Chapter 30

I was dreaming that I was at a party and I didn’t know anyone. Instead of mingling I was just wandering around from room to room searching for someone that looked interesting enough to talk to. Each time I walked into a new room I became a little more disappointed with my options. Then I felt like someone was watching me. I searched and searched for whoever it was, but couldn’t find them. Even so, the feeling just kept getting stronger. When I woke up and opened my eyes I saw Sidney lying next to me, staring at me with a giant grin on his face.

“What the hell?” I mumbled.

“We’re going to win,” he said. Okay, maybe I just woke up, and my brain hadn’t completely caught up yet, but did that make sense?

“Excuse me?” I asked.

“We’re going to win,” he repeated. Was this a riddle?

“Am I still asleep? Did the surgery have some sort of delayed complications? Are you out of your mind?” I questioned. He rolled his eyes at me, but the grin stayed on his face.

“The series. We’re going to win the series,” he explained. Ah, now I got it.

“You seem pretty sure about that,” I told him with a smile.

“Because it’s going to happen,” he stated.

“When did you decide this?”

“Sometime in the middle of the night,” he replied.

“Anything trigger it?”

“You.” I opened my eyes in surprise. I hadn’t seen that coming.

“What do you mean, me?”

“Any other time we lost games like the last two I would have come home and spent half the night thinking about what I could have done differently and the other half worrying about what was coming up. When I came home last night and you were here, and I found the hat in the bed I forgot about the games. I got a great night’s sleep and I woke up feeling relaxed and refreshed. I haven’t felt like this in a long time and it’s all because of you whether you intended on doing it or not. We’re going to play them tomorrow and we’re going to kick their ass.” I smiled and laughed.

“Well I’m glad I could be a little inspiration.”

Not long after that he dropped me off at home and made his way to the rink for practice. The next night I sat nervously in Mario’s box hoping that Sidney would be right. And he was. They won in overtime.

“See?” he said to me when he met me in the wives’ room. I just rolled my eyes and chuckled.

They won again the next game. I said bye to Sid at the rink since they were flying that night to Washington for the game the next day. Then I went straight home and to bed because the girls were graduating in the morning.

As I sat and watched the four of them receive their diplomas I cried both out of happiness and sadness. I was so happy for them and I was sad that I wasn’t joining them in the ceremony. When it was over I went home and slept most of the afternoon. When I woke up I headed over to Erin’s where we all watched and celebrated the Pens win in overtime.

Sidney practically skipped into bed when he got home that night. Like before I was in bed waiting for him to get home. This time I wasn’t asleep when he did. Not that it would have mattered. He made enough noise to wake a deaf person.

“I told you we were going to win,” he joked as he snuggled in.

“There’s one more game left to win, you know.” He laughed and kissed me.

“I’m not worried about it.”










Sidney headed into the locker room after finishing his press conference after the loss in game 6. He was disappointed that they’d lost, that they’d lost at home, and that they had a dreaded game 7 do or die situation. When he was dressed he made his way to the wives’ room to get Tanner. He wouldn’t be surprised if Tanner was by herself or there was only one other person there with her. He’d taken a long time. He was surprised however when he opened the door to find the room completely empty.

Where the hell was Tanner? He walked in and looked around a corner to see if she was in another part of the room. She wasn’t. He checked his phone to see if she’d left him a message about leaving with someone else, but there weren’t any messages from her. He walked back into the hallway and looked around to see if she was standing out there. She wasn’t.

He punched in her number and the phone went straight to her voicemail. That was when he started to panic. Had something happened to her? Why hadn’t anyone come to tell him? He tried her phone again with the same result.

“Where’s Tanner? Has anyone seen Tanner?” he asked the security guards. They both shook their heads and shrugged.

He didn’t know what to do. He called both Jordan and Ryan to see if she was with either of them or if she’d left with Grace or Hailey, but neither answered. He was about to throw his phone when he heard her laugh. He spun around to see her walking down the hallway with Mario.

“Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you,” she asked him, looking slightly annoyed. Wait a minute, she was mad at him?

“I’ve been looking for you. When I couldn’t find you, I thought something happened,” he replied. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Did you forget? Don’t tell me you forgot.” Mario raised his eyebrows while waiting for his response. He racked his brain trying to figure out what she was talking about. Then he remembered.

“Oh shit. Your parents are here.” He felt like a jackass.

“Were here. They were tired from the trip and it got late so they left. Your dinner is still up there if you’re hungry, although it’s probably cold by now,” she scolded him.

“Nice job,” Mario commented. Sidney shot him a glare and Mario smiled at him in amusement. He turned his attention back to Tanner.

“I am so sorry. I’ll make it up to them tomorrow before I leave, I promise.”

“You better.” With that, she walked past him towards the exit. He sighed and turned to look at Mario.

“You better do some groveling over breakfast,” Mario joked before turning and walking away.

Sidney hurried to catch up to Tanner and apologized a few more times as they walked out the door. She shivered when they got outside and he wrapped an arm around her. She didn’t cuddle into him like she usually did, but she didn’t push him away. At least she didn’t hate him right now, and for that he was grateful. He opened the car door for her and shut it behind her. Then he drove her home before heading home himself.

The next morning he finished packing a bag and threw it into his car. Then he picked Tanner and her parents up and took them to breakfast. He didn’t order a big breakfast because he knew that Tanner would order a Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream and she’d eat only a quarter of it. Just like he thought she pushed it over to him when she was done and he finished it off for her.

He also spent the breakfast apologizing to Tanner’s parents for his stupidity the night before. They told him he got a pass on account of the loss, but only if he won game 7. He could accept that. When they were done he dropped them off and headed to the airport.










The girls were once again at our place to watch the game and my parents had joined us. I’d been sick all day and for once I wasn’t sure it was the chemo that was doing it. The nausea disappeared about halfway through the first when Sidney scored the first goal. It was smooth sailing from there on out.

When they went up 3-0 the mood in the house lightened considerably. Every one of us had a smile on our faces the rest of the night. My parents joked that they could now forgive Sidney for standing them up before they left when the game ended. I laughed and realized that he had been right. They won the series and they kicked Washington’s ass.

Everyone left a while later to be home when the guys arrived. Everyone figured they were going to want to party. I left Sidney a message telling him to go out with the guys and celebrate the win before going to bed. I was woken up a little while later when he pulled back the covers and got into bed next to me.

“I told you to go out and celebrate with the guys,” I said to him when I saw the time and realized he must have come over straight from the airport.

“You’re the only one I want to celebrate with.” I smiled, kissed him, and snuggled in closely before falling asleep.