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In Your Eyes

One

"ACTION!"

Sid cruised along on his blades, the familiar sound of ice cutting beneath him as he made a circle and rushed towards the camera. He slid to an immediate stop, showering the camera man with a spray of ice. He stared at the lens as if it were an opponent; someone trying to take the win away from him. His dark eyes centered on a small crosshair that signified where he was supposed to look.

"CUT."

At least ten people came onto the ice while the lights came up, and Sid allowed himself to relax. Straightening his back, he let his stick down while two women came towards him, makeup in hand.

"Sid, we're going to need you to stop just a little closer to the camera." It was William, the marketing officer for Tim Horton's, and the current overseer of all operations on the current commercial filming. "I think one more and we should be good to go."

Sid nodded, wiping his nose. Even though he wasn't playing or practicing, he still had every piece of his normal gear on for the commercial, and he was hot. At least ten takes had already occurred, and he wanted to do the best he could. Bill was an old friend, but he needed the next take to be better than the last. Every move Sid made, he wanted it to be better than the last.

William patted Sid on his shoulder, the sound of his hand against the thick padding making a slapping noise. "You look good, Kid." He leaned a little closer. "It's this damn equipment, you know how it goes."

"Yeah, I do." Sidney laughed, wiping his nose again of another stray bead of sweat. "So the same move, but you just want me closer?"

"That should do it. We'll just go for that one segment then call it a day."

With a nod, Sid skated back to his starting point. At the cue, he skated in the same circle he had ten times before, went rushing towards the camera man until he thought he was scarily close to hitting him, then came to a sharp stop. Another sheet of ice blanketed the camera, and William clapped.

"PERFECT! Perfect, Sid! I think we got it."

The commotion of a hundred bodies moving about resumed, and the lights came up on the ice one final time. Sidney cruised slowly around several people who were moving onto the ice to gather lights and equipment and screens that were used to film the commercial. He stepped off the ice, removing his helmet and one of his gloves.

"We'll let you know how the final product looks" Bill told him with a handshake. "But we know it'll be great."

Sid smiled. "Anytime, Bill."

With that, he headed back to the locker rooms of the Halifax Civic Center, where the commercial had been taped. He was home for the summer, or at least traveling between home and various other locations across Canada and the States for conditioning and promotional ventures.

Once he was showered and back into a t-shirt and shorts, complete with flip flops, Sid grabbed his bag and sunglasses and went out into the warm summer day. It was still only July 6th, but it felt more like the middle of August. The summer seemed to be slipping away faster than he could hang on to it, and soon enough, he'd be back in Pittsburgh and ready for the final conditioning before the new season.

A few kilometers outside of Halifax, Sid rolled up to his newly purchased home, which he'd bought for many reasons. The first was for convenience issues, and the second was for privacy issues. It was a closed community, or as closed as Halifax could get. It provided enough privacy for him, and gave his parents and his little sister a break as well.

As he dropped his equipment inside the front door and went into the kitchen, Sidney saw on the counter what he'd been looking at for the past week: the napkin, with the number, from the girl he met at James and Ali's wedding.

The newly married couple were off on their honeymoon to the Amalfi Coast in Italy, and wouldn't be back for another week. If Sidney wanted to question Ali about her old roommate, he'd have to wait.

Sid knew her first name was Piper, and he knew her phone number. That much she'd given him. He could remember she said she lived in Maine…or her parents did, he couldn't recall. And he knew she was Ali's roommate for two years in college.

One thing Sidney knew about himself was his ability to see things others didn't. He could pick up on details that might go missing to others; a trait Sid used to his advantage in hockey. At the reception, he'd noticed the softness of Piper's complexion, and the way her eyes shifted from all green to hazel, especially when she smiled. She had a tiny birthmark on her cheek, just below her right eye. He also noticed the curve of her neck that led to slender shoulders, and the hint of vanilla that had left him mesmerized.

Of all things, Sid didn't know Piper's last name. He'd been so enamored by her at the reception in the two hours they talked and danced, that he'd forgotten to get her last name.

Sid had a lot of questions; more questions than answers. He didn't like that.

Yet every time he thought about calling her, he froze.

Leaving the napkin right where it'd been since he'd made it back to Halifax, Sid moved on to making food and relaxing for the rest of the afternoon, and his urge to call Piper slowly faded.

* * *

"Namaste."

"Namaste" the class echoed.

Piper gave her students a nod, her hands pressed together in front of her chest, still heaving from the workout. She rose last, watching as the young women around her quietly stood and began to gather their equipment.

She took some time to speak with one of her regulars as they placed their foam blocks and rollers back into the equipment room. She thanked her, then waited until all the students had cleared the studio room. With her matt rolled up and slung over her back, Piper headed out into the warm early summer morning.

For early July, Bar Harbor, Maine was nothing but a tourist attraction. It contrasted greatly to the ho-hum, slower paced life of the tiny coastal town that she knew and loved in the winter months. But, like it or not, her yoga studio saw a lot more patrons during the summer. She was already starting to schedule more classes as the days filed by, requiring her other two yoga instructors to begin picking up some of the slack. One of her instructors was also one of her best friends, Danika, who she met when she first moved to Bar Harbor a few years after college.

One of the perks of being a yoga instructor at a studio you owned and operated was choosing the hours you wanted, and Piper did just that. As she walked down the brick sidewalk towards the cafe she was meeting Danika at, she realized how lucky she was sometimes, watching as other vendors were just opening their shops as she was just finishing her only class of the day…and it wasn't even 10 am yet.

Inhaling deeply, Piper breathed in the ocean air that mixed subtly with pine; a staple that made Bar Harbor the tourist trap that it was. People came from all over to experience Acadia National Park, with its thick covering of pine trees mixed with its dramatic sea cliffs and ocean views. It was one of the reasons Piper had moved back there in the first place.

Inside her yoga bag, Piper heard her phone beep. Digging it out, she saw that Danika had messaged she'd gotten them a table already, so Piper hustled the rest of the way to the cafe.

It was a small place, as all the boutiques and shops were in the town. It had a flare for the granola crowd that lived in Bar Harbor, with a small menu made of fresh ingredients grown right on the premises. It was Piper and Danika's favorite place to do brunch, as they often did when their schedules permitted.

"There you are!" Danika's sweet smile appeared as she stood to hug her friend.

"Just got your text halfway through my walk here." Piper hung her bag on the rung of the stainless steel chair as she took a seat. She glanced around, flipping her wavy hair up into a bun with a pen she had in her bag. "Looks like a decent crowd, huh?"

Danika nodded as she took a sip of her tea. "Another cruise ship came in this morning."

"Ahhhh." The cafe's atmosphere was a mix of mod deco with hippie chic; a mix that seemed to work there in town, but Piper questioned if it would work anywhere else. Plenty of patrons already occupied much of the seating around them, which made sense if another ship docked that morning. "So did you order yet?"

"Pfft, please. I know better than to order without you."

Piper smirked. "A lesson learned the hard way, I suppose."

"You know it" Dani teased.

When the waitress appeared, Piper ordered steel cut oats with fresh fruit and a shot of wheatgrass, while Dani ordered chocolate chip banana pancakes.

"So I have today and all of tomorrow, right?" Danika asked.

"Right, and Amy has the following days" Piper answered. "Sorry I had to bail like that."

"It's fine. I could use the hours anyways." Dani sighed. "Seems we'll be out of breaks soon as the season ramps up."

Piper nodded. Summer was short in Maine, but it was good. If there was one thing she disliked most about her job as an instructor was the fact that summer was her busiest season, right when she wanted to be out and about the most.

Dani reached over to knock Piper's arm. "So tell me about the wedding! We haven't even gone over that yet!"

"Ahhh yes, the wedding." Piper laced her fingers together thoughtfully. Her college roommate, Allison, had somehow landed one of the Pittsburgh Penguins' leading forwards. They got married a week earlier, which was only the second time Piper had heard of her man, James Neal. The first time was when she'd gotten the invite a few months prior to the wedding. Her and Ali kept in touch, but not nearly closely enough. Mostly a phone call here and there and the occasional email or Facebook update. Their lives had gone their seperate ways following college, and life took over. They had some great years and their friendship would always be close, no matter the miles.

Although, it was only when Piper got the wedding invitation had she realized the girl was involved with someone at all…let alone an NHL hockey player.

"She married that hockey player, right?" Dani asked, her blue eyes dancing. "Please tell me he was hot."

Piper laughed, smiling down at her hands. "Oh….he was hot, alright." But someone else there had caught her attention even more than the groom had…and it was someone James played with.

"Sooooo?" Dani tapped her nails on the tabletop. "What's the story? Did you meet anyone? Was it huge? How did you friend look? What was her dress like?"

"Easy, Dani!" Piper laughed. "One at a time, one at a time."

"Well then start with this: did you meet anyone? There HAD to have been other hockey guys there, right?"

Her smile must have given it away because Dani sat back in her chair, eyes wide and her mouth hanging open.

"YOU DID, didn't you!?"

With an easy shrug, Piper tried to play it off. She'd been trying to play it off all week, in fact, but it wasn't working. Every day since the reception, Piper had thought about Sidney, wondering if today would be the day he called her. But as time passed and each day went without a phone call, she began to realize it was becoming a stretch he might even be interested.

"So what's his name?" Dani asked, prodding her for more information.

"Sidney." Piper smiled, feeling her cheeks flush a little. "He plays with James on the Penguins, I found out. I guess they're good friends, because he was part of the wedding party."

"No way. Did you do anything?"

"We danced?" Piper said, hoping her friend wouldn't be too disappointed at how tame her and Sidney's time together had been. "We talked a lot?"

"Okay, okay - rephrase: did you fuck him?"

"Jesus, Dan!" Piper had to laugh, because the thought had crossed her mind more than a few times that night….and nights following.

"So what the hell?"

She shrugged. "I gave him my number. He hasn't called yet."

"Does he live in Pittsburgh? Because if so…"

"No….I mean, yes….but not all the time" Piper answered. "He's from near Halifax, actually."

The reaction she hoped Danika would have, happened. It made her feel a little less childish for the hopes she had that came along with this piece of knowledge.

"Halifax is like….two hours from here, Piper."

"If I take the Cat, yeah."

"Well what are you gonna do, drive?"

She huffed. "Please. That would take ten hours."

"And no one wants to drive through northern Maine."

They both made a face, taking a sip of their respective drinks.

"So what are you gonna do? Call him?"

Piper sighed heavily. It was the one mistake she'd made, and she blamed the wine her and Sidney shared on it specifically. "I didn't get his number." She flicked her green eyes up to watch the reaction on her friend's face. "What!? Don't make that face."

"I HAVE to make this face." Dani leaned forward, her blue eyes now focused directly on her. "WHY did you leave the decision up to him?"

"I'd had a few drinks" she replied, shrugging. "He was hot, he smelled good, his smile…."

His smile was what did it to her. It was the one thing she couldn't get enough of. That, and his eyes.

Piper looked at Dani seriously. "You should see his eyes, Dani."

She set back heavily in her chair. "Tell me more."

So Piper did. She told her everything she could remember about Sidney…the size of his shoulders when they danced, and the firmness of the muscle she could only hope to explore one day. His caramel brown eyes that never moved from her as she talked, the smile was was both bashful and confident. He stood proudly, he walked with purpose, his gaze was tender.

It made her weak just thinking about it.

When the waitress came with their dishes, it paused the talk for a minute, but Dani was right back on Piper to finish her description of their short time together.

"So I just gave him my number" she finished, pouring a splash of soy milk over her oats. "Figured if I left the impression on him as he did on me, he'd call. If not - no loss, no gain, right?"

"WRONG." Dani pointed her fork full of pancakes at her. "You have Ali to ask, right? If Sidney's friends with James and they play together…surely she could get you his number?"

"And then what? I call some NHL superstar who's forgotten my name and ask him how he's doing?" Piper asked, her heart racing at the thought she still had Ali to ask, incase Sid never called.

"Yeah." Dani ate the bite of pancakes and smiled. "And he hasn't forgotten your name."

Piper tilted her head to the side. "And how do you know this?"

Dani shrugged. "Simple mathematics. Hot girl, plus phone number, plus wine, plus a wedding? And YOU gave HIM the number?" She took another bite of food and smiled. "And what does that equal? Ohh, just that he remembers your name."

Piper smiled. "I hope you're right."

* * *

He didn't call that night, and he didn't call the next night. That made it exactly 8 days since Ali and James' wedding. 8 days since Piper saw Sidney Crosby from across the ballroom where the reception was in full force. 8 days since she thought she might have a chance.

Piper thought maybe he was busy with hockey….but it was July. Hockey didn't exactly go on in July, did it?

She knew very little about the entire sport, and she cursed herself for not paying more attention to team sports.

So with a throw blanket, her Nalgene bottle of water, and her iPad, Piper went out onto her front deck and lounged in one of her Adirondack chairs. Even though it was July and the day was a warm one, Bar Harbor wasn't exactly a place known for its hot summers. Even in the shade, the air felt just the slightest bit chilly.

Snuggling down into the chair, she propped her feet up over the arm rest and went to Google. She figured she'd start there.

She typed in "Sidney Crosby Pittsburgh Penguins", and clicked Enter.

What came up made her gasp.

"What the fuck…….."

Picture after picture after picture, statistics that made her head spin, articles and video clips and headlines…..All with his name on it.

Piper's mouth hung open.

Sid the Kid - a Hockey Phenom

The Crosby Show: As Good as Gretzky?

Can He Do It Again? Sidney Scores Big Goal in Overtime.

Sidney Crosby Becomes Youngest Captain in NHL History


Her eyes scanned each article in disbelief.

"He's…..a big deal" she uttered in awe. She tapped on another article, which opened to see Crosby in a pose, screaming and yelling in excitement, a Team Canada Olympic jersey on.

"No….he's a huge deal."

The person she looked at on her iPad seemed like a completely different individual than the one she talked to at the reception. Piper realized though, with every click she made, that she didn't have aclue who she'd been speaking to.

He doesn't just play for the Penguins…he IS the Penguins.

She tapped another picture, one where Sid was bleeding from his nose on the ice. Wincing, she clicked another picture, one where he was smiling alongside another teammate of his in the locker room.

The Sidney Crosby Piper was looking at never showed itself at the reception. He'd been as humble, unassuming, and as friendly as if he was just a normal guy.

Anything but normal, she thought. But it was him, alright. Those were the same big eyes, that same smile, the same broad shoulders she'd hugged. It was all there…and now she knew his title.

"Captain." She said it, but it didn't seem to fit. Then again, she'd spoken with Sidney for only two hours of her entire lifetime. How could she possibly glean from that who he was?

She turned her iPad off and face palmed herself. She let out a fit of giggles, which turned into a full-on bout of laughter. Since she lived on a road where houses were sparse and far between one another, her laughter concerned no one but the birds that chirped nearby.

"I had to pick the ONE hockey player that would be the most impossible to hit on." She laughed again, shaking her head in shame. "Ugggghhhhhhhh." Groaning, she ran a hand through her hair and looked around her, letting the realization sink in.

No wonder he hasn't called. He's the second coming of Wayne Gretzky. Why WOULD he call?

She sunk a little deeper into her chair and sighed.

* * *

Sid was on his fifth sprint and going just as hard as his first. Andy O'Brien, his strength and conditioning coach, stood off to the side, encouraging him along as he pushed it as hard as he could to finish out a sixth and final ladder sprint. His chest burned by the time he came to a stop at the end of the lengthy gym room, walking off his elevated heart rate as Andy came over.

"Great job, Sid. All under your previous times."

It didn't stop there. Raised leg box jumps came next, followed directly by single leg back squats with a bar. While the focus of his conditioning that day had been his speed, it finished with weights; though not extremely heavy in bulk, his tired legs and glutes were feeling it hard by the end.

He sat on a nearby bench alone for a few minutes, squirting Gatorade into his mouth while trying to catch his breath. Running a hair through his damp curls, limp and sticking to his forehead, he let the pain of the workout move through him. It was one of the best feelings, and yet one of the toughest. If it was one thing he loved most, it was a good feeling that was hard to get. The challenge drove him more than most.

There was one challenge that was eluding him, though. It was the napkin still sitting on his countertop, still staring him in the face when he got home from the gym.

Why, of all the things that had come and gone in his life, was calling a girl so hard to do?

But to Sid, this wasn't just any girl. It was Piper, the girl whose eyes still flashed in his mind every night before he went to sleep. It was the way she smelled and looked at him and gently touched his arm when he made her laugh.

He wanted to make her laugh again, and that was his whole problem.

Dating someone, being the person he was, was not easy. Guys like Geno….Nealer….Bennett….they could date whoever they wanted, fuck whoever they wanted, and if pictures showed up on the internet or rumors started about any of them, it didn't matter.

But for Sid, it mattered. It mattered a lot. If he was serious about a girl, it meant he had to really be serious. It likely wouldn't be fun for her, and that's why he kept himself single. Who would put up with his training schedule? His regimented lifestyle? His schedule during the hockey season? It was also the reason why he hooked up with chicks who didn't know "who he was" or "what he did" for a living. It was best if no one knew…it would eventually turn them off anyway.

But none of that really seemed to matter whenever Sid thought about Piper. All he knew was that his craving was getting stronger the more he tried to ignore it, and the more he tried to ignore it….the more he knew it was a done deal.

Two hours of mindless television watching went by that evening, and the craving still didn't diminish. A second shower didn't help either.

So he surrendered.

Walking into his kitchen, Sidney picked up his cell phone that had been charging at one of the outlets. He typed the numbers from the napkin slowly into the phone, each number seeming to take a year to enter. His fingers felt heavy and his heart was racing. When he hit Call and lifted the receiver to his ear, his body was as alert as ever.

After this, it's over he thought. Unless she forgot who I am or what my name is.

"Hello?"

Sid's heart stopped. "Hi….uh, Piper? Hey, it's Sid."

"Crosby?"

She remembered my name. He smiled, feeling a tremendous relief wash over him.

* * *

They talked for three hours….longer than Sidney had ever talked before on a phone call to a girl he'd only met a week ago.

As they talked, he paced through the rooms of his house, not really even aware of where he ended up. He eventually found himself upstairs in his bedroom, lying face up, playing with the buckle of his leather belt as he talked.

He accomplished one of his main goals during the call, and that was to make her laugh again. In fact, it was easy to make Piper laugh. For some reason, she found him funny. Sid would've never expected that. She was very easy to talk to, so he let some of his guard down with each passing minute.

One thing was certain: Piper was a spitfire. Another thing was also certain: Sidney liked it.

"So how much shit can I give you for not telling me your all star status?" she teased.

"It's not that I didn't tell you" Sid quipped, his smirk growing. "I just never got around to it." Piper's lively laughter filled his ear again, giving him that floaty feeling he'd been in since they first exchanged hellos.

"Something tells me you weren't intending on telling me at all."

There was a bit of sarcasm in her tone, which Sid picked up on immediately. The trouble was, he never really knew how to tell someone who he was…or who the masses thought he was.

"Oh I was going to" Sid replied playfully. "I was just hoping maybe to see you again, so I was keeping it a secret." He took a chance, and it worked.

"How long are you in Halifax, again?"

Piper's smile was evident through her voice. Sid wished he could see it again. Just talking with her, getting to know her a little more, it made the craving he had even stronger than before.

"A week or so, then I'll be back in Pittsburgh. After that, likely back here for the rest of the month."

"Hmmm." Piper was playing with him, drawing it out of him.

Sid fell for it with ease. "Say you'll come visit."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll come find you."

She laughed. "Sidney Crosby! Ever the chaser."

His cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling. "You don't want to challenge me, Piper. I have a tendency of……..winning."

"Ahhhh, yes, I learned a little of that from GOOGLE" she said, emphasizing the final word, even as she laughed. "Aaah sorry, I'm SO using this against you for a while."

"Fair enough, fair enough" Sid replied. "So am I coming to visit Maine, or are you coming to Halifax?"

There was a pause. It was long enough of a hesitation that Sid started to feel as though he'd gone too hard, pushed too much, flirted too long. He was just beginning to formulate an apology when Piper chimed in.

"I'll come visit."

Sid's eyebrows rose. "You will?"

"Why not?"

He stuttered. "Uh…well, I mean you definitely should, if you want to. I just--"

"Calm down, Crosby. I want to, okay?"

He exhaled. "Okay."

"So call me when you're back in these parts?"

Her voice sounded hopeful. She was depending on him, again, to call her.

"I will." Sid took a single deep breath to steady his heart rate. "But can I call you before then?"

Piper's laughter, light and bubbly, trickled through the receiver. "Of course you can, silly. And I hope you do."

"Back at you" he said with a smile.

"Have fun in Pittsburgh."

"I will…talk to you soon?"

"I hope so."

He smiled. "Night, Piper."

"Goodnight, Crosby."

He waited until she hung up first, then set his cellphone down. Every nerve in his body seemed on fire; like tiny little needles pricking at all the right places.

Sidney liked this girl. The more he listened to her talk about her parents, her life in Bar Harbor, her business with her yoga studio…he became more and more interested in her. She had listened just as carefully, laughing at moments Sidney didn't expect, and commenting in ways he wasn't anticipating. He told her a little of what it was like growing up with the passions he had, and how hard he worked to be where he was.

It was all really, really nice. She took a general interest in what he did, and while she wasn't familiar much with the team or with the sport of hockey in general, she asked questions….the rightquestions. So often Sid had to deal with puck sluts and puck bunnies - they exhausted him, but he dealt with it. He had to; they all had to.

But girls like Piper….they were rare.

Ali was one of the rare ones as well - but she was James', and she was Sid's friend. He loved and adored her, but it was different with her. Especially now.

He shook his head of the thoughts, erasing any feeling he'd had for her and focused on the butterflies in his stomach. He rolled over, his legs stretching out beneath him to the foot of his large bed. He was tight from his workout, but it felt good. His body tingled from the phone call, and that felt even better. He hoped this feeling would last, and he hoped he didn't have to wait a few weeks before he could feel this all over again.

* * *

Piper pulled her form-fitted tank top over her shoulders, pulling the stretchy fabric over her waist to the band of her black Nike capris. The teal and sea foam green colors of the Eastern-influenced pattern brought out the green of her hazel eyes, which she lined subtly with light brown eyeliner. Given the amount of humidity outside, she already ruled out doing anything with her hair, so she left it in it's natural wavy state, pinning back her bangs with a hairpin.

She went about making breakfast, a bounce in her step as she constructed a ham and cheese omelet. Heavy gray clouds blanketed the skies outside, but Piper hardly noticed. It could have been pouring sheets and sheets of rain, and for all she knew, the sun was still shining.

In fact, Piper hadn't felt this good in a long time. It wasn't every day that a hockey player - no, the hockey player - called you and asked to see you again.

"He asked to see me again" Piper said to Dani, the minute she finished her class at the studio. She came hustling in, bare feet on wooden floor, even as Danika was gathering up her gear.

"Who did!?"

"Sidney." Piper smiled. "He called."

Dani's mouth fell open and a hushed gasp fell out. "Wait….wait - he called you? Really?"

Piper shook her head rapidly. "Yes, and we talked for three hours. THREE HOURS, Dani."

"Oh. My. God."

Piper had been keeping it as casual as she possibly could all morning, but she purposely came into the studio to tell Danika the news. She was biting her lip and smiling, hardly able to keep her composure.

"You know what this means, right?" Dani asked her, rolling up her leaf green matt. "Babies."

"Oh God, Dani." Piper laughed at her friend's ridiculousness. "Come on."

Dani shrugged. "If he's as big as you said he was and he still called you?"

"Hey!" Piper pushed a piece of her wavy hair behind her ear. "What's that supposed to mean?" She knew what it meant, and it never escaped her mind, either. She was painfully boring; Sidney was painfully good looking and twice as talented, from what she gathered. It wasn't a likely match.

"It means nothing! I'm on your side, remember?" Dani lifted one of her eyebrows in Piper's directions. "Just…be yourself, and next thing you know--"

"--Don't get my hopes up" Piper said, holding up one of her hands.

That was the problem: her hopes were already up. They were so far up that they punched the stratosphere. The way Sid had talked with her last night, it felt like she'd known him forever. She wasn't used to a feeling like that. Her last boyfriends came and went and she never had the amount of butterflies in her stomach the way she did when she heard Sidney's deep voice on the other line for the first time. It was too much of a good thing to ignore.

"So I'm going to visit him." She dropped that factoid on Dani and thought her friend's eyes were going to pop out of her head. "In a couple weeks, I guess."

"So wait."

Piper was already holding back a laugh as Dani tried to reason through the suddenness of it all.

"You meet once, you talk for three hours, and you're already meeting up with one another?"

She nodded. "Too quick?"

"Well…."

"He practically begged to see me, Dani." The thought of Sidney saying he would come find her if she didn't come to Halifax made her tummy do a somersault. "He wants this as much as me."

"Just be smart, okay?" Dani faced her, her blonde hair tousled from her last class and her blue eyes sharp. "Don't throw all your pucks into one hockey basket right away. I don't care how good looking he is."

Piper sighed. "You don't trust me to play this correctly?"

"I do. It's him I worry about."

"Well you haven't met him - and you haven't talked to him" Piper said in defense. "I have a feeling it isn't like that with him."

"Good, because I want him to make you happy. Too many haven't already." Dani slung her bag over her shoulder, pulling out a zip-up hood. "I gotta run…Let me know if you talk to him again, okay?"

They hugged, and Piper watched Dani head out into the street. Her words sunk in, but not far. It was apparent from the start that Sidney wasn't like most guys. He wasn't even like most hockey players, from what she already knew about him.

All she knew was the feeling she had, and that somewhere in Halifax, Sidney was feeling it too. She knew it.

* * *
Summary

Notes

And so it begins....... :)

Comments

I really really miss youre updates :(

Listor87 Listor87
9/24/14

I agree - the trade brought me to tears. Each time I think about it I cry. It won't be the same without Lazy running alongside G. I hope Nealer does great things in Nashville. He will always be a Pen, no matter what. Still trying to wrap my head around it as well as Matty, Joey V, Tanner, Elko and Orpik.......I just hope this new GM knows what he is doing. Sucks, it really does. I hope you decide to write again. Loved your stuff!! Here's hugs to you Winter OOOO - 73 days till puck drop!! Let's Go Pens!

KWeber8771 KWeber8771
7/29/14

6-28-14 ** A NOTE TO MY READERS **

As a result of James getting traded, I've found myself at a loss for words; a loss I'm not sure I'll be quick to recover from. The trade was a hard hit, and it will take some time for me to get over the initial hurt.

I wanted to post a message to at least tell all of you who have followed my stories up to this point that after this, I'm not sure how long it's going to be before I post a new story. James will forever be a Penguin to me, and likely to many of you as well. I'm just not sure how to go forward right now. As a result - I can't promise I'll be back, but I hope to be. I really do.

Let's let the dust settle and the hurt fade...and maybe we'll find one other again on this wonderful site.

Thank you all again for your support...It really has made writing so much fun for me, and I don't want to go forward with another story until it's fun again. Right now - that doesn't seem plausible.

I'll leave it open for any of you to message me anytime, if you'd like. I will occasionally check in just to see how everyone's doing. :-)

Regards,
Winter

Winter22 Winter22
6/28/14

Great story - you need to write one about Geno!!!

KWeber8771 KWeber8771
5/21/14

Omg. Seriously girl you never disappoint. Omg. I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve. And what's to come for piper and Sid and james and Ali and the baby <3

kristinnx kristinnx
4/21/14