Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I've taken some creative liberties as far as Sid's housing situation in this story in order to make it work.

“Look, Mr. Quentin, Pepper needs to eat less. He’s 10 pounds overweight. It doesn’t sound like much, but to a dog it feels like almost 40 pounds on a human. You need to cut his food in half, stop giving him table scraps and get him to exercise some more.” He looked down at his dog and patted him on the head.

“I promise I’ll take care of it. I could stand to lose a few pounds myself. It’ll help me to bring Pepper for a walk at night”, he responded. He was right, he could definitely lose a few, I thought. He thanked me and he took Pepper out of the room and to the parking lot. I went into my office to check over some files on my desk.

“Loralei, do you have a minute?” I looked up and saw Dr. Markham standing in the doorway.

“Of course. What is it?” I asked. Dr. Markham was my mentor. I had actually lucked out when I just fell into this position. Most vets just out of school have to get lowly jobs and work their way up. Luckily for me my father was good friends with a vet, Gilbert Hallé in Montreal. He’d met Dr. Markham numerous times at conferences and had become friends. When he learned Dr. Markham was thinking of retiring in a few years and wanted to pass off the clinic to someone, he recommended me for the job.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’ve been very impressed with both your work and your rapport with the patients you’ve been taking on. I’ve gotten nothing but compliments from everyone from the rest of the staff to the people you see.”

“Thank you so much, Dr. Markham. I really appreciate that. I’m just trying my best and trying to learn from every case that comes in.”

“Call me Tom, please. I hate being so formal. I’ll let you get back to your appointments. This practice will be in good hands when I finally retire if you’re the one taking over.” I smiled, blushing a little and thanked him again.

Nancy came in with the file with my next appointment. It was a new client who had just bought a puppy. A black lab to be exact. I just had to give the puppy a few shots and that would be easy enough. I quickly looked at the names as I walked into the room.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Crosby. And you must be Shooter.” I said looking down at the dog standing at my feet before even venturing a glance at its owner.

“Hello, Loralei,” he responded. I looked up, shocked to hear my name. I mentally smacked myself in the head when I saw who was sitting in the chair across from me. How did I miss that it said Sidney next to the Crosby in my file? “I thought you were just a receptionist or something.”

“No, you assumed that and I just didn’t correct you. So we’re just giving Shooter some shots today?” I asked trying to keep it business between us. Sidney had other ideas.

“Yeah, that’s what we’re here for. I can’t believe of all the offices I could have gone to, I walk into yours. I’d actually been thinking about you ever since we met.”

“Did I make that bad an impression?” He laughed. Was he ever not smiling or laughing?

“No, not at all. I was just wondering if I was ever going to see you again.” Instead of responding I got to work getting the shots ready for his dog. I gave the shots and then gave Sidney some advice on raising the dog. He got up to leave but turned to me before he walked out the door. “I guess I know where to find you now.”

“I guess you do, but I’m not sure how much good that would do you. I’ve already told you I’m not exactly interested.” He wouldn’t be discouraged.

“You told me you didn’t want to go home with me. That’s fine, I’ll just come to you.” He sure was persistent. I had to laugh. I walked him out and watched him get in his car and drive away. This was going to be interesting.





“Come on, she was the vet?” Colby Armstrong asked the next day after practice. “At least you found her and you can shut up about it now.”

“It wasn’t like I was talking about her all the time. I just said that I wish there was a way I could find her.” He should have expected the reactions when he told the guys that Loralei had been Shooter’s vet. And now he knew that her last name was Robinson. Loralei Robinson.

“Jesus, Sid, you only brought her up everyday,” Ryan Whitney piped up. Sidney rolled his eyes and ignored the comment continuing to get dressed.

“Did you at least ask her out after all that you’ve put us through?” Erik Christensen called from his stall across the way.

“No, I didn’t. I’m thinking about giving her tickets to one of the upcoming games though, just drop them off at her office.”

The idea had just occurred to him and he decided that it was a good plan. He knew she liked hockey, even if she wasn’t necessarily a fan of his team. It was also neutral ground. She’d be there watching him but it wouldn’t feel like a date which she seemed to be avoiding for whatever reason. He couldn’t figure her out. She was definitely flirting with him, but she wouldn’t budge an inch on a date. He thought a game would be a good idea.

“You think the doc won’t mind dating a younger guy?” Adam Hall asked only half kidding.

“We’ll see when I drop the tickets off,” Sidney replied grabbing his stuff and heading out of the locker room. It was a Saturday. He would drop tickets off for Tuesday night’s game on Tuesday morning at her office. It was settled.

He thought about Loralei on his drive home. He couldn’t figure out why he liked her so much. She was obviously trying to tell him she wasn’t interested, but he could tell there was something about her. He’d just have to be persistent and see where it got him. Of course he had to be careful she didn’t think he was some creepy stalker. Then with the thought of a stalker in his mind he realized why she was resistant. She thought he was the stereotypical hockey player. She probably thought he had girls at his house left and right. She had told him she wasn’t that type of girl. He had thought she meant the type that went home with a stranger but now he knew she meant the type that became just a number to a guy. Except that she was wrong if that was what she thought. This was his first year living on his own and he was hardly parading girls into Mario Lemieux’s house with his wife and kids at home. He’d just have to make sure that she knew that.

He was certainly no virgin, but he’d hardly built up the numbers. He was 20 and although most 20 year old males his age were out getting what they could, he’d always craved something more. It was just the way he’d been brought up. He had too much respect to treat women that way, like they were good enough for one night and should be discarded after. Why he thought Loralei was the girl he’d been craving, he didn’t know. He barely knew her. What did he even know?

He knew she was beautiful. She had amazing brown eyes. It was hard to look away from them both times he’d been around her. He felt like he knew her when he looked into them, as corny and cliche as that sounds. He’d also always been a sucker for brunettes. Not to mention the dark color of her skin. He wasn’t sure if she was naturally dark or if it was from tanning but it looked great on her. And that body. She had curves in all the right places. He couldn’t take his eyes off that ass of hers when she’d walked out of the bar that night.

Getting past all the superficial parts of her he knew she had a sense of humor. He couldn’t help but laugh, especially when he saw the twinkle in her eyes when she made a joke. The way her nose scrunched up when she laughed was just adorable. She was obviously smart since she was a veterinarian. He needed to be able to have a conversation with someone. There was more to girls than just a pretty face. But man, that ass.

His thoughts were jolted from Loralei when there was a loud pop and he had to take over control of the car. He pulled over to the side of the road, his heart racing. Had he just blown a tire? He got out and looked and saw that he really had. “Well, shit. I’m two streets from home.” He opened his trunk to get out the spare and the jack. “Fuck!” There was no jack. Then he remembered lending it to Sergei Gonchar last week. That’s just great, he thought. He looked up to the house he’d parked in front of. He’d just have to go see if they had one he could use. He walked up to the front door just hoping it wasn’t a super fan that would go crazy when they saw him. He rang the doorbell and waited.





I’d been up since about 8 that morning. Usually I liked to sleep in on weekends but I’d had a dream about Sidney Crosby doing inappropriate things to me and I’d liked it. Well, not when I woke up, I didn’t. I was just a little creeped out by the dream and decided not to risk having another one by going back to sleep. Instead I’d gone for a run and then went to the grocery store. I had just finished putting away the groceries when the doorbell rang. I groaned since I was just on my way up to take a nap and walked to the door. I pulled it open and couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Are you stalking me?” I asked, only half kidding. Sidney looked at me and laughed. It was an adorable laugh. He really needed to stop doing that.

“I swear I’m not. The tire on my car just blew out and I loaned my jack to someone and I just came up here to see if you had one. I had no idea you lived here.” I looked past him to his car and saw that he was telling the truth. This was one hell of a coincidence. There were too many coincidences going on with him.

“Come on in. I have to go down to the basement to grab it. You do have a tire to put on, right? I can’t help you with that.” I held the door open for him. He walked into the foyer and I closed the door. “I may need your help getting it down, you’re a bit taller than me and I’m pretty sure it’s up high.”
“Not a problem. Why is your jack in the house and not in your car?” he asked.

"I never got around to putting it in the car. Stupid I know. I'll end up stranded on the side of the highway some day," I responded shrugging. He followed me back through the house to the basement door.

“Nice house.”

“Thanks.”

“Please don’t be offended, but how did you afford a place like this? Don’t most people that just get out of school have loads of student loans to pay off?” He asked. I had no desire to get into my background and why I had the money. I barely knew him, he didn't need to know who my father was.

“My parents put aside money for me when I was born for after I graduated school. The deal was I could have it to spend on what I wanted when I had a career. I decided to get a house.” I walked down the stairs with Sidney following close behind.

“Air hockey and bubble hockey? That’s awesome. You’ve got quite a game room down here,” he commented running his hand along my pool table. He was right. I’d turned my basement into a game room. I had a pool table, air hockey, bubble hockey, a 60” flat screen and a bar down there.

“I like to entertain and I like to have things for people to do other than sit around.” I opened another door into a storage area. I looked around for the jack and found it on the top shelf exactly where I thought I’d left it. “The jack’s up there. Think you can reach it?”

Sidney reached up and grabbed it in response. I followed him outside to his car to see if he needed any help. After assuring me he knew what he was doing, Sidney took off the damaged tire and replaced it with the spare.

“Thanks for letting me use the jack. I can’t tell you how glad I am that it was you that opened the door and not some crazy super fan.” I laughed at that.

“So what are you doing on my street anyway?” I asked. It wasn’t exactly a feeder road to anyplace. It was more of a neighborhood than anything.

“I actually live two streets over on Loomis.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” As much as I didn’t believe in fate it started to feel like something was pushing me at Sidney Crosby. “Don’t you find it a bit odd that we meet at a random bar, then you walk into my vet office, then you’re car’s tire blows outside my house, and now you live two streets away from me?”

“It’s definitely strange. But hey, maybe we were meant to meet.” He gave me that boyish smile. Wait, boyish smile? He was still a boy! I needed to get away from him before I completely lost my mind.

“Well, I was in the middle of some work that I really need to get done. Make sure you get a real tire put on that car.” He laughed, again. He was always laughing.

“I think I’ll remember. Thanks again for letting me use the jack. I’ll see you around.” He got back in his car and I turned and went back into the house. If I kept seeing him around I was going to have a hard time thwarting his advances. There was just something about him. Then my father’s words came back to me. It was a warning I’d learned the hard way. Dad had been right when he warned me back then about my boyfriend. I hadn’t listened at the beginning and I paid for it at the end. I was just going to have to avoid Sidney Crosby. It turned out it was much easier said than done.