Ali couldn’t sleep.

When she looked at the alarm clock near the bed, it was still only an hour past the last time she checked. Next to her, James slept soundly. He was on his back with his head tilted towards her, his hair going in all directions against the pillow. When she looked at him, it made her smile.

But all of this couldn’t compete with her racing mind. Her thoughts were troubling her over the tense moment she had with James at the bar. She’d left their table at the bar not long after the incident involving Sid’s texts, and stole away to the restroom to call Sid. The whole conversation was weird:

“Ali! Hey! Didn’t think I’d be hearing from you.”

She knew it. Sid rarely went overboard when he drank, but when he did, James would tell her how he would say whatever he wanted or whatever he was thinking. The guys loved it because he was a riot when it happened. But now, a thousand miles away, Ali needed to curb it.

“Sid, listen…I know you probably meant nothing by your texts, but you can’t bring up what happened last week anymore, okay?”

Next to her in the bathroom, a pair of girls came in laughing and talking loudly, their heels clicking on the floor. They chose their stalls, which kept the noise at a minimum.

”Uh oh…did Nealer find out I’m still pissed at him?”

Ali sighed. “No, and he DOESN’T need to know. Where are you anyway?”

"Out with some of the guys. No morning skate tomorrow. You’re not upset with me, are you?”

“I kind of am, Sid.” She listened for a response, but none came. She wasn’t even sure he heard her, with the commotion in the background of wherever he was. “Look, I love you, Sid…And I can’t thank you enough for how you helped—“

”I get it. No need to say any more. Nealer’s lucky, that’s all. He’s one lucky son of a bitch.”

“Just go easy tonight and get some rest later, okay?” She at least hoped he wasn’t thinking straight because he was out. Maybe if he just slept it off, he’d forget what he said.

”Really, I don’t know what I was hoping to do. You belong with him. I want you to be happy.”

As Ali lay awake staring at the ceiling, it was that final line of their conversation that bothered her the most. In the past weeks as her and Sidney became better friends, she was enjoying the fact that she found someone she could possibly lean on, if something went amiss with James. Someone who understood him, and his life. But if Sid was taking the whole thing wrong, or developed some sort of feelings for her in the process, it put a wrench in the entire thing. She wasn’t about to wreck her relationship when she was really only trying to fix it.

Beside her, James shifted. He gently cleared his throat, his voice deep with sleep. Even just watching him sleep convinced Ali that she could watch him like this the rest of her life and be totally happy. Every hard line of his body and every sharp angle of his muscular form softened when he slept, making him even more attractive, if that was possible.

Ali very gently turned onto her side to face him, one hand propping up her up and supporting her head on the pillow. With her other hand, she softly stroked James’ dark hair, admiring him as he slept. Despite how gentle she was, James’ ocean eyes opened drowsily, shifting up to see her.

“Hey” Ali said, her fingers still stroking his hair.

James smiled tiredly and closed his eyes again. “Love you.”

Ali kissed his forehead. “Love you.”

She meant it.


* * *


“Last day in Whitby” James said later the morning, “and I’m taking requests.”

Ali thought for a moment, sitting across from him at the kitchen table. She took a long sip of her coffee, and then it suddenly donned on her.

“I got it!”

James saw her eyes light up. “Yeah? Let’s have it.”

“I want to skate.” She was grinning from ear to ear. What better way to spend her last full day on James’ turf than to do what he did his whole life? “What do you say? Take me to your pond…the one you showed me the other day. I want to skate with you.”

James’ heart may have burst if it physically possible. It never occurred to him to actually bring Ali along and do what he did for a living, and he loved the idea.

“Can you skate?”

“Actually….I think so! Though it’s been awhile. I used to skate when I was little with my mom, my grandparents had a smallish pond that would freeze every winter.” Ali shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll come back to me pretty quickly.”

James realized he never skated with a girl he was dating. He was starting to wonder why he’d never even considered it once in his 26 years. Likely because none of them were remotely interested in it, he thought.

“Let’s do it.” He suddenly felt eager and was raring to go. “Your feet are huge, I know that – but what size are they?”

“Hey!” Ali frowned. “They’re not huge.”

“Big enough” James joked. “Size, please?”

“Ten.” Ali looked at him sheepishly, and James laughed.

“That’s big, babe.”

“Whatever. Do you have a pair I can borrow?”

“Becca wears a 9, I think.” James went over to the bottom of the stairs. “Hey Beck! What size skate do you wear?”

“Nine!” she yelled down.

“Perfect! You can wear hers.”

“They won’t be too small?” Ali asked. They went out into the garage and James opened a giant, freestanding black utility closet. Inside were rows of what looked like used hockey sticks, padding, different old jerseys, and plenty of skates.

James bent down and inspected a dark gray pair with shiny blue laces. “These are Beck’s. Try ‘em on first.”

Ali took the skates and slipped one on over her sock. She took the time to tighten the laces, and James watched her attentively.

“How do they feel?”

Ali stepped down hard, testing them. “They feel pretty good!”

“Great!” James clapped and grabbed two sticks from the storage closet.

“Whoa whoa, wait” she said, taking the skate off. “What are you doing with those?”

James stood looking at her dumbly. “I’m sorry – what am I doing with these? We are using these, that’s what we’re doing!”

“I thought I said I wanted to skate!” Ali laughed. “I don’t know how to shoot a puck.”

“You didn’t know how to swing a golf club either” James shot back with a smirk. He tossed the two sticks in the back of their rental car. “Give me two minutes to get my stuff upstairs, then we’ll head out.”

He gave her an elated kiss and then went back inside. Ali looked down at the hockey sticks in the back of the car nervously.


* * *


James and Ali ended up being the only ones on the ice. Since it was 10 o’clock on a Wednesday morning, most kids were in school, which made for a fairly quiet scene at the park. It was another cold early winter morning, but the brisk air energized James. In his pea coat, gray knit hat, and dark jeans, he was in his skates before Ali even put one of them on. He used the time to take a few turns by himself on the ice.

“Show off!” Ali yelled as she walked over.

“Join me!” he said, whizzing past her backwards. “Show me these skills you told me about.”

When Ali hopped onto the ice, she pulled the floppy knit hat James gave her to wear over her head. She skated out to where he was waiting for her, doing a sharp stop, skiffing up some of the ice.

“So where are our sticks?” she asked him.

James took her hands in his. “Ah, ahh…not so fast. You gotta warm up first.” He skated backwards slowly, pulling her along. “Can you skate backwards?”

“I don’t know…I used to, but not well.”

“Try it.” James let go and watched Ali skate away from him, pushing her skates in the proper way one should if skating backwards. She wasn’t making much ground, and was kind of stiff, but he was impressed nonetheless.

She held out her hands. “Not too bad, eh?”

“Not bad at all!” James skated up to her, grabbing her waist. “Watch my feet.” He pushed backwards slowly, pulling her along with him as his feet did the work.

“Okay, okay – I let me try again” she said insistently. Letting go, Ali pushed back away from James and tried to emulate his exact move. She was doing it pretty well until she clipped the back of her skate and landed on her ass.

James winced, doing his best not to laugh. “Well….you HAD it, babe.”

Ali was laughing at herself as she got up shakily. “Dammit. I was close!”

“And close is good!” James brushed the snow off her ass and her thighs for her. “That was kind of cute, by the way.”

“Gee, thanks.” She pulled her hat more firmly over her head. “Show me again. I want to get this.”

James wanted to kiss her. Here he was, on the pond where he grew up learning how to play hockey, with a girlfriend who wanted to learn how to skate backwards. And…she wanted him to teach her. It made him feel special, in a completely new way he’d never felt before.

“Come on, I wanna learn!” Ali said, the corners of her expressive eyes creasing as she smiled.

“Alright, let’s try this” James said, getting behind her. He put his hands on her waist again, squeezing through her coat. “Just bend and follow me.”

With this, James skated backwards and he pulled Ali along with him. While she couldn’t see him, she watched his feet move just behind her, and saw what he was doing. She mimicked his movements, and James wanted to shout in joy when he saw her doing exactly as he was.

He let go and drifted off to the side to watch her. “Perfect, baby!”

Ali was skating more fluently now, and she looked over at him, her smile huge. “Ladies and Gentlemen – Your Next Pittsburgh Penguin!”

She did a little twirl and continued skating on. James flew over to her and lifted her up, both of them laughing as he spun her. They skated together like this for a while; just taking casual spins around the ice, James asking every now and then if she wanted to learn another move; most of the time though, they were just skating for fun. It may have been the first time James hit the ice in a long time where he didn’t have to worry about performing, but just had fun being.

When James busted out the hockey sticks, lazy snowflakes began to fall under a fuzzy gray sky, giving the ice a cloudy covering of light snow. He tossed a puck onto the ice with a loud thunk and tapped it in her direction.

“What are we shooting at?” she asked.

“Just to each other” James replied, cruising forward. “What? You want Fleury to show up so you can nail him in the face?”

Ali laughed. “No, I just thought we’d play a little game.”

“Ohhhhh!” James smiled, awed by her competitiveness. “You’d just lose like you did when we race on solid ground, let alone on ice.”

He said this, doing a lazy circle around her, taunting her. Ali stuck her hockey stick out to try and trip him, but he hopped over it.

“Fine, we’ll stick to passing.”

“Hit me, then!” James bent down in a receiving pose, sliding away from her.

Ali took a shot and passed it firmly. It wasn’t even touching James’ stick for half a second before it was traveling back towards her. She stuck her stick out and caught the puck, but it bounced off to the side. After retrieving it, she shot it back towards James a little more forcefully. James caught the puck, letting it linger in his stick a bit longer before shooting it back.

“You have kind of an arm on you, Ali….who knew?” He passed the puck back as they skated in circles.

“I don’t know how you guys hit it so hard though” Ali replied, slapping the puck as hard as she could in his direction. It flew upwards off the ice, and James caught it in his bare hand just enough to drop back onto the ice.

“Sorry!” Ali put her hands over her mouth, cringing.

“Didn’t hurt, don’t worry.” He closed the distance between them, then wrapped his stick around her back, enclosing her. “Can I tell you something?”

Ali nodded, wrapping her arms around his waist as well.

“This is all very surreal.” He watched as little tiny flakes melted on her eyelashes, her cheeks a light pink from the cold. He placed his hands on the side of her face. “I’ve never brought a girl here before. And now the girl I love is skating with me here. I don’t know…it’s all pretty crazy.”

The tender look in James’ eyes almost brought tears to her own, but Ali held them back. “Thank you for including me in such a special place.”

James bent his head and kissed her, the warmth of her soft lips spreading onto his.

Ali broke the kiss and James saw her face light up. “Ooo, I have an idea… let me go for a sec.”

James did, but looked at her with question. “What’s up?” He watched Ali digging into her pocket, and she brought out her cell phone.

“We should take a picture” she said, calling up the camera on her phone. “Want to?”

“Of course.” He brought Ali in close, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She held up the shaft of her hockey stick so it was visible in the picture, then handed the phone to James. Holding it out in front of them, he counted down from three.

The flash on the phone went off, and when James checked the picture, he was surprised at how happy he looked. Ali always looked great in pictures, but he realized then just how great they both looked. They really did fit together, and it made James smile. He decided to make the picture the new background on his phone, no matter how much shit he might get from the team if they saw it.


* * *


It came time later that afternoon for the couple to gather their things and get ready to head back to Toronto. James made reservations for the night so they could both wake up and go their separate ways the following morning; James to his game-day practice at the arena, and Ali to her flight back to Pittsburgh. Both times were fairly early, so staying the night in a hotel was their best bet.

His parents were sad to see Ali go. Both of them would be attending the game to watch James, his sister and brother included, but they knew this might be the last time for a while before they got to visit with Ali again.

As James and his mother were loading up the car, Peter held Ali back in the garage for a moment, so it was just the two of them.

“Allison, I just have to tell you, from Debra and myself, just how much of a change we’ve seen in James since he met you.” He smiled genuinely at her, and Ali saw a little of James smile in his.

“Thank you, Peter, but I have to argue against me having anything to do with James’ behavior.”

“No, it’s true” he said. “We’ve had talks about this, James and I. He’s serious about you, but I’m not sure if you know just how serious he is. If you ask me, he still needs a little practice in showing it.”

Ali felt her heartbeat accelerating, somewhat confused by what he was saying to her. It did make her feel incredibly good.

“I saw you two went to the pond earlier” he continued. “I don’t think James has ever done that, at least not with a girl. It’s like his turf, you know? The guys club.”

Ali nodded. “That’s what he said.” She was feeling humbled by all this. “I guess I don’t know what to say, really. I’m just being me, and loving him the best I can.”

“Well keep doing what you’re doing” Peter said. “Deb and I love you like family already, so don't worry about us.”

Outside, James shut the trunk and one of the doors to the backseat, and he and his mother hugged.

“Thank you.” Ali didn’t know what else to say. They had been so good to her, even in this early stage of her relationship with their son. It all felt fast in the beginning, but it seemed that she was settling in very nicely, and they were happy to have her.

“Ready, babe?” James and his mother came forward.

Ali turned and hugged Debra this time, and thanked her again for making her feel at home during the visit. When James and her were pulling away from the house, his parents gave them another wave and then went back in the house.

James took Ali’s hand in his and smiled at her. “I think you passed with flying colors.”

“Do I get a gold star?”

“I hand out lollipops, actually.”

Ali smirked at him. “That’s not code for ‘dick’, is it?”

“Do you want it to be?” He glanced over and flashed his winning smile at her.

“I just had a lollipop, so I think I’m good.” She squeezed his hand.

By the time they arrived in Toronto, the sun had set and the air was even colder. A strong wind off the lake made it miserable to be outside, so as Ali and James made the executive decision that room service would be the only way to go.

“I didn’t realize it got this cold this fast” she said, feeling the chill down her spine even as they entered their room. “Wonder if it’s as bad down in Pittsburgh?”

“Not sure” James said, occupied with his phone. He had two missed called from Dan Bylsma, and several texts from Sid. “Hang on a sec, Coach called...I’ll be right back.”

He headed out into the hallway and dialed up Dan first. “Hey Coach, what’s up?”

“Hey Neal. Sorry to interrupt you if you’re still home.”

“Nah, just got into Toronto, actually. We’re staying here the night so I can make the skate in the morning.”

“Good to hear” Dan replied. “Hey listen…real reason I called is to let you know the game’s been rescheduled for 8 instead of 6:30. But it doesn’t sound like that changes your plans after all, if you guys are already in town.”

“Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem. Is the skate still at noon?”

“Noon sharp. See ya then?”

“Yep, see ya. Thanks Coach.” He hung up, then went to Sidney’s texts. They essentially were passing on the same message Dan just relayed.

As he stared at the letters of his captain’s messages, thoughts of the previous night came back to him. It angered James all over again. He walked down to the end of the hotel hallway, and dialed Sid’s number. Patiently he waited through the rings, staring out the window at downtown Toronto.

“Hey Nealer! Get my messages?”

“Hey Sid. Yeah, about that….Can I just ask you a simple question?” James already felt his blood slowly boiling.

“Sure….?”

“Why do you insist on texting Ali?”

Sid hesitated. “Uh….I didn’t know there was a rule out there saying I couldn’t?”

James clenched his teeth. “Listen man, I don’t fuck around with some of the chicks you’ve brought back with you in the past. I don’t text them when they’re home with you.”

“Slow down, Nealer. It’s nothing like that with Ali and I—“

“—You’re damn right it isn’t.” James tried to keep his voice in check in the hallway. “You had her for two nights at your place. You got to play hero, and yeah…you helped me out a lot. A LOT. Okay? I get that. But just leave her alone.”

“Did Ali ask you to do this?” Sid questioned. Now his voice sounded tense.

“Well….no, she didn’t—“

“—Then let your girlfriend decide who she wants to talk to and when she wants to talk to them. She seems like a pretty big girl, I’m sure she is capable of doing that.”

“Fuck you, Crosby.”

James hung up. He stood in the hall for a minute, clenching both his jaw and his fists. As he tried to compose himself, he took a few deep breaths, and then went back to their room.


* * *