I contentedly bounced up and down gaining some height before tensing my body and quickly doing a back-twist flip in the air. I landed softly and continued bouncing on the in-ground trampoline in my backyard. I smiled, peacefully, as I slowed until my bouncing stopped. Carefully, I stepped off the bounce mat and onto the cool grass, walking over to the video camera which had been pointed to where I had been jumping and turned off the recording button. As per my normal routine of the last couple weeks, I had gone for a run, lifted weights with a trainer, and finished with some flip work. The flip work wasn’t difficult, but it was just important to keep the muscle memory going so when I was on a course and more importantly, in the air, I would pull a trick without a second thought. I always filmed my time on the tramp so I could review it and make sure all my positionings were perfect.

‘It will give me something to do on the flight tomorrow,’ I thought to myself as I walked through my beautifully manicured backyard, up the deck steps, through the deck and opened the backdoor into my house.

The door opened onto the great room, but I quickly bypassed the room and headed towards the kitchen. I set the camera down on the dark granite counter. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before heading up the stairs to my bedroom. Glancing around as I headed up, I grinned; I could never get over my house. Seriously I loved my home; it was very serene and peaceful albeit a little ridiculously OCD organized. This was something Jen always made fun of when she came over, which was a lot. She had lived with me for a while when I needed her, but had moved back out at the start of this past summer. Unofficially, she still had a bedroom with some of her clothes and had a key to the house.

I went into one of the guest rooms, crouched down, and dragged a suitcase out from under the bed. I then rolled it back to my bedroom and into my giant walk-in closet. Absentmindedly, I began to pack for my trip thinking how bizarre it was to not be packing any snowboarding gear. This would be the first trip in years in which I wouldn’t be lagging around a boardbag filled with my equipment.

Geno and I had confirmed my travel plans shortly after I had returned Colorado. He had explained that if the NHL lockout actually happened, it would technically start as of September 16 when something expired, which would be four days after I got to Pittsburgh. Heaven forbid the lockout happened, Geno already had a back up plan to go and play for the KHL team in his hometown of Magnitogorsk. Of course, he couldn’t sign that contract until after the lockout was official, but it was obvious that the deal would happen if the lockout would. Geno would then leave for Russia on the 20th of September. In our discussion we talked about how I could help him get ready for the move back to Russia if that was needed, and if not, then we would just have a lot of fun while I was there. This, plus I had promised I would visit and once my season started it was a lot harder to get to Russia than a quick trip to Pittsburgh now. It seemed like a win-win situation, so I booked the flight.

“Lils!” I heard Jen yelling from somewhere in the house.

“In my room,” I yelled back loudly, and about a minute later Jen appeared carrying a two smoothies and a bag.

“I seriously love you,” I gushed reaching out for the dark red smoothie.

“I know,” she said matter of factly, before smirking, “Also, brought you a little present.”
I looked at her, raising an eyebrow taking the bag as she handed it to me. I set the smoothie down on a shelf and opened the bag.

“Jen, really?” I scoffed as I took out a tiny bikini from the bag.

“Whaat?” Jen replied defensively, “You said Geno said that he had a pool. I want you to be prepared to sweep one of those hockey guys off their feet. One look at you in this and they will be done in!”

I looked at the two small pieces of fabric, shaking my head. I wasn’t opposed to wearing bikinis, but this, “This won’t even cover anything.”

“Well, what were you planning on wearing?”

I opened one of the built in drawers and took out an elegant one piece.

“Alright granny,” Jen rolled her eyes.

“It is tasteful, and I am not going there to have playtime with anyone. I am there to see G.” I returned the roll of the eyes, and I took a sip of the smoothie.

“Ready for your next, what was your phrase, philosophical disagreement with Sidney?” Jen asked and went over to the area of my closet where I kept dresses, and started pulling some out and putting them in the suitcase.

“Ack, when did you start calling him Sidney?” I asked in attempts to avoid the question. Jen didn’t push the question, but I noticed she didn’t answer my question in return. Instead turning the conversation to more innocent topics.

---

As I walked through Pittsburgh International Airport, I searched my purse for the incognito disguise I had ordered specially for this visit. I put on the Pittsburgh Penguin hat with the giant 71 on the side of it, knowing it did not match my outfit at all, but not really caring. I knew once I finally found Geno, it would make him laugh, plus with this and some shades no one would recognize me.
I pulled down the cap and put on the shades, feeling pretty damn good as I exited the terminal. I felt a buzzing from my purse, and dug around for my phone, eventually finding it and I was able to answer it before it went to voicemail.

“Russian Bear, I literally just walked past the security lines. I am heading to baggage claim C,” I brightly said into my phone.

“I running late, just parked car.” I distinctly heard a car door slam in the background.

“Oh, you aren’t terribly late,” I teased, maneuvering around a family eagerly welcoming home a member, “And you didn’t need to park. Picking me up curbside woulda worked.”

“No, that just silly,” Geno replied. I heard some weird background noises and some choice Russian swear words.

“All well?” I asked curiously, stopping in front of baggage claim, waiting for the belt to start moving.

“Yes, see you soon.” and the line was cut off. I was distracted by the abrupt end of the conversation as the baggage flow started around the belt. Pretty soon, I saw my suitcase come around and I grabbed it.

I turned from the conveyor belt and started to walk, following the signs pointing to the car park looking for Geno. It wasn’t very long before I saw him walking towards me. I grinned as I saw him scanning the crowd. His eyes quickly passed over me once, before looking at me again, and that smile I adored on his face so much grew wide.

Geno gave me a quick but strong hug, before taking the handle of my suitcase for me.

“How was flight?” he asked as we continued walking towards the car park.

“Good! I accidentally fell asleep, so it went by super fast.”

“Sleep is good, means you will not need sleep while you are here."

I made a face at him, “I don’t think it works quite like that.”

“I am so glad you here,” Geno said looking at me. He batted at my cap, “I love this!”

“I thought you would,” I grinned as I punched his shoulder playfully, “I thought I had better get something so I could blend in with the natives. I didn’t want to look like a tourist too badly.”
“Not tourist with us!”

“Us?” I inquired raising my eyebrows.

We had reached a expensive looking Porsche. I looked at Geno as he clicked a button to unlock the car, and loaded the suitcase in.

“Yeah, we going out to dinner with guys.” Geno said enthusiastically. I felt my heart sink a little. I had expected us to see his teammates, but not this quickly.

“Oh? And which teammates are we seeing?” I nonchalantly asked as I got into the car, tossing my purse into the back seat.

“Not sure, Sid organize. We all hungry and time for dinner,” Geno said as he started the car.

‘Obviously it had to be Crosby, who else wanted to make my life as painful as he possibly could?’ I thought to myself.

“Uh, are you sure that I should come? You could always just drop me off at your house. I can entertain myself there.”

“No-no, Sid knows you come. He said you come.” Geno said as he paid to get out of the parking lot.

Once again, my eyebrows raised nearly to my hairline. Crosby said I should come? Only because I was with Geno and he wanted Geno to be there, obviously. I mean, Crosby didn’t actually want me to be there, he just didn’t want to upset Geno. This thought, made me feel more comfortable as I settled into the seat of the car.

“So, dare I ask how the girlfriend is?” I asked, changing the subject. Geno had been dating a Russian beauty off and on for a while now. I couldn’t keep up when they were off and when they were on; all I really knew is that I wasn’t the blond’s biggest fan. This sometimes made things really awkward.

The rest of the car ride consisted of Geno ranting about how things were complicated and how he didn’t know what was going on, but she was back in Magnitogorsk so maybe with the impending lockout, he would be able to work things out. I nodded, making sympathetic noises when needed in the conversation.

I was sorta zoned out, I had a sense of dread of the thought of seeing Crosby. Never in my entire life had I not gotten along with someone like this. Even when I didn’t really care for someone, or someone didn’t care for me, there was always a polite air between us. This hostility was unknown territory and I wasn’t prepared to be thrown back into it just yet. Granted, I realized I had acted badly the night of the club. Well, we were both sorta at fault. My drunk self could have been slightly more polite, but he could have not been such a douche-canoe.

“Lils?”

I turned my head to look at Geno. Geno wasn’t in the car, he was standing outside of the car, with the door open, peering inside at me. I glanced around realizing we must had arrived because we had obviously parked.

“Oh, sorry,” I mumbled and unbuckled my seatbelt, and paused. I took my id and a creditcard out from my wallet slipping them both into my little pocket before grabbing my phone and stepping out of the car.

Geno was waiting for me as I shut the door. He locked it with two beeps, and led the way to an adorable looking restaurant. Geno took point, smiling at the hostess, before walking past and down a hall to a more private area of the restaurant.

“We here!” he boomed to the group of people sitting at a long table. I stood slightly behind Geno, smiling politely at the mix.

“RIVERS!” I was pulled into a giant hug. ‘God, these hockey guys are so nice to hug,’ my traitorous thoughts contemplated as I felt, who I was pretty sure was James Neal, a hard body.

I pulled away looking up into the sparkling eyes of James Neal, and replied grinning “Hey Nealsy,”

“Lily,” Paul Martin was standing near us, I parted from Neal and gave Martin a hug as well. This was a pleasant surprise; Martin and I hadn’t really exchanged many words in New York, plus he seemed pretty close with Crosby. So the fact that he was happy to see me was quite lovely.

“Nice hat,” Martin teased as he flicked the top the bill of my hat. My face turned red, I had forgotten I was still wearing the 71 Penguins hat. I took it off as I sat in the chair in between him and Geno, with James sitting diagonally to the right from me, at the head of the table.

“Hello, I have heard so much about you,” the man sitting across from me said in a strong French-Canadian accent, reaching across the table to shake my hand, “I’m Marc Andre-Fleury and this is my wife, Veronique.” He said gesturing the very pretty woman sitting on his right.

I firmly took his hand, shaking it firmly, and exchanged smiles with Veronique, “Lovely to meet you both.”

“How was your flight?” James asked.

“Nealsy, give time to breathe,” Geno complained as he began to look at the menu. I nudged Geno gratefully under the table before sneaking a glance down the rest of the table. It seemed like it was all players and their wives or girlfriends; I could recognize faces but I couldn’t recall names of players from previous internet stalk times with Jen. I did, however, see a very familiar face sitting way at the other end of the table.

Crosby was deep in conversation with, who I could tell from here, was a very small waisted, fake breasted, fake tanned, platinum blond woman with make up caked on her face.

“Are you okay?”

My attention was snapped back to my dinnermates, I looked to Paul who was looking at me strangely, “Yeah, whats up?”

“You were making a face, like you were in pain or smelled something bad?” Paul turned the statement into a question at the end, as if maybe he wasn’t sure.

“I am fine, just tired. Zoned out there a bit.” I glanced down at the menu, covering myself. ‘Those weren’t very nice thoughts about the girl,’ I thought to myself, ‘Maybe that is how she feels pretty, or maybe that is her concept of what pretty is. You shouldn’t be thinking ill about the girl just because the stupid guy prefers fake versus real. Why the hell is this bothering you anyways? Stop brain, stop!’

I realized the conversation all around me had stopped. I glanced up and realized that everyone was staring at me expectantly. Wide-eyed and blinking several times I finally admitted, “Uh, sorry, I missed that.”

“You really tired,” Geno stated rather surprised. I scrunched my face, and nodded.

“I asked about when your season starts? What is it like?” Fleury repeated himself.

“Oh! Uh, Well, I will be heading to Whistler in BC in another 2 weeks for the first competition of the season. And then I have a brief pit stop in Toronto before I head over to Europe for a couple of weeks of competitions in various of countries.” I babbled, trying to make up for my absentmindedness of before.

“So you are constantly traveling?” Veronique inquired softly. She, like Fleury, had the French-Canadian accent, I wondered if they were both from Montreal or from around that area originally.

“Pretty much,” I confessed, “I love it and there isn’t anything in the world I would rather do than snowboard. But it is a lot of traveling.”

“You were home before you came here? With family or can your family travel with you at all?” Fleury asked.

I could feel Geno stiffen next to me. I slipped a hand on his knee, giving it a squeeze before answering as simply as I could, “I was back in Colorado, which is where I call home. My friend Jen travels with me most of the time, and well, Geno hasn’t ever come to any of my competitions.”

“I did!” Geno disagreed loudly, “Saw you in Olympics!”

I made a face at him, “Alright, but we hadn’t actually spoken at that point.”

“But I saw you,” Geno asserted smugly.

Luckily for me, the waitress came around at that moment to take orders.

---

Today was a good day; it was the morning of my first full day in Pittsburgh. Geno had left earlier in the morning to go for a skate and workout with some of his teammates, leaving me alone at the house. I had already gone for a run and had done some yoga to stretch out. By 11, it was very warm out, so I decided to try out Geno’s pool. As I was unpacking the night before, I realized Jen had somehow managed to switch the original swimsuit I had packed for the damn bikini she had bought for me. I had sent her several texts with choice words, but today laying out, I was very thankful Jen had done so. However, the suit didn't fit quite right, but because no one was really around, it didn't matter. The major vitamin D soak my body was going through felt so good. I plugged into music and peacefully laid out.

The rest of last night had been really fun. Our end of the table had a couple of drinks, laughed, ate good food, and got to know each other, or rather, I got to know them better and they got to know me. Veron and I had made plans to go out later in the week for some girl time, which she insisted was a must.

A cloud passed over the sun, and I frowned, that would put a damper on the morning. I inhaled deeply to try to go back to to a happy relaxed place. I smelled a strangly intoxicating scent that sent shivers through my body. I bit my lip confused of the new scent and trying to remember what it was. After a minute or two, the cloud hadn’t moved at all. I opened my eyes to see how big of a damn cloud this was, and screamed.

Crosby was towering over me, looking at me, his mouth moving forming words. I ripped out my headphones, “What the hell Crosby!?”

“I tried getting your attention!” He said holding his hands up defensively, “I have been calling your name for a while now.”

I scowled at him, sitting up, and then standing up so I had better a position. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go down.

“Geno isn’t here.” I said after a moment, my hands on my hips. Crosby had been silent for a while now.

“Uh, yeah, I guess I got here before the rest of the guys.”

“Rest of the guys?”

“We decided during practice to all come over to Geno’s for the afternoon as sorta the last get together before everyone starts going in their own directions.” Crosby said this all the while trying not to look at me directly. It was all very strange, his neutral tone and his flickering gaze was throwing me off.

“Oh,” I said lamely, also looking around. I wasn’t sure what to say to Crosby or how to act. He was wearing a plain white v-neck shirt which, despite the simplicity of it, was unfair to the entire female population of the world because of how his stupid muscles filled out the damn shirt, a pair of black and gray checkered swim trunks, and...

I started to laugh, but quickly clasped my hands over my mouth. He turned to look at me, his eyebrow raised.

“What?” he asked his tone clipped.

“No-nothing,” I stammered trying not to laugh. It was really, really hard not to look at his feet now. Sidney fucking Crosby, the face of the entire sport of hockey, probably one of the best players in the world, the one person who got under my skin, who I screamed at, was wearing a pair of bright yellow crocs. Yellow Crocs.

“If you would excuse me,” I said as calmly as I could, as I turned my back towards him and started to walk up the path to the house. I couldn’t help myself, I started to giggle, and started to laugh.

---

There were a lot of people at Geno’s house. I was introduced to person after person, and I felt bad that I couldn’t remember half of the names. Most of the players showed up with wives or girlfriends again. I was glad to see that Veronique came with Fleury. For some reason at one point of the afternoon, my brain smugly pointed out that the fake blonde girl who had been sitting next to Crosby from the night before wasn't here.

Eventually, I did get into the pool. I was standing in the shallow end talking with Paul and one of the player’s wives whose name I couldn’t remember for the life of me. I kept hoping Paul would say her name. I was very intently sending him telepathic vibes to him in an attempt to get him to say it, thus not paying much attention to my surroundings.

All of a sudden I felt a pair of hands around my waist, which quickly twisted me around and lifted me up over onto his shoulder. I gasped for air as I wriggled trying to figure out who it was and break free. Geno was my first instinct, he had done this before, but I wasn’t all too surprised when I realized it wasn’t Geno.
“Dammit Neal!” I yelled as I tried to squirm away.

“Nealsy!” I wriggled trying to get free to no avail; James just much bigger and stronger. The guys, wives, and girlfriends were all laughing as he carried me around like a sack of potatoes. Eventually, I stopped fighting, and propped my elbows on his back and my hand under my chin so my head wasn’t upside-down.

“If you ask nicely, I will put you down,” James teased.

“James, put me down, please.”

“Alright,” he sighed, “but just because I am such a nice guy.”

Somehow as he flipped me strangely down, I felt something snag on my bikini top. There was an odd feeling as I was splashed hard into the water, a feeling of freedom from constraints. When I was underwater, I had about a split second before the horror sunk in, and then I realized I was going to commit a murder after I saved myself from showing everyone my bits and pieces. Wherever he had dumped me, I realized there was a body nearby, and without really even thinking, I latched onto this person. While I was still under water, I slowly rubbed the front of myself up against them until I was standing up. My arms were tightly wound around the other body, and my breasts tightly squished against their chest, but at least they were completely out of sight from the group of people around the pool.

My brief sense of relief was soon destroyed as I inhaled a deep breath and caught that now familiar scent that caused my brain to stop functioning. I opened my eyes, hoping to all of the gods that the man, it was very obviously a bare man’s chest squished against mine, was not who I thought it was.

“Uh,” Crosby couldn’t even manage to form actual words as he looked down at me. His cheeks had turned an interesting shade of red. Well, he was doing his best to look down at me, my face, and not down further to my breasts, but it was hard considering how very close we were in proximity.

“I am so sorry,” I moaned, my face redder than even his. I bet he could feel my heart racing. Why did it have to be him? He wasn’t even in the fucking pool 5 minutes ago. Why couldn’t it have been James or Paul or even Geno?

“Hey, this looks like, oh,” I heard James’s voice falter which meant that he must have found the top of my bikini. That comment was quickly followed by a roar of laughter.

“Sid, Lils, are we interrupting something?” James smirked as he walked through the water towards us, my suit top in one of his hands, “Really, you two just need to get a room.”

“When I get out of this, I am going to kill you,” I threatened James, who started laughing harder; I could understand, I very much doubted that I was very intimidating at this point.

To Crosby I mumbled, “I am so sorry. I panicked, and you are big, well, bigger than me, and you are cover, and I didn’t know what else to do.”

“It’s fine,” he replied clearing his throat.

“Lily, come over here,” Veronique called to me, she had a big towel in hand.

“Uhm, would it be at all possible to, uh, shuffle over there?” I jerked my head over to Veronique.

“Of course.”

We slowly started to shuffle towards the edge of the pool, with our going rather slow. My arms were tightly wrapped around his chest and my fingers were interlocked behind his back. There were catcalls and hoots directed at us; mostly amusing.

At one point of the seemingly endless journey, I turned my head so my cheek was now resting on his collarbone area. I looked up at his face, and saw he was looking down at mine. Everything else seemed to fade away. Those eyes pulled me into their depths and I was lost in the flecks of golden, brown warmth.

And that is when I felt it. I felt something harden against my leg, and my eyes widened in confusion and then surprise. If my face wasn’t red before, it sure was now. Quickly, I flipped my face in the other direction again. I couldn’t make eye contact with Crosby after feeling his very obvious erection against my leg. Thankfully we were at the side of the pool soon after this moment.

“Thank you so much,” I said to Veronique as we reached her.

“No problem at all,” She said as she draped the towel over my shoulders.

“Here,” Crosby said, his voice cracking a little. He repositioned us so he was facing everyone, thus I was facing away from everyone. Crosby took the ends of the towels and started to wrap them around my sides.

“Now take a small step back, there, perfect. I am going to move the towel around you now,” he directed calmly, I looked up at him. He was looking right at me. I did as he said, and he wrapped the towel around my front, covering me completely without ever breaking eye contact.

“Captain is always ruining the fun,” I heard Neal complain in the background.

I looked at Crosby, my mouth opening slightly, not really sure how to respond by this strange course of events and his, well, kind response. Instead I nodded, taking the ends and tucking them in tightly before pulling myself out of the pool. Dripping, I gave Veronique a half hug.

“Well, I believe there has been enough nudity for the day, so I am going to go find some real clothes now,” I announced to everyone, smiling trying to keep a good humor. I didn’t want to think about how I basically flashed an entire group of people and rubbed up on Crosby.

I quickly darted into the house, padding up the flight of stairs and headed to the room I was staying in. I showered briefly to get all the chlorine off, telling myself it was not to wash the scent of Crosby off of me which was still lingering. Today was weird. Why couldn’t we just have a normal day? I changed quickly and brushed my hair and putting the long wet curls into a messy loose bun, before heading back into the bedroom.

“JESUS CHRIST,” I screamed. Crosby was sitting at the end of the bed. I grabbed the area of my chest where my heart was supposed to be, though after today, I was sure my heart had relocated elsewhere. “Why do you keep doing that?”

“I’m sorry,” he said, sincerely, “I just wanted to check on you. You have been up here for a while, eh?”

I stared at him, once again confused. “Uh, I was showering, is that a crime?” I shut my mouth and closed my eyes feeling guilty at my automatic defensive retort towards him, before adding, “I am sorry. I wanted to shower before I changed. I am slightly mortified, but I am fine. Are you okay? I was sorta violating you there.”

Crosby cleared his throat, “I am perfectly fine.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. He stood up quickly, and without even looking at me, walked out of the room. I stood there more confused than ever.

Notes

Oh hey friends! Are we all sorta surviving playoffs? Ish? Crying in the corner yet?

First, who doesn't love Sidney Crosby in yellow crocs? I mean, seriously, how can you not just giggle and want to give him a hug?

Second, if you are wondering if a swimsuit incident can actually happen like that, I assure you, it can.
Third, this one took a little longer to write and I am not exactly happy with the chapter. I am very excited for what is coming in the next several chapters, so please bear with me!

Please continue to read/subscribe/comment/message me suggestions!!! I cannot express enough thanks!!!!