Sequel: Hidden in the Shadows ›
Status: Completed :) Onto the sequel!!
Playing the Game of Love
Chapter Two
October 3rd, 2010
Sunday
Ristuccia Arena, Wilmington, MA
8:20 A.M.
Raina still stared up at him, standing there frozen. Finally she was able to find her voice and said
“Milan?” His grin widened when she said his name.
“Ya it’s me, come on up!” She climbed up on the bars on the side of the bleachers. Milan took her small hand in his large one which resembled that of a bears and helped her up and out of the opening. Now seeing him fully in the light, she noticed how he had changed even better. As she had noticed before, his face had developed a more manly touch to it, even with the shoulder pads and hockey gear on she could tell he’d gotten bigger, not taller but more broad, and muscular, and it was turning her on. He lunged forward and pulled her into a hug. She was being held face first into his jersey, and she felt herself get engulfed into his chest, and his giant arms wrapping around her. She felt his deep voice rumble in his chest as she heard him ask
“How was your summer?” She tried to reply but her answer was muffled by his jersey. He let her go out of the hug and then said
“What did you say?”
“It was great.” She felt herself beaming back at him, forgetting the worries of before. “My family took a trip to Fiji. We stayed there for the majority of the summer so I spent most of my time on the beach. What about you?” she already knew the answer and the idea that he had probably spent most of the summer curled up in Vancouver with his girlfriend made her heart sink back down again.
“Nothing as adventurous as Fiji,” he laughed. “I spent most of my time in the gym and at home. I also went to the beach a lot. But I have someone you need to meet. Her name’s Brittany. She’s a year older than you and we started going out last year a little while after the hockey season ended.” She forced her expression into fake delight, pulling her lips which wanted to slide into a frown up into a tight smile that made her face hurt.
“She sounds wonderful, I can’t wait to meet her, I’m so happy for you.” She almost gagged at her own words.
“Thanks Ray,” he said smiling down at her, obviously not having detected her fake compliments. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tuukka watching her with an amused look on his face knowing everything she had just told Milan was a lie. He pulled her into another big teddy bear hug. She heard her father’s voice from the other side of the rink.
“I’m starting practice boys; I want everyone out on the ice.” He let go of her and she looked up to see the remainder of the team leaving the locker room and getting onto the ice.
“I’ll talk to you after practice.” said Milan smiling warmly at her before turning away to talk to Shawn Thornton as they walked towards the door to go on the ice.
She figured she should get her skates on so she could help her dad with the first practice of the season. She saw her father and the assistant coaches walk out onto the ice to talk with the team. She sat down on the bleachers to pull her skates on and tie them up when she heard an excited squeal coming from her right. She looked up to see a little 4-year-old girl running towards her. Her short arms were outstretched toward her, she had huge grin on her face, her light blue eyes sparkling with joy. Her long straight brown hair bouncing behind her. Raina recognized the little girl as Doug Houda’s daughter Shelly. During hockey season and sometimes out of season Raina would baby-sit Shelly for Doug if he was busy. Raina smiled and let the small girl jump up onto her lap. She squirmed with delight and said in her small voice
“Raina, I so excited to see you!” The little girl embraced Raina around her waist and buried her face Into Raina’s black Northface jacket.
“I’m excited to see you to Shelly.” She hugged the small girl back. Shelly hopped down off her lap and began talking extremely fast and cheerfully about her summer. She was going so fast Raina couldn’t understand a thing coming from her mouth. She just nodded and acted as if she understood as she bent over to tie her skates up. She was working on getting her second skate tied when she heard a woman sit down next to her. She looked up to see Doug’s wife smiling at her. Sitting next to her was Doug’s other two children Toni and Kris. Both kids played hockey after being around their dad’s job from the moment he was born. Kris was eight-years-old, and sometimes she’d watch him with Shelly but he was usually out with friends when she came over to baby-sit. Toni was twelve-years-old. She was very shy and like Kris, she was usually sleeping over a friend’s house when Raina baby-sat Shelly. Shelly had been named after her mother whose name was the same except she spelled it as Shelley. After saying hi to Toni and Kris they ran off with their little sister to go run around in the vacant lobby which was only open for kid’s hockey games.
“How was your summer Raina?” Shelley served as a second mother figure for Raina.
“I went to Fiji, it was pretty fun, also looked at a lot of colleges in the Boston area.” Shelley frowned and said
“Your mother still pushing you to go to that place in California?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” Raina’s mother Karen had been pushing Raina into attending a high class exclusive college in Los Angeles for law. Law was something Raina had always been interested in and she wanted to go to college for it but she wanted to stay in Boston which her mother hated. She had been constantly forcing the idea upon Raina to go but she kept refusing. She wasn’t traveling across the U.S. away from her favorite hockey team, and friends no matter how good the school was.
“Sorry to hear, I’m sure she’ll see eventually that it’s in your best interest to remain in Boston.” Raina doubted it, if her mother had an idea she didn’t give up on it until she was satisfied. She had always thought Katryna as the favorite child. Her parents hadn’t pushed her into going to college at all. Maybe they saw her as the child to show off in front of the cameras and spoil while they sent her to college to be the child they expected everything from.
“Ya hopefully.” She finished tying up her skates.
“I’ll see you later Shelley, I have to go help my dad.”
“Alright have fun, I have to keep my eye on the munchkins.” She said laughing. She got up and headed towards the lobby where the kids excited screaming and laughing could be heard.
Her dad was still talking to the team and as she skated closer she heard him say something about having a better year and really trying to make it the top this year. Last year they had come so close to winning the Stanley Cup, and had lost on one of the final games. Boston went into a shock for most of the summer, and people were still unable to cope with the fact that the Bruins had fallen so badly after having had made it so far. The team disperse. The team skated to the other side of the rink while the coaches threw out several pucks onto the ice in front of the net. Raina held a hockey stick in her own hands. Her job was to get the pucks out from the net using the stick and put them back in front of the net to keep the drills going. This lasted about 20 minutes before they started doing different things such as suicides, passes, etc. During that time Raina liked to skate around the edge of the rink. She did enjoy skating, and to stay out of the way she kept to the boards. The only time she wasn’t out on the ice was when they were doing scrimmages and were checking each other into the boards.
Instead of the goofing around which would sometimes ensue during a practice, every one of the players was completely concentrated on the practice. Before Raina knew it, the practice was over and the players were exiting the rink to go get undressed in the locker room. Milan skated over to her, wiping the sweat from his face with his large gloved hand.
“I’ll see you after practice; wait for me by my car.” I nodded and watched him get off the ice and disappear into the locker room.
I skated around by myself on the empty rink after everyone had left. I listened to the echoes in the rink that was off my own skate’s blades moving across the ice. After ten minutes had gone by I decided I should take my skates off and head outside to meet Milan and the rest of the team. Raina walked into a fenced in area that came off of the building. It was to keep the fans at bay until the players had gone out of the area in their cars to sign jerseys, pictures, and whatever else fans had. She walked up to his big silver pick up truck. It was the same car he’d had last year. Raina had her own car which was a black BMW but she had driven here with her father. She peeked inside the windows seeing nothing out of the ordinary until she looked at the cup holders. In the one closest to the passenger seat there was a plastic Starbucks latte cup inside. It was still halfway full. Milan never went to Starbucks; he always went to Dunkin Donuts. Like Raina herself, when he had first come to Boston, he discovered his love for Dunkin Donuts.
She leaned back against the car waiting. It hadn’t snowed yet, it was only the beginning of October, but it was fairly cold, and she could see her breath when she let out a large sigh. It was around 9:00 in the morning and hopefully it would get a bit warmer later on.
She heard the door open and looked over to see the team coming out. The parking lot erupted with loud talking, and laughter as the team talked about the long season ahead of them. She saw Doug Houda’s wife pull up in their SUV with all three of their kids sitting in the back. Doug was the first to leave and bid the team and other coach’s farewell. Her father remained with the other coaches discussing something that was no doubt also about the upcoming season. It was the only thing on everyone’s mind.
Suddenly, out of nowhere Milan, Tuukka, and Vlad were at her side. She smiled up at them feeling short next to such tall people. The majority of the players on the Bruins were tall. The only person she felt normal around was Vladimir who was the small height of 5’10”.
“Great job at practice today you guys.”
“Thanks,” said Milan. “Hey, Raina, I was wondering if you wanted to come back to my apartment to meet Brittany, go out to lunch, and just hang out.” As much as she wanted to say no she put on another fake smile and said
“Sure, let me just check with my dad.” She turned around to go find her dad amongst the crowd. She knew Tuukka and Vlad were following her. She felt a large hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Tuukka giving her a wild smile.
“What?” she said slightly irritated.
“You’re seriously going to go meet his girlfriend.” Vlad then spoke up.
“Cause we all know how you feel about Looch, everyone on the team does but Milan himself.” He said letting out a laugh. She gave them both a bitchy look and then turned back to go find her father. She heard them both laugh and then Vlad yelling from behind her.
“Well call us later and tell us how your little get together goes.” She heard Tuukka erupt into more deep laughter.
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I'd like at least five more subscribers or comments before I continue on. Thanks for reading :)
Sunday
Ristuccia Arena, Wilmington, MA
8:20 A.M.
Raina still stared up at him, standing there frozen. Finally she was able to find her voice and said
“Milan?” His grin widened when she said his name.
“Ya it’s me, come on up!” She climbed up on the bars on the side of the bleachers. Milan took her small hand in his large one which resembled that of a bears and helped her up and out of the opening. Now seeing him fully in the light, she noticed how he had changed even better. As she had noticed before, his face had developed a more manly touch to it, even with the shoulder pads and hockey gear on she could tell he’d gotten bigger, not taller but more broad, and muscular, and it was turning her on. He lunged forward and pulled her into a hug. She was being held face first into his jersey, and she felt herself get engulfed into his chest, and his giant arms wrapping around her. She felt his deep voice rumble in his chest as she heard him ask
“How was your summer?” She tried to reply but her answer was muffled by his jersey. He let her go out of the hug and then said
“What did you say?”
“It was great.” She felt herself beaming back at him, forgetting the worries of before. “My family took a trip to Fiji. We stayed there for the majority of the summer so I spent most of my time on the beach. What about you?” she already knew the answer and the idea that he had probably spent most of the summer curled up in Vancouver with his girlfriend made her heart sink back down again.
“Nothing as adventurous as Fiji,” he laughed. “I spent most of my time in the gym and at home. I also went to the beach a lot. But I have someone you need to meet. Her name’s Brittany. She’s a year older than you and we started going out last year a little while after the hockey season ended.” She forced her expression into fake delight, pulling her lips which wanted to slide into a frown up into a tight smile that made her face hurt.
“She sounds wonderful, I can’t wait to meet her, I’m so happy for you.” She almost gagged at her own words.
“Thanks Ray,” he said smiling down at her, obviously not having detected her fake compliments. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tuukka watching her with an amused look on his face knowing everything she had just told Milan was a lie. He pulled her into another big teddy bear hug. She heard her father’s voice from the other side of the rink.
“I’m starting practice boys; I want everyone out on the ice.” He let go of her and she looked up to see the remainder of the team leaving the locker room and getting onto the ice.
“I’ll talk to you after practice.” said Milan smiling warmly at her before turning away to talk to Shawn Thornton as they walked towards the door to go on the ice.
She figured she should get her skates on so she could help her dad with the first practice of the season. She saw her father and the assistant coaches walk out onto the ice to talk with the team. She sat down on the bleachers to pull her skates on and tie them up when she heard an excited squeal coming from her right. She looked up to see a little 4-year-old girl running towards her. Her short arms were outstretched toward her, she had huge grin on her face, her light blue eyes sparkling with joy. Her long straight brown hair bouncing behind her. Raina recognized the little girl as Doug Houda’s daughter Shelly. During hockey season and sometimes out of season Raina would baby-sit Shelly for Doug if he was busy. Raina smiled and let the small girl jump up onto her lap. She squirmed with delight and said in her small voice
“Raina, I so excited to see you!” The little girl embraced Raina around her waist and buried her face Into Raina’s black Northface jacket.
“I’m excited to see you to Shelly.” She hugged the small girl back. Shelly hopped down off her lap and began talking extremely fast and cheerfully about her summer. She was going so fast Raina couldn’t understand a thing coming from her mouth. She just nodded and acted as if she understood as she bent over to tie her skates up. She was working on getting her second skate tied when she heard a woman sit down next to her. She looked up to see Doug’s wife smiling at her. Sitting next to her was Doug’s other two children Toni and Kris. Both kids played hockey after being around their dad’s job from the moment he was born. Kris was eight-years-old, and sometimes she’d watch him with Shelly but he was usually out with friends when she came over to baby-sit. Toni was twelve-years-old. She was very shy and like Kris, she was usually sleeping over a friend’s house when Raina baby-sat Shelly. Shelly had been named after her mother whose name was the same except she spelled it as Shelley. After saying hi to Toni and Kris they ran off with their little sister to go run around in the vacant lobby which was only open for kid’s hockey games.
“How was your summer Raina?” Shelley served as a second mother figure for Raina.
“I went to Fiji, it was pretty fun, also looked at a lot of colleges in the Boston area.” Shelley frowned and said
“Your mother still pushing you to go to that place in California?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” Raina’s mother Karen had been pushing Raina into attending a high class exclusive college in Los Angeles for law. Law was something Raina had always been interested in and she wanted to go to college for it but she wanted to stay in Boston which her mother hated. She had been constantly forcing the idea upon Raina to go but she kept refusing. She wasn’t traveling across the U.S. away from her favorite hockey team, and friends no matter how good the school was.
“Sorry to hear, I’m sure she’ll see eventually that it’s in your best interest to remain in Boston.” Raina doubted it, if her mother had an idea she didn’t give up on it until she was satisfied. She had always thought Katryna as the favorite child. Her parents hadn’t pushed her into going to college at all. Maybe they saw her as the child to show off in front of the cameras and spoil while they sent her to college to be the child they expected everything from.
“Ya hopefully.” She finished tying up her skates.
“I’ll see you later Shelley, I have to go help my dad.”
“Alright have fun, I have to keep my eye on the munchkins.” She said laughing. She got up and headed towards the lobby where the kids excited screaming and laughing could be heard.
Her dad was still talking to the team and as she skated closer she heard him say something about having a better year and really trying to make it the top this year. Last year they had come so close to winning the Stanley Cup, and had lost on one of the final games. Boston went into a shock for most of the summer, and people were still unable to cope with the fact that the Bruins had fallen so badly after having had made it so far. The team disperse. The team skated to the other side of the rink while the coaches threw out several pucks onto the ice in front of the net. Raina held a hockey stick in her own hands. Her job was to get the pucks out from the net using the stick and put them back in front of the net to keep the drills going. This lasted about 20 minutes before they started doing different things such as suicides, passes, etc. During that time Raina liked to skate around the edge of the rink. She did enjoy skating, and to stay out of the way she kept to the boards. The only time she wasn’t out on the ice was when they were doing scrimmages and were checking each other into the boards.
Instead of the goofing around which would sometimes ensue during a practice, every one of the players was completely concentrated on the practice. Before Raina knew it, the practice was over and the players were exiting the rink to go get undressed in the locker room. Milan skated over to her, wiping the sweat from his face with his large gloved hand.
“I’ll see you after practice; wait for me by my car.” I nodded and watched him get off the ice and disappear into the locker room.
I skated around by myself on the empty rink after everyone had left. I listened to the echoes in the rink that was off my own skate’s blades moving across the ice. After ten minutes had gone by I decided I should take my skates off and head outside to meet Milan and the rest of the team. Raina walked into a fenced in area that came off of the building. It was to keep the fans at bay until the players had gone out of the area in their cars to sign jerseys, pictures, and whatever else fans had. She walked up to his big silver pick up truck. It was the same car he’d had last year. Raina had her own car which was a black BMW but she had driven here with her father. She peeked inside the windows seeing nothing out of the ordinary until she looked at the cup holders. In the one closest to the passenger seat there was a plastic Starbucks latte cup inside. It was still halfway full. Milan never went to Starbucks; he always went to Dunkin Donuts. Like Raina herself, when he had first come to Boston, he discovered his love for Dunkin Donuts.
She leaned back against the car waiting. It hadn’t snowed yet, it was only the beginning of October, but it was fairly cold, and she could see her breath when she let out a large sigh. It was around 9:00 in the morning and hopefully it would get a bit warmer later on.
She heard the door open and looked over to see the team coming out. The parking lot erupted with loud talking, and laughter as the team talked about the long season ahead of them. She saw Doug Houda’s wife pull up in their SUV with all three of their kids sitting in the back. Doug was the first to leave and bid the team and other coach’s farewell. Her father remained with the other coaches discussing something that was no doubt also about the upcoming season. It was the only thing on everyone’s mind.
Suddenly, out of nowhere Milan, Tuukka, and Vlad were at her side. She smiled up at them feeling short next to such tall people. The majority of the players on the Bruins were tall. The only person she felt normal around was Vladimir who was the small height of 5’10”.
“Great job at practice today you guys.”
“Thanks,” said Milan. “Hey, Raina, I was wondering if you wanted to come back to my apartment to meet Brittany, go out to lunch, and just hang out.” As much as she wanted to say no she put on another fake smile and said
“Sure, let me just check with my dad.” She turned around to go find her dad amongst the crowd. She knew Tuukka and Vlad were following her. She felt a large hand on her shoulder and turned around to see Tuukka giving her a wild smile.
“What?” she said slightly irritated.
“You’re seriously going to go meet his girlfriend.” Vlad then spoke up.
“Cause we all know how you feel about Looch, everyone on the team does but Milan himself.” He said letting out a laugh. She gave them both a bitchy look and then turned back to go find her father. She heard them both laugh and then Vlad yelling from behind her.
“Well call us later and tell us how your little get together goes.” She heard Tuukka erupt into more deep laughter.
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I'd like at least five more subscribers or comments before I continue on. Thanks for reading :)