Chapter 59

Because I'm fast forwarding this, obviously I can't base the rest of this on real life. There's only going to be another 5 chapters or so depending on how I write them. Thanks so much for following this story for this long and all the support! It means so much to me!










I waited impatiently in a pre-designated room at the airport for Sidney’s plane to land. I hadn’t been there all that long, but it felt like eternity. Long enough, at least, for me to reflect back on the last few months. Ever since Sidney had won the gold medal at the Olympics, things had seemed to move at warp speed.

We’d returned home to Pittsburgh and both became very busy. I officially started work at the zoo and it took up a lot of time. It wasn’t just a 9 to 5 job. Sometimes I had to be in very early, sometimes I had to stay very late. Once in a while I had overnights. Not once did I ever complain. I loved what I was doing and wouldn’t have given it up for anything. Thankfully Sidney never once complained, seriously anyway.

As far as he was concerned once the Olympics ended the playoff race was on. Not that he ever wasn’t, but it was time for him to get really serious. They’d played well in the last month and had held on to second in the division and fourth in the conference. Unfortunately things hadn’t gone the way they had the year before and Pittsburgh lost in the second round.

Knowing that it was the off-season was tough. Sidney and I had talked about it and we knew that we were going to be spending a lot of the summer apart. I couldn’t just take the summer off from the zoo to go to Cole Harbour and Sidney never even considered asking me to. Just like I never considered asking him to stay in Pittsburgh instead of going home to see his friends and family. Instead we’d agreed that he would come down for a week each month of the summer and I’d go up for a week in June and again for his birthday.

Despite being apart, the summer had gone by fairly quickly. I had my friends and job to keep me busy just like Sidney had everyone back home. Lulu and Gilligan were angels and I fell in love with them more and more each day. I could tell that they missed Sidney when he was gone, but seeing their reactions each time they saw him again was priceless.

I glanced down at my watch for probably the thousandth time since I’d gotten to the airport and saw that Sidney’s plane should have touched down by now. I got up from my seat and started pacing back and forth across the room, looking towards the door every time I heard any sound come from outside of it. Eventually the door opened and I burst into Sidney’s arms.

“I missed you so much!” I exclaimed after planting a long kiss on his lips. He chuckled.

“I missed you too.”

After the greeting we were led by security out to the car and drove home. It was nice to have him back for the season, knowing he wasn’t going anywhere for a while. He talked about his trip and I talked about work on the drive back from the airport. When we pulled into the driveway and got out of the car, I immediately felt nauseous.

“Sidney, hi!” a sickeningly sweet voice called from next door.

I glared across the car hood at Tamara, who was jogging over across the lawn. After everything that had happened last year we’d basically avoided the neighbors. I hated them and Sidney didn’t exactly have a fondness for them either. Tamara had left Sidney alone since the night I’d ordered her out of our house and I didn’t know why she was coming over here now.

“Hi, Tamara,” Sidney greeted, annoyance in his tone.

“I didn’t realize you were coming back so soon!”

Like she’d done before, she completely ignored the fact that I was standing there in an attempt to exclude me in the conversation. I guess the year of separation had only emboldened her. Instead of standing there while they talked I walked to the front door and opened it. Within seconds Lulu and Gilly had bolted out the front door and over to Sidney. I watched with a grin when Gilly nearly knocked Tamara on her ass when he jumped up on Sidney in greeting.

“Hi, guys, I missed you too!” Sidney exclaimed, giving each of them equal attention.

After a few licks, barks, and jumps, Tamara backed away saying goodbye and heading back to her house. Sidney never responded as he rolled around on the ground with our dogs. Lulu and Gilly were the best guard dogs ever. He eventually got up and we both went inside, the dogs leading the way.

We spent the rest of the night in the house wrapped up completely in each other. After spending so much time apart this summer we had a lot of time to make up for. The only time we left bed was when the food we’d ordered arrived or to let the dogs out. God, it was nice to have him back. I easily fell asleep in his arms that night, simply exhausted.

Before I woke up the following morning I found myself in that place just before fully waking when you weren’t completely conscious, but you weren’t quite asleep either. My eyes were still closed and I had a slight uneasy feeling. Something just didn’t feel right. I finally opened my eyes and let out a scream when a pair was looking right back into them.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” I exclaimed to a laughing Sidney.

“I was just watching you sleep,” he told me.

“You had to be inches from my face to do that?” I asked.

“Sorry,” he apologized after chuckling a bit longer.

“I take back everything I said yesterday. I didn’t miss you at all.” He narrowed his eyes at me.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Take it back,” he warned.

“Or what?” I challenged. He began to tickle me and I started to scream and squirm uncontrollably in his grasp.

“Take it back!” he called out.

“Okay, okay, I take it back! I missed you like crazy!” I yelled. The torture stopped and we both looked at each other and started to laugh.

“I love you,” he told me seriously.

“I love you too.”

I was on my right side so he reached for my left hand under the comforter and began to play with my fingers. We laid there in silence for a while, just enjoying being cuddled up with each other in bed. There was no greater thing in this world than lying next to the person you loved in a content silence. Words didn’t need to be spoken, because they just weren’t necessary.

Sidney shifted a little, but I didn’t pay any attention, keeping my eyes closed. I was too focused on how nice the feeling of being back in his arms again was. He turned back to me and looked straight into my eyes. There was no laughter in them this time, only something I couldn’t quite pick up on. As I stared back at him I felt something cool and smooth slide over the fourth finger on my left hand. My eyes went wide and I tried to pull my hand out from under the covers. Sidney grabbed on and didn’t let me.

“Hold on. Just listen to me for a moment,” he said. My heart started to pound in my chest.

“Sidney, what?” I managed to gasp out.

“We’ve been through a lot in the last two years. More than most people experience in a lifetime. There have been ups and downs, but no matter what came we made it through together. I wouldn’t trade in anything that happened for the world because it showed me your true character. You’re strong, smart, dedicated, compassionate, funny, and beautiful inside and out. I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather spend the rest of my life with. Tanner, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” I choked out through the tears that had started to fall. “Yes.”

He threw his arms around me and I held on tight as he pressed his lips to mine. When we finally broke apart he let me look at the ring on my finger. It was perfect. That was the only way to describe it. I hadn’t been the girl who dreamed of her wedding day and imagined what her ring would look like. I hadn’t even known what cut of diamond I preferred. I found that I preferred whatever the cut on my ring currently was.

I’m not sure I stopped crying the entire day. Every time I glanced down at the ring on my finger, which was a lot, the tears would come again as I remembered everything Sidney had said. The proposal had been simple and private, which is just the way I would have wanted it had I imagined it. I didn’t think I’d ever forget those words or that moment.

I made the obligatory phone calls to my family and then my friends, which only brought on more tears. My father told me that Sidney had flown to New York before Pittsburgh to ask for his permission to marry me. He never ceased to surprise me. Sidney’s parents insisted on talking to me as well. They’d known he was going to propose too and were more than happy for us.

The girls all filed over that night to check out the ring, including Hailey who was in town visiting while Ryan headed out for training camp. It was a whirlwind kind of day and soon our house was full of people. Guys on the team who were back in Pittsburgh early came over. The Lemieux’s came over. We hadn’t expected or planned on the gathering, but neither of us were complaining. There was no better way to celebrate an event like this than spending it with some of the people you were closest to.