“Are you absolutely positive?” I asked for the millionth time.

“I’m sure.”

“You know, I am perfectly fine with staying at a hotel instead. Bumming a place to stay off of you, that wasn’t the point of this call,” I insisted.

“I know, so don’t be ridiculous. After you land, go to the Lemieux’s, they have an extra key to my house. I’ll call Nathalie to let her know you’ll be over to pick it up,” he paused for a moment, “And I’ll text you their address after this call.”

On my end, there was a loud overhead announcement reminding everyone at Denver International Airport the importance of watching one’s own baggage and not letting anyone else tamper with it. Instead of the normal annoyance I felt with the ridiculous and obvious public service announcements, I sent a mental thanks to the stringent airport security protocols. It gave me a few seconds to think before I knew he would be able to hear me again and I would need to answer.

Here I was, at the airport finally on my way back to Pittsburgh. Finally.

Unfortunately, my plans could never be simple and easy. Once I had gotten past security there had been a text waiting for me from Geno. The text was very apologetic, but explained that while in New York, Geno had reconnected with the ex, Sabina. After a long discussion, they had decided to give it another go, and currently she was headed back to Pittsburgh for a few days. Unfortunately for me, she was going to be staying in Geno’s house. This made my stomach churn in a very unpleasant way.

Sabina and I had never gotten along, not from the very start. I had had a bad taste in my mouth about her ever since I had met Geno in Vancouver, and then it was definitely confirmed during the events in St. Petersburg. Granted, with everything that went down in St. Petersburg, it gave her plenty of reasons to not like me, well, hate me would be a more accurate statement. Geno knew that the two of us didn’t get on very well, but he didn’t realize to what extent.

However as a technical third party member, I had to acknowledge that neither of them exactly were saints in their past relationship. Yet, obviously Geno was a brother to me and I was on his side no matter what. In the few seconds I took to think everything over I had to realize that Geno was stressed, and if she made him happy; well, two consenting adults and that sort of thing. I knew I didn’t need to sweat it that much because over time, it wouldn’t last; Mama Malkin did not approve at all.

Geno hadn’t said that I needed to find another place to stay, but I knew what was best for Geno, his stress levels, and his sanity. Geno didn’t need the stress of the guerrilla warfare going on in his house during the playoffs. Plus the idea of staying in hostile territory even if just for a few days, didn’t seem very pleasant to me. I would concede this battle, but would win the war. I just needed to find, or eventually help find Geno a nice girl.

Really at the moment though, it was all rather inconvenient and stressful. I knew with the playoffs going on, a decent hotel room was probably going to be hard to find in Pittsburgh. So what had I gone and done? I’d called Sidney.

“Okay,” I sighed.

“Lily, it really is fine for you to stay. I stayed at your house last--”
“Crosby, I said okay!” I complained cutting him off.

“Really?” he sounded, I think excited.

“Yeah,” my voice was soft, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear the smile that was now plastered across my face. It felt odd to feel wanted like this, it was so very different than I was used to. I quickly glanced around to make sure no one nearby was listening, “Plus if you win tonight, you win the series right?”

“Yeah?” Sidney answered sounding slightly confused where I was headed with this question.
“Well, with me staying with you, I guess there won’t be any chance of an outside interruption,” my voice was thick with implications.

“I-I--” his voice trailed off in a bit of a moan.

Over the last couple of weeks, our texts, phone-calls, and skype-calls had remained frequent yet rather PG. Mr. Hockey had to stay very focused on his recovery as well as the start of the playoffs, which I completely understood and was support in of. Hell, I was pretty distracted as my cast had come off and I was in full out recovery and training mode. But tonight, the Penguins had a chance to finish the series against the Islanders. The series was a battle thus far, the Penguins were up 3-2 games, and they were back in New York tonight. During one of our conversations around the beginning of the series, Sidney had explained to me winning that fourth game was always the toughest game and it should never be underestimated.

So really, I may have been jumping the gun here on several levels.

We hadn’t actually had, THAT, talk yet. Though, I hadn’t ever had THAT talk with a guy before. With Evert, well, I’d been young, naive, horny, and curious for the first time. Then with the Swedster, it’d turned into that more than once, and the relationship-type-thingy, and then eventually I had ended it. After that, I had sorta became a nun, first because I couldn’t handle anything outside of snowboarding for a long time, and then it had just become the norm for myself. True, I had started dating again, but nothing had gone past a first date. But everything was dangerously easily with Sidney. And what had started off with me just really wanting to bang him, well... I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but I knew this had turned into something much more than just a one night type of thing. But knowing that he wanted me, and him knowing I wanted him, made it fun to tease him.

“Have a lovely nap! And good luck tonight.” I said cheerfully.

“Lily, you are killing me,” he groaned.

“I’ll see you tonight Sidney,” I let the desire seep into my voice this time.

“Tonight.” he growled back.

---

After arriving at the airport in Pittsburgh, I had gone straight to the Lemieux’s address via text from Sidney in my rental car. Nathalie was warm and welcoming as ever, inviting me in for a cup of tea. We chatted a while; she asked questions that weren’t too intrusive, but I still felt a bit like I was being interrogated. She invited me to stay for the Penguin vs Islanders game that was starting in about an hour, but I politely declined, insisting I was tired.

I had also gotten an invitation to go over to Vero’s to watch the game with her and the baby. Vero had given birth to a beautiful baby girl almost two weeks prior. Both mom and baby were healthy and happy; they had named the baby girl Estelle. Both Vero’s and Marc’s mothers were currently in town to help with the baby. I had politely declined as well and promised I would be over sometime tomorrow or the next day with the baby gifts I had brought with me from Colorado.

Eventually, I left the Lemieux’s, stopping at a grocery store on my way to Sidney’s house. I slowly wandered around the store, picking up a ridiculous mixture of fresh produce and ingredients. If Sidney was going to put me up, then I was going to cook, which I felt was a fair exchange. Plus, now that I was back in training mode, I needed to eat right again. And from the discussions we previously had, it seemed we ate very similar diets per our training.

After arriving at Sidney’s massive yet familiar and rather warm house, it took me four trips to bring in the groceries and all of my stuff. I left my suitcases in the foyer before heading back into the kitchen to start the pastichio I was planning. I figured the Greek style lasagna with healthy alterations would suit him well as a post game option if he was hunger when he got back, or not, sometime tomorrow or the next day.

Before starting the actual recipe, I turned on the television that was in his kitchen. Immediately I began to laugh as I saw, though I wasn’t surprised, the channel left on prior to being turned off was the channel the hockey game was being shown on.

The pre-game had just started so I began chopping onions listening to the announcers talk about the two teams playings. I smirked a little to myself as one of the announcers, McGregor? McGuire? or something started going on and on about Sidney. I had been getting used to the announcers gush about him, but it was still weird to hear all these people gush about what a hockey player he was. I flipped on the mute button as a commercial came on.

Geno had taught me a lot of about hockey, so I knew the basics to how the games worked, and Sidney had explained a lot over the last couple of weeks. It wasn’t really until these playoffs had started that I had actively hunted and watched every single game of hockey I could. This sport was pretty fun to watch and was easily my favorite after snowboarding. It didn’t hurt that Geno and Sidney were fun to watch.

I put the onions in a large sauce pan on low heat with some spices to allow them to begin to caramelize. Sighing to myself I crouch down to look under one of the cupboards for a large pot to boil the lasagna noodles. Finally after some hunting, I found it and was straightening up and glanced over at the TV in time to see the puck drop to start the game game. Grimacing, I turned on the sound again, and turned up the volume a bit in the process.

The pastichio took double the time it normally took me because I seemed to be only able to pull the dish together during the commercial breaks. I was so engrossed in the game; the first period wasn’t terrible except we weren’t getting any shots on goal and the Islanders were throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us. Vokun was in goal, and was doing an incredible job stopping everything. I screamed at the television when James was sent to the penalty box for roughing one of the Islander’s players. I felt the urge to shake my idiot friend for taking such a stupid penalty.

Luckily, the period ended love to love and I could focus on finishing the recipe. The recipe I was cooking in Sidney’s kitchen, in the empty house, awaiting his return.

The humor of the entire situation didn’t escape me. I knew I had changed over this year in several ways.

Obvious, a big one was that I was that I was standing in the middle of a Sidney’s kitchen. Even when I was with Evert, I hadn’t ever gone to his house in Are by myself and had any desire to have food ready for him to come back to nor had I altered my life so drastically so I could come visit him.

True, I came here to Pittsburgh for the playoffs to support Geno, and see Mama and Papa Malkin as well. But that damn fluttering, churning when I just thought of the prospect of seeing Crosby in a couple of hours really said my priorities might be something else. I scrunched up my face to the empty kitchen, feeling ridiculous.

The last three weeks had been, strange to say the least. Never had I been so excited for a text in my life. That little ding sound or buzz seemed to brighten up my day though the frustrations of rehabbing the foot. This entire communication thing was a huge change for me. But due to our circumstances, and the fact that we had very complicated lives, we were taking it, whatever it was, very slow. And for me, it was very different than anything I had ever experienced before.

And I wasn’t running.

Not yet.

My phone buzzed and I looked at it. There were texts from Vero and Jen. I opened Jen

‘WELL SOMEONE OBVIOUSLY WANTS TO END THE SERIES TONIGHT. GOALLLLLL FOR SID!’

Sidney had scored? I shook my head, and my attention went back to the television just in time to see a replay of a beautiful goal by Crosby into the back of the net. My jaw dropped as I saw the score of the game: Penguins were up 3 to 0 and there were 6 minutes left of the second.

I grabbed my phone shooting a quick text to Sidney, ‘What a goal!’ before I shifted my attention solely on the game for the rest of the period.

As soon as the second period was over, I put the dish in the oven and set a timer on my phone. The break in the period also gave me enough time to finish cleaning up the mess I had made in the kitchen. This time, I made sure to stay out of my thoughts and I kept looking over at the screen making sure the game hadn’t restarted.

I grabbed a bottle of water for the start of the third as well as an apple and perched on once of the stools watching the screen intently. Waiting for the third period to start, and soon it did. And boy, it was not a pretty third period.

After a goal by Letang assisted by Sid and Chris, the game took a rather unfortunate turn. My mouth stayed open most of the rest of the period, and I lost track of the amount of penalties quickly. Roughing, interference, roughing, unsportmanslike conduct, elbowing, roughing crosschecking, misconducts; it just was one thing after another. When the final buzzer went off, I wasn’t sure if I was more grateful that the boys would be safe from potential injury or the fact that they actually won the series.

I sighed shaking my head as I took out my phone typing quickly to Sid, ‘Congratulations’. Simple, not really eloquent or anything, but it worked.

The buzzer for the oven went off, and I used the mitts to take the dish out, setting it on a rack to set and cool. I turned off the oven and took off the mitts. ‘Mission accomplished’ I thought to myself glancing around.

“Now what?” I said to myself and the empty house.

Dragging my suitcase up the stairs was the next mission, yet once on the landing, I stopped to gnaw on the pad of my thumb, unsure where to go next. Would it be presumptuous to go to his room? Was I even that comfortable enough? I liked my space, but I really wanted to be in that bed waiting for him tonight. The space between my legs agreed with that line of thinking completely. But would that be too clingly? I was out of my element. What was the protocol for friends that wanted to bang and talked too much and were confused about their feelings?

I jumped slightly as my phone buzzed in the back pocket of my jeans. Taking it out, I saw the message was from Sidney.

‘Thanks! Not going to be back until pretty late so you may want to take a nap or fall asleep for the night. Just stay in my room; the guest rooms aren’t made up.’

Once again the casual ease from his text made me nervous. But, I couldn’t deny that I liked it.

I was about the text back back when my phone buzzed again, it was Sidney.

‘I didn’t mean to sound like I have expectations for tonight. Or pressures.’

I sighed to myself as I walked into the room and flicked the light on, casually glancing around the familiar room and I started laughing. Everything in his room was as it always had be, impeccably organized, beautifully designed, all in it’s place. And then in the middle of Sidney’s king bed was a little stuffed moose.

My fingers flew. ‘I am going to have to a discussion with the moose in your bed. I wouldn’t want to impede on its territory.’

I hopped up onto his bed, scooting to the middle, plucking up the stuffed animal looking at it closely. The buzzing of my phone distracted me from my inspection.

“Oh Earl? He is a good guard moose, but is harmless to people he likes.”

Giggling, I replied, “You named him Earl?”

“You try to find a name that no one in the league has that is also fitting for a moose.”

“Fair enough.”

I felt my eyes droop as I waited for his text back.

---

I heard a strange noise downstairs which jerked me from my sleep. Sleep? Had I fallen asleep? A thrill of excitement shot through me: Sidney. My eyes were trying to adjust to the overhead light I had left on. I rolled over in his bed and flung out an arm in attempts to find my phone, hitting the top button to see what time it was.

Only 12:43 am. There was no way that could be Sid.

I flipped over and out of bed landing very quietly, carefully on my feet. I darted around trying to find something that I could use to defend myself with against the intruder. Finally, I found some hockey stick in the walk in closet.

Padding quietly out to the landing, I saw someone had turned on a light downstairs. I dialed 911 and was ready to hit the send button as I headed down the landing. It sounded like there were several voices, I could tell at least one male and one female.

“Excuse me,” I called out, “I really hope you aren’t robbers, but if you are, if you leave now without stealing anything that would be really seriously awesome.”

The voices stopped talking.

“Hello?” an unfamiliar male voice called out sounding quite alarmed.

I heard footsteps coming from one of the rooms downstairs and then a very tall man came out into the foyer.

“Hi,” I carefully answered tightly gripping the hockey stick in one hand and my phone in the other. I noted that he wasn’t wearing a mask or black like the burglars we are always taught by Hollywood wear. No, he was in some sort of sweater and jeans and looked rather respectable and well into middle-age.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” He asked me, looking confused that there was someone in the house.

I frowned slightly, then it clicked and I suddenly felt very sick. Even from up on the landing, I could recognize certain features of this man that he shared with the owner of the house. Not only that, but I realized that there were several suitcases sitting by the front door. No, definitely not burglars.

I stiffly walked down the stairs, and stopped only a few feet shy of from him. In that time, a blonde woman had come out from the kitchen as well as a blonde teenager. The motherly woman with short hair and her herself was rather short. The teenager, well, I guess more like young woman also shared similar facial features as Sidney and as the older man standing nearby.

I was going to murder this family’s son when he arrived back from New York.

“Oh my god! Mom, Dad, this is Lily Rivers!” The blonde teenage girl said excitedly before adding, “It’s who Sid stayed with in Colorado!”

“You must be Taylor,” I exhaled slowly as I responded smiling at the younger Crosby sibling. Well, at least no cops were going to have to be called.

“Hi, I’m Lily,” I said awkwardly waving a little to the Crosby family.

“Lily Rivers?” Mrs Crosby asked confirming my name, but there was recognition in her eyes now. I nodded slowly, trying to smile warmly though my guess was that I looked like I was in pain.

“You are with Geno right?” Mr. Crosby asked tentatively, “We’ve heard all about you from Vladimir and Natalia.”

‘Well, that is a strange way to put Geno’s and my relationship. But at least the Crosbys’ had heard about me from Mama and Papa Malkin; all and anything said by my Russian family would only shed me in a good light, and to get a compliment from a Russian is very difficult. So maybe Crosby’s family will like me.’ The voice in my head chirped. Did it really matter if his family liked me? I mean, meeting the family and worrying about the family liking you is for a serious relationship and Sidney and I were not even technically in a relationship.

I hushed the thoughts before answering, nodding, “Geno is how I met Sidney and everyone else here, yeah.”

Mr. and Mrs. Crosby exchanged knowing glances.

Screw all of my thoughts I had about not running away before; I was about to bolt now. I couldn’t think that Sidney would do this to me.

“So, uhm, it’d be a fair assumption that Sidney didn’t know you were all coming?” I put my feelers out there as we awkwardly all stood in the hallway.

“Trina thought it would be a fun surprise for Sid,” Mr. Crosby sighed rubbing his head, “We didn’t expect anyone to be here.”

“I wasn’t supposed to be,” I admitted, “Last minute shift in some plans, and Sidney being the gentlemen he was offered for me to stay here instead of a hotel.”

I glanced around, and realized that Taylor had a slight troubled expression on her face after I said this. It made me glance away quickly.

“Of course he did,” Mrs. Crosby seconded, beaming clearly proud of how she raised her son.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to go put this back upstairs really quick.” I awkwardly said gesturing at the hockey stick I was still clutching. We all awkwardly smiled as we parted ways; the three of them for the kitchen and I for upstairs.

I padded up to Sidney’s room, setting the hockey stick back down in the closet. Grabbing all of my things, I gave the room once over to make sure I hadn’t left something major in case one of his family members came in here before I or Sidney returned to the bedroom. Obviously, I didn’t want them to find my stuff in Sid’s room; that would just make this situation even more awkward.

Heading back downstairs with my luggage, I set it all by the front door. ‘You could just leave,’ a small voice whispered as my eyes lingered on the front door, ‘It would be so easy, your keys are right here, you could just get a hotel room. Hell, who could blame you if you went to Geno’s right now. Disturb the order.’

“Lily, what smells so good?” Mrs. Crosby called from the kitchen.

“Well, I hope you guys are hungry.” I smiled nervously turning my back on the front door and headed towards Sidney’s family.

---

We were all laughing hysterically about a story Mrs. Crosby just recounted about a younger Sidney when my phone buzzed.

“Be there in 5.” I read his text out loud to the whole family.

“Great,” Mr. Crosby said.

I had kept my word to the Crosby family and had not texted Crosby or anyone about the surprise that awaited Sidney when he arrived back to his house. Oh the surprise he would be in for.

Someone turned off the lights and we waited quietly.

Soon enough, we all heard the garage door opening, shortly thereafter a door to the house opened.

“Marco?” his voice softly called from another area of the house. I felt my breath catch momentary, and both my stomach and my heart flutter while a giant stupid grin crossed my face. I was grateful the three other people near me could see my face.

Remaining perched on the kitchen stool, I called back, “Polo!”

“Marco?”

“Polo!”

“Lily, is it so dark because--”

“SIDNEY!” my voice cracked as I yelled interrupting whatever he was about to say. The light flicked on to the kitchen, by his own doing and he stood there for a few moments speechless.
“Sid!” Taylor exclaimed and launched herself at her older brother.

It was a pretty adorable sight, though definitely not one I had thought I was going to see first hand anytime. Some strange feeling in the pit of my stomach arose, but I couldn’t really place; I shoved it under, and kept the smile on my face.

“What-What are you doing here?” His voice was full of shock, and there was almost a bit of horror in it as he embraced his sister. Sidney surveyed his family quickly before his eyes flicked to me for a second. It was painfully obvious how concerned he was about me, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if everyone in the room could have heard the gulp I just took.

“We wanted to surprise you!” Mrs. Crosby said happily as she took a hug from her son. There were tears of happiness and pride in her eyes, “We wanted to be here to support you in case it went to game seven or if it was over and went to the next round.”

“We were supposed to get in earlier, but our flight was delayed.” His father explained as he hugged his son. He was taller than Sidney, I hadn’t realize that.

Sidney looked over at me, waiting for me to say anything.

“I might have threatened your family with a hockey stick,” I shrugged my shoulders, “You know me, normal friday night stuff.”

His family all started laughing, while Sidney studied his family and me his expression surprised. During the time the three Crosbys and I had waited for their son, we had actually had an enjoyable time. At first it was all pretty awkward, but soon the awkwardness slipped away and it was sorta like hanging out like the Malkins, but they were Canadian, spoke English, and were giving me a plethora of embarrassing stories about Sidney. The three asked a lot of questions about Geno and I, and about snowboarding. It seemed that Sidney had talked about me slightly, but nothing in great detail, which I was a little relieved about. However, Taylor had kept a very watchful eye on me the entire time, which made me a little nervous.

“I am sorry, but I am pretty tuckered out. If it is all okay, I’ll retire for the evening,” I finally said when the laughter died down, figuring it would be best to give the family a chance to catch up without me. Plus, with Sidney here now, I was becoming a little overwhelmed with the situation again.

“Sid, why don’t you help Lily take her stuff downstairs?” Mr. Crosby nodded smiling. I exhaled softly, I had forgotten about the guest room down in the basement.

“Oh, there is no--” I started.

“Of course.” Sidney interrupted me.

I began to make my way to the hallway and felt that Sidney was only a step or two behind me.

“Lily, I am so sorry. I had absolutely no idea they would do something like this,” he whispered when we were by the front door.

I turned to face him at this point. My eyes were wide as put a finger to my lips and shook my head. God only knew if they could actually hear us or not. I could really feel my impossibly calm slipping now. What had shifted? Sidney arriving. It was strange; it was as if now that he was here, it felt safe to not stay completely calm and in control, to allow him to take on some of the responsibility of this insane situation.
I moved my hand and pointed down, indicating to wait to talk until we were down in the basement, where we would have as much privacy as we could in the circumstances. Slinging my laptop bag over one shoulder, I grabbed my purse in my other hand, allowing Sidney to take my large suitcase.

We headed back into the kitchen.

“It was lovely to meet you all. I’ll see you all in the morning!” I called and smiled at their return calls of goodnights, before we ducked into a hallway and soon down a set of stairs.

We were completely silent as we headed down the stairs and to the room I vaguely remembered being shown during the tour my first time in his house months ago. We walked in and he flicked on a light. It was elegantly, yet simply designed in blues and rich brown colors with a dark hard wood floor.

“Lily, I swear, I wouldn’t have suggested you stay here if I had known they were coming. I mean, I wanted you to meet them eventually, if you had wanted to meet them that is. I don’t want to pressure you into anything. I mean, we are just doing a thing right-” Sidney was rambling. There was an incredible amount stress in his tired voice.

I had set down my purse and bag on the long bench at the end of the bed as he was saying all of this. At some point during his rambling, I’d turned back around quickly closing the distance between us. Grabbing the front of his suit jacket, it was my lips on his that finally cut off his ramblings.

Sidney was surprised at first, but wasted little time opening his mouth as my tongue stroked his soft lips asking permission. He tasted sweet and minty, and I couldn’t help but be glad that whatever his hockey gum habits were, that it was some sort of mint gum instead of that bubblegum pink stuff.

I felt his hands wrap around my waist and pull me in tightly as he began to deepen the kiss. Feeling myself slip under his spell, I knew I had to end it before we got too much further. I moved my hands up and tangled my fingers in his hair, before pulling him back slightly. Moving my lips lower, I laid some soft kisses on his neck being very careful and gentle to not leave any marks.

The growl or moan or really whatever sound he made nearly broke my resolve to stop what I had started. I let out a little sob chuckle sound as I let go of his hair, moving my head away shaking it.

“Family. Upstairs.” I moaned halfheartedly.

His arms were still around me, my stomach still pressed against his incredibly strong hard stomach.

“This was not how tonight was supposed to go.” he growled, there was fire in his eyes as he looked at me. That look was making me forget very quickly about his family upstairs.

“It wasn’t really what I had in mind either.” I sighed as I pushed myself out of his grip, which he begrudgingly allowed me to escape.

“But,” Sidney said but quickly stopped himself, looking down.

“But what?” I asked him curiously.

“It’s nothing,” he said shaking his head.

“Crosby,” I scowled, “What was that conversation about communication we had a few weeks ago?”

Crosby exhaled shaking his head slightly, “You didn’t run.”

I stared at him for a moment, knowing the full weight of the words he had spoken.

“I didn’t.”

Notes

Hey friends. I am so sorry. Real life :(

First, (not hockey) if any of you readers were affected by the terrible storms over the last several days in the midwest area of the States(as I was), I am sending you the biggest hugs and hope you are all safe.
Second, This is just the first half of the chapter....not even kidding right now. Second part will be up as soon as I can edit it all/make it pretty.
Third, I pinky swear you that this story will be finished. I have the epilogue written (we are very far off from the epilogue). There might be times there is radio silence on my end (there are some complications in my life I can't really control), but I love this story and I will see it though. Hope you love it too.
Fourth, trades/signings--I can't even. I am sure whatever team you support, you are hurting as well :( I hope this chapter does something to make you feel a little better.

Thank you all for sticking with me. I hope to start being able to update more frequently again. Comments would be super appreciated!!! The next chapter....is going to be well, awkward and great :) Enough of me rambling. Cheers!