She smiles at me “A demain.” And then she hangs up. I put the phone down on the side table and turn off the light. I turn on my side, and it takes me a while to fall asleep, yet I still get up before my alarm.

“Excited to get home?” Matthew asks me when he sees me in the lobby.

“I guess so. I’m the first one here,” I tell him, looking around. “Where is everybody?”

“You’re ten minutes early,” Matthew says, looking at his watch. “It’s travel day. You know everyone drags their feet.” He laughs. “Plus, it’s the beginning of the season, so the newness of being away is still there.”

“I hate it,” I tell him. “If we could play home games year-round, I would not complain.”

“You aren’t the only one,” he says, and then I hear some of the guys as they walk toward us.

“The bus just got here,” Oliver, the PR for the team, says.

“Let’s go home, boys,” Matthew says, and I follow him out to the bus. The plane ride isn’t that bad, and when we land, I get in my truck and make my way to Vivienne’s. The bell guy knows me now, and I toss him my keys and walk in. I wonder if I should call her and tell her that we landed early. Too late now.

I press the elevator button and knock on her door and then I hear her footsteps coming to the door. She swings open the door, and I know she’s surprised right away when her mouth opens. Then her eyes go big, and it lasts two seconds before she lunges at me, and I catch her in my arms. “Good catch,” she says, wrapping her arms around my neck and then bending her head down to mine and kissing me. I slip my tongue into her mouth, and I feel like I just won the lottery.

Her hair is all over me, but we don’t stop kissing the whole time I walk to her bedroom. “Did you miss me?” I ask her when she lets me go and rips her shirt over her head.

“I plan to show you how much I missed you,” she says, and she does just that. For the next three hours, we get lost in each other.

She lies on her stomach beside me, the sheet covering her ass, but one foot has come out. “So good,” she says, her eyes blinking slowly.

“Good to know.” I lean over and kiss her. “I’m going to shower. Are you coming with me?”

“Are you going to do that thing again?” she asks me, looking over her shoulder.

“What thing?” I ask her because God knows we’ve tried everything you could think of.

“That thing with your tongue and then your fingers.” She smiles and rolls over, a faint hickey forming right next to her nipple.