The Off Season

Chapter Nine - July 2013

In the early morning hours of that July morning of their last day at the house on Balsam Lake that they rented together, Katherine could see the sun starting to rise over the horizon from behind the nape of James’ neck. She snuggled in closer to his back and watched as the pink and blue sky turned red with the sunrise. She watched him breathing, still sleeping off the activities from the night before.

For the past seven days it was nothing but the two of them; something that they had promised themselves on that tequila induced night that James got his Hat Trick in Game 6 against the Senators. It was going to be a time to figure out what all this was and where it was going; whether it was just convenient lust or something that was going to stand the test of a full hockey season and beyond. Time for sleeping in the same bed, taking cat naps in the hammock, being out on the lake in the boat, having him teach her how to fish and in return, she teaching him how to cook dinner; just a week of enjoying each other in every way possible.

With the disappointing end of the playoff grind, they both just needed a break from everything. Katherine stayed in Pittsburgh to work on the draft and player trades until after the Fourth of July weekend. James called to let her know that she missed a hell of a celebration in Whitby for Canada Day, but she had to remind herself that she did have a job to do. She found herself at the lake house after saying good-bye to Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy, her first players she had to tell that they were being traded. The emotional toll had been enough for her and no matter how sweet and understanding Matt and Tyler had been, Katherine couldn’t help but feel she had let her family down.

After leaving Pittsburgh, James played in a few charity golf tournaments, had just finished up a week of training in Toronto with his off season trainer, Gary Roberts and was about to find out whether or not he was going to be picked for Canada’s Olympic Hockey Team. James was having a summer to remember.

As Katherine pressed up against his back, she smiled at the benefits of his off season training. His lean and lanky frame was filling out nicely; in particular his back and arms were getting more muscular, more defined with the time he spent with “Scary Gary”. Katherine ran her fingers over the plane of his forearm and bicep, noticing how each of the muscle gently flexed as she touched them. She peppered the back of his shoulder with soft, lingering kisses, remembering all their lovemaking sessions over the past few days. He sleepily turned to face her and with a smile.

“Good Morning,” he whispered to her. “Why are you awake so early?”

“Just enjoying the view,” she said as she feathered a kiss on his lips. “The sun is rising and I had a wonderful view of it from here.”

“Is that the only thing you have a view of that is rising?” he looked at her sheepishly and lowered his eyes downward.

“Seriously, Nealer?”

“God Kat, stop being such a perv,” James mocked a he wrapped his arm around her. “Parts of me are awake, but my mind isn’t quite there yet.”

She giggled and pulled in closer to him. This was the best view yet as Katherine could see his wavy brown hair, with just a touch of red highlights provided by the summer sun; his blue eyes, still heavy with sleep and the reddish-yellow sun rising over his shoulders. If you looked up perfection in the dictionary, this is what you would find. She closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep well knowing that she needed to savor this time because she that when this day ended, it would probably be the last time they would be together in bed.

James managed to drift back to sleep, but woke suddenly from the reoccurring dream had been having ever since the playoffs. The vertigo he experienced after his concussion in the regular season kept sneaking into his sleep even months after the hit had happened. The dream was always the same; skating, then falling, and then not being able to get up off the ice, too dizzy, feeling like he had no control over himself or the world around him.

"Kat..." "Kat, Katherine."

"Jay?"

"What's wrong?" She was more alert now. "Are you ok?" But she knew what was happening, he had another dream. She knew he had been having bad dreams ever since the playoffs ended, but she never mentioned that fact to him in hopes that he would eventually bring it up.

He seemed to struggle with a response and before James could fully sit up and diagnose the situation, he felt Katherine pull him close, her lips warm on his sweaty temple and her arms tight around him. Katherine wasn't a distraction to the bad dreams, she was his release.

James pulled Katherine close, and with her whispering words, "I love you" the last thing he wanted to think about was losing everything.

“So, am I going to have to ask, or are you going to tell me what that was all about?” Katherine asked as she stared at the fan on the ceiling.

“Dream.” “Just a weird dream that I’ve been having.” James said as he stared at the same spot on the ceiling. “It’s really nothing to worry about.”

“I wouldn’t be worried if you would tell me about it. Maybe a little pre-breakfast therapy session would do you some good,” said Katherine. “You know, some eggs, bacon, coffee, spill your guts about what is bothering you.”

James slipped off the bed, grabbed his glasses and pulled on a pair of shorts. Katherine sat up on her elbows just in time to find his t-shirt flying in her direction.

“Why don’t you join me in the kitchen?” James said as he adjusted the waistband on his shorts. “I’ll even get the coffee started, but you’re going to have the make the eggs.”

“Not a problem, give me a minute and I’ll meet you there,” Katherine wondered if he was really going to talk about the dream or if this was a ploy to get her to make him breakfast. Either way, she was going to find out what was going on.

James made is way to the kitchen in search of coffee, filters and mugs. He was actually beginning to be a little more self-sufficient when it came to the kitchen and since Katherine made the declaration that she was neither his mother, nor his maid.

Coffee, how hard can that be? James scooped the coffee into the coffee maker, added the water and hit the ON button. Within a minute, the self-proclaimed lover of Paul Martin breakfasts was making coffee. He grabbed two mugs from the cupboard, smirking as he grabbed the mug that was in the shape of a very buxom, bikini-glad woman. Katherine hated that mug, but it always made her laugh to see James drinking his morning coffee out of a mug with a set of DD’s pointing out of it. He poured coffee for the two of them and headed out onto the deck.

Katherine stopped in the en suite bathroom to give herself the once over only to find what would best be describe as really bad 80’s hair on top of her head. Unlike James and his perfect sun kissed highlights, her auburn hair had taken on the look of a really bad die job provided by the summer sun. She brushed her hair and pulled it back into a pony tail. She popped her contacts in and slipped on the shirt that James had tossed to her.

As she walked up the steps to the kitchen, she smelled the wonderful scent of coffee brewing. Katherine headed to the coffee maker to find most of the coffee gone, no mug and no James. She grabbed the box of leftover donuts from when they had to make a run into town for gas and Tim Horton’s and placed the donuts on a plate. She was off to find the man who left her with no coffee and day-old donuts.

“Jay?”

“Nealer, where are you?”

“I’m out on the back deck.”

“Hey, can you grab the…oh, you must really love me,” said James as he eyed up the plate of donuts.

“So that is where all the coffee went to,” Katherine said as she focused in on the damn bikini-clad coffee mug. “I hope you enjoy your last day with that mug, because it is not going back to Pittsburgh with you!”

That damned James Neal smirk came over his face as he lifted the mug to his lips and took a long, savoring sip of his coffee.

“Asshole!” Katherine grabbed her mug and said on the chair opposite to James.

“How can you call me an asshole when you brought me donuts,” said James as he gave his best pouty face glance to Katherine.

Katherine gave James her best mocking pouty face, grabbed one of the cinnamon sugar donuts and sat back on the chair. James’ response was to grab the last glazed donut, stick his tongue out and sit back in his chair. They ate their donuts and drank their coffee while the mid-morning sun was making their last day at the lake house a very warm one. After the donuts were done, Katherine sat with her mug in her hand, occasionally sipping from it and glancing out over the water.

“Sooo, what is on the agenda for today, since we already got the breakfast thing out of the way,” she asked as she looked at him over the top of her very ordinary coffee mug.

“Last day, huh?” He stood and walked over the railing of the deck. “Maybe we should just take it easy, maybe take the boat out for a while, and try to catch a few fish for dinner.”

“You know, that does sound like a good plan,” Katherine got up from her chair, walked over to James and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Maybe we can finally talk about this, all of this,” as she turned and walked back into the house.

“Shit,” he thought. This is the conversation he was dreading ever since the day he saw her in Ray Shero’s office.

Notes