Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

The weeks had passed and training camp was about to start. September had begun and a crushing heat stuck in the city of Pittsburgh. The moving company had just finished putting the last boxes from Cole Harbour and Sidney's old house into the designated rooms and the vans pulled out of the drive way. I closed the doors behind them and the only noise left was the low hum of the AC. Sidney was at the Consol Energy Center working out and talking to the trainers hoping to finally get the contact clearance. He has pushed himself a lot and often complained about sore muscles but head aces had lessened significantly what gave him a large boost of confidence. Mario and Pascal Dupuis both had given me head ups about his pre game routines and I believed them a lot more that Colby.
It wasn't a secret that Colby knew Sidney very well because they were so close when Colby still was on the team but it was also common knowledge that Colby liked to joke. A lot. So it wasn't necessarily the truth that Sidney always slept in Super Man boxer shorts the night before a game (or as Colby had called it 'the S is for SuperSid not SuperMan') or that he only put green Heinz Ketchup over his Hello Kitty noodles.
Let's just say he had an amazing fantasy and always made me smile with his senseless mails, text messages or tweets.
Mentally I was ready to try being a Hockey wife in season. I only was a little anxious about how people would react when they found out about the baby. Tomorrow was the first team dinner. In our house. The last two days I had spent planning and preparing all kinds of food and drinks. Luckily the living room and kitchen were already furnished and the stuff for these rooms had arrived last weeks so it didn't look like too much of a chaos.
Most of the boxes held clothes and shoes so it shouldn't take too long to unpack. Glancing at the clock in the kitchen I realized that it was 2pm and I still had plenty of time until Sidney came home so I went into out large walk in closet and began unpacking. After 3 hours all boxes with clothes and shoes were unpacked and everything hung neatly in our closets. Another forty minutes later my shoes and accessories were in their own cabinet. I really loved Sidney for building a walk in shoe cabinet. Throughout the years of modeling too many pairs of high heels, ankle boots, sandals, pumps and flats had found their way into my house and I never realized how many pairs I had until I asked my former roommate Noloène to pack them and the part of the more fancy wear I had left in Paris to pack up later and ship to Pittsburgh. When Sidney saw all the boxes the day we picked them up at the Customs his eyes grew large and he immediately called Max to meet us there and help us get the stuff to the house.
Maxime had become a good friend of mine during the last weeks and I was really sad when we visited him last night for dinner and everything was packed in boxes, ready to be moved to Philadelphia. It wasn't nice to see a newly won friend leave the city but then again it was business and Philly was just a 5 hour drive away.
Shortly after I folded the last empty box I heard the front door open and steps in the hall.
"Viviane?" Sidney called.
"Coming!"
I grabbed the boxes and ran downstairs. The front door was wide open and he was no where in sight.
Placing the boxes onto the other I yelled "Where are you?"
"Kitchen"
I went there and found him in front of the freezer.
"Hey, I drove by the store and did the groceries already so we have more time to finish the house. There's still more in the trunk but let me carry the stuff inside and you can start putting it away. You have you own system I guess and I don't wanna mess with it plus you should not carry heavy stuff my book says."
Daddy of the year grinned like a Cheshirecat.
"Sure go ahead"
Minutes later bags over bags filled with candles, flowers, serviettes, meat and vegetables for the BBQ and daily stuff like milk, fruits, bread. He surprised me on a daily base how domesticated he was.
When I was done with putting everything away he already had started making couscous.
"Man if I had known you could cook I would've kept you around or hunted you down in Rimouski!" I joked jumping onto the counter next to him.
He looked at me and smirked. "But then you would never again fit into you size 0 pants"

"Hey I never was a zero. I'm better than that. Only shitty girls have to be that thin to be booked." I laughed and pinched the small muffin tops that formed over the shorts I was wearing.

"Yeah that is like the only fat you have at your body. Other than that you are just bones, muscles and skin."

"Says the athlete" I mocked taking a spoon and tried some of the couscous. "More salt." I ordered.

"Aren't we funny today? All I added so far is hot water. It will take some time. Now let's go do something. This needs some time to rest now so where to go on?" He wondered.

"I finished the walk-in's, so there still are the bathrooms except for the master bathroom, guestrooms, your office and the nursery. But after dinner. Momma and baby are starving."
Sidney nodded, wrapped two arms around my waist and pulled me off the counter. For dinner he cooked Tagliatelle con pesto. I was left with the awesome job to wash and cut some lettuce and mix a dressing. Since he had to watch what he ate and was super careful about what I ate because it could harm the unborn kid, we tried to do as much as we could on our own and didn’t buy dressings or sauces at the store but the ingredients and mixed it at home. After we finished dinner I put the dishes into the washer and followed Sid upstairs.
We started with Sidney’s office, put the jersey’s into the display cases, the trophies into the cabinets and the iMac onto his desk. After connecting the printer and putting a phone onto it we were mostly done with the room. The bathrooms were up next because we only had to put soap and towels into them plus a couple of flowers and other decorations.
Our house had 6 bedrooms, the master bedroom, the soon to be nursery, Sidney’s room, my room and two additional guest rooms. Luckily the 4 guestrooms were furnished already so we only locked the soon to be nursery because our mothers had already sent all kinds of cloth, toys, blankets… you name it.
We made the beds in the guest rooms, put sheets, blankets and fresh pillow cases on incase some guys had to stay over the next day.
When we were done with that Sidney went downstairs again and took care of his couscous. Seeing it was 10pm already I only took a quick shower and changed into an oversized tank.
Though I was only 13 weeks along and had gladly made it into the second trimester, I was showing quite a lot. My doctor blamed it on how thin I was before so it made a large contrast for me in the mirror but still I thought it was well above average.
I found Sidney in the kitchen chopping some last herbs and stirring them into the cous cous.
Sitting down on the kitchen island I watched him finishing his work and putting the bowl back into the fridge.
“Sidney?” I asked in my best ‘I’m-so-helpless’ voice.

He turned around with a raised eye brow “Don’t tell me you are hungry.” He said knowing me too well.

“Oh that and horny” I answered and giggled. This pregnancy was quite funny. Any symptoms the books named appeared on the exact date they were usual. The first day of the second trimester the morning sickness had vanished but for the past week or so which marked the first of the fourth month I was horny like a high school base ball team. Sidney found it was really amusing and made fun of me. Daily.

“Well I could make you a sandwich but other than that…” he giggled, grabbed some bread from a cabinet and began to prepare me another midnight snack. Absently he kept licking his lip or biting his tongue.

“Quit it!” I exclaimed after a while.
Sidney’s head shot up and he looked at me in confusion: “Not hungry anymore?”

“No stop teasing me. That’s unfair. These darn hormones. It’s all your fault. So stop teasing and make me food.”
He laughed and shook his head. “You are insane preggo. Walking around in a garter belt and just panties without a bra in Vegas is teasing but concentrating on making you food can hardly be considered as such. So… if that’s a tease you would mind if I told the guys to bring bathing suits so we use the pool. I mean it is really hot and all…”

“Ugh… go ahead. The beached whale will close the eyes pretend to not be there and not stare at all.”

“About that….” Sidney cut the sandwich in half and handed me a piece. “Would you mind if we told everyone tomorrow? I mean the wife’s will start gushing when they see you because you are glowing like a lamp and we might be able to hide the bump from guys like Max or Flower but the ladies or the dad’s… they will know as soon as they see you so why not tell everyone. That will make it easier.”

I understood his point and nodded: “Sure. Your monster baby just needs too much space and blows me up like a red balloon. I just hope they will like me and won’t think I’m a gold digger or something.”

“Babe… 3 inch can hardly be called a monster and believe me they will love you. We could tell them that you are a month less along.”

“Not gonna work. If anyone wants to see and ultrasound picture it will tell everything.”

“Fine then we will go with the ‘we were so in love and you stopped taking the pill because we wanted to start a family during the honeymoon anyways and found out shortly after the wedding because you were late.”

“That one sounds better. Well if we are so in love…” the hormones were taking the best of my brain again.

Sidney’s Point of View

Viviane sat on the kitchen counter with her long hair hanging down. The only light in the room came from the range hood. Her face glowed and though her shoulders hung and she looked exhausted she still was incredibly attractive. The forming bump now touched her legs a little when she sat and it just screamed touch me.
The hormones really were messing with her body and brain.
“Well if we are so in love…” she whispered, stretched out her arm and her fingers roamed my chest. Her eyes were filled with lust and just any guy would have taken advantage of her right on that spot.

“Vivy” I whispered back, softly grabbed her hand, stepped a little closer and pulled her into a hug. She fell into silence for a second before she hugged me back. We stayed like that for a while. Her forehead rested on my shoulder because she now was taller than me sitting on the counter. It was silent in the house and all I could hear was her breathing. With the time I felt it getting deeper and soon she was fast asleep. Carefully I picked her up and carried her upstairs into her room. After tucking her in I closed the blinds, killed the lights and gave her a small good night peck.

Viviane’s Point of View

I woke up around 8:30 hearing the front door close. Sidney rarely woke me up when he went to the rink because he said if I still slept when he got up I sure would need the sleep. After pulling a sweat pants over my bare legs I went into the kitchen, threw a banana, an apple, some kiwis and some ice cubes into the blender and made myself a smoothie. Just like every morning there was a note on the fridge.

“Good morning Viviane,
Good morning Baby,

I hope you slept well and I didn’t wake you up.
Today I will only hit the gym with some of the guys and have a 45 minute on ice unit plus an appointment with the trainers so cross all the fingers you have (Kiddo I know you have fingers already so better cross them for your daddy or you are grounded for a week). I shouldn’t be home later than 1pm.
Nat is going to come over around 11 to bring some wine to maybe you can switch on the wine coolers when you are up. Call if you need anything.
See you than
Sid”

I laughed and put the box into the drawer I collected them to put them into a scrap book for the baby one day. After finishing the smoothie I started putting blankets, flowers and candles onto the tables on the patio, cleaned the countertops around the barbecue and fished some leafs out of the water of the pool before watering some plants and put pillows onto the sun beds around the pool.
When I went back into the house it was 10:15 already so I jumped under the shower, quickly washing my hair. After rubbing them semi dry I trew them into a messy bun and changed into the dress I had picked out for tonight, though the guests weren’t supposed to arrive for another five hours.
I just had left the shoe cabinet with a pair of brown flip flops in my hands as it rang at the front door.
I sprinted downstairs and opened the door for Sidney’s other mother.

“Hey Nat, come in” I greeted her a little out of breath. She entered and smiled. “Good morning Viv. Wow this looks amazing.”

The Lemieux’ had seen the house only once when there were a bunch of workers in the house redoing large parts of it. They had just returned from a family trip so it was her first time to see the result. After giving her the grand tour we went to her car to get the wine. In the trunk she had several boxes and I made her promise to not say a word so Sidney and helped her carrying them inside.
Moving a 13 pound box hadn’t harmed anyone yet. Normally we used the large wine coolers in the kitchen for water and juice only because I couldn’t drink any and Sidney found it odd to drink alone so it was the first time they were stocked.
Then we started to prepare the meat and some salads for tonight. I handed Nat an apron and tried to tie my own one.

“Merde” I swore under my breath. “Nat could you maybe tie this for me? I can’t close it in the front anymore.”
Nathalie’s head shot up from the cucumber she was currently cutting. Her eyes darted from my face to my belly and back up before smiling genuinely. She stepped over and tied it for me. “How far along did you say were you?”
“13 weeks and we just made the 3 inch mark so it is growing like crazy and it is healthy.”
“Do you want to know what it is?”

“We haven’t talked about it yet. I don’t know… it would be nice to have it as a surprise but knowing it would make a lot of things easier so we’ll see and ask Sidney.”

“You know with all the girls it started slowly and the bump started to get massive in the end. But with Austin… he was showing a lot right from the beginning. So might be a boy… a little hockey player for daddy”

I looked at her a smiled “Might also be a girl… a little princess to spoil for daddy.”

Nat laughed: “You ever seen Sidney on skates he’s fast like a blizzard so I would be too surprised if his swimmers are too and you know what people say about the speed of sperm and the gender of the baby.”

“Nat” I exclaimed and put one hand over my eyes and another one over my belly where I guessed the baby’s eyes were. “Don’t give us images like that. No one wants to think about…ugh….please.”

When we were about half way done we heard the front door open and steps on the marble in the hall.
“Hello Nat, good morning Viv” Sidney yelled as he took of his shoes and walked into the kitchen.

“Hello Sidney, your house really looks amazing. Don’t show that bathroom to Mario. He will flip when he sees that tub and fireplace and redo it on the spot.” Nathalie greeted him. Sidney laughed.

“We’ll try. Looks delicious. Anything I can do?” he wondered.

“Well the guys will be here in about two hours so why don’t you check the grill?” I suggested.

After a while we were done and Nathalie went home again. The family thought it should be an evening for the team so Mario stayed out. It was only the team and their significant others.

Shortly after two the bell went of again and told us that Marc-André, Veronique and Maxime were here. Max’ flight to Philapelphia was scheduled for this evening and he found it odd to be a part of the team barbecue not being a part of the new roster anymore. Yesterday we had decided that because they were the guys that knew about us the most they should be the first ones to find out about the baby so we had asked them over early. After telling them Marc-André and Vero would bring Max to the airport.
Looking one last time at Sidney he gave me an encouraging smile, I handed him my apron, shook the dress and walked towards the doors.