Always Something There to Remind Me

When we got back to the locker room, it was already full of the players’ families. Aiden and I sat in Sid’s stall taking everything in while he opened a champagne bottle and sprayed it over his teammates. The guys were all running around talking to everyone with smiles on their faces bigger than a kid’s on Christmas morning. Sid and Max went back out onto the ice to get a picture with their families and the Cup before Sid brought it back in so that he could take one with me and Aiden out of the reporters’ site.

He placed the Cup on his bench so that Aiden was on one side and we were on the other. “Take another one, I blinked,” he told Max after the first picture was snapped. Max gave him a weird look as if to say he was crazy but obliged. Right before the flash went off, he grabbed my face with his hands and pulled me into him, kissing me. As his teammates started hooting and hollering, some chanting “Cros-by! Cros-by!”, Sid dipped me down, deepening the kiss. My cheeks turned pink in embarrassment when he finally let me go and stood us upright. He sent me a wink before walking over to get some pictures with Mario, Nathalie and the Cup. When I turned back around to look at Aiden, he had a huge grin on his face. He jumped into my arms, giving me a huge hug before running off to find some of the other kids to play with.

The party kept going all night long, not that I expected anything less. It went by in a blur, definitely too fast for the team. When the boys got off the plane back in Pittsburgh, they just took the party to Mario’s. Eventually everyone started leaving, the exhaustion from the nerves and the excitement of the past couple of days catching up to them. Sid had disappeared somewhere awhile ago, and I hadn’t seen Aiden running around in a bit either.

Searching the Lemieux mansion for them, I heard Aiden giggling in Sid’s room. When I opened the door, Max was holding Aiden as Aiden took a picture of Sid sleeping with Cup, shushing him so that he wouldn’t wake Sid up.

“There you go,” Max said as he set Aiden down. “Now you have blackmail. So, if you want a new bike or something, and your dad won’t buy it for you, you can just threaten to send this to the news station,” he grinned.

“Max! Don’t tell him that,” I laughed protesting.

“Okay, fine,” Max sighed, pretended to be exasperated. “He’ll probably buy Aiden ten bikes anyways without him even asking, the big softie,” he joked, causing me to roll my eyes. “He’s out cold, need a ride?” Max offered. I nodded.

Aiden couldn’t stop yawning the entire way home, and barely made it up the stairs to his room before collapsing on his bed. He didn’t even try to fight with me to stay up longer as I helped him change into pajamas.

“Goodnight Aiden,” I said, giving him a kiss on the cheek and tucking him in.

“Mommy?”

“Yeah baby?”

“Does this mean we can live with daddy every day now?”

“Not right now, maybe someday. But, you’ll still get to see him all the time though, okay?” I tried explaining. He didn’t even hear me though, because he was already asleep.

_______________________________♥♥♥♥♥

“Mom!” Aiden yelled, running to me as I walked into Sid’s house.

“Did you have a good time at the parade?”

“Yeah!” he said, a huge grin on his face, bouncing up and down. “I got to ride with daddy and grandpa and Marc and Vero, and there were a lot of people there! You should have been there to see it! It was so cool!”

“Maybe next time,” I answered, giving him a kiss. “Looks like someone had too much sugar,” I teased him.

“No, dad didn’t make any sugar for dinner. He just made burgers and fries. Oh, and I got some ice cream for dessert since I was good and ate all my dinner. Now hurry up slow poke! We’re getting ready to watch a movie!”

I laughed as Aiden pulled me into the living room, where Sid was waiting, having finished setting up the movie. He pushed me down on the couch next to Sid, grinning at us before jumping onto the loveseat across the room.

Sid threw his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side as the opening credits for Finding Nemo flashed across the television.

“I love this movie!” Aiden exclaimed as he started humming “just keep swimming.” He didn’t last very long though, and was fast asleep before the movie was even halfway over with. Sid carried Aiden up to bed while I picked out a more adult-targeted movie.

“So, how much do you have to work this summer?” Sid asked, sitting back down on the couch.

“I’m not sure. I pretty much make my own schedule, but I’ll probably end up working a couple of times a week like now. Why?”

“Well, I was hoping you and Aiden would come up and spend some time up there with me. I mean, I can probably come down a couple of times, but I have to train, especially with the Olympic camp coming up. And, my family would want to spend time with him…meet him if they haven’t.”

“Aiden could probably spend the whole summer up there with you. But, like I said, I do have to work in there sometime. I can’t take the whole summer off.”

“You’ll make sure you take the week of August seventh off right? That’s the day I requested for the Cup. If I don’t get it that day, I might at least end up getting it around that time.”

“I’ll make sure that I have that week off.”

“Good,” he said, kissing me. “Oh, and our flight for Atlanta leaves at eleven on Wednesday, so I’ll pick him up around quarter to nine. You sure you don’t want to come?”

“I would, but I can’t. I have to work, especially now since you want me to spend time with you in Canada this summer and I’m already meeting you guys in Florida next week. But make sure you tell them both that I said congrats,” I said to him, cuddling into him to watch Shutter.