No Sense of Direction

Chapter Twenty Six

It’s the second week of August and everyone was on their way back to Pittsburgh. I’ve been enjoying my time with my horses and friends, Zach had left yesterday to head back to North Carolina and Chris was drafted to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, so he ended up not finishing school, and moved down there. So here I was, living in this huge house, by myself, with two crazy puppies and seven horses. Milan ended up spending a month with me, but he needed to head back to Boston, and he was sad to leave me.

“Wow! So seven horses now?” Sidney said as he looked at all of them tied against the fence outside of the barn.

I laughed as I saw his face and then patted his shoulder, “Yup.”

“That’s a lot of work,” he said and I nodded my head.

“I have help though,” I said and he smirked and then looked around.

“Where?”

“She didn’t show up yet,” I said and looked at my watch, “She’s usually here by six, but didn’t come,” I said and then looked at my phone, “It’s no big deal, I can handle it.”

“You want some help?” he asked and I laughed, “What?”

“A hockey player actually wants to get down and dirty with cleaning up shit?” I teased and he looked at me.

“I can handle it!” he said and I shook my head.

“It’s fine,” I laughed as I threw some hay into the stall, “I’m almost finished.”

“You sure?” he asked and I smiled back at him.

“You can help me put them back into the stalls when I’m finished,” I said and he nodded his head.

“So where are these puppies you were telling me about on the phone last week?” he asked and I laughed and walked out of the stall.

“They’re in the last stall,” I said while pointing towards the other end of the stables.

I watched as Sidney walked down and looked into the last stall and smirked, “They’re cute.”

“They’re also a handful.”

“They can’t be that bad,” he said and I scoffed.

“They’re in their chewing faze,” I growled and he laughed.

“So what did you name them?”

“Baxter and Daisy,” I said and Sidney smiled, “So how was your birthday?!” I asked as I finished up in Balto’s stall and walked out and grabbed the shit filled wheel barrel.

“It was good, spent the day with my family and then the night with some old buddies,” he said and I smiled.

“How was yours?”

“Well I told you, bought three horses and got two dogs,” I said and he laughed, “It was an animal filled birthday.”

“I’ll say,” he said and I walked the wheel barrel over towards the compost bucket and shoveled it in there, “Oh god that smells awful.”

“Well yeah, it’s shit, Sid,” I said as I finished up and wheeled the barrel back to the stables and grabbed the hose.

“You really like this?” he asked and I looked at him confused, “Taking care of the horses?”

“Well yeah, I’ve had horses in my life ever since I can remember,” I said and he nodded his head, “We might have money, but we’re not the family to hire someone to take care of them. I mean I have help, but I’m the one doing just about everything.”

“But that’s a lot of work,” he said and I nodded my head.

“It’s like have babies, Sid, they’re a lot of work,” I said and he nodded his head.

“Guess you’re right,” he said and I smirked and then pointed the hose towards him and squirted him, “HEY!!!”

I laughed and then sprayed the hose at him some more and then screamed when he started to run at me and try to pull it off of me. We were both laughing and his arms were around me, trying to get the hose that was around my back. I felt him stop trying to get the hose and looked at him to see that he was staring at me, and his hands were placed on my waist. Water dripped down his face and I saw how his t-shirt clung to his chest showing off his well toned hockey body. I gulped and then shivered at the sight of his intense gaze. There felt like there was a magnet in-between us, pulling our faces together, but then a light clicked in my head and I pulled back remembering about Milan.

“Gotchya,” he said and then I felt water being squirted at me and I screamed and then laughed. He chased me around and then sprayed me, but the water hit Blaze and he yelped and jumped onto his back legs.

I cursed and then walked over towards him and grabbed onto his rope, pulling him down and trying to calm him down. He was thrashing his head around and I was petting down his face and then started to sing to him to calm him down, which usually did.

“Wow,” I heard Sidney said and I smiled, “You have a nice voice.”

“Thanks, it usually calms him down,” I said and Sidney smirked.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

“Naw, it’s all right, I have to give them a bath anyways,” I said and he nodded his head, “You ever wash a horse before?”

“Never been around them until I met you,” he laughed and I smirked and then turned to see a car pulling up, “That Dan?” he asked and I looked and nodded my head.

“Wonder what he’s doing here,” I muttered as I continued to pet Blaze’s face.

“Hey Katrina, Sid,” he said and I smiled towards him.

“What’s up, Uncle Dan?”

“Just came by to hand you the practice schedule,” he said and I nodded my head, “Why are you two wet?”

“Water fight,” I said as I shrugged my shoulders and Sidney laughed.

“All right then, practice starts next week,” he said and I nodded my head, “When are you going to get your physical in?”

“I was going to send out an email tomorrow for that to be on Friday,” I said and he nodded his head and then left.

“Physical?” Sidney asked and I nodded my head.

“You’re a new team, I have to know everything about you guys,” I explained and then saw him gulp, which made me laugh, “What’s the matter, Crosby? Afraid to get naked in front of me?” I teased and then saw his face go red, which only made me laugh harder.

“No- It’s- I um-“

“Relax, Sid, it’s not like I’ve never seen a naked man before,” I said and he shyly nodded his head, “You’re not the first team that I’ve worked for.”

“Yeah but, you’re the first trainer that we had that was a girl, and by frankly, you’re kind of, um,” he paused to think of something and I smirked and shook my head.

“Spit it out! Kind of what?”

“Beautiful,” he said and I smirked and rolled my eyes when I saw his face turn even redder than before, “I’m serious!”

“Well thank you, but trust me when I say, I’ve seen it all,” I said and he gulped and nodded his head, “Now come on, I need to give these horses a bath before it gets too dark out.”

“All right,” Sidney said and then I unhooked Blaze and walked him into the stall.

“On second thought, I’ll do it tomorrow, they can wait a day,” I said and he laughed and went back to grabbed Care-Bear.

One by one we brought the horses back into the stall and then I cleaned the place a little. By the time the stall looked nice, and passed my seal of cleanliness, Sidney and I grabbed the pups and walked back over towards the house.

“I’m starving!” Sidney said and I laughed as I nodded my head, “And soaked!”

I laughed even harder as I walked into the house and placed the pups on the floor and watching them run deeper into the house, “I’m sure Zach has some of his clothes here, I’ll get you something,” I said and then hear Sidney close the back door.

“All right,” he said and then followed me up the stairs and into Zach’s room.

I handed Sidney some sweats and a t-shirt and then walked into my bedroom to change into some shorts and a tank top. I grabbed my wet clothes and then walked out of my room to see that Sidney was walking out of Zach’s room holding his wet clothes.

“You want me to dry yours?”

“Thanks,” he said and I smiled and nodded my head.