“So your family seems nice.” Tyler said as he relaxed into the seat next to me, on the flight that would take us to Columbus for a game tomorrow, and then to Newark the next day to play the Devils.
“They are,” I confirmed, with a deep breath. “And I think they really liked you,” I admitted for the first time since they left earlier this morning.
“Of course they did,” he smirked. “Everyone likes me except for you apparently.”
I rolled my eyes, as I turned to look out the window, hoping he didn’t notice the light blush that I knew was covering my cheeks when he said that. I distracted myself by thinking about last night, especially the look on my sister’s face and it made me realize that I never actually thanked Tyler for what he did. So with a deep breath I turned back to the man sitting next to me. “By the way, thank you Tyler,” I told him, realizing that no matter how cocky of a jerk he was sometimes, he still made my sister’s night and by doing that he also made mine. Rather that was his intention or not I wasn’t sure, but whatever the reason he still deserved a thank you.
“It was no problem,” he shrugged, without looking away from his phone. “It was the least I could do for a Seguin fan.”
“Yea,” I huffed, not sure why that statement pissed me off so much. Did he automatically just like anyone that liked him? “And you know how many other players she likes, right?”
“Well obviously Shaw…” he laughed, and rather that was because of me, or because of the subject, I wasn’t sure.
“And Subban, and Letang, and Bishop, and Skinner…”
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Tyler cut me off as he laid his phone down on the tray in front of him, “I’m not her only favorite player,” he said equally disappointed and sad, “but like your one to judge Mrs. I love Duchene, and Benn and Roussel and…” he rolled his eyes with a chuckle, “who knows who else.”
“What can I say,” I crossed my arms over my chest with a sigh, “we love hockey.”
“Really,” he joked, “I had no idea.”
I rolled my eyes with a smirk, “what gave it away.”
“I don’t, maybe that day you named every team that won the cup in the last decade as well as the captains of the team, who scored the game winning goal and the team that they played.” He laughed whole heartedly and I couldn’t help but share in his laughter before I slipped my ear buds in and laid my head back on the seat, ready for this road trip.

---

Unfortunately, the road trip didn’t go quite as planned, the Stars lost an early lead to the Jackets late in the second period and couldn’t recover. Thankfully they didn’t let that hurt them the next game when they played the Devils and were able to pull out a win in overtime.
So after much deliration it was decided that the guys deserved the weekend off, it wasn’t often that there were not Saturday games. Of course I still had papers to fill out and some things I needed to figure out so I didn’t exactly have the day off, but I didn’t have to go in so used that to my full advantage by printing out my pictures using the new printer that my parents bought me when they came down.
That is how the next day I found myself being questioned by none other than Tyler Seguin.
“So is that a picture of me on your wall?” Tyler asked as I walked back into the living room after our run this morning and turned to look at the wall across from my kitchen, already knowing what he was pointing at.
“Yea,” I gave him a sheepish smile as I rounded the corner into my kitchen.
“And here I was thinking this whole time that you didn’t like me.” He smirked as he walked over to my wall and studied the group of pictures there.
“Just because I have a picture of you on my wall does not mean I like.” I laughed, because that was the fifth time he posed a question similar to that, did it really brother him that much that I didn’t like him.
“Then why is my picture up here next to Duchene, and Fiddler…” He trailed off and fumbled his brow as he turn to look at me, “Fiddler, don’t tell me he’s one of your favorite players too.”
“No,” I shook my head with a smile as I set my water bottle down. “Like I said, just because you’re on the wall does not mean that I like you. It simply means that I took a picture of you that I happen to like.”
“So you took all these picture,” he asked, as his hand circled the group of pictures that hung the wall.
“Yea,” I beamed, proud of my pictures, even if they just hung in my living room.
“These are really good Brittany.”
I shook my head with a laugh as I walked up behind him, “I don’t know if I go that far.”
“They are way better than I could do, that’s for sure.” He told me, as if it was a complaint that I was better than him.
“Wow, did Tyler Seguin just admit that he’s bad at something.” I asked, shocked that he would give up such information.
“Shut up Brittany,” he laughed as he turned around so that we face to face. “I mean I can’t be good at everything.”
“Really,” I rolled my eyes with a laugh as I shifted my eyes to my shoes, not able to look him in the eyes any longer.
I took a deep breath as he ran his hand though my hair and then cupped my cheek, lifting my hand to look at him.
“You are so cute when you are shy.”
“Shut up Tyler,” I laughed, and tried to pull my face away, but he had other plans. Before I knew what was happening a pair of warm chapped lips covered mine. I closed my eyes, and could feel his hands snake around my waist as my hands wrapped around his bicep. I had no idea what I was doing, but he didn’t pull away until we were both out of breath so I figured that was a good sign.
I inhaled and exhaled, trying to catch my breath. Not sure what to say, or if I was even supposed to say anything, but like usual, words stumbled out before I had time to process what I was saying. “Tyler, what are you doing?” I asked, and I know my voice must have sounded as panicked as I felt for Tyler had no answer; he just stared at me, his brown eyes a mixture of hurt and confusion.
“Tyler, we can’t do this.” I could feel the water collecting in my eyes as I backed out of the room.

Notes