It was one of those days, a day after a game, where there was no practice, but some of the guys had still met up to work out. Dennis Seidenberg and Patrice Bergeron were the last ones left. Tyler Seguin had just left to grab a bite to eat with Torey Krug. They would all see each other for early morning practice the following day, before they’d play against the Buffalo Sabres the day after.
Patrice had decided to work out together with the others, because he could use the distraction. In addition, working out with Seids was always fun. He enjoyed challenging himself, challenging his own body.
“Dennis?” one of the staffers poked his head into the weight room and looked at the two men that were left. “Your nanny is on the phone and said she couldn’t get a hold of you or your wife, but it’s important.”
Dennis sighed, excused himself and went with the staffer to answer the phone. Meanwhile, Patrice got up from his seat and started putting the weights away, to make the place look like nobody had been there. When the nanny called them here, it was probably something serious, so Dennis wouldn’t return.
When Patrice had put everything away and went back to the locker room to get changed, Dennis was gathering his things, looking a little pale.
“Is everything alright?” Patrice asked, genuinely concerned.
“Not really.” Dennis ran a hand over his head and sighed. “Noah has been throwing up for the past half hour and wants her Daddy home, but I need to pick up Story from kindergarten as well.”
“What about Rebecca?”
“She’d on the way to visit her mother, without the children. I’m taking care of them for the next couple of days, because we only have home games, and the nanny stays most of the time anyway. Nobody could foresee that this would happen. I don’t know what to do first.”
“First of all you need to take a deep breath.” Patrice couldn’t help the smile that was spreading on his face. When it came to his children, Seids was sometimes so helpless without his wife. He really loved his family. “And then you go home to take care of Noah. I’ll pick Story up and take her home.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. You can’t do both at the same time, and I don’t have any plans for the day. I don’t mind picking her up at all.”
“You’re a life saver!” Dennis’ face didn’t look so pale anymore and he headed to his car as fast as he could. Patrice watched him go with a smile. He was already looking forward to picking up Story. She was such a lively little girl that put a smile on everybody’s face. But first of all, he had to take a quick shower and get dressed. He couldn’t turn up there all sweaty, now, could he? What would the people at the kindergarten think?
After his shower, he put all of his belongings in the bag and headed towards his car. His hair was still a little damp, but it wasn’t a problem. It was still warm enough outside that he wouldn’t catch a cold or anything.
Once in his car, he entered the address in his GPS and got on his way. It would be a surprise for Story to see him there instead of her father. He’d never been to the kindergarten, and why would he? He didn’t have children, so there was no reason for him to go there. Today would be the first time, and he was interested to see the place. Story seemed to like it there very much from what he’d heard.
When he set foot inside the building, he was positively surprised. It was really bright and colorful, lots of painting, probably from the children, hang on the walls and from the ceiling. There were different rooms for the groups with different topics.
“Can I help you?” an older woman asked him, disturbing his thoughts. He turned around to face her, and immediately smiled. She was wearing a cloak that was covered in different colors, splattered from painting. There was even a bit of yellow paint on her nose.
“Yes. I’m here to pick up Story Seidenberg. Her father had to go home to take care of Noah, so I said I’d take her home.” Patrice explained the situation to her and introduced himself in the end. She pointed to a room at the end of the corridor and excused herself. She still had to pick up some paper for the children, so that they could continue their project.
The door to the room was wide open and he could hear animated chatter from the children inside. He stepped closer and looked inside. There were two women taking care of the children, but he couldn’t get a good look, because Story had already spotted him.
“Uncle Pat!” she came running towards him and flung herself at his legs. This made him chuckle. He got crouched down and ruffled her hair. “Where’s Daddy?”
“He had to go home to Noah, so I said I’d pick you up.” He tilted his head to one side. “Is that okay?”
“Yes!” She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight.
“Excuse me.” Patrice heard the woman’s voice, and thought that she sounded familiar. He got out of Story’s embrace and straightened, coming face to face with someone he definitely knew.
The woman recognized him as well. All the color drained from her face and she forgot what she’d been about to say. He hadn’t seen her in what? Six years? Damn, had it really been so long ago? Back then her hair was longer. Now it barely reached her shoulders and looked a shade darker than her sun bleached blonde hair back in Clearwater Beach.
“Emily? What are you doing here?” Out of all the things he’d wanted to ask her, this was the one question that came over his lips.
“I work here. I’ve been in Boston for the last four years.” She put her hands in her pockets, so he couldn’t see how much she was trembling. “But what are you doing here?”
“Picking up Story, because Dennis couldn’t make it.” He looked down at the little girl and added with a smile: “Can you gather your things? Then we can head off to your Dad.”
“Yes!” She hopped away, a big grin on her face.
“You could have said something, you know.” Patrice crossed his arms over his chest. He’d tried to contact her a couple more times after she’d stopped writing e-mail or text messages, but she’d just ignored him.
“I’m sorry. I thought we both wanted to leave this in Florida.”
“Yeah, but we both said we’d stay in touch.”
“I know. It got complicated,” she trailed off and took a deep breath, her hands still trembling in her pockets.
“It’s okay. So, how about a coffee some time then?” He normally didn’t do this, but they’d known each other for six years now, even if they hadn’t been in contact. He wanted to know what had gotten so complicated that she hadn’t been able to stay in touch with him.
“Better not.” Emily couldn’t say any more, because Story had returned with her backpack, and was tugging in Patrice’s hand. She wanted to get home.
“Goodbye, Patrice.”
He was left speechless. This had been really, really odd.
“Mommy, Mommy!” he heard a young boys voice, and he was immediately picked up by Emily. He could only see dark hair that Emily smoothed down and pressed a kiss on, because Story was dragging him out of the building.