Fly With You

Delia grasped onto Jonathan’s hands as she stared up at him with nervousness in her blue eyes. Jonathan only smiled, pulling the girl to her feet from the bench she had been sitting on and helping her get her balance. She nodded her head, as if convincing herself she could do it, and Jonathan grinned. “I’ve got you,” he told her. “I won’t let go.”

“Promise?” she asked, her tiny hands gripping onto Jonathan’s tightly.

“I promise,” he repeated, leaning forward to press a short kiss to her lips, making her smile. She nodded again, and Jonathan moved to stand beside her, still holding her right hand in his, in front of their bodies, as he wrapped his left arm around her thin waist. “You’ll catch on.”

“I’m a beach bunny, not a snow bunny,” she told him, frowning. “I’ve never skated a day in my life.”

“Well, I’m not the best swimmer, so we’re even.”

“That’s hardy even,” she mumbled as Jonathan pressed his hand into her lower back, urging her to take a step. She sighed and began moving her feet slowly, her legs shaky as she stood on the thin pieces of metal under her skates. “I am going to break my neck, Jonny. I’m calling it right now.”

“I won’t let that happen,” he assured her again, his brown eyes sparkling in amusement as she frowned dramatically up at him. “Stop that,” he continued. “You’re too pretty to frown.” Delia smiled widely at his words, kissing him again and letting her hesitant body be led forward and toward the ice. When she felt the air get colder as they walked, she was glad she had taken Jonathan’s advice and worn a long sleeve shirt, even if it was still – halfway through September – nearly eighty degrees.

With two weeks until the preseason was due to start, Jonathan’s schedule had steadily gotten busier, but now that he would be traveling, he wondered what would happen with him and Delia. She was still living in his condo’s guest room, she seemed to be happy, and she hadn’t brought up leaving Chicago at all. He was starting to think his idea of getting her to see all the city had to offer before she moved on was really keeping her with him.

“I’m going to make a fool out of myself,” she sighed as they stepped out of the hallway and into the hockey arena. “Look at your teammates already staring, Jonny!”

Jonathan laughed, nodding over at his teammates, who were indeed staring in their direction. Stepping in front of her, he glided backwards onto the ice a little, still holding Delia’s hands in his. She looked down at the ice with hesitation then back up to Jonathan’s smiling face. She locked her blue eyes on his dark brown ones, a feeling of complete trust taking over her body as she looked at him.

“It’s just like I told you; one foot in front of the other and glide.”

Delia nodded, putting her right foot onto the ice, then the left, her grip on Jonathan’s hands tightening as she felt even more unsteady than she had just standing on the carpet. She let out the breath she was holding as she found herself standing completely on the ice, Jonathan gliding toward her, only letting go of her hands when he gripped her around the waist.

She squealed as he pushed her forward careful not to let go of her, telling her to use the gliding technique he had told her about, smiling widely as her long legs seemed to be floating beneath her. He knew she was catching on quick, but like he promised her, he wouldn’t let go. Guiding her over to his teammates and coaches there for a relaxed and casual team skate, he knew they were going to be hounded with questions, and for the first time in his twenty five years, the young captain was ready to answer them.

“Guys, this is Delia,” he announced, laughing when she waved shyly. Delia was not shy, that was made clear by how they had met. She wasn’t one to shell up around others, but Jonathan supposed when it was nearly thirty men, all on ice skates and towering over her, not to mention all men Jonathan had known for some time, it would be a little nerve-wracking.

“I have to say, Toe-ez,” Patrick Sharp started. “I never thought I’d see the day when you’d bring a girl to work with you.”

“Toe-ez?” Delia asked, turning her head to stare at Jonathan in confusion.

“That’s just Sharpie thinking he’s funny.”

The team burst out laughing, as did Delia, and even Patrick Sharp. The dark-haired, green-eyed man skated forward, offering his hand to Delia, formally introducing himself. “I like to bust your boyfriend’s balls. Don’t worry about it.”

Inwardly groaning at Patrick’s use of ‘boyfriend’, Jonathan was quick to start introducing his beach-loving blond to the rest of the team and his coaches, gliding her around the ice as he did so. She seemed to return to her normal self when she realized all the guys around her were super nice and had been looking forward to meeting her ever since Jonathan had asked if she could tag-along to the practice.

“You’re wearing the wrong jersey,” Sharpie continued. “I don’t know why you like this guy.”

Delia laughed, giving Jonathan a pathetic look as he laughed and shook his head at his teammate. “I happen to be a very big Toe-ez fan,” she responded, turning to send a wink at the man behind her, who still held her at the waist, keeping her back pressed against his front. “I hear he’s really good.”

Jonathan watched as she continued to interact with his teammates, coaches, and friends, loving how easily she could get along with them.

“I’m really excited to see you guys skate and practice,” she told them. “I’ve never seen a hockey game in my life.”

“What?” Sharpie asked, skating toward Jonathan and the small woman. “Jonny?”

“She’s a southern California girl; grew up on the beach.”

“Jonny tells me I’ve been deprived because I haven’t seen hockey, but I tell him he’s deprived because he doesn’t know how to surf.”

“You surf?” another asked, Delia recognizing him as ‘Kaner’.

“Grew up on a board in the ocean,” she grinned. “Much like you guys grew up on the ice, I assume?” Most of the guys nodded, and Jonathan watched with an amused smile as she dove into a conversation, not only about surfing, but about hockey too. He knew she loved hearing about how all the guys loved hockey, sending him back to when they met and she had told him that everyone ‘needed to do what they love’.

But the memory sent him to his reoccurring worry that Delia would simply up and leave one day, wanting to go back to her life of traveling – the thing she loved, leaving Jonathan behind. He shook the thoughts from his head, trying to ignore how much it bothered him that Delia was such a free-spirit and he was simply not, putting them on completely different pages when it came to exactly what was going on between the two of them.

After nearly twenty minutes of skating around and watching Delia get her ice legs, she took a spot on the player’s bench with the coaches as the guys split up into two teams and started a scrimmage. He watched Coach Quennville sit down next to her, pointing toward the ice and telling her things, no doubt trying to explain to her the way things were working. Her eyes fell on Jonny as he skated forward to take the face off, giving her one last smile before he went into game-mode, even if it was only a practice.

-

“What did you think?” Jonathan asked as he and Delia walked from his condo to Lake Michigan a few hours after they had gotten back from the team practice.

“I think you make cute faces while you play.”

Laughing as they stepped onto the sand, Jonathan picked Delia up in his arms and ran toward the water, dropping their towels in a dry spot before diving into the water with her in his arms. “Jonny!” she laughed, squealing as they fell into the cold water, completely drenching the clothes they wore over their bathing suits, for Jonathan it was just a tee shirt, but for Delia it was her shorts and blouse.

Peeling her wet shirt off of her body and shimmying out of her shorts, she waited for Jonathan to strip off his own shirt before walking to their towels and placing the wet clothes out flat, so they’d dry from the sun. “You’re killing me, Jonny,” she told him as she jumped back into the water, catching a particularly large wave (for the Lake) and letting it carry her back to the shore.

“Get over here,” Jonathan grinned, reaching out to grab her bikini-clad body and pulling her into him. “Did you look up more places you want to go?” He asked. Earlier in the week, when Jonathan realized he was running out of places around the city to take Delia to off the top of his head, he had asked her to find places she found interesting and he would gladly take her.

They had done all of the museums in the downtown area, gone to the Sears Tower , gone to the Hancock Observatory, and had gone to some famous Chicago restaurants. Delia grinned, “I want to go to a baseball game… and a football game… and a basketball game… I know you want to take me to a regular season Blackhawks game, just so you can keep me here for at least another month, right?”

Jonathan was sure his cheeks flushed a light pink, but he tried to ignore it and keep his cool. “The longer you stay, the better, I think,” he told her, running a hand through her wavy, blond hair.

“I know, Jonny. I really like being here with you, too, you know.”

“Good,” he smiled, leaning down to kiss her lips. “So, all the sports teams, then?”

She nodded, “I know baseball’s almost over for the season, so work your magic and take me to a White Sox and Cubs game.”

“Are you even into sports?” he asked, laughing when she shook her head.

“No, I’m not, but I know Chicago ’s a big sports town and I figure I should make sure I experience that before I leave the city, right?”

Freezing at her words, Jonathan tried to suppress the large frown that wanted to grace his face and instead he shot her a fake smile, agreeing with the sports plan. “I think that’ll be a lot of fun,” he told her, kissing her quickly. Delia grinned, seeming to not notice the small grimace on his face as her words kept repeating in his head.

Before she left.