The Hockey Life

PART FORTY-ONE: BEACH LOVE
In Patrick’s P.O.V.
We decided to take my car to the beach, since it was the roomiest. Before we were able to go to the beach, I went to Johnny’s place to pick him up. He hopped in the back with Tess and Lena was in the front with me.
“You two behave yourselves back there,” I warned them when we took off again from Jonathan’s place.
“You two behave yourselves up there,” Jonathan retaliated.
“I’m driving, Tazer. I have no choice but to behave,” I told him. I was sure that he wanted to keep going, but he wasn’t able to come up with anything else to say, so he shut up.
The drive was sort of long, just because we decided to get away from the city so we could be at a roomier beach. When we got to our destination, I was extremely surprised to see that it wasn’t all that busy. I wasn’t complaining, though. I wanted to be able to just relax and have fun without being bothered.
I grabbed the beach bag that the girls brought after I parked and we all got out and quickly made our way through the sand since it was burning hot from the sun. We found a nice, private spot midway between the water and some dunes. We laid down our towels and stepped on them as soon as we could just to give our feet some relief.
“Do you want to get in the water?” I asked Lena. To be completely honest, I was very ready to see how good she looked in her swimsuit. A cool off would be nice too, though.
“Definitely,” she answered. “But first I need sunscreen. I hate sunburns.” Tess got the sunscreen out of the beach bag while Lena stripped out of her tank top and shorts. Yep, she definitely looked hot in her swimsuit. I hoped she didn’t notice me staring…but then again, she probably expected me to.
“Can you do my back?” she asked after she had put on sunscreen everywhere else.
“Sure,” I said. I looked over at Johnny and I caught him winking at me as I rubbed the lotion onto her skin. I just rolled my eyes at him.
After everyone was done applying sunscreen, we went for the water. As usual, it felt really cold at first, but I knew I would get used to it.
“Come on!” Johnny yelled as he bounded into the water. He had the right idea. The way I saw it, it was best to just go all the way in and get used to temperature right away. The girls seemed to think otherwise.
“It’s cold,” Lena whined, barely putting her toes in the water. I scooped her up in my arms bridal style and carried her into Lake Michigan before she could complain any more.
“I’m going to put you down now, okay?” I asked when I decided I had gone out far enough.
“I guess,” she decided, although I wasn’t very convinced by her answer. I put her down anyways and she cringed at the impact the cool lake water had on her skin.
“It isn’t that bad, you’ll get used to it,” I assured her. She had goose bumps for a couple minutes, but it didn’t take long for her to get comfortable.
After a few minutes Jonathan grabbed the beach ball he had brought along and we all played with it for a while, counting our hitting streaks as we went. We got up to twenty at one point, until Tazer missed. He made a diving effort, though.
We took a break from the water after getting to twenty and we returned to our towels. We had drinks and chips and then the girls decided to tan for a while. Johnny and I laid out for just a few minutes before we got bored and decided to get back in the water.
“It’s five months today,” I told him when we were far enough away from Tess and Lena.
“Really? Already?”
“Yeah. Today is the ninth, right?’
“Yeah, it is,” he confirmed.
“It could have been five months for you and Tess too,” I reminded him.
“Well it’s not.”
“When are you going to ask her out anyways?” I wondered.
“When the playoffs are over, I guess,” he told me. It was the same answer I always got from him. He was weird about dating during hockey. He didn’t want to start a relationship in the middle of it because he claimed he wouldn’t have enough time to even get to know the girl and build a connection. I understood his reasoning, but still. Lena and I were doing just fine.
When Jonathan and I saw the girls sit up, we returned to them. Apparently tanning time was over.
“Do you guys want ice cream? I think they have Dippin Dots over there,” Johnny said. He had been eyeing the concessions stand for a while.
“Yeah!” Lena and Tess answered in unison. I don’t think either of them ever turned down ice cream.
“Tell us what you want and we’ll get it for you,” I said, so they did and we headed to concessions to buy it.
In Lena’s P.O.V.
“Thank god for summer. I could look at Jonathan’s abs all day,” Tess said. “And then there’s Mr. Mullet,” she added. I laughed at her terrible nickname for Patrick. We discusses the guys until they returned with our ice cream.
“What are you guys talking about?” Jonathan wondered.
“Nothing,” Tess and I replied, our answers synchronized.
“Wow, that’s not suspicious at all,” Pat said as he dug into his bowl of Dippin Dots. We ate our ice cream relatively quickly so the sun couldn’t melt it too much and then we decided to split up for a while. Patrick and I headed for the dunes and left Tess and Jonathan alone in hopes that one of them would make a move.
“Wow, this is quite a climb,” Pat said as we made our way up a hill.
“Are you sure you can handle it? We can take a break if you want,” I teased him.
“No thanks, I’m fine,” he sneered. Once we got to the top we walked around a bit and found a perfect shady spot with a good view of where our towels and bag was stationed. We sat down on the sandy hill and talked for a while.
“This is perfect. Being with you here,” he said. I nodded. I couldn’t argue with him on that.
“It really is. I wish we could come back and do this every day,” I decided.
“Me too. Maybe we can once hockey is done with.”
“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching your games and I obviously support you fully when it comes to the Hawks, but it really sucks sometimes when you have to go away and I can’t come with you,” I admitted.
“I know it does. You’re always on my mind, though, even when you’re far away. I always miss you.”
“I always miss you too,” I said.
“I promise we’re going to have a ton of fun this summer, okay? We’ll hang out and go out as much as you want. I want everything to be perfect, just like today.”
“Why does it have to be perfect? Nothing’s perfect.”
“No, I guess not, but it needs to be close, then. I want to make you happy the way you make me happy. You mean a lot to me.” I looked into Patrick’s amazing blue eyes and he looked right back into mine. “I love you, Lena.” I couldn’t believe it. He just said he loved me! I had tried not to get too sucked into the relationship and I hadn’t planned on falling so hard for him, but in that moment, I knew I loved him too. I had avoided thinking about being in love, but I felt like I was.
“I love you too,” I confessed, and we both went in for a kiss. It took me back to New Years, when we kissed for the first time. This kiss was just exciting as that one was. Maybe even more so, because he wasn’t just some crush that I wanted to date anymore. He was mine and I was his, and it didn’t look like that was going to change anytime soon. I was perfectly fine with that.

Notes

Hey guys! So, Lena and Patrick finally said those three little words to each other! Hopefully you guys at least liked that part of the chapter. I just wish it could have been their 6 month anniversary instead of 5 months. However, looking back at previous chapters, it just didn't work out that way. Oh well. Also, I know I never mentioned an anniversary day before, so I chose one that would have been around the time they started dating. I chose the 9th simply because that's me and my boyfriend's anniversary (although ours is June 9th instead of January 9th like Lena and Patrick's) so I knew it would be easy to remember. Well, anyways, I'm rambling as usual. I have another non hockey related story that I'm going to focus on for a few days, so it could be up to a week before I update this story again, but there are some awesome chapters coming up, so be patient! :)