Keep Your Girl Out of My Shoe Cabinet, Your Wife

Days came and went and with each day passing things got better. Soon Sidney was allowed to drive again and to intensify his light work out. His mood lightened with every day he was allowed to spend around the boys and when he came home after a game from the rink he would be the happiest.
The doctors were very happy with Viviane’s progress. She still was on a slight bed rest of about 6 hours during the day but the baby was developing perfectly and with only 6 weeks to go the cervix had gained some size and she was almost back to the average size.
This morning Pittsburgh had been blessed with a thick layer of snow and Viviane stood in the kitchen drying off a glass. Through the kitchen window she could see Evgeni jumping through the snow towards the house. She smiled at the sight, set the glass and towel down and walked to the front door. When she pulled the door open, Samantha raced outside to join the young Russian in his appreciation dance. The Labrador was spending some time with the couple while Sidney’s parents were enjoying a cruise through the Caribbean Sid, Taylor and Viviane had gotten the, for Christmas. Evgeni bent down to pet the ladies had and she licked his cheek. Loudly he laughed at the sensation of the rough tongue on his skin.

“Good morning Geno” Viviane yelled through the yard after watching the scene for a while. Evgeni stood up immediately and smiled at her.

“Morning Viviane” he greeted her and walked closer. The dog ran inside and disappeared.

Geno took off his expensive Italian snow covered leather dress shoes and hung his coat onto a halter.

“How are you? What brings you here?”

“Me good. I search Sidney.”

Viviane led him into the kitchen and offered him a tea. Slowly his frozen red nose and ears lost colour and started looking healthy again.

“Isn’t he at Consol? He isn’t home. He left early in the morning so I figured he was at practice.”

“No practice for me today. Won over Canada yesterday.”

“Right I’ve heard. Congrats on that. Didn’t have the time to watch the game though, sorry. You guys bet again or what?”

The Russian smiled widely. “YES. I get $100 from Sid, Staalsy, Flower, Nealer and Ash.”

“NICE… can I join you business? Sounds lucrative.”

Viviane and Evgeni shared a laughter before she handed him his tea. They talked a little longer about life and the latest pens gossip before he decided to hunt Flower down. Viviane watched him put his ruined shoes on again and dance to his car. Laughing she shook her head and closed the front door behind her.

“EY LAZY DOG. COME HERE… UNCLE GENO IS GONE.” She yelled through the house and soon heard the noise of paws on the hard wood floor. The lab lady rushed down the stairs and slid into a quick stop on the smooth floor.

“There you are Sammy… hungry?” Viviane reached for the chicken she had cooked for the dog and poured it into her bowl. Sam jumped around a little and her tail shook like crazy while her big brown eyes were focused on the food. As soon as Viviane stepped back she rushed towards it as if she had been starving for days.

“You have the same attitude towards food like you daddy huh?” Viviane joked and leaned against the counter.

“HEY… I take that personally.” An all familiar deep voice boomed from the entry area.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Viviane wondered and glanced to the microwave to check the time. Way too early for him to be home from the rink even with just his light workout.

“I own 50% of this place? The name plate says Crosby and same says my jersey so I guess I have a right to be here.” He joked and put his shoes away.

He walked into the kitchen, stepped over his eating dog and stopped right in front of wife placing one hand on each of her hips and pecked her on her lips lightly. She wrapped her arms around his giant torso and hid her face in the crook of his neck. His skin still was a little cold from the temperatures outside.

“Also I do have a papers that says that you are my wife so I take it as my right to kidnap you and hide you somewhere in a little hut in the woods.” Saying this he grabbed her, lifted her in bridal style and carried her towards the stairs.

“Sidney” she squealed. “Set me down.”

“Never” he held her only one arm for a second and smacked her butt. “You’re mine by law so let me do whatever I want.”

Viviane giggled and shut up. He carried her upstairs and set her down on the bed while grabbing a suitcase and putting all the things they needed into it. She laid in the bed with both hands on her belly and watched him pack.

“Are you serious? But we have all these things to do. You have practice and I have to go to the doctor. We can’t just up and leave. There also is this event we have to attend this weekend and you have a commercial to shoot on Monday. Have you learned your lines?”

Sidney let out a sigh, zipped up the luggage and wandered over the bed on his knees, sitting sown on her thighs.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We need a break from all this.” He gestured wildly.
“Dan gave me the week off. It’s not like I’ll play any time soon and he wants us to take some time off and report back to his office Tuesday morning. I talked to your doctor and she said that it’s okay to reschedule your appointment to Tuesday around noon and that you need a break as well. The commercial won’t be shot until next week because of some internal troubles at the filming company so relax. We just need some air to breath. In 6 weeks or less we will have a baby in this house. There won’t be many hours off sleep and more. It will be crazy. Let’s just take this week off to take a deep breath and gain some last energy before the real stress will start okay?”

“Sounds legit.” Viviane smiled and watched Sidney lean down to her swollen stomach.

“Come on kid, get up. We gotta get mommas giant ass into the car so we can go on vacation.”

“Hey… I don’t have a fat ass Mr. hugest-ass-in-the-nhl.”

“No, no kidding. It’s perfect now come on. Let’s go before the car is ice cold again.”
Sidney jumped up and extended both his hands to his wife. She gladly accepted them and stood up. He grabbed the suitcase and gave her some privacy to change.
After a little while she walked down the stairs, slipped into a pair of warm uggs and wrapped the thick winter jacket they recently had to buy because of the temperature drop around her and the baby.

Sidney stood by the door and smiled at her. He wrapped on arm around her back to catch her in case she would slip on the way to the car. Together they made it so the Range Rover and he turned the seat heater on the second she sat down on the passenger seat. On the way to the highway they drove through a Starbucks drive through and were perfectly decked out for the two hour drive. Nickelback were singing some song on the radio and the couple was engaged in a light conversation.

“Geno came over today. He was looking for you because you guys still owe him because of the world juniors.” Viviane told her husband while trying to catch street signs. She had no clue where they were going.

“Oh right. Flower send me a text saying that Geno walked into his house signing Russian songs and wearing some ridiculous sweater.” He laughed loudly and Sam barked on the backseat.

“I can imagine that… no he just came over dance a little in the snow… with your dog of course, had a tea and left that message.”

“Ah okay… yeah I was at Dan’s office in the morning and did some groceries for our trip.”

“Okay… THAT means no hotel.”

“You are correct. I figured a nice house in the middle of nowhere would do us more justice.”

“Sounds perfect to me. But tell me where…”

“All I tell you is Ohio.”

“Ohio?”

“Jup….” Sidney turned his gaze back on the road, put the gas pedal further down and sped over the highway singing some song in a low tune.

‘I can’t make it on my own
Because my heart is in Ohio’

“A) since when do you listen to the Hawthrone Heights and b) please let there be no mistress of you. I thought we wouldn’t have a honeymoon recap.” Viviane spat out suddenly.

“To a): it was on the radio this morning b) no of course not. Let’s talk about that later.”

With that being said, the conversation was over. Sid turned the music up and Viviane sunk into the seat sipping on her tea.

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After a while the Sidney passed a gate and steered the car through a rather small drive way just to park in front of a gorgeous house.

“Here we are.” He exclaimed, jumped out of the car and walked around it to pull the passenger door open.

“And where exactly is here?” Viviane asked and pulled and eyebrow up while letting Sam out of the car who excitedly ran into the snow that covered the property.

“Somewhere in Ohio. The next real place is about 20 minutes away from here so let’s leave it with somewhere in Ohio.”

“Okay…”

Sidney got the suitcase from the trunk and led Viviane to the porch. Samantha already sat in front of the door and looked at Sidney with greatest faithfulness. He laughed and caressed her head a little before unlocking the door and leading both of his girls into the house.

Viviane took some steps into the building but hesitated to take it all in.

“Wow… this is one giant hut…” she laughed. Sidney blushed a little and said:
“Why don’t you take your coat off and stretch your muscles while I get the groceries from the trunk.”

Some time later he appeared back in the door and smiled at his wife before setting the bags onto the counter of the kitchen.

“Now before we unpack let me show you this little place.” He walked over to her, grabbed her hands and led her through the house.

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“This place is so amazing.” Viviane said and turned around to face him.

The day had turned to night, Samantha was curled up in front of the fireplace letting out a satisfied huff every now and then. Sidney and Viviane laid in the two couches they had pushed together and watched the snow flakes dance in the dark night.

“It indeed is… that’s why I wanted to ask you something…” He looked down on his hand that laid on the bump.

“Sure what’s the matter?”

“I thought about buying this place… it’s so amazing…”

“Sidney why would you wanna buy this place? We have a perfect house in Pittsburgh. It’s a 90 minute drive… an amazing house isn’t worth all this hectic and driving. It’s in the middle of no where. None of your team mates and friends would ever come over….”

“Sh…. Calm down Vivy.” He tried to appease her and rubbed her side lightly. “I didn’t mean as a place to live. More like a place to get away. It’s rather close to Pittsburgh but to me it feels like we are somewhere in the woods back home. It was all the comfort a hotel offers and it’s big enough so we can take our families or friends here. Our kids can have their own rooms here and…”

“wowowowow WOW did you just say kidS? You know that there is just one replica of yours in here? We aren’t getting twins. Kid that is. Only one okay?”

Sidney let out a frustrated sigh and stood up. Viviane sat on the couch in shock and watched him pace through the living room. What had she done wrong?
Sam lifted one ear and eyed Sidney up and down not appreciating his behaviour. He sat down by the fireplace and rested his forehead in his palms.

“Do you not want to understand it or do you really don’t get what I was trying to signalize you in the last weeks?” he muttered in a low voice.

Viviane just shook her head utterly confused.

“We may not have started this off on the right base and I have said things and done things I wish I could take back. Right after my parents told me they wanted me to marry you I called Pat to ask him how soon I could get a divorce without looking like the bad guy. I swear that date is circled in my calendar in my house back home but Viviane in the last months I realized that I can’t do this. I can’t leave you and our kid alone. We bought a house together and got through all the adversity. Viviane I don’t care if you hated me and I’d turn the world upside down for you if you still do but believe me I don’t plan on filing divorce the day our little trouble maker turns 2. I can’t do that. I’m in this for the long run Viviane. Either you file divorce or you have to deal with it. You are my family now and I know how hard it is to be an only child and I don’t want to have and only child. You were my best friend since my second day in kindergarten. Now you are my baby’s mother and want you to be my babies’ mother. I could care less about other women, trust me because you are the only one now. I’m not saying I love you but I’m saying that I don’t want to come home to anyone but you.”

He lifted his head and looked straight into her eyes.