The next few weeks approaching Christmas took some adjusting to. I had officially moved into Sidney’s and the whole world knew that he and I were together and I was still getting used to constantly getting approached in public. My social media was filled with hate messages and I tried to ignore what was written online about us. I pushed it all to the back of my mind and focused on being in the moment with Sidney.

“You had to pick the biggest tree possible,” Sidney says laughing.

“It was clearly the nicest,” I reply.

“Yeah and you almost fought that guy for it.”

“And I would have won.” I dance around the tree, throwing tinsel everywhere. I was beyond excited to spend our first Christmas together.

“Are you excited for family skate today?” he asks.

“I am! It’ll be cool to see everyone and their family out on the ice.”
We finish up with the tree and make our way to Consol.

The arena is buzzing by the time we get there. There is holiday music playing and everyone is skating around. I get my skates on and go to meet Beau, James, Pauly and Bortz on the ice.

“You guys made it!” Beau says hugging me.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” I reply smiling. I look over and Sidney is surrounded by a swarm of kids. I skate over and laugh.

“Hey everyone, this is Phoenix. She’s really good at skating,” Sidney says to the kids. I wave to them all and smile.

“Do you play hockey?” Pascal’s son asks.

“I used to,” I reply. I smile at Sidney and begin teaching Joe Vitale’s daughter how to skate. After her lesson I skate over to some of the girlfriends to catch up. It took awhile, but I was finally getting along with the wags. We take a picture and I post it on instagram, tagging them all in it.

“Enjoying yourself?” Sidney asks, skating over to me.

“It’s so cool that this is the ice you play on. There’s something magical about it,” I say, taking it all in. He kisses me gently and skates back over to the kids. I hold Estelle while her dad lets the kids shoot on him.

“You’ve got a great daddy,” I tell her softly. Family skate eventually comes to an end and we all head home after a wonderful afternoon.

---

“Are you excited to meet my family?” Sidney asks me the next day.

“I think anxious is a better word,” I reply unhappily.

“Come on, they’re going to love you. Just like I do.” He kisses my nose then leaves for the airport to pick them up. I start to clean the house for the millionth time and try to relax. I hear the key in the door and try to remain calm. I take a deep breath and head towards the foyer.

“Guy’s this is Phoenix. Phoenix this is my mom Trina, my dad Troy and that’s Taylor,” he says gesturing to the short blonde girl who was smiling.

“It’s nice to finally meet you guys,” I say warmly. I look at Trina and I can’t read the expression on her face. We make our way to the dining room where I begin to serve lunch. Sidney immediately dives into conversation with his dad about hockey and I sit quietly and eat my meal.

“So Phoenix. Sidney tells me you’ll also be going to Sochi,” Trina says, interrupting the guys.

“Um yeah. For snowboarding. I’m really excited,” I reply.

“Yeah Sid said you’ll be competing for two medals. That’s super cool,” Taylor adds.

“It’ll be tough but it’ll be fun,” I say smiling.

“You won gold last time. Do you think it’ll be harder to win this time or easier?” Troy asks me intrigued.

“Definitely harder. The competition has definitely gotten more intense over the last 4 years.”

“Phoenix has been winning competitions consistently for the past year so there’s no doubt in my mind she’ll win.” Sidney interjects. My heart swells at his confidence in me. Trina remains quiet the rest of the meal but I get into good conversation with Taylor and her hockey. We finish the meal and Sidney helps me clean up.

“She hates me,” I mutter quietly while Troy, Trina and Taylor are in the other room.

“She doesn’t hate you. She just takes awhile to warm up that’s all.” I’m not sure I believe him, but at this point I don’t really have a choice. I find myself really drawn to Taylor. She reminds me so much of her brother and I can already tell we’re going to be good friends. We spend the rest of the day catching up and Trina still hasn’t made any effort to get to know me. I know how important Sidney’s mom is to him so I go to bed that night determined to make her like me.
I wake up the next morning and Sidney is already gone downstairs. I head downstairs and hear Sidney and his mother talking in hushed voices.

“She thinks you don’t like her,” I hear Sidney say.

“You gave me no warning with her. You called me one day, told me you broke up with Kathy and that you were already dating some girl you just met. Kathy was perfect for you,” Trina replies.

“I wasn’t in love with Kathy like that. Phoenix makes me happy mom, that’s all you should care about.” I wait until they’ve switched topics to enter.

“Good morning,” I say weakly. I walk past both of them and pour myself some coffee.

“We’re headed to the outdoor rink, you wanna come?” Sidney asks.

“Yeah sounds fun,” I smile. I take my coffee upstairs and get ready. I was right. Trina didn’t like me but I didn’t know why. I start to feel angry. She didn’t even give me a chance. I head back downstairs only to find that Taylor, Sidney and Troy had already left for the rink. I see Trina in the kitchen and decide it’s the perfect time to confront her.

“Are you coming to the rink?” I ask with forced smile.

“I don’t think so,” she says shortly.

“What’s your problem with me?” I finally spit out. She turns to look at me and she looks taken aback.

“Excuse me?”

“You known me for what 24 hours? I’ve been nothing but nice to you, which means you have some sort of pre-existing reason to not like me. I love your son and I was so excited to meet the people responsible for raising him into the man I know and love. I wanted you to like me because I know how important that is for Sidney but it’s up to you.”

“You’re right. I apologize. It’s just this all seems so sudden. And there are people out there that want to use Sidney and I just wanted to make sure you weren’t one of them,” she says apologetically.

“I love Sidney and I would never want to hurt him or use him in anyway. I understand you’re being protective because I’m the same way with my brother but I promise, my intentions are pure with Sidney,” I respond honestly.

“To be honest this is the happiest I’ve ever seen him.” She holds her arms out and I step in her embrace. I feel as though a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. We head down to the rink and Sidney skates up to us to greet us.

“What took you guys so long?” he asks.

“Oh we were just catching up,” I reply smiling. Troy and Taylor both have their gear on so I lace up my skates, grab my stick and head onto the ice.

“Phoenix is on my team!” Taylor yells. Me and Sidney get ready for a face-off at center ice and Trina drops the puck. I win the face-off and I get the puck on my stick. I skate towards Troy and Sidney positions himself between me and the net. I fake a shot left then deke to the right. Sidney falls for it leaving an open shot next. I skate up to Troy and bring him to the left of the net. I reach over and push the puck over the line on the right side. I lift one leg up and punch the air, inventing my own celly. Sidney and Troy both stand there shocked.

“I knew you were good but I didn’t know you were that good,” Sidney finally says.

“Never underestimate me Crosby,” I reply winking. Sidney picks up his game and they end up winning 10-3. He skates by doing his usual on ice celly and I roll my eyes.
“That wasn’t that impressive,” I say annoyed. He skates towards me and picks me up in one swift motion over his shoulder.

“Crosby put me down,” I yell.

“Now that’s gotta be a penalty,” Troy laughs.

“Say I’m impressive,” Sidney says, skating around.

“No!”
“Say it!” I feel the blood rushing to my head so I give up.

“You’re so impressive Sidney Crosby. I am not worthy,” I reply displeased. He finally puts me down and laughs. “See was that so hard?”

“It was painful actually.” We end our outdoor rink session and head back to the house.

---

The next couple of days fly by and I’m sad to see his family leave.

“I’m happy you and my mom worked things out. Told you she would love you,” Sidney says at home, after dropping them off at the airport.

“Well its Christmas Eve, what do you want to do?” I ask.

“I have one idea,” he says, his voice deep and his lips inches form mine.

“You want to watch Home Alone again don’t you?”

“I’m so glad you know me,” he laughs. We curl up and watch his favourite Christmas movie together.

Notes

This is kind of a filler chapter.