Chapter 55

Sidney walked out of the rink and headed to his car. They’d lost yesterday afternoon to the Islanders and were playing the Rangers tonight. He hadn’t played his best game yesterday, and that was probably due to the emotional rollercoaster he and Tanner had been on the day before. Well, maybe all the alcohol contributed. It had been a back and forth fight and make up session. Thankfully everything had been resolved.

Tanner had moved back in yesterday while he was in Long Island. He’d come home to boxes and bags everywhere. To be honest, they hadn’t exactly gotten a lot of unpacking done after he’d gotten home, either. He’d left the house this morning with her still asleep, but he was hoping she’d gotten up and had continued the process.

He drove home with a smile on his face. Even if she still hadn’t finished, he didn’t care. He was just happy that she was home again. November had been a miserable month for him, but things were starting to look up for December. He pulled into the garage when he got home and made his way into the house.

He heard Tanner’s laughter floating into the kitchen from the living room. His smile grew at the sound of it. There was no better sound in the world right now. When he walked in, he saw that she was sitting alone on the couch, with a laptop on her lap, laughing at whatever she was watching. He could hear a faint voice coming out of the speakers, but couldn’t tell what was being said.

“What are you watching?” he asked, making his way further into the room. She looked up at him, and his smile grew even bigger, if that was possible. The sparkle was back in her eyes.

“I just discovered some website called hockeyfights.com,” she replied. His smile faltered and he narrowed his eyes at her.

“And what’s so funny?” He had a feeling he knew the answer.

“I’ve been watching your fights all morning. I realized that I hadn’t seen a single one of the four.” She giggled again when she looked back at the screen.

“How did you find that site?” She shrugged and closed the laptop, placing it on the table in front of her.

“I was bored and just searching around on the internet.” He glanced around at the boxes still sitting in the hallway.

“If you were bored, you could have unpacked some more.” She rolled her eyes at him before standing up.

“Yeah, because that would have been super fun!” she joked sarcastically. He made a face.

“So you chose to laugh at my fights instead?” She made her way over to him with a sympathetic look on her face, and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Aw, I wasn’t laughing at you. I thought it was kind of sexy to watch you bloody those two guys.” He looked down at her skeptically.

“Really?” She kissed him in response. He didn’t hesitate in lifting her up off the floor and beginning to carry her towards the stairs.

“Isn’t it a game day?” she asked, pulling away from him.

“I don’t care.” She giggled before kissing him again.

He was done caring about game day rituals and superstitions. If he could keep a routine, then fine, but he wasn’t going to let something small throw off his entire day and night. There were more important things in life. It may have taken him a long time to figure that out, but he knew that now. Better late than never, right?










As I watched Sidney get dressed for the game that night I sent a text to Vero asking her if she could pick me up for the game that night. None of the Penguins girls, except for Grace, knew that Sidney and I were back together, so I started preparing myself way ahead of time. They were going to want details. Sidney kissed me goodbye just as I received a text back from her.

You want to come? Is Grace working late so she can’t bring you?

“Score a goal for me babe!” I called at Sidney’s retreating back.

“I’ll do my best!” he returned with a wave and a wink. I turned my attention back to my phone.

No, she’s not. I’m just home. I didn’t specify which home that was. I knew that she’d know. When I got a message back from her, I saw that she definitely did.

YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!! I’ll see you at 6. We have a lot to talk about!!!!!

I laughed and closed out of the message before getting up and hopping into the shower. Once I was ready for the game I made my way downstairs to wait for Vero. She was on time and I got into the car to see her beaming at me.

“I missed you!” she exclaimed, reaching over to give me a hug.

“I missed you too!”

She backed out of the driveway and headed for the rink before starting up on the questions. I convinced her to let me wait until we got there and saw the rest of the girls so I wouldn’t have to tell the whole story numerous times. We went to our seats, sat down, and I went through the whole thing with all of the other girls.

Without going into too much detail, because as far as I was concerned the reasons for our fight were between Sidney and I, I explained what had happened to all of them. Then I explained how we ended up having it out and resolving everything. Once I’d told them all, they let it go, saying they were just happy we were back together.

I settled back to watch the game with everyone, a genuine smile on my face. I stood up and cheered probably louder than the entire arena combined when Sidney scored in the first. There was my goal. I’d asked for one and he gave it to me.

I would have been happy with just the one goal, but Sidney had to outdo himself. My smile grew as the third period went on as I watched him score his second goal of the game. Then I stood cheering and clapping as hats rained down on the ice. More than normal flew down in an amazing visual, thanks to the free hats given out before the game.

I remained standing for a while as the ice crew got to work cleaning up the mess of hats. I kept my eye on Sidney, watching him smile and laugh with his teammates. Then he turned in my direction and I watched as he placed his right hand over his heart, a smile still on his face. It was a simple enough gesture that most wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but I knew.

You couldn’t have kept me quiet when he skated out to accept being the first star of the game. Anyone who heard me would have thought they’d won the Cup a second year in a row, but I didn’t care. My life was back to normal again, and the love of my life had just played an unbelievable game. There was a lot for me to happy for.

I paced around the family room once I got down there. I just wanted to see him, to congratulate him, to be in his arms. I just wanted it to be the two of us tonight, celebrating, because come Monday my life was over for a couple of weeks.

December was starting, which meant the end of the semester. That meant papers, tests, presentations, anything to finalize the entire semester worth of classes. That was always followed by finals. Until finals were over, my life was going to revolve around school and nothing else. But not tonight. Tonight my life revolved around Sidney.

I watched the door open time after time, only to see other guys come through the door. They all greeted me and told me Sidney would be a while, but I knew that. Finally, the door opened and it was him. He barely had time to see me before I was in his arms. He laughed as he hugged me.

“Well, hello,” he joked. I pulled back and gave him a long, hard kiss, not caring who was left to see it.

“Nice game,” I told him.

“You asked for a goal. I thought three was fair.” I grinned and nodded before kissing him again.

We walked out of the arena hand in hand with matching grins on our faces. I waited impatiently in the car as he signed autographs for fans and good-naturedly talked with them about the hat trick. Finally he was in the driver’s seat and we were headed home. So this was what normal life was like.