I quietly enter the house, half-worried since Meredith never texted me about her day and half-excited because she should be naked in my bed right now. All I’ve been thinking about since getting on the plane to come home is the different possible ways I can wake her up. It’s about two in the morning and sleep isn’t my number one priority. I can sleep in a little tomorrow if I want.

The door to my bedroom is open. I avoid looking at the bed until I set my duffel bag down first. Meredith is indeed naked. She’s lying on her back, one arm above her head and one hand on her breast, the covers sitting just below them. I grin. For some reason, Meredith grabs a boob in her sleep. I teased her about it a lot when we were younger and I’d sneak over to sleep at her house. I’d wake up and she would have her hand cupping one of them. It’s good to know she still does it.

My mind only has one track. I lean over the bed, over her breasts, and know how I’ll wake her. My head dips and I graze my teeth over the nipple of the breast she isn’t holding hostage before pinching it between my teeth. She shifts, but doesn’t wake up. I swirl my tongue around it as the arm above her head slides down toward me. I suck hard, releasing her breast with a pop, and then bite her nipple just a tad harder.

That wakes her up.

Her hands dive into my hair and she tugs to lift my head. “Noah?” God, her sleepy voice is enough to get me hard all on its own. Add a hooded gaze with lazy blinks as her fingers run through my hair and I’m ready to pounce.

“Are you expecting someone else?” I arch an eyebrow at her.

She shakes her head and then her eyes scan my body. “You’re wearing a suit? Stand up.”

I stand upright and she drinks me in.

“I’ve never seen you in a suit that actually fits you. Wow.” She covers a yawn with her hand before moving onto her knees. “I’ll help you undress.” She reaches for my tie first.

“You never texted me about your day,” I remind her, trailing my fingers over her stomach.

A smile lights her face, which is a fantastic sign. Unfortunately, she forgets all about undressing me as she sits on the bed, pulling the covers up, which leaves me to undress myself. “It was crazy. Erica wasn’t all that nice to me, but Gail said she’ll come around. The best part was working with this girl, Kira. It’s her first year playing and,” Meredith hesitates before adding, “she’s not good.”

“How is that the best part?” I interrupt, confused. I’m down to my boxer-briefs, so I get into bed next to her. Meredith cuddles up to me and I try to focus on the words she’s saying instead of her body.

“Because! I helped her. She has the lowest seed, so she rarely plays. I noticed a few things and once I learned that, decided to work with her one on one.” The cutest little frown appears. “I don’t think they really paid attention to her. She’s right-handed, but should’ve been playing with her left. She still has a ways to go, but god, Noah, she was so much better than she was. She might move up a few seeds after more practice. If every day is like today, I think I’ll like it a lot. I was even able to demonstrate!”

“I’m glad you’re liking it. Can I have my welcome home kiss now? You said you missed me a lot, but I haven’t gotten a kiss yet. Maybe you didn’t miss me as much as you said? I can get back on the plane.”

She closes the distance between us and presses her mouth to mine. Meredith kisses me slowly. It’s one of those unhurried, could last forever kind. When she pulls away, she has this sleepy look in her eyes. She snuggles closer to me.

“I’m glad you’re home,” she whispers.

“Me too. And guess what?”

“What?”

“You still grope yourself in your sleep.”

She leans back to look at me. “What? I do not! You’re the only one who’s ever told me I hold a boob in my sleep and I don’t think you’re telling the truth.”

I laugh. “How would I even come up with something like that?”

She shrugs and rests against me again. “I’m glad you woke me up, Noah.”

“Me too. Although,” I move my hand down to her ass, scooting her closer to me, “I may have expected more than us just talking.”

“I’m tired.”

Damn. All I’ve thought about since she told me she would be naked is what we were going to do once I got home and now she’s tired. I move my hand back to her hip, kiss the top of her head, and close my eyes.

But then, she giggles, her hand sneaking underneath my waistband as she says, “Just kidding. I thought you’d try to persuade me.”

“Next time, I most definitely will.”

 

 

Two days later, I have a day off. Meredith has been really interested in seeing the practice arena, and learning more about my career in general, so we make our first stop there today. I offered to let her come watch practice yesterday, but she declined. She wants to wait until the season starts since she’s never seen me play as a pro.

She listens as I show her around, but there’s honestly not a lot to see. There’s the rink, the training rooms, a few conference rooms, some offices, and a lobby-like room, to name a few things. After we finish a walkthrough, we drive downtown for some lunch.

“Do you ever workout outside of the team?” she asks once our waitress walks away.

“Yeah. The apartment complex has a gym and pool on the top floor.”

She shakes her head at me. “That would’ve been good to know.”

“I hadn’t thought about it.”

“It’s fine. I was going to try to find a gym, but now I don’t have to. I need to stay active.” She glances down at herself with a frown. She isn’t overweight by any means, but she’s unfit compared to the weight she would be if she was still playing. “I’ll have to be careful with my shoulder, though,” she adds in a sigh. “Sometimes I wish I never played to start with.”

Did I forget to mention she’s having a bit of a bad day?

“Yeah, but without playing, your life would be so different. We might not have met if you never played,” I point out.

“What are you talking about? We went to the same high school.”

“Yeah, and it was a huge school. I didn’t know who you were until we went to watch Ashley play.”

Her jaw drops and her eyes widen. “We had a class together the semester before she joined the team.”

“No, we didn’t.” Because I would’ve remembered.

“Yes, we did. We had Mrs. Tuttle for English our sophomore year! You probably didn’t notice because you were too busy shoving your tongue down Kelsey Watson’s throat.”

Okay, so that’s why I don’t remember. Kelsey Watson and I liked to make out in between classes and Mrs. Tuttle always took a bathroom break before that period, so we had the opportunity. The waitress caught the tail end of what Meredith said because she was walking toward our table. She places our food before us and quietly leaves.

“Even so, tennis is still how I ended up noticing you.” She doesn’t say anything, but I grin. “So, you paid a lot of attention to me before we met?”

Meredith rolls her eyes. “Kind of hard to ignore you when you and Kelsey Watson were trying to eat each other’s faces.” I laugh, but immediately stop when she adds, “I think I’m going home.”

I nearly choke on my chicken. “What?” Panic swarms me at the thought of her walking away again. Why in the hell does she want to leave already? She can’t! I just got her back. No way in hell.

“For the weekend, Noah. Mom doesn’t know what to pack for me. You’ll be out of town anyway, so I thought I could fly home and pack up my clothes. I’m tired of having to buy new stuff.”

I take a long gulp of my drink, the panic still clawing at me. Maybe Meredith isn’t the only one with issues. She’s coming back. It’s only for the weekend. Get a fucking grip, Noah! Clearing my throat, I manage a calm voice. “Okay, yeah. That sounds good.”

She eyes me for a moment like I’m not fooling her, but she doesn’t make a comment. “I’ll probably see if I can get flight out tomorrow since I don’t have to work, and then I’ll come back Sunday night.”

“Seems like a good plan. Hope is probably anxious to see you and hear more about your job and me,” I finish, flashing her a grin. There’s still an uneasiness about this mini trip, which is ridiculous. I can’t help it. Yeah, I was okay with her leaving before, but she still left. How is it still able to fuck me up when I have her back?

“Are you okay with this, Noah?” Meredith asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” The waitress drops off our check and I reach into my back pocket for my wallet. “You’re going home for the weekend, and I won’t be here anyway, so it’s no big deal.”

“All right. Let’s go, so I can change and get to work.”

I’m paying with cash, so we leave it on the table with the bill. I take her hand as we walk out of the restaurant. Wanting to get us back to normal, I start talking. “Winter can be mild here, so you shouldn’t need anything heavier than a coat or hoodie and maybe some gloves. It won’t start getting cold for a little while, though.”

“Will it snow?”

Her question makes me laugh. “If it does, people freak the fuck out. They don’t get it often enough to know how to handle it, I guess. I think ice is more often the case instead of snow.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’ll miss the snow.”

“Really?”

Meredith never really cared for the white fluff, and based on what Hope would tell me, she more often than not spent any time off in the winter months somewhere warm. In fact, I think the longest time she’s spent in the house she owns in Pittsburgh is the months after she returned home to rehab her injury before she came to North Carolina.

“Yeah, weird, right? It just doesn’t quite feel like the holidays without it. What is Christmas usually like with you since it’s during the season?”

“We get three days off. Sometimes, I’ll fly home; sometimes, I don’t. This year, I’m going to try with it being my nephew’s first Christmas. We’ll see how it goes.” It’s still September and way too early to be thinking about the holidays.

We arrive at my apartment, enjoying a comfortable silence as we ride the elevator up to my floor. My brows pull together in confusion when I see a box sitting outside of my door. Meredith rushes toward it, picking it up, and throwing me a smile.

“What is it?”

She tries to shrug casually. “Just something I ordered.”

“Not going to tell me?”

“Nope.” She heads to the bedroom without looking back.

My phone vibrates and I check my texts as I take a seat on the couch.

 

Marc: I’m bored. Want company?

Me: Come on.

 

“Have fun with Marc.” I tilt my bead back at the sound of Meredith’s voice behind me. She’s standing behind the couch.

“Have fun at work.”

She leans down to kiss me. “I love you.”

“Love you, too, Mere.”

She smiles and then she’s gone. I’m tempted to find the box to see what she ordered, but decide not to. She didn’t want me to know, so I won’t snoop.

Marc arrives about thirty minutes later and he starts up my gaming console, handing me a controller. I glare at him, as usual, when he props his feet up on my coffee table. At least he’s learned to remove his shoes first.

“How’s it going with your hot girlfriend?”

“Fine.”

He looks at me. “Fine? That’s the kind of answer you use when someone asks how you are and you aren’t okay, but you don’t want to talk about it, so you say you’re fine. You’re finally with the girl you’ve been wanting for fucking ever and all you can say is things are fine? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I snap. “Things have been great so far. She’s here; we’re happy.”

“Who knew people could pick up where they left off so easily after what, eight years? Damn, that’s a long time.” When I glare at him, he shrugs. “Fine. I’ll leave it alone. You taking her to Mike’s BBQ?”

We have a day off next weekend, and head coach Darrell Michaelson, who we call Mike, has invited the entire team to his house for a get-together.

“If she wants to go, yeah.”

“Why wouldn’t she want to go?”

I groan. “Shut the hell up and play the damn game. I didn’t mean she wouldn’t want to; I haven’t said anything about it to her yet is all I meant.”

Marc whistles. “For someone who’s finally happy, you sure are pissy.”

The only way to get him to stop talking about it is to ignore him. I don’t know what’s caused my mood to sour, or if it has anything to do with how I’m a little antsy about her leaving this weekend regardless of all the logic in the world, but I do know I don’t want to talk about it.