Raining on Sunday

Pulling into James’ new driveway was bittersweet, the house was entirely different than ours in Pittsburgh. The modern house was lit up like a Christmas tree, it was a beautiful house but nothing like the one we shared in Pittsburgh. The drive from which was emotional, and exhausting. As soon as I swung open the drivers door, James came bolting out of his front door, and lunged himself into a hug. He kissed me quickly and immediately went for the babbling baby in the backseat, pulling her car seat out. He gave me the grand tour of his elegant home, and showed me where everything was. “Tomorrow, we’re going shopping for the nursery. I tried to get everything I could but I wanted to do that part together.” “Thank you, James.” We settled on the couch, Scarlett laying between her fathers legs. I felt myself slowly drifting off to sleep, and James nudged me and told me to go to bed. I nodded, and scurried away to bed, James and Scarlett in tow.

“It’s game day in Nashville! Tonight the Predators take on the Dallas stars.” We heard over the radio, driving to the arena. James smiled, and lowered the radio. He turned to me, “The guys are excited to meet you.” I felt anxiety building in the pit of my stomach. I forced a smile through it, and turned to check on Scarlett who was babbling in the backseat. We pulled into the back entrance to an unfamiliar arena, and I fiddled with the string on my cardigan while I waited for James to pull Scarlett out of her car seat. “Come on, I can’t wait for you to see everything!” He excitedly grabbed my hand with his free hand, Scarlett secure in his other. I followed closely next to him, the closer we got to the entrance, the more my anxiety spiked. This wasn’t my city, this wasn’t my arena, none of this was familiar and I was having a hard time coping with change. As soon as we got into the locker room, groups of people rushed over to greet us, and introduce themselves. It felt wrong. I felt dirty. Leaving Pittsburgh was the worst decision I could have made. I felt my hands start to get clammy. “James…” I whispered to him, but he was too busy showing off his new baby. I was surrounded by strangers, ones who were fawning over my newborn daughter. I wanted to steal her from James arm’s and run as far as I could. I hadn’t noticed how hitched my breathing was till one of James’ teammates asked if I was okay. I looked up at the tall hockey player and turned as fast as I could on my heel, and pushed my way out of the locker room. I ran through the arena, and realized how lost I had gotten myself, and collapsed in a hall next to an empty concession stand and brought my knees up to my face, and exhaled. “I can’t do this.” I whispered to myself. I rocked back and forth as I cried, thinking about my life in Pittsburgh. My perfect job, my perfect house, my perfect best friend. Everything. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly dialed a familiar number, I pressed it to my ear and choked as it went straight to voicemail.

“It’s Sid, leave a message!”

“Sid, it’s me. Just calling to check in, Nashville is…great. Things are great…Sid, I just wanted to hear your voice. I want to come home. I’m sorry. Have a good game tonight, good luck. Better get ready to bring that cup home. I love you, Sidney.” I hung up and threw myself into an even worse pit of emotions. “Eisley?!” I heard being called. Fuck. James is looking for me. I stood up quickly and wiped my tears, and saw him walking down the hall with Scarlett. “Are you okay! What the fuck you can’t just disappear like that!” He raised his voice, and pinned me into a corner. “Sorry, James. This is all just really overwhelming. We haven’t really had a chance to settle, this is all so much for me at once.” I told him. He softened his face and looked at me. “I didn’t even think about how hard this would be for you, I’m so sorry, Eisley. I was so excited to have you down here with me, I never thought about what it would do to you.” He ran his free hand through his hair and let out a loud sigh. I opened my arms and took Scarlett from him, and kissed my daughters head. “I love you, both.” He kissed my forehead. “Let’s go home, grab some lunch and do some shopping before the game.”

“Merry Christmas baby.” James woke me up with a kiss to the forehead. I opened my eyes, slowly and smiled, stretching out. “Merry Christmas Mr. Neal.” I kissed him lightly on the lips, and he deepened it, slipping his hand under my shirt and digging himself into my lower half. As if on cue, Scarlett started to cry from the other room. James sighed, pulling his hand out of my shirt. “Best birth control ever!” I laughed and stood up. We both ran to her room, and saw the six month old baby sitting up in her crib. She immediately smiled when we entered the room. “Merry Christmas Scarlett!” James exclaimed kissing her chubby cheek. We went downstairs and put her in her high chair and gave her food to eat, well, more like play with at this age. “She’s ended up with more of her food in her hair than in her mouth.” James laughed. “I’m going to give her a bath before we open presents, want to help?” I asked. He nodded and smiled, running upstairs behind me. After we bathed Scarlett, I threw a diaper on her and brushed the little hair she had, and threw a big red bow on her hair. “My little Christmas present!” I kissed her, and she laughed, showing her dimples and big blue eyes. “I literally have the most perfect daughter.” James spoke. I laughed, and we walked downstairs to the Christmas tree. We went through presents for Scarlett, mostly from family and friends sending clothes, and things of that sort. James had gotten her first set of pearl’s, necklace and a bracelet and a matching set. “Look at how beautiful, Scarlett! Mommy and baby match!” James kissed us both. I snapped a picture of her laying on her bouncy seat and put it on Instagram.

@EisleyKemp: Christmas smiles!! #babyscarlettdoesnashville

We had gotten through all the presents until we saw a FedEx box sitting in the back. It was a big one, James had to pull it out. “It’s addressed to you and Scarlett. From the Consol?” He raised an eyebrow. He opened the box and inside was a nicely wrapped box, decorated with beautiful wrapping paper. I shredded it open and looked inside, grabbing the card on the top first. I opened it and read out loud. “To Scarlett Katya, and our wonderful Eisley, Merry Christmas from the Lemieux family and the Penguins association.” I went through and saw cards from multiple players, Geno had sent Scarlett a baby jersey with his name on it, and Brandon Sutter sent her a pair of baby Bauer ice skates. We went through everything until we saw a small, that didn’t have a card or anything attached, but we didn’t need to know who it was from. It spoke volumes on its own. Inside was two tiny diamond earrings, for a baby, and a matching set for me. Inside the lid of the box written was, “For the beautiful mother, and even more beautiful baby…Yours always, xo, Crosby.” James’ demeanor had changed quickly from happy to rage and jealousy. I threw the lid back on the box and pushed it aside. “Crosby’s always going to try to one up everyone. Especially when it comes to you.” James’ hand folded into a fist. I leaned over the mess of wrapping paper and sat on his lap. “Nothing could ever, and I mean, EVER, one up the Real Deal.” I winked. He calmed quickly and hugged my waist tightly. “He’s going to learn.” James spoke with venom.

Notes