Chapter 17

Two weeks had gone by and Sidney and I had spent every night together since that first one. I’d never been as intoxicated with someone as I was with him. It was an unbelievable feeling and terrifying at the same time. It seemed like nothing else existed except the two of us. Things were perfect. He was perfect. Maybe I’d been wrong all along. I was so hypnotized with our affair that I completely forgot what the date was. I got a rude reminder that Saturday afternoon.

I was going over some files from work when I heard the doorbell ring. I felt like Pavlov’s dog. The doorbell rang and I got butterflies in my stomach. I checked the clock before I got up and saw that it was a little early for it to be Sidney after his pre-game skate, but he must have just gotten out faster than usual. I went to the door with a huge smile on my face. I opened the door prepared to give Sid a kiss when I froze in my tracks.

“Dad!” He was really standing there. Oh no, it was that Saturday. I hugged him as he walked through the door.

“Hi, pumpkin. I thought I’d stop by before the game and catch up. I haven’t talked to you much lately,” he told me. I put a smile on my face even as I prayed Sidney would just go home after skate today and let me call him.

“How did you get here?” I asked not seeing a car.

“I called a cab.” He walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. “So what’s new?” Well, I’ve been sleeping with the league’s leading scorer for the past two weeks.

“Actually, it’s been pretty slow at work lately. Not that I’m complaining. Being busy is usually a bad thing. Other than that things are pretty much how they always are,” is what I actually said.

“The house looks great. I see that you’ve done some more with it since the last time I was here.”

“Oh, that reminds me, I finished downstairs. Come, I’ll show you.” I led my father downstairs to show him what Sidney had dubbed “the game room.” We talked as he looked around and caught up. About half an hour later the doorbell rang again. My heart sank. I knew that this time it was going to be Sidney. As I excused myself and went upstairs I hoped that my father would stay put and I could get Sidney to leave before my father suspected anything. I opened the door and saw Sid standing there. Before saying anything he leaned forward and kissed me. I quickly looked behind me to make sure my father hadn’t followed me up and seen it.

“Sid, now’s not really a good time. I’ll call you later.” I tried shutting the door a bit, but Sidney stepped into the house instead. His smile had faded.

“Why, what’s going on?” I looked behind me again checking for my dad, but he still wasn’t there.

“I really just need to talk to you later. I’ll explain then, okay?” He didn’t move and instead looked at me suspiciously.

“Who’s here?” he asked. He thought there was another guy in the house. Technically there was, but not in the way he thought. This was the worst situation I’d been in in a long time.

“No one, why?”

“Why do you keep looking behind you? It’s like you’re afraid someone is going to come walking out.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, I’ll come by in an hour and we’ll talk then, okay?” My heart dropped as I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I saw Sidney’s face turn from suspicion to surprise.

“Sidney Crosby?” I heard my father ask from behind me. Too late. This was not good. “What are you doing at my daughter’s house?” Sid looked from my dad to me. I just shrugged. Busted.

“Sidney, this is my father-“

“Larry Robinson, I know,” he said cutting me off. He walked over to my dad and shook his hand. “I actually came by to drop a ticket off for tonight’s game.” My dad looked over at me and I could see that he was figuring things out.

“That’s really nice of you, but I already have one from my dad.” I turned to look at my father. “Sidney actually lives just two streets over.”

“How did you two meet?” he asked. Before I could respond Sidney spoke up. I closed my eyes feeling the start of a headache when I heard his response.

“We actually met out at a bar in town. We talked for a bit and a few days later I brought my dog, Shooter, who I had just gotten to a vet and she turned out to be the vet I was going to. Even more coincidentally my car blew a tire outside her house not long after and I had to borrow a jack from her. We’ve been hanging out ever since that all happened last year.” My father looked over at me and I knew what was coming next.

“That is very coincidental. You met at a bar? I shouldn’t be worried, should I?” he asked. He said it in a way that would sound like a joke, but I knew he wasn’t joking. I jumped in before Sidney could say anything more damaging.

“Dad, don’t worry about it. We’re just friends. Come on, you know me better than that. Like I would ever date a hockey player.” I looked over at Sidney and winced when I saw his jaw clench and the hurt in his eyes.

“Well, I’ve got to be going and prepare for the game tonight. I guess I’ll see you again tonight,” he said looking at my father. I opened my mouth to say something but he cut me off. “I know, I know, don’t play too well against your precious Devils tonight.” The sarcasm felt like a stab to the heart. Without another word he left, slamming the door behind him.

“Loralei, I don’t care if you want to hear it or not, but I’ve told you about dating hockey players. You need to stay away from them. Especially someone like him. He’s so high profile that he’s the last person you want to get involved with. There are girls all over the place throwing themselves at players like him. I was right before, wasn’t I?” I didn’t want to hear it. I fought back the tears and turned and walked toward the kitchen.

“Can I get you something to drink?” I asked.

Chapter 16

I woke up the next morning to a loud beeping noise. At first I thought it was an alarm, but my alarm didn’t sound like that. Then I felt movement next to me and memories of the night before flooded my brain. Sidney grabbed his phone, hit a button, and the beeping stopped. He rolled back over and pulled me to him.

“Sorry about that. It was my alarm.” He ran a hand through my hair and kissed me. I was exhausted. We hadn’t slept much that night. In fact I’d be surprised if we’d gotten more than a couple hours of sleep. I smiled up at him.

“So you have to go then.” He grinned.

“I always set my alarm early because I usually have a tough time waking up.” I bit my lip and giggled. How could I have just spent all night making love with him and I was still craving his touch?

“How much time do you have then?” I asked.

“About 45 minutes.” That was good enough for me. I wrapped my arms around him and pressed my lips to his.






Sidney walked into the rink knowing that today might be the worst practice he was ever going to have. He was tired, but it was all worth it. He couldn’t get the smile off of his face. He never expected last night to happen. It had been a year of pursuit and he’d all but given up on her. He was resigned to knowing that they would just be friends and nothing more. He’d hide his feelings and respect her wishes. It was better to have her in his life as a friend than to not have her in his life at all. But all that had changed now. Turns out she had feelings for him too. She hadn’t come out and said it, but he knew she was just scared. He just wished he knew why. Every time he asked her about her family and her past she clammed up. Something was wrong, but he didn’t want to push. Now he knew it was just a matter of time before she would finally open up to him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Geno asked him in his heavy accent. Sidney looked at him unsure of what he meant.

“Nothing’s wrong, why?”

“You’re just grinning like a jackass,” Ryan Whitney volunteered. Sidney ignored the comment and continued getting ready for practice. “Did you get laid last night or something?”

“Who’s the lucky lady?” Letang threw out. Sidney turned to them and gave them his best “captain” look hoping they would just let it go.

“Come on guys, leave it alone,” he told them.

“Holy shit, you fucked the doc!” Colby exclaimed. Now the whole room was looking at him. Well isn’t that just great, Sidney thought.

“Hey, I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to. The way you wouldn’t tell us made it obvious it was her. You’ve only been in love with her for a year now,” Colby argued. The room laughed as it all made sense. Sidney decided not to respond. She didn’t deserve to become a locker room story. Let the boys think what they want, he wouldn’t feed it. So he’d have to deal with a little ribbing for a bit, he could handle that.






I sat at my kitchen table staring down at the bowl of soup I had just made. It smelled delicious and homemade cream of potato was my favorite, but I had no appetite. Instead I thought about last night and this morning. Had that really happened? I was still in a bit of shock that I’d let down my walls enough to give Sidney a chance.

For the first time since I’d met him there were no feelings of panic or worries about what I was getting myself into. In fact I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I’d been denying any feelings for him to everyone including myself for so long that after last night I felt like I could finally breathe again. It was nice to finally give in to the feelings I’d always deep down knew were there, even if I was doing it cautiously. I heard my doorbell ring and walked to the door.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Phoebe asked stepping through the door followed by Reagan and Sheila.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I told her confused. They all exchanged glances before giving me a round of looks that told me they didn’t believe a word of that.

“Rory, wipe that stupid grin off your face or tell us why it’s there,” Reagan demanded. I sighed and collapsed down on the couch in the living room. I braced myself for their reactions.

“Something happened last night,” I started.

“If you’re even going to tell me that Thomas called or flew down and apologized I can’t be held responsible for the beating I’ll give you,” Sheila said. I laughed and shook my head.

“No, it has nothing to do with Thomas,” I replied.

“I’m not going to lie, you had me worried. I haven’t seen you smile like that since him,” Phoebe told me. I took a deep breath. It was best just to say it, I thought. I opened my mouth to tell them when the doorbell rang again.

“Hold on, sorry,” I said getting up to answer the door. My smile grew when I saw Sidney on the other side. Before I could greet him he leaned in and kissed me. My heart flipped as I kissed him back. Suddenly squeals of laughter rang out behind us and I spun around to see all my friends standing there.

“Finally!” Reagan called. I blushed and Sid laughed.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you had company,” he apologized.

“Sid, as much as we love you we need to talk to Loralei. You probably don’t want to stick around to hear it,” Sheila told him. I turned to look up at him.

“Dinner?” I offered smiling up at him. He nodded.

“I’ll be here. See you guys,” he called to my friends. Then he leaned down to give me a quick kiss before exiting my house.

“Tell us everything!” Phoebe exclaimed grabbing my arm and dragging me back into the living room.

And I did. I told them about the chain of events of the night before and about how relieved I felt now. They stayed around for a few hours constantly gushing about how glad they were that I’d finally come to my senses. After they left I jumped into the shower and when it was time to get dressed I suddenly felt stressed out. This was the first time I was going to be getting dressed while dating Sidney. As ridiculous as it sounded it made me nervous. The guy had only seen me wear all of these clothes before, so what was the problem?

I finally decided after tearing out half of my closet. I spent the next 20 minutes putting clothes away. Then I went downstairs to see what I had at the house to cook up. I decided on a simple lasagna since I didn’t have a ton of time to get too fancy. Sidney rang the doorbell just as I was getting started.

“Hey,” I said smiling up at him when I pulled the door open.

“Hey,” he repeated leaning down to kiss me. He followed me back to the kitchen and immediately washed his hands getting ready to help me with dinner. I admired his butt as he did it.

“Is lasagna okay?” I asked going back to mixing up the cheeses and spices.

“It sounds great,” he replied coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder.

“It’s not easy to do this with you on my shoulder like that,” I told him. He didn’t budge, but I felt him shrug. “You know, if you want dinner, you’ll have to let go.”

“I really don’t want to do that,” he said. I turned around to face him while remaining in his arms. I lifted my face to his, having to stand on my toes, and kissed him. Everything just felt so natural with him. Kissing him like that seemed routine, like I’d done it millions of times before, and I liked that feeling.

“If you let go now, you won’t have to let go later.” He smiled down at me and unraveled his arms.

“I’ll hold you to that.” He walked over to look at all the ingredients. “How was your talk with the girls?”

“It was good. They were happy about us. Could you stir the beef in the skillet please?” He did what I asked and then accomplished every task I gave him before the lasagna was made and put into the oven.

“How much time until it’s ready?” he asked.

“About 45 minutes,” I responded while beginning to clean up. I dropped the measuring cup I’d just grabbed when Sidney picked me up.“I have an idea about what we can do to kill time,” he said carrying me to the stairs. I giggled but didn’t put up a fight. I let him carry me to the bedroom. I could definitely get used to this.

Chapter 15

I unlocked my door and Sidney followed me inside. We walked straight down the stairs to my basement and sat on the couch. I flipped through channels on the TV until I found the Devils game. The second period was just starting and they were winning 2-0 over Toronto.

“I don’t know how you can stand to watch this. It’s so boring,” he said to me obviously teasing when the period was half over. I contorted my face into mock horror.

“How dare you say such a thing?” He laughed at me and I went back to watching the game. It wasn’t long before I was hit in the head with a throw pillow, which spilled the soda I was drinking all over me. My jaw dropped in shock as I jumped up to grab towels and clean up the mess.

“That’s for the champagne,” he said through giggles.

I narrowed my eyes at him and nodded in understanding. Only I wasn’t thrilled that one of my favorite shirts was covered in diet Dr. Pepper. I grabbed a pillow off of a chair and wound up. Sid was watching a replay of a goal Toronto had scored and didn’t see it coming. I got him right in the face. He gave me the same look I had just previously given him. Next thing I knew were nailing each other with the pillows, laughing the whole time. Eventually I knocked the pillow out of his hands and halfway across the room.

“You’re in for it now,” I told him.

Instead of waiting to see what I would do, he lunged at me and started tickling me. I started screaming and squirming under him. It was so childish but I hadn’t done anything that seemed so random and fun in a long time. My day at work quickly faded from my mind. I abandoned the pillow and started trying to defend myself. I managed to somehow pull myself to a sitting up position.

“You know, you’re such a child sometimes,” I said in the most serious voice I could manage at the time. He immediately stopped tickling me and looked at me, shocked. He almost looked hurt. I knew the age thing could be a sensitive subject with him depending on the situation and that’s exactly what I was banking on.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything.”

Too late he saw the devilish twinkle in my eyes. He was completely defenseless when I tackled him to the couch tickling him instead. I wasn’t sure he was even ticklish when I went for it, but I discovered that indeed he was. He fought back, twisting and turning. He managed to flip me over onto my back so that he was towering over me. He grabbed hold of my wrists and I was stuck. I’d lost this battle.

We were both laughing and trying to catch our breaths when our eyes met. I’m not even sure how it happened or who initiated it, but the next thing I knew his lips were on mine. It took a second before I even realized what was happening. When we pulled apart we just looked at each other.

My heart started racing and despite all I’d tried to tell myself, I knew that I hadn’t wanted it to end. He started to shift off of me and he let go of my wrists. My brain stopped working and my body took over. Instead of letting him up I put my hands on his face. He took the hint and lowered his mouth back to mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck. Time seemed to stop existing and I don’t know how long that kiss lasted. When we finally stopped he sat up.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” he apologized.

I wasn’t sorry. I responded by standing up and taking his hand. He stood up too and I led him upstairs. I knew it wasn’t a good idea. I shouldn’t be doing this, I told myself over and over while we made our way upstairs. No matter how much I told myself that this was a bad idea, I couldn’t make my feet stop moving towards the bedroom. For all I knew I was girl number 10 on the week for Sidney, but somewhere in my brain I knew he wasn’t that type. I stopped and turned to face him when we got into my room.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. Always the gentleman. I knew I couldn’t stop myself now. I smiled and kissed him. Then I pulled his shirt off revealing those unbelievable muscles. My God I didn’t think men with bodies like that existed in real life. I ran my hand over his abs just to feel them. He put his hand under my chin and tilted my face up to his. My knees went weak when I looked into his eyes and I thought that I was going to collapse to the floor. Seemingly satisfied that this was in fact what I wanted, he smiled and my shirt was quickly off.

I suddenly became nervous. Only two other men had seen me without clothes on. The last one had used me for sex. I felt vulnerable. Would he find me attractive? Should I be embarrassed about anything? Oh no, what underwear was I wearing? I felt myself tense up and I knew he felt it too. He hesitated and looked at me with the question in his eyes: should I stop?

“I-I’m not-There’s only been two other people and quite honestly I’m nervous,” I said feeling like my face must be turning the color of a tomato in embarrassment. What was wrong with me? He laughed, but not in a way that made me feel like a fool. He kissed me again.

“Then we’re in the same boat,” he replied. There was no way that was true. In the past few months I had witnessed girl after girl throw themselves at him. He had to be very experienced. He seemed to read my mind. “Look, there’s been more than two, but it’s been a long time. I was never into the casual thing. Not to mention I’ve been thinking about this since the day we met last year. I’m nervous too.” It could have been a line just to get me in bed, but I believed him. I fought away my nerves and smiled up at him. “Are you sure?”

I kissed him again in response and I could feel the muscles in his arms and shoulders as I let my hands wander over him. I still couldn’t believe the perfection of his physique. I ran my hands over his abs again and up to his chest. There was no way this was really happening. I was waiting for the dream to end and for me to wake up. Then again, even my dreams hadn’t been this good.

I felt like it was the first time all over again. I was nervous and second guessing everything. I’d been nervous with Thomas the first time, but not like this. My heart was racing and I could barely breathe. Things with Thomas and my other ex hadn’t felt anything like this. For the first time in my life I felt like it was happening because it was meant to and not because I felt I should.

I laid in Sid’s arms after and tried to catch my breath. That’s when it hit me. Oh, this was not good. I never should have done that. I started to panic. I’d just done what I’d told myself I would never do again after Thomas. I’d slept with another hockey player. My dad’s voice came into my head again. “Loralei, stay away from hockey players. Trust me I would know. I won’t have my daughter getting treated that way.” No, no, no, this was not happening. What was the matter with me? Had I not learned just two months ago with Thomas? I rolled off of Sidney and covered myself up. I fought back tears as he turned to look at me, confused.

“Lor, what’s wrong?” I didn’t want to talk about it. I couldn’t. Not that it would matter now that I’d slept with him. He was going to go into the locker room tomorrow and they’d all have a good laugh at my expense and he’d move onto his next conquest, just like my father had said would happen and Thomas had actually done. Sid had been waiting for me for a long time, he’d be sure to brag tomorrow. He lifted himself up onto his elbow and looked down at me. “Loralei, tell me what’s going on.”

“That wasn’t supposed to happen. We were never supposed to do that. I thought you knew I wasn’t interested in you like this. I should never have even let us become friends. You just had to keep pushing it, didn’t you?” This time he started to panic.

“Wait a minute, hold on. You started this. I didn’t do anything you didn’t want me to do. I asked you more than once if you wanted to do this.” I then realized what it sounded like I was accusing him of. I covered my face with my hands as the tears started to come. Why was I so emotional? I sat up, keeping myself covered, and brought my knees up to my chest.

“That’s not what I mean. I’m sorry. I just shouldn’t have done this.”

“What are you scared of? Is it me or is it something else?” he asked hitting the mark perfectly. I wiped away the tears that had fallen.

“I just don’t want to get hurt again.” I looked everywhere except at him. I knew that if I looked at him I’d have to admit that I’d been falling for him since the moment I’d met him and I wasn’t ready to do that.

“Why would I hurt you? I thought you weren’t interested in me. I thought you didn’t like me like that. I can’t hurt someone that’s not emotionally attached to me.” Why did he have to be so observant? I guess I couldn’t avoid it now. I looked at him and words evaded me. I didn’t know how to respond. I was just admitting it to myself that I had feelings for him. I couldn’t admit it to him yet. He ran his fingers through my hair. “We’ll take it slow, as slow as you want. Don’t run from me, give me a chance.”

I had a debate going on in my head. I wanted to believe he was different from Thomas. I wanted to believe that just because my father had been right about Thomas didn’t mean he’d be right about Sidney. Could I believe him? I believed Thomas and he broke my heart. Twice. But didn’t Sidney at least deserve a chance? I knew I’d never felt so good in anyone else’s arms. It quickly became clear that the logical side of me was losing out and the emotional side had already won.

“I can’t promise anything. I need to take this at my pace or I’m not going to be able to do it. You can’t push me,” I finally told him. He pulled me into his arms and kissed my forehead.

“I’ll take anything I can get.” He kissed away the rest of the tears that had fallen. I hoped that I wasn’t making a mistake. Now the biggest problem was going to be breaking this to my dad. I just wouldn’t tell him until I knew how things were working out.

“Don’t hurt me. I don’t think I can take being hurt again,” I told him.

“I would never think of doing that. I’ve waited too long for you to screw anything up.” He kissed me again and the feelings I’d felt earlier came rushing back. It was the first time that anyone had made me feel this way, and as scared as I was, I liked it.

Chapter 14

The season had started and it was like my old routine had started up again. I was back to making Sid dinner every weekend when he was home, except this time he had to help. He’d actually made decent progress in the cooking department. I went to every game I could make it to and we did dinner after with the team and the girls just like we had last season. We’d even added in TV nights. When either of us got bored we just showed up at the other one’s house. This had caused heated debates about what show or hockey game we were going to watch.

“Come on, you’ve never even seen House!” I yelled at him when he vetoed my suggestion for that Tuesday night.

“NCIS is on,” he said flipping over to it. I groaned.

“It’s a Law and Order rip off!” I exclaimed.

“No, it’s not. They’re in the military,” he said holding back a laugh because he knew I was right. I narrowed my eyes at him.

“House is complete with medical mysteries, complex relationships between coworkers, and an asshole boss addicted to pain killers who speaks his mind. It’s hilarious.” I didn’t give him time to think about it when I grabbed the remote out of his hand and turned it on instead. He laughed at me but settled in to watch it. Of course I caught him laughing even though he was doing his best to pretend he didn’t enjoy it.

“Okay, we’ll add it to the Tuesday night line-up,” he said when it was over. I smiled in victory. He had the worst taste in television. I mean, come on, Friends? Totally overrated. I had just won Chuck on Mondays and he’d won Prison Break. Wednesdays would be next.

I sat at my desk at work thinking about it the next day. Sid and I were spending practically every day together when he wasn’t on the road. Technically, if you took away the age difference and everything my dad had told me, Sidney was the kind of guy I had always been looking for. He was cute, funny, smart, talented at everything he did (except cooking of course), and he was a genuinely good person. It seemed unfair to judge him based on a past experience, but there was no way around it. I’d been hurt when I didn’t listen to my father and I had decided that I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I’d never let anyone treat me the way Thomas had.

“Loralei, we need you, now!” Nancy yelled running by the door. I jumped up from my desk and chased her down the hall into the surgery room. Lying on the table was a frantic husky with slashes covering most of his back side. Then I noticed the arrow sticking out of his side, dangerously close to his heart. I couldn’t be sure before the surgery how much damage the arrow had done. Someone had whipped this dog and then shot it with a bow and arrow. I pushed aside my anger to focus on taking care of the dog. I found during the surgery that the arrow had narrowly missed hitting any major organs and had come within centimeters of puncturing his lung.

Cases like this put me in a bad mood. I’ll never understand how anyone can be cruel enough to hurt an animal like this. I knew it was a good thing I’d never find out who did it because I was never sure I wouldn’t return the favor so they could feel the pain they put the animal through. I admit I’m an overly emotional person and every time I see something like this I end up crying. It’s the most upsetting thing you could possibly see. As soon as I was done in the surgery I walked into my office and picked up the phone.

“Hello?” Sidney answered after the third ring.

“Be ready at 7, we’re going to dinner.” I wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“Loralei? What’s wrong?”

“I’ll tell you when I pick you up. Be ready.” I hung up the phone and prayed that the rest of my day would go by quickly. I definitely needed a drink. I went home to change after we closed the office. I was a little early but I was desperate to rant to someone and get a drink. Sid was ready when I came to the door.

“Is everything okay?” he asked when he saw me. He closed the door behind him and followed me to the car. I tried to fight it but before I could get in the car I started to cry. I’d never cried in front of him before and I felt foolish. He immediately came over and put his arms around me. “Let’s go inside for a minute. It’s cold out.” Without a word I followed him inside and sat down on the couch in the living room. He grabbed some tissues and sat down next to me. He waited until I had stopped enough to talk.

I told him all about the husky that had come in and how I couldn’t believe that someone could do that to a dog. The anger just all poured out and I couldn’t make it stop. I ended up going on a tirade about how awful people could be and crying over animal cruelty. He never interrupted and just let me get everything out. I appreciated it more than I thought he’d ever know. When I finally stopped talking I just looked at him and saw the concern and anger on his face. He pulled me to him and held me until I had calmed down.

“I’d kill someone if I ever saw them doing that. Those animals are lucky to have someone as passionate as you fighting on their side.” I looked up at him and smiled for the first time since that afternoon.

“Thank you.” I felt stupid sitting there with red, puffy eyes. He didn’t seem to notice. We just looked at each other for what seemed like eternity. If there was ever a time where I would be vulnerable enough to throw away all I’d been fighting and kiss him, now would have been the time. Just when I thought I was going to do it he smiled.

“How about that drink?” he asked. I laughed and pulled out of his arms. I could tell by how he was looking at me that he’d wanted to kiss me. I was grateful that he hadn’t. It spoke volumes when someone could tell when it was and wasn’t okay to do something like that.

“Let’s go,” I replied and we went back to the car and drove to dinner. We went to what had become our usual Italian spot. I ordered a glass of Riesling and followed it up with another when I had finished it before dinner even came. We avoided talking about work and animals and instead talked about his team and their recent play.

“You know, it never ceases to amaze me how much you know about the sport.” I smiled at him. If he only knew, I thought.

“I grew up watching hockey and my brother played. It’s only natural that I’d pick that kind of stuff up.” I don’t know why I was still hiding most of my family background from him. I guess I was just afraid of what it would turn into. The last thing I needed was to have my father on my case about my relationship with Sidney. I knew that they already knew of each other and had probably met, but it would be different if I was involved. I decided today was not the day to divulge who my father was.

“Thank you for coming with me. I know I didn’t really give you much of a choice.”

“It’s not a problem. I’m curious why you asked me to come. Isn’t this usually what you do with Phoebe, Reagan, and Sheila?” he asked. He was right. Whenever I had a bad day I ran to my friends and they did the same to me. I responded without thinking.

“Well, I knew that they all had stuff going on this week and I didn’t want to bother them, so I called you instead.” As soon as the words were out and I saw the hurt on his face I regretted what I’d said. The bill came and I reached for it. He beat me to it and put his credit card down. “I asked you to come, I should pay.” He ignored me and handed it back to the waitress.

“Well, I’m glad to know that I was your last hope. Sorry you couldn’t have one of your other three choices and you had to come to me. Hopefully I didn’t do that piss poor a job at cheering you up tonight.” He signed the bill when the waitress brought it back and got up to leave. I stood up and followed him out.

“Sid, wait.” He kept walking. “Sidney, please! You weren’t a last resort. Truth is, I picked up the phone and dialed your number without even thinking about who I wanted to call. Yes, this is usually the time where I would want one of them around but today was different. Sure, I realized after that they all had a pretty busy week, but I called you first. I chose you because you’re a good listener. You actually let me finish a thought before cutting in. I wasn’t interested in having three people try to one up me in the ‘who had the shittiest day’ contest. I just wanted someone to listen to me. I knew that you would and you were the person that I wanted here with me tonight, not them.” He turned and looked back at me.

“Do you really mean that or are you just saying it to spare my feelings?”

“I really mean it.” I got a half smile from him before he got in the car. I got in and turned to look at him. “I have Center Ice. Let’s go watch the Devils game.” He laughed and shook his head, and I knew that we were okay again.

Chapter 13

Last one before I leave. I was a writing fiend this week! Hopefully I'll get a chance to write a bit this next week so I'll have something to put up when I get back. Enjoy!





In the middle of August I got a call from Thomas. He told me he was back from Austria and was settling back into his house in Buffalo. He wanted to know if I could fly up for the weekend. I was happy to hear from him, but it just didn’t feel quite the same as it did before the summer. I told him I would and like before he sent me the itinerary.

A week had gone by since the last time I had talked to Sidney. I’d called him on his birthday and he told me that he’d be back in Pittsburgh at the end of the month. He’d be back the week after I returned from Buffalo. I was excited and nervous to see him. The conflicting feelings were both products of the same thing. Since being in Cole Harbour I hadn’t been able to deny that I had some sort of feelings for Sidney. What exactly they were though, I wasn't sure.

When the weekend came I got on the plane to Buffalo and Thomas picked me up like he did every time before. He kissed me in greeting and took me back to his house. We were barely through the front door when he put his arms around me and began to kiss me.

“Hey, wait a second,” I said pushing him away. “Tell me about your summer.”

“I can tell you about that later. I missed you,” he replied kissing me again.

“Thomas, come on. I’m here all weekend.” I sat down on the couch and with a sigh he sat down next to me. “How was Austria?”

“Austria was fine.” I waited for more but nothing else came.

“How were your parents?” I asked probing him for information.

“Like they always are, I guess.” What the hell was wrong with him? Why wouldn’t he talk to me about Austria?

“Well, what did you do?”

“I don’t know. I hung out with my family and some friends.”

“What’s wrong with you? Why won’t you tell me about what you did this summer?” I asked him suspiciously.

“I didn’t do anything worth talking about. I went home and hung out. That was it.” He leaned over and pulled me to him. He kissed me again and I gave in. I just figured we could talk later. As he carried me into the bedroom it occurred to me that he hadn’t asked me about my summer.

After we’d had dinner we were hanging out on the couch in the living room. He’d been more talkative but he still wouldn’t talk much about Austria. Maybe he really didn’t do much while he was there that was worth talking about, I thought. Then his phone rang.

“It’s right next to you. Will you hand it to me?” he asked me. I turned and grabbed the phone off the nightstand. The caller ID was on the outside and I saw the name “Ashley” as I was passing it to him. Why was she calling him now? He got up and walked into the bathroom shutting the door behind him. What was that about? Not feeling great about the situation I got up and stood outside the door.

“Hello? I’m just at my house, why? I know that. Look, I’m pretty busy unpacking right now, can I just call you tomorrow after I’m off the ice? I miss you too. I can’t wait to see you next week either. I love you too. Bye, babe.” Tears fell down my cheeks as I felt like he’d just ripped my heart out. I was a grade A idiot. He opened the door and saw me standing there.

“I thought you said you ended things with her,” I said to him.

“Lee-lee, I’m sorry. We decided to get back together,” he responded.

“You never went to Austria!” I yelled suddenly realizing that he’d been lying to me all along. “You went back to Minnesota and spent the summer with her. You never left her, did you?” I accused. I thought back to all the short phone calls, female voices in the background, and short notice trips. I walked into the bedroom began to grab my stuff and throw it in my bag.

“Lee-lee, wait.”

“Don’t ever call me that again,” I spat at him. When I had every thing in the bag I ran out of the bedroom and put on my shoes.

“Loralei, hold on. Your flight home isn’t until Sunday. Don’t go,” he pleaded.

“I’ll find the earliest one back and I’ll stay at a hotel until I get one.” He tried to beg me to stay but I ignored him and walked out the door. What a fool I’d been. I sat down outside and called a cab. Thomas didn’t come outside and try to talk to me again. I should have known. How did I not know?

The cab came and brought me to a hotel next to the airport. I called the airline after I checked in and got myself on a plane early the next morning. I spent the rest of the night crying. I couldn’t sleep well and got on the plane the next morning depressed and exhausted.

I was angry more with myself than with Thomas. He’d already done this to me once and I don’t know why I thought it would be different this time. It should have been a warning sign when even after he told me he’d ended things with Ashley that he still didn’t want anyone to know we were together. How could I have been so stupid? When I got off the plane I got in my car and drove straight to Sheila’s house. She looked shock when she saw me standing there with tears in my eyes.

“Rory, what are you doing here? I thought you were helping your parents move back to New Jersey. What’s wrong?” she asked letting me inside. I collapsed on the couch as she brought some tissues over.

“I was so stupid. Sheila, I’m the worst human being alive,” I sobbed.

“Honey, what are you talking about?” Without holding anything back I told her about when Thomas first called me. I told her about how I’d been stupid enough to believe everything he’d told me and about all the lies I’d told her, Phoebe, Reagan, my family, and work. When I was done she put her arms around me until I stopped crying.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I lied to you guys.”

“Ror, don’t apologize. You thought he’d changed and he was your first love. I know what that’s like. You don’t need me to be upset at you. What he did to you was punishment enough. I just hope that you learned from this.”

“I’ve got to tell Phoebe and Reagan and apologize to them.”

“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll take care of it. I don’t think they’re going to be any angrier at you than I am.” I hugged her.

“Thank you,” I said to her.

“Hey, I guess I get now why you kept denying you were dating Sidney.” I laughed at her then and suddenly felt better knowing that I’d be seeing him soon. Just thinking about him put a smile on my face. It wasn’t until later that I realized I’d never told Sheila that she was wrong when she had said that Thomas was the one thing keeping me from dating Sidney. I should have argued with her and told her it was because I didn’t think of Sidney like that, but I hadn't.

A few days later I was sitting on the couch watching TV when the doorbell rang. I smiled before I even answered the door. I knew exactly who would be standing there and I couldn’t wait to see him. I pulled open the door to see Sidney standing there smiling just like he always did. Before he had a chance to say anything I threw my arms around him and hugged him.

“Well, hello to you too,” he said laughing. I laughed too and invited him in.

“How was your trip?” I asked him.

“It was good. Non-eventful, thankfully, like any trip should be.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the living room.

“Sit, I have something for you,” I commanded. He gave me an odd look.

“What are you talking about?” I left the room without responding. I grabbed the wrapped present and brought it in to him.

“Happy belated birthday!” He laughed.

“This is enormous,” he said.

“There’s more than one thing in there,” I explained. He opened the box to find there were more boxes. “I didn’t want to wrap them separately so I just stuck them in one box and wrapped that.” He shook his head laughing at me.

He opened the first box to reveal gold and black M&M’s. He looked at me with a strange look until I told him to read them. When he did he began to laugh. They said “Finally legal!” on them. The next box he opened contained a bottle of champagne and I told him that we’d crack it open when he was done opening the rest to celebrate that he was finally legal for everything in the United States. He rolled his eyes at me but laughed anyway knowing it was the last time I’d be able to use that joke against him. The last box was the biggest and he looked confused as he opened it. He narrowed his eyes at me and started to laugh. It was a Cooking for Dummies book.

“Sorry, I give joke gifts,” I told him. “Even so, this is your bible if you want me to teach you how to cook, got it?”

“Got it. Thank you,” he said reaching over to give me a hug.

“You’re welcome. How about some champagne?” I got up and grabbed a couple of glasses and opened the champagne. I made sure that I opened it in the direction of Sidney, much to his dismay. “Oops, sorry,” I said sarcastically as I laughed at his wet clothes.

“I will be getting you back for that one,” he told me. I poured the champagne and we clinked glasses before settling in to catch up.

Chapter 12

I went for a jog deciding to just let my body decide how long I could run for. As I ran I thought about Thomas. The Sabres had lost in the Eastern Conference Finals. When the series was over Thomas had called me to tell me that he was flying home to Austria to spend the summer with friends and family over there. I wasn’t going to see him before he left and we wouldn’t be able to talk much over the summer. I thought it was a little strange that he didn’t tell me until then, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

On the other hand, Sidney kept his promise. We talked about once a week catching up. It was weird not having him in Pittsburgh and down the street bugging me all the time. I really missed having him around. I thought that once he was out of town everyone would stop bothering me about him and I dating, but it only got worse. They were constantly asking me if I missed him. I finished up my jog and walked into my house. Almost immediately my phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered trying to catch my breath.

“What were you doing?” I smiled at the sound of his voice.

“I just got back from a run. What can I do for you, Sidney?” I asked.

“Well, you could come up to my house in two weeks for a long weekend,” he replied.

“And why would I do a thing like that?”

“I’m having a kind of house party up here. You could bring all your friends. It’s just going to be a few days of friends hanging out and having a good time,” he explained.

“Well, thank you for the invite. I’ll talk to the girls and see what they say.” We talked for a few more minutes before I hung up. It seemed innocent enough and I’d never been to Nova Scotia before. I called Phoebe, Reagan, and Sheila to see if they were interested and every one of them told me that they’d go. I also had to listen to a lot of teasing about how much I must miss him.

When it came time to go the four of us boarded the plane. We’d made sure to get the same flights up and back. We had rented a car and used the directions that Sidney had given us to his house. Nova Scotia was beautiful, at least what we had seen of it was. We pulled into the driveway of Sidney’s house and he walked out the front door. After giving my three friends hugs in greeting he came over to me to do the same. I hugged him but I noticed, as I’m sure my friends did, that the hug lasted just a bit longer than the previous three. He grabbed as much of our stuff as he could and we followed him inside.

He gave us a tour of the house and showed us to the guest rooms. He only had three of them so he told us someone was going to have to double up or sleep on a couch. Phoebe and Reagan volunteered to stay together. I noticed that the house was decorated well and I teased Sidney that there was no way he’d done it himself. He sheepishly replied that he’d done none of it. A couple of his friends stopped over a couple hours later and we all headed out to dinner.

The house party wasn’t technically starting until the next day so his friends just went back home after dinner was over. When we returned to Sidney’s house the five of us put on a movie that we didn’t end up watching due to the conversation that was going. It was still pretty early when my three friends all claimed to be tired from the travel and went up to their rooms for the night, leaving Sidney and I sitting in the living room alone. I knew what they were doing and I didn’t like it.

“I’m glad that we’re alone for a moment. I actually have something I want to give you,” he said getting up and walking out of the room.

“What are you talking about?” I called after him. He didn’t respond until he walked back into the room holding something small and boxy that was wrapped.

“I know that I missed your birthday while I was up here. I wanted to get you something anyway and just give it to you when I saw you.” He handed me the box.

“You didn’t have to get me anything, really,” I told him.

I unwrapped the present and it revealed what was obviously a jewelry box. When I saw it I just hoped that he’d put something else in a box he found lying around. I saw that wasn’t the case when I opened it and saw what I thought must have been the most beautiful necklace I’d ever seen. My hand flew up to my mouth when I saw it and my eyes opened wide. There was no question it had been expensive. It took me a minute before I could even form words.

“Sidney, it’s beautiful,” I whispered not because I meant to but because I could barely speak. I looked up at him and he was smiling.

“Then try it on,” he told me. I nodded and took the necklace out of the box. I couldn’t even make my hands work to undo the clasp I was still so shocked. Sidney took the necklace from my hands and put it on for me. I got up to look at it in a mirror. He came to stand behind me.

“You really didn’t have to do this,” I said fingering the necklace unable to take my eyes off of it.

“I know, but I wanted to.” Before my brain caught up to my actions I turned and put my arms around him, giving him a hug.

“No one has ever gotten me something like this before,” I said fighting back tears, still not letting go of him. I didn’t want to let go.

“Promise me you’ll wear it at least a few times,” he joked.

“I will definitely wear this, every chance I get.” I blinked away the tears and finally pulled away from him. “Thank you, so much.”

It wasn’t much later when I went upstairs to bed. It took me a while to fall asleep as I thought about what had just happened. I’d wanted to kiss him. I almost had. I didn’t know what was going on. Were my friends right? Did I have feelings for Sidney? I tried to tell myself I didn’t, but it became evident to me that a necklace wouldn’t have made me cry if I didn’t feel something for him. I was glad that tomorrow there would be a house full of people and I probably wouldn’t be alone with him again for the rest of the weekend. I needed time to think.

His friends and family began coming over around noon. I was introduced to so many people that I couldn’t remember anyone’s names. By mid-afternoon the house and Sidney’s yard were full of people. My friends and I were scattered all over talking to the people we had just met. I hadn’t told them about the necklace and I didn’t intend on doing it until I figured out how I felt about the whole thing. As I was talking to a few of Sidney’s friends I saw him walk over with a man, a woman, and a teenage girl.

“Loralei, I want you to meet my family. This is my dad, Troy, my mom Trina, and my little sister Taylor.” I shook hands with them all.

“It’s really nice to meet you all,” I said.

“So you’re Loralei? We’ve heard so much about you, I almost feel like I know you,” Trina said to me. I glanced over at Sidney and he was blushing. That was new, he never blushed.

“All good things, I hope.”

“Sid’s never said a bad thing about you. To be honest, I think he has a bit of a crush,” Troy pretended to whisper to me but making sure Sidney could hear him.

“Dad, come on,” he said rolling his eyes obviously embarrassed. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Trust me, he doesn’t keep it very secret,” I told them. We all laughed and Sidney shook his head walking away. I spent a bit of time talking to his family after that. I could tell that they were really great people and I saw why Sidney seemed to be such a well-adjusted person.

The rest of the weekend continued on in the same fashion with people in and out all the time. I was right when I thought that I wouldn’t be alone with Sidney again. Monday morning rolled around and I got out of bed and walked down to the kitchen to find something to eat. There was plenty of leftover food from the weekend so I helped myself to some. As I sat there my friends came down carrying their luggage.

“What are you guys doing?” I asked. “We don’t leave until tomorrow morning.” The three of them exchanged glances.

“Actually, we have our flight home this morning. We just told you we were on the same flight as you on Tuesday,” Sheila responded. I jumped up from the table and walked over to them.

“Are you kidding me right now?” I asked in anger.

“No, we’re not. We just thought you’d need some time to spend with Sidney alone,” Phoebe explained.

“Why would I need time alone with him?” They all rolled their eyes at me.

“We’ve got to get going or we’re going to miss our flight. We said bye to Sidney last night but tell him thanks again for us. Talk to you when you get home!” Reagan called following the other two out the door. I stared after them in shock. If they hadn’t been my closest friends I never would have spoken to them again.

I knew that Sidney wasn’t going to be home until late afternoon because he had just left to skate for a couple hours so I put on my bathing suit and decided to get a bit of a tan outside. I grabbed a magazine and my headphones and went out. Eventually I put down the magazine and just listened to the music. I jumped a while later when I felt a hand on my arm. When I looked up I saw Sidney laughing at me.

“You scared me,” I said pulling the headphones out of my ears.

“Yeah, I could tell. You must have jumped two feet off of the chair,” he replied laughing. I rolled my eyes at him.

“What time is it?”

“Almost 1:30.”

“I thought you were skating until later,” I said confused. He shrugged.

“I was going to but they had a lot of people there so I just came home,” he told me. I pushed my sunglasses up on my head and glared at him. He was looking, no staring, at my chest.

“You do realize that my face is up here, right?” I asked pointing. He looked up at me and laughed.

“Sorry, I just zoned out for a minute.”

“Sure, Crosby, whatever you say.” I got up and wrapped the towel around me. Then I walked inside the house with Sidney close behind.

“I thought maybe we could do something today.”

“What did you have in mind?” I asked.

“Well, you’re already in your suit, so we could go to the beach. I desperately need to learn how to cook as well,” he answered. I laughed at him.

“You want me to teach you how to cook tonight?” He smiled and shrugged.

I grabbed some stuff and got into his car. He drove to the beach and we set up our beach towels. I saw Sidney take his shirt off and was suddenly very glad I had sunglasses on. I couldn’t take my eyes off of his body. My God he was ripped. It was awful, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how Thomas’s body just didn’t compare.

“Are we going in the water?” Sidney asked jerking me out of my thoughts.

“Yeah, right. The water is cold enough further south. It’s probably freezing up here,” I joked. He laughed.

“That’s why you just have to jump in.” I shook my head at him.

“Have fun then,” I told him. He shrugged and made his way towards the water. I used the opportunity to admire the muscles in his back as well. I was so caught up in admiring him that I was already in Sidney’s arms before I realized what he was doing.

“You're going in,” he said running towards the water.

“Sidney Patrick Crosby, you put me down now!” I screamed at him trying to squirm free. It was no use. He had a tight grip on me. It was only seconds before he dumped me in the water. I stood up soaked and freezing just to see him laughing at me. If looks could kill, he’d be dead.

“Aw, come on, it’s not that cold,” he said to me. I didn’t respond. I began to storm back to the beach walking right past him. “Lor, come on,” he said sounding like he felt bad and turning towards me. I used the opportunity to kick his foot out from under him. He went down in a heap into the water. I turned back to him and flashed a smile.

“Don’t let your guard down around me, Crosby,” I told him. He laughed. I walked back over and put a hand out to help him up. I really should have known better. He took my hand and pulled me right back down with him.

“Don’t let your guard down around me, Robinson,” he mocked. I laughed at him. He stood up and put a hand out to help me up. Just as I was standing something soft and stringy brushed against my leg. Having been stung by a jelly fish before I jerked my leg away causing me to almost fall. Sidney caught me against his chest. I smiled up at him.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You okay?” he asked. I nodded but didn’t look away. We stood there for a moment in the water, my body pressed against his, looking into each other’s eyes. I angled my face up towards his and he moved his closer to mine. Just as our lips were about to meet someone yelled over.

“Hey, Sid, is that you?” a young boy asked.

I let go of him and backed away. What the hell was I doing? Sidney turned and started talking to the boy. It turns out that Sid helped coach a camp in the summers and the boy was one of the skaters in it. I walked back up to the towels and started to dry off while they talked. A few minutes later Sidney came over.

“If you want to learn to cook something decent we should head to the store,” I told him. He agreed and we packed up our stuff. We went to the store so we could buy supplies. I ended up teaching him how to cook a rack of lamb with garlic confit. Just like last time he was useless, but I did my best.

“You need cooking for dummies or something,” I joked.

He took me out for a game of mini golf after dinner where he destroyed me. When we got home I packed up my stuff and then spent the rest of the night hanging out with him. Neither of us brought up the moment at the beach. The next morning he drove me to the airport.

“Thank you so much for everything. And I really mean everything,” I said to him.

“You’re welcome. Thanks for coming. Tell the girls it was great to see them again. I guess I’ll see you next month when I come back for the season.”

“I guess so.” I hugged him and felt terrible about leaving. I pulled myself away and smiled at him. We said our goodbyes and I walked into the airport. I spent the flight home trying to push away the thoughts of how much I’d wanted to stay with Sidney in Cole Harbour.

Chapter 11

A few days had gone by and I hadn’t heard a word from Sidney. I started to worry because it had been months since we’d gone longer than a day without talking. Even so I knew that he probably needed some time to deal with the loss so I didn’t want to call him.

I’d thought of having one last team party over at my place before the guys all headed out of town and the girls all agreed that it would be a good idea. I got started thinking up the food I could make and what day would be best for it. I just hoped that I’d hear from Sidney before he left town.

“Have you heard anything from Sidney yet?” Nancy asked walking into my office during my lunch break. I shook my head.

“Nothing. I’m sure he’s just upset and needs some time to deal with everything,” I told her.

“Honey, what he needs is you,” she stated. I’d given up denying that Sid and I were dating. No one was going to believe me anyway and it was too exhausting to bother anymore.

“He’ll call when he’s ready.” I said it hoping that I was right. When I got home that night I opened my cupboards trying to decide what I wanted to have for dinner that night. Nothing looked appealing and I sighed as I sat down at the counter to brainstorm. Then it hit me.

I picked up the phone and called in the order. When I hung up I got in the car and drove to the restaurant and picked up the food. Then instead of heading home I headed over to Sidney’s. I didn’t know if he was there or even if he was hungry but I wanted to see how he was doing. I rang the doorbell and waited. Sidney opened it after a minute, but without his signature smile. I held up the food from our favorite Italian place.

“I thought I’d bring some dinner over,” I said to him. He stepped aside and motioned for me to come in. I walked in and headed for his kitchen. I took all the food out and grabbed plates and silverware from the cupboards I had already familiarized myself with.

“It smells great. I’m starving,” he said grabbing a couple of sodas from the refrigerator and sitting down at the table. We began to eat in silence and it was probably the most awkward I’d ever felt around him. I wasn’t sure what to say or do and he obviously wasn’t in a great mood.

Leave it to Shooter to solve the problem for me. Out of nowhere he came tearing into the kitchen. He tried to turn the corner to run over to us but his back feet slid out from under him and he spun completely around before slamming head first into the wall. Sidney and I looked at him in surprise for a moment and then I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help myself.
Shooter got up like nothing had happened and walked over to me wagging his tail. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t even pet him. Then I heard Sidney start to laugh. I looked over at him and our eyes met. Suddenly we couldn’t stop laughing. Shooter stood between us looking back and forth obviously confused. I laughed until I started to cry. Every time I thought I was going to stop Sid would burst out laughing and it would start all over again. Eventually we finally composed ourselves when Shooter trotted out of the room, bored with us.

“Did that seriously just happen?” Sidney finally asked. I took a breath and wiped away the tears.

“It seriously just did.” He shook his head smiling.

“I’m sorry I haven’t called,” he said changing the subject.

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“I really appreciate you coming over with dinner tonight. It was really nice of you. Thank you.” I smiled at him.

“Not a problem.” We finished the rest of our dinner in silence, but with a decidedly different mood in the air. I helped him clean up and we walked into the living room and turned on the TV.

“The guys are going to start leaving town soon,” he said as he flipped through the channels. I knew Buffalo was playing that night but Sidney flipped right past it. I didn’t mind at all.

“Yeah, I know. I thought about throwing one last party at my place before everyone leaves for the summer. The girls all thought it was a great idea too,” I told him.

“Yeah, that sounds like fun. When were you thinking?” he asked.

“Probably this Saturday since I know guys are going to start wanting to get out of here. I thought I’d cook up some appetizers and party food.” He smiled and nodded.

“Yes, please,” he joked. I laughed. He promised to pass the word along and I headed home for the night.

I spent the rest of the week preparing for the party. I’d had phone calls from just about everybody offering to bring stuff, but hostessing was something I loved to do and I told everyone just to show up. The week went by quickly and I woke up early on Saturday to start making the food. I was surprised when the doorbell rang and I saw Sidney on the other side.

“What can I do to help?” he asked coming into the kitchen.

“You can stay away from anything edible,” I joked remember his last foray into helping me cook.

“Come on, there’s got to be something I can do.” I looked around and in fact found some things I was confident he couldn’t screw up. We spent the next few hours hanging out in my kitchen preparing for the party and talking. His mood had lightened considerably since the last time I saw him and I was happy about that. He headed home about an hour before the party to change his clothes and shower.

“Loralei! Loralei, where are you?” I heard Colby yelling from the opposite side of the basement after the party had gotten going. I stood up and waved over to him.

“Right here, Army! What’s up?” I asked.

“Don’t tell Mel about this, but will you marry me?” he asked shoving one of my appetizers into his mouth. Mel slapped him since she was standing right next to him and laughed. I rolled my eyes at him.

“I guess it wasn’t meant to be, Muffin,” I joked. He clutched at his heart and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.

“I’ll never forget you, my love.” With that he dramatically ran up the stairs causing the whole basement to erupt in laughter. I was going to miss him.

The party continued on for most of the night. There were tournaments going in pool, air hockey and bubble hockey. Beer pong and flip cup had been played along with a few card games. Despite it all I made sure to monitor how much I had to drink this time.

The party began to wind down and I made sure to say goodbye to everyone as they left. All the girls promised to keep in touch. Soon it was just Sidney and I left at the house. He helped me clean up even though I told him it wasn’t necessary. Once everything was done I walked him to the door.

“I’m heading out of town on Wednesday,” he said.

“Back to Nova Scotia, eh?” I asked. He nodded.

“Let’s do dinner one last time on Tuesday before I leave,” he suggested.

“Sounds good. I’ll come over when I get out of work.” We said good night and I went upstairs to bed.

On Tuesday I went over to Sidney’s house like I promised and we went for some Thai. We talked about his hometown over dinner and plans he had for the summer. We agreed that we would stay in touch the whole time. We headed back to his house and hung out a bit longer until it got pretty late.

“So I guess I’ll see you when you get back to town in a few months,” I said before leaving.

“I guess so. I’ll call and let you know when I get there.”

“Sounds good. Have a safe trip.” As I was about to walk to my car Sidney surprised me by reaching out and pulling me into a hug. I hugged him back and that’s when the emotions hit me. I closed my eyes and fought back tears. I could say whatever I wanted to my friends, but I was going to miss Sidney.

Chapter 10

Thanks for all the comments! I'm glad that people actually enjoy reading this. I'm going on vacation this upcoming weekend and won't be able to post anything during that time so I'm going to do my best to get as much up as I can before then. Thanks again!





A few weeks had gone by and the Penguins were playing their last game of the season. All the teams in the Eastern Conference were close so seeding hadn’t yet been decided for playoffs. Everything depended on tonight, the last night of the regular season. I met up with the girls for dinner and drinks before the game. They were a nervous bunch.

“My stomach hurts just thinking about tonight,” Vero said. I looked over at her sympathetically.

“I don’t even know how you do it, dating a goalie,” I told her.

“You can’t help who you love. Lots of wine helps too,” she joked taking a sip of hers. We all laughed.

“So if they lose tonight they drop from second to fourth?” Bri asked.

“Yeah, and I’d rather they play a team further down in the standings than one that is just as good,” Abby responded. I just listened to most of the conversation. They all had reason to be nervous from here on out, but I was still a bit of an outsider. My life wasn’t affected at all by whether the Penguins won or lost from here on out.

When we finished eating we headed to the rink. After grabbing some more drinks from the wives’ room we headed to our seats. The Penguins were playing Montreal who was the only team to secure their seed winning first in the Eastern Conference. They were a fast-paced team constantly on the attack making them a tough opponent. They also never sat on a lead making it nearly impossible for teams to come back against them while down, especially at the end of games, so scoring first was key for the Penguins.

Scoring first is exactly what they did when Petr Sykora put one in halfway through the first. They held the lead into the first intermission thanks to some stellar goaltending from Marc. Montreal had put a lot of pressure on the Pens so another goal would be huge for them. Unfortunately Montreal scored two quick goals five minutes into the second intermission. The Pens came out hard in the third and thanks to a power play goal by Malkin the game was tied.

With just four minutes left in the game Marc made an unbelievable post to post save on an odd man rush and the puck was passed up to Sid who streaked down the ice in on odd man rush of their own with Montreal’s players stuck in the offensive zone. He was going in 2 on 1 with Malkin but Montreal’s defender took away the passing lane. Sid faked a pass anyway causing Montreal goalie Carey Price to cheat a bit off his angle, but then picked a spot top corner shooting the puck into the net.

The sold out Igloo went nuts cheering the go ahead goal. Usually pretty calm during games, the girls exploded in excitement jumping up and hugging each other, myself included. The excitement was contagious and I felt myself cheering as hard as everyone else in the rink despite the fact that if Pittsburgh lost the Devils would win the Atlantic Division and receive the second seed for playoffs. The Penguins held on for the win and we all waited for the guys downstairs. Each time one of them came in, the room erupted in cheers.

Vero and I were the last two left in the room knowing that Sid and Marc were probably hoarded by reporters more than anyone else. They eventually came in together. Vero greeted Marc with a hug and a kiss and congratulated him in French.

“Nice move on the goal, Crosby,” I said to him as he walked over. His smile grew.

“I tried,” he joked.

“You realize that you are the sole reason tonight that the Devils didn’t win the division,” I told him. He put a hand over his heart.

“Oh no, what was I thinking?” he asked sarcastically. I laughed and gave him a light punch in the arm. “So we’re playing Boston first round.” I made a face. I’d always hated Boston.

“Kick their asses,” I said. He laughed and I followed him out to his car. He easily spent 20-30 minutes signing autographs for cheering fans while I texted Phoebe, Reagan, and Sheila. When he finally managed to pull away we met the guys for some dinner and went out to Diesel to celebrate the win. My friends met us there and we partied long into the night.

Playoffs were a completely different vibe than the regular season. Every team had made it because they were capable of winning the Cup and every fan believed this was the year for their team. The first two games at the Igloo were insane. The only place I’d ever been to during playoffs that could compare was Montreal. The fans were loud and cheered until the final buzzer and even after. Pittsburgh went to Boston for games 3 and 4 up 2-0 in the series.

For game 3 all the girls met up at the Malone’s house to watch the game together. Phoebe, Reagan, and Sheila were included because they’d gotten to know the girls too. Unfortunately the party wasn’t as fun when Boston pulled out a win at home making the series 2-1. I decided to host the watch party at my place for game 4 and went all out cooking food and stocking the bar downstairs. The girls joked that every game was going to have to be watched at my place now when they saw the spread. The guys won the game and had a chance to win the first round at home, which they did.

Some of the other series still continued on and we had to wait to find out who the second round opponent would be. In a complete upset Buffalo ousted Montreal in six games making the Penguins the highest seed for the next round. It also meant they would be playing Buffalo who was the lowest seed. I had real mixed feelings about that.

I was happy because Thomas would be in town and I hadn’t seen him at all this month. The problem was going to be keeping anyone from knowing that we were dating again. My friends knew all about him and it would be tricky keeping them apart. I also wanted to make sure Sidney didn’t find out. I justified my feelings on that one by telling myself that even though Sidney and I were just friends he had been interested in me before and he didn’t need to be hurt if those feelings were still there. I was just looking out for a friend.

The Sabres came into town the morning before the first game in Pittsburgh. Thomas called me immediately to make plans to have dinner that night. I promised him I’d pick him up at the hotel and cook him dinner at my house. Even though I knew I should be excited to see him I went through work that day almost on auto pilot. For some reason the butterflies just weren’t there this time. I told myself it was just because I was scared of being found out.

After I got out of work I picked Thomas up and brought him home. He requested lasagna for dinner so I went to work preparing it when we got to my house. He walked around admiring the house, never having seen it before.

“You’ve got a nice place here, Lee-lee,” he told me coming into the kitchen and sliding his arms around my waist from behind. I nestled my head back into his chest.

“Thank you. Sorry that I had to buy the lasagna noodles at the store instead of making them myself. I didn’t have time with work today,” I apologized. He kissed my cheek and pulled away.

“It’ll still taste unbelievable, I know it.” When I finished cooking I poured a couple glasses of wine and we talked over dinner. He offered to give me a ticket for the game but I lied and told him I had a connection with the team through my father so I already had tickets available to me. No reason to mention Sidney to him, I thought.

The two games in Pittsburgh were hard fought. Buffalo was obviously a better team than the standings had shown. They played the Pens hard and were just more physical. The series was tied 1-1 after the first two games. The next two games were in Buffalo and I suddenly wasn’t so sure that Pittsburgh would be able to pull out a win in this series. I’d managed to avoid any awkwardness after the games by agreeing not to go see Thomas since we still hadn’t thought it was necessary to tell anyone we were dating.

The games in Buffalo weren’t much better for the Pens. Buffalo won both games putting them up in the series 3-1. Although the teams weren’t really rivals, a bad blood had quickly formed between the two. Cheap shots were being taken on both sides and no one was immune. The teams went from being just opponents to enemies.

I cooked dinner for Thomas again when they came back to town for game 5. Then I went to the game the next night and cheered against him as the Pens won guaranteeing at least one more game. Both teams left for Buffalo that night and again it was up to me to host a watch party for game six.

For whatever reason it seemed that game six was the worst of the series. A scrum broke out after almost every play. Both goalies were getting run on a consistent basis causing Vero to drink more than she’d intended. More than once we witnessed guys from each team being cut open thanks to cheap shots. Nonetheless it was a close game that went into overtime. A third overtime was needed and when a fluke goal bounced off of a skate, then a leg, and went in behind Marc we all fell silent staring at the television in shock.

The city of Buffalo celebrated as we cleaned up the basement in complete silence. Almost at once everyone’s phones began to ring as the guys called. I felt bad for them having to deal with the guys now after such a heartbreaking loss. My phone rang and I was surprised to see that it was not Sidney, but Thomas. I left the room before answering.

“Were you watching?” Thomas yelled excitedly into the phone. I tried to sound like I was happy for him when truthfully I was sad.

“Yeah, I was. Congratulations on the win. It was hard fought,” I told him. I could hear voices in the background yelling excitedly and I figured he was still at the rink around the guys.

“It was awesome. I wish you could have been here to see it in person. I’ve got to get going. We’re heading out for a big dinner to celebrate. I’ll talk to you later,” he said as I heard a female voice yelling that they were leaving. I assumed it was another guy’s wife and told him to have fun.

I said goodbye to the girls and promised that I would make sure to see them all before they left for the summer. I did some more cleaning before I went to bed. I should have been happy for Thomas but I wasn’t. I told myself it was just because I’d become good friends with the Pens and was sad that they’d lost. My last thought before drifting off to sleep was that Sidney hadn’t called after the game.

Chapter 9

Because I can do whatever I want I've decided that Colby will not be traded and will remain with the Penguins. He's just too funny for me to lose.





Time seemed to fly by since then and before I knew it, it was March. The playoffs were less than a month away and the Penguins were battling for first place in the Eastern Conference. Sidney had completely stopped flirting with me and we had actually become really good friends. Because of how close we had become every one of my friends still accused me of dating him but I just blew it off.

I went to just about every home game and Sidney and I always grabbed dinner with the guys and girls after. Since I sat with the girls during the game we had begun to hang out more and they were also becoming good friends. If Sidney had one of the weekend days open I cooked for the two of us since the weekend was the only time I wasn't too busy. It had almost become a weekly tradition. Honestly, I saw more of him than I did my other friends.

Things with Thomas were also still going well. I flew up one weekend a month to see him. Even though I was technically with Thomas I always made sure it was the one weekend that Sidney and I couldn't have our weekly dinner. I wasn't sure exactly why I did that, but I tried not to put too much thought into it. I also still hadn't told a single person about Thomas. He'd told me that he'd broken things off with Ashley, but for some reason I was still keeping us a secret. I wasn't sure why I was doing that either.

I sat in an arena seat clapping with the rest of the girls after the Penguins pulled out a hard fought victory over the Flyers. I walked downstairs with the rest of the girls to wait for Sidney. He'd played well with a goal and an assist so I knew he'd be in a great mood. I hated when they lost because he always took it so hard and he wasn't any fun to be around.

My phone rang while I was waiting in the wives' room and stepped out into the hallway to answer it. It was a technician from work giving me updates on a dog we were keeping overnight for observation. The news was good and I was confident the dog would be able to go home the next day. Just before I walked back into the room I felt someone touch my arm.

"Excuse me," a woman said and I turned around to see a smiling reporter and cameraman standing there.

"Can I help you?" I asked confused. Were they lost?

"Hi, I was just wondering if I could ask you a question?" she asked. I looked back and forth between her and the cameraman immediately suspicious.

"You can, but I can't guarantee that I'll answer," I told her.

"Well, we were actually just curious what you're name was," she said. Where the hell was this going?

"Can I ask why you want to know?" She kept the smile on her face.

"I've just noticed you leaving all the games with Sidney Crosby the past few months and was wondering if the two of you were dating," she said innocently. I clenched my jaw and took a breath to calm myself down before responding.

"Sidney and I are simply friends and that's as far as it goes. I'm actually seeing someone else," I told her. I immediately wanted to slap myself for the last thing I said. What was I thinking? No one knew, and if she said anything my cover could be blown.

"Oh, okay. Who are you dating?" she asked.

"It's really not your concern," I said knowing the my voice shook just a little. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she'd caught it too and she didn't believe a word I had said.

"Hey, Loralei, Sid is going to be a while so he said you should just come with Colby and I to dinner tonight and he'll meet us there when he gets out!" I heard Mel call to me. Oh, that might be the worst timing ever.

"Loralei? Is this a double date?" the woman asked. I groaned and turned my back on her choosing to just walk away instead of respond.

The three of us drove to our normal place and ordered food and drinks. I couldn't get the whole conversation with the reporter out of my head. I was both angry and worried. I was angry that I had to be a part of that whole situation at all. I was also worried about what they might find out. Could they find out who my father was or that I was secretly dating Thomas? I shook the thoughts away when I saw Sid walk in the door. After we ate Sid and I got into his car and began the drive home.

"A reporter approached me tonight," I told him. He glanced over at me confused.

"What the hell about?" he asked.

"She wanted to know if we were dating because I've been leaving the games with you for the past few months," I explained. He groaned.

"Fucking leeches. I'm so sorry about that. What did you say?" he asked glancing over at me again. My stomach churned.

"I told them the truth, that we were just friends," I said. He smiled.

"They'll believe what they want no matter what you say," he said apologetically. I shrugged.

"I also told them I was seeing someone else," I confessed figuring he should hear it from me instead of reading about it. To my surprise he laughed.

"Clever. Did they believe you?" he asked. He didn't believe I was seeing someone else, but then again why would he? I felt relief sweep over me.

"I don't think so, but at least I put that out there. I was really just trying to keep them out of my business," I lied.

"Look, we don't have any games this weekend so on Saturday I'm throwing a party for the team and the girls. You should come," he invited me. I thought about it for a minute.

"I don't know if I should. It's for the team and the girls and I'm not in either category. You guys should just all have fun," I responded. I could see him roll his eyes.

"Come on, we're all your friends. You don't need to be dating someone to come." I thought about it again. We pulled into my driveway and I hesitated before getting out.

"Thanks for the invite, but I think I'm just going to stay home." I shut the door before he could respond and walked inside. Almost as soon as I closed the door my phone rang.

"Hello?" I asked thinking it was the technician from work.

"Loralei, what the hell is wrong with you? If you're not at Sid's on Saturday I will go over to your house and drag you down with me!" I heard Mel yell at me. I laughed.

"Sid called to have you threaten me, didn't he?" I asked. She laughed too.

"Yeah, he did. It doesn't matter though, we all want you there. You're our friend too." I thought about it and finally gave in. I promised to see here there on Saturday and hung up the phone.

A few days later I stood in front of the mirror debating how to dress. I eventually settled on just a pair of jeans and a nice shirt since we were just going to be hanging out at Sid's. I left my hair down and walked out of my house. As I walked up to Sid's house I saw that most of the team had to already be there. Cars were parked all over the street. I walked inside and was immediately greeted by Shooter. God, I loved that dog.

"You came!" Vero squealed running down the hall to hug me. She'd obviously been drinking. I hugged her back and greeted everyone. I found Sidney sitting at the island in the kitchen with Colby and Ryan Whitney.

"Hey, guys," I said walking over.

"Loralei, here, have a drink," Colby said grabbing a cup and filling it with some kind of punch. I took the cup from his hands and took a sip. Not bad.

"You're just in time for the flip cup tournament," Sidney said. "You'll be on my team with Colby and Mel."

"Are you serious? I haven't played that in years," I said. They laughed.

"You better practice then, because we'll kick your ass," Ryan Malone said coming over with Abby.

I shook my head and laughed when I saw brackets set up on posters hung on the wall. They were taking this very seriously. I filled my cup up with the punch since I didn't drink beer when it was my teams turn to play. We dominated each game to get out of the bracket seeded first. It was time for the semis and a loss meant you were out. We got past the next team of Max, Bri, Geno, and Staalsy to get to the finals. Our opponents would be none other than Malone, Abby, Marc, and Vero. After some trash talking the game started. I went first and landed my cup on the second try, just one ahead of Vero. It was up to the rest and I cheered them on until it came down to Sid and Ryan. Sid landed his cup first and we all began to cheer and jump up and down hugging each other.

After the game was over I grabbed another cup of punch and headed into the living room with the rest of the group to watch a guitar hero tournament that had begun. I sat down next to Sidney and we laughed at Erik Christensen's terrible attempt. It was then that I suddenly realized that I was pretty drunk. Doing all those shots of the punch was getting to me, not to mention I'd been drinking from another cup during the down time. I didn't care though, I was having fun.





Sidney looked over at Loralei as she tapped her glass to his. He smiled and laughed at her and continued to watch the guys make fools of themselves playing guitar hero. At some point Loralei got up to go hang out with the girls. He was glad they got along so well. After Whitney was determined the winner of guitar hero the party started to break up a bit. A few guys began to leave saying they were headed out to the bars. Just then Loralei came over and plopped down right on his lap. He looked at her in surprise, but not really minding.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked. She shrugged and smiled.

"Some of the girls are leaving to go out so I came back in here to hang out with you," she said cuddling into him. Okay, she had to be drunk but what the hell, so was he. He put his arm around her and they joined in the conversation.

It got late and most of the guys had a left. Loralei had only moved from his side to get a drink. When the last stragglers announced they were heading home he got up to see them out leaving Loralei sitting on the couch in the living room. When he came back in he saw her standing up.

"I think it's time I went to bed too," she said to him. She grabbed her coat but he took it out of her hand.

"Don't even bother walking. I have an extra bedroom, just stay here tonight." He expected her to argue and put up a fight.

"Okay," she said simply and headed for the stairs. He followed her up. Although she knew his house she walked straight into his bedroom instead of one of the guest rooms. When he followed her in she spun around to him.

"I've been meaning to tell you something for a while," she told him.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" he asked.

"I like you. I mean I really like you. Ever since you talked to me at the bar that night. I've been trying to fight it because my dad just wouldn't understand," she said. Her dad? What did he have to do with anything? He decided to let it go. Loralei had just told him she liked him.

"If you're just making fun of me, I don't think it's funny," he told her. She smiled and walked closer to him.

"I'm not making fun of you. I'm going to do something I've been meaning to do for a long time," she announced. Then she slid her arms around him and put her lips to his. He hesitated for just a moment before kissing her back.

This was everything he'd been hoping would happen for months and it actually was. He wrapped his arms around her back pulling her as close to him as he could. She began to move backwards without breaking the kiss until she was pulling him down to the bed on top of her. He willingly went.

She finally broke the kiss and smiled up at him. She bit her lower lip as she reached down to grab the bottom of his shirt and pulled it off. Then she did the same to herself. This was really happening to him. He couldn't believe it. He kissed her again as she felt his chest and abs. He began to trail kisses along her jawline and down her neck. When he reached her collarbone she giggled.

What the hell? Loralei didn't giggle. He looked down at her again and saw that her eyes were barely open. Fuck, Loralei was shitfaced. He took a deep breath as he realized there was no way this should happen tonight. He moved off of her to her confusion, kicking himself the entire time.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Lor, I really want to do this. I've wanted this since I met you but tonight is not the night. When it happens, and if it happens I want us both to be sober so we can really enjoy it. I respect you too much to do this right now."

He looked for her shirt and picked it up when he found it. When he turned back to give it to her he saw that she was out. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw. He put her shirt back on her and she never stirred. He tucked her into the blankets and changed his own clothes. Then he curled up in a chair in the room and watched her sleep before passing out himself.





I woke up and felt the headache before even opening my eyes. I groaned as I covered my face in my hands. How much had I had to drink? I reached over to grab my phone off my nightstand only to feel a lamp. That was strange, I didn't have a lamp there. I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn't in my bedroom, I was in Sidney's. I struggled to sit up. Just as I did, Sid walked into the room.

"Hey, I thought you could use some water," he said handing me a giant glass. I took it and chugged about half of it down.

"Thank you," I said to him.

I tried to count all that I'd had to drink but couldn't remember after playing flip cup. Okay, Loralei, you can't remember how many drinks you had, no big deal. Then I realized that I couldn't remember anything after flip cup. I began to freak out trying to remember anything but couldn't. How the hell did I end up in Sidney's bed?

"What happened last night after flip cup?" I asked him. Surprise registered in his eyes and he glanced away before responding.

"We just hung out with everyone watching a guitar hero tournament and talking," he said. I nodded and took another sip of water.

"How did I end up in bed?" I asked.

"You don't remember anything?" I struggled to remember anything but still nothing came to mind.

"It's all a blank after winning flip cup. Did I do anything embarrassing?" I asked panicked.

"No, you didn't do anything embarrassing. You wanted to get some sleep but some of the guys stayed over and took the guest bedrooms so I let you sleep in here. I took a couch," he explained. I gave him an apologetic look.

"I am so sorry. I didn't mean to kick you out of your own room," I told him. He smiled and ran a hand through his hair.

"Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal."

"Well, I should probably get home. Thank you for everything. I'm sure I had a great time," I joked. I got out of bed and he walked me to the door. We said our goodbyes and I walked home. For some reason, even though I had no idea why, I couldn't shake the feeling that something had gone on last night I wouldn't be proud of.

Chapter 8

Sidney called me a couple of times after that dinner but I didn't answer or call him back. I was completely thrown by the kiss and I needed time away from him. Instead of worrying about it I thought about my upcoming trip to Buffalo to see Thomas. I had lied and told work that I wouldn’t be home if there was an emergency because I was traveling to see family for the weekend. It wasn’t like me to lie but I told myself that I wouldn’t be doing it for long.

When Friday came I could hardly contain my excitement. I boarded the plane and a short flight later I was stepping off into the airport in Buffalo. I walked towards baggage claim where I knew Thomas would be waiting. When I saw him I ran up to him and jumped into his arms. He swung me around and kissed me.

“It’s great to see you, Lee-lee,” he said giving me a hug. I buried my face in his neck.

“It’s great to see you too.” He grabbed my carry-on and we walked out to his car. We drove to his house where we headed straight to the bedroom. We didn’t leave the bed for hours. There was a lot of talking, laughing, and much more.

“Are you hungry?” he asked around dinner time. It was the first time I realized that I hadn’t eaten all day.

“Actually, yes, I am.” We got up and showered. After getting ready he took me out to dinner. We went to a small Mexican restaurant where he got a chimichanga and I got chicken fajitas. We also had a pitcher of margaritas. I’d stopped eating by the time he finished his dinner.

“Are you going to finish that?” he asked. It was always like Thomas to finish what I didn’t eat.

“No, go right ahead.”

“Thanks.” He grabbed my plate and made the last fajita and ate it.

“So, have you told Ashley yet?” I asked him. I’d wanted to ask him all day but until now it never seemed like a good time.

“Actually, no, I haven’t.” I began to worry as he took the last bite of the fajita. “Her grandmother’s been in the hospital and I didn’t want to add to it. I’ll do it when all of that gets resolved.” This explanation made me feel better and we went back to his house. Not surprisingly we spent the rest of the night in bed.

I groaned when his alarm went off in the morning. He rolled over to kiss me and apologize, then got out of bed. He had a morning skate to go to. I fell back to sleep after he left not waking up until after 10:00. When I got up I looked into his cupboards for something to eat. I found some cereal in a cupboard and laughed when I saw that it was Captain Crunch. Always the boy, I thought. I poured myself a bowl and ate in front of the TV.

When I was done eating I got in the shower and got dressed. I knew Thomas would probably be gone until about 1:00 when he was done with lunch so I made myself comfortable on the couch and relaxed for a bit. When he did come back he picked me right up off the couch and carried me into the bedroom.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have showered,” I said giggling. He bit my ear.

“You’re right, maybe you shouldn’t have.” He pressed his lips to mine. I fell asleep next to him when he took his pregame nap, exhausted from earlier. When he woke up he got ready to go to the game.

“I’d forgotten how hot you looked in a suit,” I told him walking over to put my arms around him and give his butt a squeeze. He leaned down and kissed me.

“If you’re not careful this suit will be off and I’ll be late to the game.”

“We wouldn’t want that.” He kissed me and left.

I wasn’t going to the game because he still didn’t think it was a good idea for anyone to know about me yet. No one knew he was ending things with Ashley yet, and he was afraid one of the girls would tell her before he could. I watched it on the TV and Buffalo won 4-3. It was a little over an hour later when Thomas got home. The rest of the time I was there was spent in bed. I couldn’t get enough of him. I was sad when it was time for me to leave the next day. He kissed me before I walked through security telling me to call him when I got home.

A few days later I met up with Phoebe, Reagan, and Shelia for dinner and drinks. We met outside the sports bar we often frequented and got a table inside. We looked over the menus ordering dinner and a round of drinks.

“So how was the family?” Sheila asked. I looked at her blankly for a second wondering why she was asking about my family. Then it hit me that my excuse for not meeting up with them this past weekend was that I was going to visit my parents.

“They were good. Dad did a little bitching about the defense that he needs to fix with the team and Mom cooked enough food for an army like always.” They all laughed knowingly.

“Hey, Loralei, how are you?” I looked up to Sidney standing there with Colby and Ryan Whitney. We hadn't had any contact since the kiss and I was shocked to see him.

“Sid, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Just grabbing some dinner with Army and Whitney.” I saw my friends giving me a look and I introduced them all.

“Why don’t you pull up a couple of chairs and join us? We just ordered, but that shouldn’t be a problem,” Phoebe invited them. I glared at her from across the table and she smirked at me.

“Sounds great,” Colby replied. They grabbed a couple chairs and managed to squeeze in at our table. The waitress came over and took their orders. I noticed that Sidney ordered a beer and she didn’t ask for his ID.

"You weren't at the last couple of games. Have you been too busy for us?" Ryan asked. I laughed.

"Work kept me busy last week and I was out of town this past weekend visiting family," I lied.

"Are we ever going to meet the parents?" Colby asked joking around.

"Oh, I think you already-" Reagan started.

"So, how did you guys do this past week anyway?" I asked cutting her off in a panic. She gave me a strange look when I shook my head at her but she didn't finish her sentence. It was then that I noticed Sid caught the entire exchange.

The dinner turned out to be a really fun time with Colby and Ryan cracking us all up. My friends got along well with the guys. We stayed much longer than we’d all expected to just enjoying the conversation. We paid the bills and got up to leave when we felt we'd annoyed the whole place enough.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Sidney asked grabbing my arm as we walked outside.

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" I asked as we moved away from the laughing group.

"What was up between you and Reagan when we brought up your parents?" I avoided his eyes as I tried to think of some excuse that could possibly make sense.

"It was nothing. Why would you possibly want to talk about parents at dinner?" was all I came up with. He looked suspicious but didn't push me on the subject.

"I also wanted to apologize about what happened at your house. I shouldn't have kissed you like that. I tried to apologize before but you wouldn't take my calls," he said looking hurt.

"It's okay. I'm sorry for not talking to you about it. I just really needed to clear my head after it happened. Can we just forget about it?" He smiled, but only halfheartedly.

"Sounds good." We rejoined the group and I waved as Sidney, Colby, and Ryan got into Sidney's car and drove away.

“You two are so dating,” Sheila said as we watched the car back out of its spot. I turned to look at her.

“Are you talking to me?” I asked in shock.

“Come on, Rory, you guys were sickening to watch,” Phoebe said. They’d called me Rory since they met me. We were all fans of the show Gilmore Girls and they’d decided to start calling me Rory for short.

“I have no idea what you guys are talking about.”

“Honey, the two of you have been on more dates than I have been in the last six months combined,” Reagan chimed in.

“They weren’t dates! We’re just friends and we were just hanging out,” I said denying it.

“Whatever makes you feel better. If it helps, we really like him. He’s a really nice guy and he makes you laugh. Oh, and so cute. So cute,” Sheila said.

“You realize he’s not old enough to drink legally? There’s a four year age difference!”

“Honey, who cares? We can tell that you like him and it’s obvious that he’s in love with you,” Phoebe explained.

“I do not like him! I need to get going. I’ll talk to you guys later.”

I got into my car and drove home. What the hell were they talking about? There was no way I liked Sidney than more than just a friend. A bit of an annoying friend at that. I thought that they knew me better than anyone, but there must have been a little something extra in their drinks tonight if they thought that there was anything going on between Sidney and me.





“She wants you,” Colby said as soon as the three of them were in the car.

"No, she doesn't," Sidney corrected him.

"Come on, Sid, she can't take her eyes off of you. Buck up and kiss her," Ryan told him. Sidney sighed as he thought about that night.

"I did." He didn't elaborate and continued to drive without taking his eyes off of the road.

"What?! How come you didn't tell us? When did this happen?" Colby questioned.

"I went to her place for dinner a little over a week ago. It happened before I left," he responded. Both of the guys started giggling like school children. He didn't join in the laughter and continued to keep his eyes on the road.

"Why didn't you say something?" Ryan asked starting to pick up on the lack of enthusiasm coming from Sidney. He clenched his jaw before answering. The whole situation made him angry and frustrated. She was hiding something from him and it was keeping her from him.

"Because she got mad at me and told me to leave. Then she ignored my phone calls. I hadn't talked to her since the kiss until we saw her today," he explained.

“Someone’s turning down ‘the next one’? How is that possible?” Colby asked sarcastically putting a hand to his heart.

“Fuck off, Army. You’re just jealous because everyone turns you down” Sidney retorted.

“Yeah, right. I don’t even know what the definition of no is since I’ve never heard it before.” Sidney laughed at him feeling a bit better as he dropped him off at his house.

"Something's bothering her," he confided to Ryan when he pulled into his driveway.

"All you can do is be there for her without pushing her. It's obvious she has feelings for you. She's just going to have to deal with whatever is keeping her from acting on them on her own time. Nothing you do is going speed things up. Be there for her in whatever capacity she needs and eventually everything will work itself out." He looked over at Ryan and knew he was right.

On the drive back home Sidney thought about Loralei some more. If a friend was all she could handle right now, then he'd gladly be that friend. He'd stop pushing and hopefully she'd learn to trust him. Maybe then she would tell him what was going on in her life that was scaring her from a relationship and they could work on it together. All he knew was that ever since he'd met Loralei he knew he needed her in his life. If he had to hold out for a relationship, he would.