Confessions of An Ice Girl

The Pens' post-season ended early, with a disappointing loss to the Rangers. James had asked me to go home with him to Whitby with him for a few weeks and I agreed. We pulled into the driveway of a decent sized house overlooking a lake. "Second home sweet home." James said hopping out of the car and helping me out.

"You have a lake house?" I asked

"Yeah. I have a lake house." James laughed, just then a car pulled into the driveway honking its horn as it parked. "Junior! Watch where you're going!" James yelled

A guy jumped out of the driver's' seat, laughing. He was shorter than James with brown hair and those same eyes. No mistake he was a brother. They had the same smile, "I thought I'd seen you on the 401." he said smiling over at me "Oh. Hello. You must be Abby. Rebecca filled us in. I'm Peter. Peter Neal. You can call me Pete."

"Nice meeting you." I smiled shaking his hand

"Are you coming over for supper tonight?" Peter asked James

"Yes, we planned on it."

"Awesome. Well, I'll see you then. Nice meeting you, Abby." Peter smiled getting back in his car and leaving

"Wow." I said

"That's Junior for ya."

"Junior..."

"My dad is also named Peter. So that one is infact Peter Neal Jr."

"You look a lot alike."

James laughed "Yeah kind of."

"You have three brothers, right?"

"Yep. There's Michael and Nick as well. You'll get to meet Nick at supper. Maybe Mike."

"So there's five of you?"

"Yeah."

"I'm an only child."

"Really? I never knew that."

"Yeah it's just me."

"What about your parent's?"

"They live in Pittsburgh." I replied

"Oh? Do...uh...do they know?"

"Yes and no...I told my mom I was seeing someone..."

"So they don't know you're pregnant?"

I shook my head "No..."

"Abby...you're almost 6 months pregnant..."

"I know." I sighed "I'm going to tell them...I just...I don't know how. And I want them to meet you."

"Okay. We can do that." James nodded "Do they know who I am?"

"You mean do they know you're The Real Deal James Neal? No they don't...I wasn't sure how to tell them that. They know the rules."

James laughed "Did you really just call me The Real Deal James Neal?"

I laughed "Yep. I mean my parents know of you, of course...but they don't know that you are the person I'm seeing."

James nodded "Well, when we go back to Pittsburgh, we can have dinner with them. If that's what you want."

"Yeah." I nodded "They need to know."

"Well are you ready to head on over to my parent's?" he asked

"Yeah. Let's go." I replied
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James' parents' cottage was lovely. It was close by his place. His mom had gotten us a few outfits for the baby. We were sitting in the living room talking while we waited for Deborah to finish up the meal. "So how did you and James meet?" Pete asked

"I'm a friend of Paul Martin's..." I replied, sticking to our original story

"Paul is cool." his youngest brother, Nick smiled

"So do all of you play hockey?" I asked

Peter and Nick both nodded, "I play here in Whitby." Nick said "For the Whitby Fury."

"I play for the Knoxville Ice Bears. In Knoxville, Tennessee." Peter replied

"Cool." I smiled

"Michael plays in Orlando. You might get to meet him, but he's staying in Florida at the minute with his girlfriend." Nick explained

"Him and Syd won't be coming?" James asked

Nick shook his head "Not today, no."

"Where's Rebecca?" James asked

"She went shopping with one of her friends. Should be home soon." Debroah Neal said coming into the living room "Nicky, sweetie, could you set the table, please?"

"Yes, mom." Nick replied getting up and going to the dining room

"Your home is lovely." I said

"Why thank-you, sweetie. James, honey, can you call Rebecca and see if she is on her way back."

"Yeah, I can do that." James replied calling his sister

"So. How do you know Paul?" Pete asked

"I uh...I know Paulie through a friend. My friend met him at Diesel's and introduced us." I'm a horrible liar. Thankfully, James got off the phone and saved me from the questioning.

"Junior. I met her through Paul. She knows Paul through a friend. Now stop questioning ,my girlfriend." James replied

Pete glanced from me to James and back "Right. Okay." He knew. He totally knew that I wasn't just a friend of Paul's. Not that it matter if he knew I was an ice girl. I just didn't want people thinking that I was just a puck slut. Which is typically how ice girls are treated.

"Mom, Becks says she's almost here." James called into the kitchen

"Great. Dinner is ready." she smiled.

We all headed to the table. Everything smelt great. Mrs. Neal had prepared roast beef and potatoes with carrots and dinner rolls with homemade butter. I hadn't had a hearty home cooked meal in forever. It was usually take-out, fast food or restaurants.
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After dinner and before a dessert of cheesecake, the guys went out back and were shooting pucks at each other. Me and Rebecca sat on the porch while she showed me some of the stuff she had gotten, "Oh! And I can't forget this." she smiled handing me a bag

"Rebecca, you shouldn't have." I said

"Oh please, my first niece? I plan on spoiling her." she laughed

I smiled and opened the bag. It was a set of pacifiers, bottles and bibs "Thanks so much, Rebecca."

"No problem." she replied hugging me

Night time had come too soon and James and I headed back to his place. James was in the shower while I was laying on his bed "Your brothers are nice."

"Yeah they're good kids...sorry about Peter. You'd think he's a detective."

"It's okay. Your mom got some cute outfits for the baby and Rebecca got us some bottles, pacifiers and bibs."

"That's great." James smiled coming into the room with a towel hanging loosely around his waist.

"So. I've been thinking about names." I replied

"You have?" James smiled

I nodded, pulling a notebook from my bag "Do you want to hear them?"

James nodded, "I would love to hear them."

"Ella, Harper, Grace, Natalie and Lily. For a middle name I really want to use Vivian or Marie. After my grandma."

James smiled, kissing my forehead "Those names are all great."

"Do you have a favorite?"

"Which one do you like best?" he asked putting his glasses on

I smiled "I like Ella Vivian or Lily Marie."

"Ella Vivian Neal. Lily Marie Neal...I like both of those." James smiled

"But which is your favorite?" I laughed

"Ella." James replied throwing on a pair of boxers.

"So. Have we made a decision?"

James smiled "If you're satisfied with that. I like it. Ella Vivian Neal. It's nice."

"I love it." I replied standing up and hugging him "And I love you."

"I love you too, Abigail." James replied kissing me
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Summer in Whitby was great. We spent a lot of time at his parent's house. James and his brothers went jet skiing a lot. Rebecca usually stayed at the house with me. The few weeks we had went by so fast and we were heading on our way back to Pittsburgh. "So, I called my mom." I said as we were driving home from Whitby

"What did she say?"

"She wants to know if we can visit tomorrow."

"Okay. Sounds good to me." James smiled

"Okay. I'll let mom know we will be coming over."

"Alright sounds great."

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"This was a fun trip. Your family is so amazing."

James smiled "Yeah. They're pretty great. They love you. Mom said you're so polite and she hope you keep me inline." he laughed

"Oh that's harder said than done." I teased

James laughed "Hey. I'm not that bad."

I smiled "No. You're not bad at all. You're amazing."

"So are you, Abby."

Things were going great. Everything was perfect and I couldn't have been happier...but things were about to go south...

Notes