Page 34 of Center Ice
“Did you guys do this whole place?” I set the bag on the counter and start taking the contents out one at a time as I glance around the open first floor of their brownstone.
“This is our childhood home. Jameson did a barebones remodel while Jules and I were in college, just to fresheneverything up,” she says. “He made the third floor into a one-bedroom apartment that he lived in until he moved in with Lauren this past spring—there’s a great roof deck up there that I turned into a garden once he moved out. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor, which is where Graham and I ended up living after I graduated from college, and then there’s another bedroom off the living room for Jules. So anyway, once we moved back here post-college, we worked on some redesign and redecorating.”
“Colt said you guys were featured in some fancy Boston magazine recently.”
“Did he?” She gives a small laugh. She holds her hand out as I unpack the ibuprofen and then open the box to remove the pill bottle. “Yeah, that was a bit of a turning point. Our company is still really new, and all the attention is a lot to balance. We don’t want to turn people away, but we also don’t want to overbook ourselves and do a bad job. We’re working on forcing ourselves to expand at a manageable speed because we’re both kind of workaholics—but especially Jules.”
Once again, I feel so damn proud of her for all she’s accomplished, even though I had nothing to do with it. “Well, it’s incredible. You’ve done so well already.”
“We’re trying.” She shakes three pills out into her palm, then reaches for an acrylic tumbler sitting on the island and swallows them down. “Thanks so much for these, I really needed them. Normally, I’d have asked Jules, but she’s in Maine for this whole next week, or Morgan, but she’s in Las Vegas for the weekend.”
“And Morgan is?”
She explains her relationship with Lauren and how she’s become one of her and Jules’s best friends over the past eight months.
“So, how did you not have any painkillers in your house?”
“I ran out and forgot to replace them.” She shrugs. “I thought about just taking some kids ibuprofen that I have for Graham, but there wasn’t enough left in the bottle to equal one adult-size dose, much less a dose and half, which is what I need when I feel like this.”
I grab the box of heating pads off the counter and open it. “Let’s get one of these on you and see if that helps too.”
“Alright. Thank you for thinking of that, too.” She pulls her shirt up as she turns toward the counter and plants her elbows there so she’s bending forward with her lower back bared to me.
As I step up behind her, I make sure to keep my distance because the peach shape of her ass in those sweatpants has me growing hard just looking at it. It’s all I can do not to step up against her and settle myself right between her ass cheeks so she can feel exactly what she does to me.
Instead, I peel off the backing of the sticky pad, ask her to point out where it hurts the most, and then gently press the pad against the offending muscles. “Do you need one for your abdomen too?”
“No, it’s really my back that hurts the most. My belly is fine if I just curl up into a ball—that’s how I spent the last hour on the couch.”
“Let’s move you back there. I’ll bring the ice cream. Pick your poison,” I say, gesturing to the three options. She points to one, then heads to the living room, so I pick one for myself, throw the other in the freezer, grab two spoons and follow her.
Chapter Sixteen
AUDREY
I’m trying so hard to focus on the movie, rather than the way the outside of Drew’s thigh is pressing against my knee as we sit beside each other. My cramps are a little better, but I really want to curl into a ball, and I don’t feel like I can do that with him here. Either I’d have my back to him, which feels rude, or my head would be in his lap.
“I’m going to get this ice cream in the freezer,” I say as I reach past the two pints sitting on the coffee table and grab the remote, “before they’re soup. Unless you want more.”
Drew pats his stomach. “I always want more, but I’m trying to practice restraint…in all areas of my life.”
“Oh yeah?” My voice takes on the teasing quality that I almost can’t resist using when he’s around. “Where else do you need to practice restraint, besides ice cream?”
“I’ve been told I need to do less fighting on the ice,” he says. “And I’m trying really hard not to bite my sister’s head off every time she opens her mouth?—”
“You don’t get along with your sister?”
“I have two. Missy’s great. She’s married and has two boys, one a year older than Graham, and one a year younger.”
I gasp without meaning to, and he looks at me with concern. “I’m sorry, it didn’t even occur to me that Graham might have cousins. I don’t know why I never thought about that.”
“Yeah. Someday, it would be great if they could meet. I bet they’ll have a blast together.”
I don’t even know how I feel about this. Having Drew back in Graham’s life is one thing, but he has a whole family, too. And, of course, they’ll want to get to know Graham. It makes sense; it’s just another layer I hadn’t really thought much about yet.
“So yeah,” he continues, “Missy’s great. Caitlyn is another story. I think she’s deeply unhappy, and her defense mechanism is to make others unhappy in return.”
“That’s pretty insightful,” I say as I carry the pints of half-melted ice cream to the kitchen.
