Remember?"
"Yeah." I scratch my neck. "But I meant just the two of us."
"We could be just the two of us in here." He waggles his eyebrows. "Naked."
I laugh.
He walks over to the bed again.
"Liam," I say. "I'm trying to ask you out. Like. On a date."
He sits down on the edge of the bed next to me. "What?"
"A real date. You and me. For the first time in six fucking years."
"What would we do?"
I shrug. "I don't know. Dinner?"
"We have dinner. All the time," he says.
I feel heat spreading across my face and neck. "I don't really know, okay? My only experience was dating Nat. All we ever did was..."
"Behind closed doors," Liam finishes.
"Yeah." I look down at my knees.
"I thought you were supposed to lay low in the summer. For PR."
"Yeah. But we could still go out." I look up, biting my lip. "On a date. Like, to The Lodge or something. Or the Brunson Grill."
He smiles a little in the way he always does when he actually wants to laugh but doesn't want to laugh at me. "How's that different from the normal dinners we eat here?"
I huff. "I don't know. Because we decide it is," I say lamely. "I was trying to go for a gesture, or whatever. But fine."
"Hey no," he sounds regretful now. "Look at me." His hands cups the side of my face gently, making me look at him again. "I'd like that. Seriously. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be dismissive. You know I'm an idiot sometimes. But I'd love to go on a date with you. Please take me out."
I shake his hand off me.
Liam smiles, ducking his head to come into my line of sight. "Romance me, Elijah Blake."
I groan, shoving his face away as he laughs. "I just told you I don't know how to do that."
"Sure you do," he says. "You do it all the time, and don't even know it."
I roll my eyes.
Liam bites his lip. "Just flash those bedroom eyes at me when I say something flattering. Wear a tight shirt that'll have me want to strip off all night. And laugh at my jokes. Especially the bad ones."
I snort.
"There you go." He smiles.
"Fine," I give in. How did I start this conversation trying to ask him out and ended up being the one who gets to give in, I don't know. "Where do you wanna go?"
"Surprise me."
"No pressure," I say dryly.
"Yeah," he says, putting his hand on my face again. "That's the best part. You don't have to try. I'm already obsessed with you."
He kisses me and I let him. Then I become extremely aware of how undressed he is, and it takes an iron will to peel myself off him so we can get ready to go out.
We end up going for the Grill because it's less likely we'll find people we know. We're not worried about hiding, just trying to go for privacy. Most of The Lodge's work force are in our friends and family circle. Makes it hard to make it feel intimate.
I wear a tight white t-shirt, jeans and the grey beanie, because Liam asks me to. And Liam wears jeans and a short-sleeved, deep-blue button-down, because I ask him to. It matches the exact shade of his eyes and makes me a little weak in the knees. But tonight, I actually want to be reminded of just how fucking attracted to him I am, every time I look at him.
We order food and Liam makes me laugh, and it really doesn't feel much different from what we've been doing recently. But it is different. Because we decided this is a date. And in six years of stolen moments and secret meet-ups, just deciding we get to go on dates now makes it different.
"Does it kill the mood if I want to, like, talk," I say as he dips one of his fries in my ketchup.
"Thought we were talking," he says before shoving the fry in his mouth.
"I meant about us," I clarify. "We just haven't actually given it a lot more thought. To the logistics."
"Okay."
"I just mean," I clear my throat. "I'm here now, but I have to go back next season. And you're here. I assume you and Chloe want to go for at least one more Olympic season."
He nods. "We do. We are going for it."
"Right."
Liam sighs and leans over our booth, putting his hand over mine. I stare down at it as he speaks, "You'll be here until the end of August. That's still over a month. We don't have to figure it out right away."
I look up to meet his eyes. "But we do have to figure it out eventually. My schedule's pretty busy. I'm always flying to different cities, I can't really visit during the season. Except for maybe Christmas. But that's a long time. And after Christmas... I won't be back until May, at least. July if we make it to the playoffs again."
"Okay." He presses his lips together. "So you go back to Calgary in September. I have my training schedule, but I'm not on the ice twenty-four-seven. I can visit before Christmas. Not long. But it's something."
I nod.
"And maybe we can do a few weeks of training abroad again," Liam says. "Helga has a lot of contacts. She had that friend in Montreal, remember?"
"But Montreal is even farther away from Calgary than Lake City."
"Yeah, but maybe she has friends in Calgary. Or a friend of a friend. Or a favor my dad can cash in somewhere with someone. I'm sure Canada has no shortage of ice rinks."
We both know it's one thing to talk about ice rinks, and another thing entirely to talk about Olympic grade ice rinks. But that's not even the only problem.
"Chloe would be okay with that?" I ask. "She has James here."
"Yeah." Liam cracks a smile. "I don't think she would object. Chloe is not the type of person to spend her days attached to her fiance."
I swallow. Then I feel his hand squeeze mine, just before lacing our fingers together.
"It would have to be long-distance," Liam says. "At least, for now. But we've been through worse. I mean, a lot worse. This plan, compared to the crumbs we've had to make due, is awesome."
Slowly, I nod. Because he has a point. Whatever we come up with will always be better than what we had.
A sly smile tugs at the edges of Liam's lips. "Plus. It'll give us a chance to polish our phone and computer sex game."
I choke on air.
"What?" He has the fucking gal to act innocent. "Don't knock it till you've tried it, right?"
"Have you tried it?"
"I'd like to." He shrugs. "But not if you're uncomfortable."
I look at the sincerity in his face and shift in my seat.
"Is it-," I clear my throat, leaning forward. "You know, safe. Like. The last thing I need is a video call like that hacked. One kiss in front of reporters I can survive, but..."
He doesn't need me to finish that thought out loud. Which is good, because I don't think I can.
"We can ask Connor about VPNs and shit," he says .
I huff. "Yes. That's exactly the kind of conversation I wanna have with fucking Connor."
Liam laughs. "Owen then."
I arch my eyebrows at him.
Liam rolls his eyes, but he's annoyance doesn't look real. "If you want to make sure it's safe, we need at least one nerd."
I rub a hand down my face. "Fine."
Liam grins. "Yeah?"
Shaking my head, I mutter through gritted teeth, "The shit I do for you."
Liam slides out of his seat across from me and cozies up on my bench to kiss me.
The waiter clears his throat to get our attention and Liam breaks the kiss, but that's about all. He doesn't move his leg from where it's hooked over mine, or his hand from where it's cupping the back of my neck. And I don't feel the need to pull away. Because though the waiter isn't making eye contact with either of us, he also doesn't seem fixated on our closeness. So I'm not going to be the one to fixate on it either.
Liam orders desert for himself and then, after I say I'm good, orders the same thing for me too. And I don't really argue, because despite everything that ever went down between us, I never really argued with Liam for a day in our lives.
It's strange to think how, one year ago, what we are doing now seemed so far from the realm of possibility. Even stranger to think what eighteen-year-old me would have thought if I told him that in a few years he'd be out on a date with a man he loves, with five NHL seasons under his belt.
I wouldn't have believed it then. I was too drawn into myself. Too scared. I lived my whole life trying to keep a part of myself locked in, until I let Liam tear down my barriers.
Except that's not exactly right. He didn't so much tear them down, as he kind of chipped away at them, slowly but surely. Not by force, but with patience.
Until I met him, living my life was like trying to make your way to safe ground when there's a crack in the ice and you know one false step means sinking into the freezing water.
But I think I did it.
The ice cracked, but I made it.
We both did.