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.