Chapter 26

I woke up to the sound of a loud bang. I glanced over at the clock and saw that it was almost 11:00 in the morning. I reached into the drawer of the nightstand next to me and grabbed the knife I had stashed in there. Sidney was at practice, so I knew it wasn’t him. I crept out of bed and slowly made my way to the stairs.

I heard another bang followed by someone shushing another person. How was this happening to me again? I walked down the stairs slowly, keeping my back pressed to the wall. I peered around the corner at the bottom in the direction I’d heard the noises come from but didn’t see anything. I turned to make a run for it out the door when I ran into someone and screamed.

“Jesus, what the hell?!” Colby exclaimed dropping a box to the floor. I put a hand over my heart and lowered the knife when I saw him.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked him trying to catch my breath.

“Colby, quiet, Loralei’s upstairs sleeping!” Marc rasped at him coming around the corner. Then he caught sight of me and made a face that told me I wasn't supposed to know they were there. “Or not.”

“Okay, someone better start explaining something soon,” I said to them crossing my arms.

“Are those little polar bears on your pants?” Colby asked looking at my pajamas and giggling. I punched him in the arm.

“Don’t you dare change the subject.” He and Marc looked at each other and then back at me.

“We aren’t practicing today, we have it off,” Marc told me as if that explained anything.

“What do you mean you have it off?” I didn’t understand what was going on and what that had to do with them being in the house.

“Well, Therrian told us yesterday after practice that we didn’t have to come in today,” Colby said. I turned back to him, glaring.

“No shit, Sherlock. I get that. Why are you in Sid’s house?” I was getting really impatient really fast. Especially now that Colby had pointed out I was wearing my fairly embarrassing polar bear pajama pants.

“Don’t you mean your house?” Marc asked. He had a point. It had been three weeks since I’d moved in with Sidney. Even so I was getting nowhere with these two idiots. I heard another noise come from down in the basement. I looked up at the two of them and I saw their eyes go wide.

“Loralei, no!” Colby yelled after me as I ran to the basement door. I made it down the stairs before either of them could catch me. When I reached the bottom I froze in shock. I was looking at a carbon copy of the basement in my old house. Jordan and Whit looked up when they heard the commotion of Colby and Marc chasing me down the stairs.

“Uh-oh,” Jordan said as I looked around the room. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

“This is my stuff,” I said more to myself than to them as I walked around looking at everything. Things were in identical places as they had been in my house. Sid's basement was similar in size and everything fit perfectly.

“What the fuck did you two do?” Whit hissed at Colby and Marc.

“Don’t blame me!” Colby exclaimed. I heard more footsteps and turned to see Max and Geno carrying more boxes down the stairs.

“Guys, quiet down unless you want Loralei to hear us,” Max scolded before seeing me.

“Too late, Max,” I told him, giving him a wave.

“Sid is going to kill us,” Geno said shaking his head.

“Someone explain this now,” I demanded not looking at anyone in particular.

“Sid knew you loved your game room so he wanted to bring it here so you’d have the stuff you loved from your house here. We were supposed to surprise you with it,” Marc explained. I smiled at them.

“You did everything this morning?” I asked shocked.

“No, we’ve been sneaking things in little by little every time you took your painkillers and passed out,” Jordan told me. Before I could respond I heard more footsteps coming down the stairs. Now who was here?

“Okay, guys, she’ll probably wake up soon so everyone needs to get out of here now,” I heard Sidney say as he reached the bottom of the stairs. I saw all the guys go pale.

“Busted,” I heard Whit say. Sid looked at him in confusion and then his eyes met mine. I saw his face get red.

“Who woke her up?” Sid asked obviously upset.

“Colby did!” Max exclaimed pointing a finger at him.

“Oh come on, I did not!” Colby protested throwing his hands in the air. Sid shook his head and walked over to me.

“I wanted it to be a surprise. I was going to throw you a surprise party in a few days to welcome you to the house now that you’re feeling better. The guys were supposed to keep quiet about it until then,” he explained glaring at each of them. I smiled at him and kissed him.

“Thank you,” I told him.

“I think it’s time to go,” Geno said and the guys followed him up the stairs. I laughed at them as they left.

It may not have been a surprise party but it was fun nonetheless. I guess the plan had been that the girls were going to take me to the spa for the day and when they brought me home they’d take me to the basement and it would be an exact replica of my game room. It was the thought that counted and I loved it.

The whole team showed up for the party and even Mario and Nathalie had stopped by. I’d only met them a couple of times before but I was glad that they were there. At some point in the night while I was sitting on the couch with Sid’s arm around my shoulders I looked around and took it all in.

A few people were playing pool while others had a game of bubble hockey going. Colby was playing bartender pretending to be Tom Cruise from Cocktail and failing miserably at it. Some of the guys had a game of poker going on at the pub table and others were playing video games on the TV. I saw Phoebe, Reagan, and Sheila mingling with the team and the girls and I smiled.
Somehow amidst the chaos that had been my life in the past year and a half I had found exactly where I should be. I glanced over at Sidney who was laughing at something Kris Letang had just said. In that moment I knew that there was no one else in this entire world for me. He looked over at me and I smiled and kissed him.

It wasn’t much longer after that when everyone began to file out. The party had lasted long enough that I’d had a great time, but not too long that my painkillers had any affect on it. They tended to make me drowsy and knock me out for hours at a time and I was glad that I hadn’t needed to deal with that at all. After saying goodbye to the last person I turned and wrapped my arms around Sidney’s neck.

“Thank you for this,” I told him.

“You’re welcome. It’s good to see you smiling again.” He leaned down and kissed me. I looked up into his eyes and knew that no matter what happened to me in my life, when I was in his arms things would always be okay again.

“Let’s go to bed,” I said to him and took his hand. He followed me up the stairs. When we walked in I turned back to him and kissed him hard. I bit my lip after and pulled him down to the bed with me, kissing him again.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked me pulling away and looking into my eyes.

“Shut up,” I told him. He obliged and put his lips to mine. He gently removed my shirt being careful not to hurt me and then undressed us both. Any fear I’d had about ever doing this again was quickly squashed the minute Sid’s lips were back on mine.

“Do you want me to grab your painkillers for you? It’s been a long time since you’ve had one,” Sid asked as I nestled into him later that night.

“I’m not feeling any pain right now,” I replied. He looked over at me and smiled. He put a finger under my chin and angled my face up towards his.

“I love you, Loralei Robinson,” he said. I smiled back.

“I love you, Sidney Crosby,” I returned. He kissed me one last time before we fell asleep in each others arms.