He Shoots, She Scores

Carrie could hear her phone ringing looking at the clock next to her bed reading 7am she was hoping it was an accident.
“Hello?” she says groggily into the phone
“Carrie I need you to come help me pick out an outfit for my date”
“No you don’t, it’s Tyler you don’t need me for that”
“Yes I do, it’s a first date”
“No its not”
“Carolyn”
“Lacey it’s 7am, I’m warm, I’m tired, I’m sounding like you, and it’s a dinner date! If you get dressed right now you will changed 3 times anyway!”
“Carrie I need you, we have to go shopping so I can get ready”
“Can it at least wait until like 11?”
“You really do sound like me, fine”
“Ok see you at 11 good bye”
Carrie rolled over again snuggling back into Nate “I hate her”
“No you don’t”
“At 7am I hate her”
“Yeah you do sound like Lacey today”
“Go back to sleep”
“Are you sure you’re my Carrie?”
“I’m sleeping next to you aren’t I?”
They slept for a little while longer before Carrie got up and got dressed
“I’m gonna move your bed into our room while you’re gone and my bed into your room. Anything else need to go?”
“Yes all of my clothes, and my entire bathroom full of stuff, are you sure you want all of that in your used to be personal space?”
“What’s mine is yours”
“Don’t move the bed, well I mean I want the memory foam yes but your back, Nate its heavy don’t move it by yourself”
“I’ll be fine”
“Nate”
“I’ll call Tyler”
“Ennis and Myers, and…”
“Carrie”
“Nate if I find out you touched a thing!”
“Fine and I’ll call Pat”
“Thank you. You don’t get it I freak out when hockey players get hurt, and more when it’s you, I can’t handle it, even if we were fighting at the time I was almost in tears, I think every injury will be life threatening! It could be as simple as a cut above the eye and I think it’s a skull fracture that will end a career, please be careful?”
“Ok baby, I’m sorry I scared you”
“Don’t let anyone touch my clothes, except you that’s what you can do you can move my clothes”
“Get going before Lacey freaks. Love you”
“Love you too” she gave him a quick kiss and headed out the door

With Lacey

Since 7am everything in her wardrobe had bed surveyed and deemed unusable she didn’t know what she wanted to wear but it certainly wasn’t anything she owned. Hearing Carrie’s horn she puts on her shoes and heads out the door.
“I have nothing to wear”
“Liar”
Lacey rolled her eyes as concentrated on the radio as Carrie drove to the mall. After an hour of looking and finding nothing Lacey was ready to give up. It was only their 3rd store but to Lacey it was starting to look like a wasted trip. She walked out of the store empty handed in a huff and stood in the middle of the corridor frustrated.
“Next store I’m just going to shop for you”
“I just want to go home and cancel the date, there is nothing here!”
“One more ok? I will find you something”
Lacey nodded and followed Carrie into the next store. In usual Carrie fashion she walked through the store quickly looking for something particular and nothing at all at the same time. Within a few minutes she grabbed a pair of pants off the rack checking the size and handing them to Lacey and 3 steps later grabbing a top and doing the same thing
“There go try it on and let’s leave”
“How do you do that?”
“Because I’m not shopping for me, it’s always 10 times easier to shop for someone else”
They spend a little more time walking around the stores before they head back to Lacey’s and Carrie heads home.

With Carrie
Carrie turns left down her street and hears a horn beep she smiles and waves in the direction of Patrick Kaleta and pulls into her drive way seeing Tyler’s truck still sitting there.
“Nate, I’m home”
“We’re upstairs”
She puts her purse and keys down pets Cash and heads up the stairs
“Hey, it looks great in here!” she says as Tyler and Nate finish making the guest bed where hers once sat “Where’s all my stuff?”
“Our room”
“You put my Sidney Crosby and Danny Briere plaques in our room? I don’t believe that for a second”
“No I did not that went into a surprise that you will see later. But right now come look at our room”
“Ok, first though I want to talk to you Mr. Ennis. Nate I’ll be there in a second” Nate takes his cue and leaves the room “Tyler”
“Carrie”
“Listen ok, Lacey is”
“She’s your best friend, yeah Carrie I know I’ve gotten this talk before and I have to admit your wrath was, well nothing”
“Tyler you did not let me talk.”
“Sorry”
“Lacey, isn’t the Lacey you already dated. She’s a broken different girl and for the record the only reason you did not see to any extent my wrath as you called it, is because of that girl so you should thank her cause if it was up to me you would be scared of coming within 500 feet of this house. But my issue right now is not with you and my main concern is Lacey, and you have one shot cause I seen what you did to her by walking away and I’m pretty sure you’re the only one that can fix it, but you have my word that if you don’t and you somehow break her heart again, the story of how you got a full set of dentures and a broken nose won’t involve a hockey game. Do I make myself clear?”
“I didn’t want to hurt her the first time”
“But you did and that’s the part that matters, but that’s accent history, not only have I seen you make her cry, and make her angry, I’ve also seen the smile you can put on her face and as long as that’s what you’re aiming for then we are in the clear. I like you Tyler, I think you’re a nice guy don’t make me regret that.”
“Trust me I don’t plan on letting her go ever again”
“Good, cause in reality I could make you cry and never touch you, last time she was my best friend, but we’ve been through a lot this year she’s no longer like a sister, she is my sister, and I will go to bat for that girl in a second if she asked”
“Carrie I get it, I really do and I am so glad she has you in her life, but you have to let me be there for her too”
“I can’t let her get hurt again Tyler, you didn’t see that you don’t know! You hurt her, you’ll never understand it, take your wildest dream make it come true and then rip it away just when you were starting to believe it. Then have it right there in your face constantly for months but you can’t have it, it kills you eats away. Her tough girl façade is a pebble hit from crumbling and if you dare throw another atomic bomb in there, just be careful with her please. And don’t be surprised if she’s not as open as she was before”
Tyler nodded “I promise you Carrie, you have nothing to worry about” Carrie looked at him skeptically “When I walked away from that girl my world crumbled I had no idea that in a months’ time I could go from independent to fully reliant. I can’t lose her again”
“Then friend to friend, you need to make her remember why she loves you and why she should trust you quickly. You better get going it’s been 45 minutes since I left her house I’m sure she’s about to call me freaking out and if she knows you’re here she’s going to think either you forgot about the date or that we are doing exactly what we are doing and I don’t want to be in trouble with her either so bye”
“Bye Carrie, and thanks” he gives her a quick hug and yells bye to Nate before walking down the stairs and out the door.
Carrie walks down the hall to her and Nate’s bedroom a weird concept for her to think of and hears the water running for the shower. She sits down quietly on the bed and turns the tv on its not long before the door opens and Nate comes out in just a towel
“Hi I thought you’d still be talking to Tyler”
“I am glad I’m not, married to a hockey player has its perks”
“You only like me for my body”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing!” Carrie protest as he disappears into the closet and emerges a few minutes later fully clothed “Oh sad day, hockey abs went bye-bye. In other news it looks great in here”
“Well if you think that’s good look at this” he says grabbing her hand and opening the closet doors all the way
“Whoa that’s a big closet” she says in amazement seeing all her clothes hung up on one side and Nate’s on the other in the walk in closet
“All those shirts you stole from me and you never looked at the closet in here?”
“I didn’t steal that many and no I always took them from the dresser”
“6”
“Huh?”
“You had six of my shirts”
“See not that many”
“Anyway, and on the other side of the room, on this side is my bathroom, and behind that door over there is yours”
“His and hers bathrooms? You did not do this today there’s no way so how long has this been done?”
“Oh since before I met you, I always figured it would be nice to have a finished master bedroom before you moved in, the closet was part of the renovation too”
“And now for where my hockey stuff is?” Carrie asks closing the door to her bathroom and looking at Nate
“Right this way”
They walk down the stairs and down into the basement and towards the door in the back.
“So I knew I was marrying a huge hockey fan also before I met you and maybe was saving this particular room, but probably should have showed you this forever ago but I think your sabres memorabilia just makes it better this way”
Opening the door Carrie gasps on one wall near the ceiling was a projector facing a completely blank wall all the others were now expertly decorated with Carrie’s plaques, hockey pucks hats pennants kids hockey stick clearly for show only and other random things she had collected throughout the years. In the corner was a fully padded mini sticks area
“Hockey room! This is awesome, now just go fix the CBA so I can watch 82 sabres games with Lacey on this beautiful thing”
“I can’t fix that, it’s not my job and you better be coming to some of those games. And in the mean time let’s watch some movies”
Carrie nodded sitting down on the overstuffed couch while Nate picked a movie

With Lacey
She was pacing the house refraining from calling Carrie, Carrie would make her less nervous Carrie would talk her out of saying to Tyler what she wanted to say. That she wanted to be friends at least for now cause she couldn’t handle dating right now, that she needed her space and time to think still. Taking a deep breath she walked out to her car getting in and driving to Tyler’s house a route she new well. She pulled up to the gate and called Tyler to let her in, within a few minutes she was in his driveway, with another deep breath she got out of the car and walked towards the door. For a moment after knocking on the door she thought maybe the dress pants and sweater Carrie picked out were too dressy, until Tyler opened the door in a suit and Lacey had to keep herself from melting into a puddle.
“Hi Lacey”
“Hi Tyler, where’s” she starts to ask, when she hears claws on hardwood “Max! You got so big! Oh my God is he wearing a bow tie collar? That’s the cutest thing I have ever seen what a gentleman”
Tyler ushers her in the door with an awkward smile “So dinner is uh almost done. If you uh want to have a seat in the living room, I will uh let you know when it’s done” Lacey gave him a smile and headed for his living room sitting down quietly.
She was petting max contently when she noticed an open scrap book on the table and instinctively started to look through, she was about halfway though when she seen a picture of Tyler who had to be maybe 13 at the time with some sort of bowl hair cut with another kid who’s hair had frosted tips. Lacey let out a laugh at the typical 90’s style of the picture
“My mother was here, apparently I’m a slob and I don’t learn from past bad haircuts. According to her anyway, I think it was her way of saying I needed a haircut and this is what I came up with. Better than the bowl right”
“Much better than the bowl” Lacey said looking back at the picture and laughing again
“Anyway, dinner is ready”
Lacey got up of the couch and followed Tyler into his dining room and she smiled seeing the candles on the table with a bouquet in the middle, the breaded chicken breasts, fresh green beans and roasted potatoes smelled amazing making her mouth water.
They sat down at the table and ate in silence. This was the most awkward time together they had ever had. Lacey looked up out of the corner of her eye and caught Tyler staring at her
“You ok Lacey?” she nodded and went back to staring at her plate “Are you sure you’re really quiet”
“Sorry, just hungry”
“So how have you been?”
“Fine, you?”
“Uh fine I guess. Um how’s school and work?”
“Oh you know as good as school and work can be”
They went back to silence and Lacey noticed she was staring at an empty plate, so she took a small sip from her glass of pop and focused on staring at that
“Are you sure you’re ok?”
“Yeah why?” She asks snapping her attention from her glass
“Well I have to say, this is probably the most boring date I’ve ever been on”
“Sorry I bore you maybe I should go”
Tyler sighed “Don’t do that, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant you’re so quiet and standoffish that’s just not like you”
“You know what we should do, we should go for a walk”
Tyler nodded realizing she wasn’t into talking about whatever was bothering her. He grabbed Max’s leash and met Lacey in the kitchen by the back door. They left and were walking silently as the sun dipped below the horizon and the air turned cooler.
“Remember the last time we did this?” Tyler asks laughing a little bit “I think we were about here when we fell into that puddle” This time he at least got a smile out of Lacey “Or the water war we had in my kitchen that almost made both of us late for a hockey game”
“Or when you were trying to learn volleyball and bounced the ball off the house and into your own face”
“I thought we agreed then we would never speak of that incident again. My nose sometimes still hurts by the way”
This time Lacey let out a laugh and the more they reminisced the more they both laughed and by the time they made it back to Tyler’s house they were both in tears from laughing. They collapsed on the couch still trying to stifle their latest fit of laughter when Lacey sighed
“I’m sorry”
“For what” Tyler asks confused
“For being boring earlier”
“Lacey like I said that was the wrong word, I don’t think you are boring at all”
“Tyler, I’m sorry just take the sorry”
“But I don’t understand why you are sorry”
“Because, this shouldn’t be this easy. Because there should be no way we can just say hey we’ve hated each other for the past few months but you know what let’s try it again and just be ok. This shouldn’t work”
“Shouldn’t or you don’t want it to”
“Neither, both I don’t know”
“Lacey I know I have not been the best guy in the world as of late and in the past I may have failed but I have loved you from the start”
Lacey got up from the couch pacing slightly “So this is it, we’re just back together and presto everything we said before doesn’t matter? You can just erase that and forgive how mean I was?”
“Yeah, I mean you weren’t that mean I was worse, and I understand if you don’t think you can forgive me. I should have never said the things I did to you especially at Carrie and Nate’s wedding that was just over the top all those things I said I didn’t mean a word of it. You are far from stuck up and you didn’t just always have fun and”
“Tyler, shut up, by the way since we are on the topic of that wedding I’m sorry I said I was glad we broke up. I wasn’t, I was a mess”
“Let’s just agree that was a bad wedding for us” Lacey nodded “The next one will be better”
“Next one? Who’s getting married” Tyler’s eyes widened in realization of what he’d just blurted out
“Oh no one important”
“Just tell me!”
“You didn’t get your invitation?” Lacey shook her head feeling slightly hurt this was the first she was hearing of any hockey player wedding “Hmm, what a shame. It will be a beautiful ceremony. The groom is a hockey player and the bride is a beautiful Buffalo native”
“Will you just tell me who it is, maybe my invitation got lost or is with Carrie”
“Oh the who is irrelevant, and your invitation don’t worry about that either”
“I’m really lost Tyler why don’t I have to worry about an invitation”
“Cause I’ll make sure its hand delivered”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Simple, I’ll send it from one knee” Lacey’s jaw dropped and her eyes started to water slightly “What did I say wrong?”
“Nothing, you said everything right that is the sweetest statement I have ever heard”
"Lacey, I couldn't mean something more than I mean this. One day I want you to be my one and only for the rest of my life, as long as you will take me. I let you go once and I will be damned if I lose you again." Tyler stood and took Lacey's hands in his. "I never thought I would feel this way but I know for a fact that I could never find someone that I love more than I love you. You’re my everything and I will show you that every day as long as I live."
Tyler looked into Lacey's eyes waiting for her to respond, she said nothing but a single tear rolled down her face as a small smile made its way across her face. Tyler cupped her face and wiped away the tear the made its way down to her lips. "I love you Lacey."

Before she had time to respond he pulled her in a kissed her softly but making sure to show her all the emotions he was feeling. And ever so slowly he pulled away placing a small kiss on her forehead. He pulled her close to him and held her to his chest, Lacey put her lips up to his ear and whispered ever so lightly, “I love you Tyler Foster Ennis, forever and always"
She stepped out of his embrace shaking her head and laughing to herself
“What?” he asked confused
“I came to this date today with the full intention of telling you I didn’t want to get back together. That I wanted to be friends and see where that goes, and yet I’m pretty sure you just proposed and even scarier is I’m pretty sure I basically said yes”
“Would you say yes?” he asked eyebrows raised
Lacey took a deep breath running her hand through her hair thinking long and hard “I don’t know” she said pacing the floor again, for a moment she stopped and was staring out the window when she turned to speak again Tyler was gone. She began pacing again confused by everything that had happened in the last half hour. Turning around her heart stopped as she almost bowled over Tyler.
She could already feel herself about to cry as he was there on one knee in front of her; in his hand was a small velvet box “Lacey, you are going to think I am insane but I’ve had this for a while. I know we only officially dated for a month but I knew the first time I met you I was going to marry you, so no, it doesn’t feel rushed or stupid. I was an idiot to ever let you go I already told you that and I swear this was not planned, not right now, not like this, but I can’t stand here and not know the answer. Lacey Elizabeth Johnson, will you marry this hockey obsessed Canadian who can’t live without you?”
“Tyler I, I can’t just go from one extreme to the other, this is too much too fast. I don’t even know your favorite color! I’ve never met your parents we dated a month God how can you ask me this right now?”
“I lived without you, and I refuse to do that again. Without you I’m not me I never knew someone could affect me like this. I never knew I could fall in love like this, it just doesn’t happen! Lacey I don’t care if we don’t get married for a year or 2 years, I just need to know you’ll marry me because I can’t lose you again I can’t take that chance and I need to know you want that too”
Lacey ran a shaky hand through her hair any hopes of her makeup looking nice were shot as the tears rolled down her face. She looked between his face and the box in his hand she could feel her heart racing and the argument in her head began one side telling her how terrible this was, that he left her and he could do it again, and the other side looking hopelessly at the man she loved asking a question she never thought she would hear. Taking a deep breath to steady herself she looked at him wiping away one last tear she opened her mouth “This is crazy, and I may regret it later” Tyler’s head hung and she took another breath “Tyler Ennis, crazy hockey obsessed Canadian, Yes I will marry you, but not for at least a year”
Tyler’s eyes shot up to meet hers with a grin the size of California on his face he opened the box and slid the simple gold band with the gorgeous diamond onto her finger “I love you”
“I can’t believe this” she says with a smile
“What? That I love you?”
“No, that I come over wanting to be friends and leave with a wedding to plan. I love you too by the way”
Lacey helped clean off the table and do the dinner dishes before deciding to leave
“I should go home and explain this to my dad, it should go over well, and by well I mean terribly”
“Want me to come with you?”
“No I have to make one other stop first”
“Carrie?” Lacey nodded “You mean to tell me you didn’t text her already?” he said with a laugh
“This is not something you text, and before you ask no you don’t have to go with me there either. I’m sure Nate will catch her when she inevitably passes out”
Tyler let out a laugh again and kisses her sweetly “I wish you could stay”
“You know I can’t I have to work tomorrow and I have school”
“I wish you would quit”
“I wish I could”
“Eventually?”
“I’ll think about it. I don’t think I could handle being home all the time, it drives Carrie nuts and she reads all day”
“Ok think about it, we have time to figure it all out anyway”
Lacey smiled kissed him again and pet max one last time before walking down the driveway to her car and pulling out, heading towards Carrie and Nate’s.

With Carrie
Their third movie for the night had just ended and Carrie got up stretching then grabbing the plates on the table
“Where are you going?” Nate asks looking for another movie
“To put these in the sink and pee if you must know. We need a bathroom down here having to go from the basement all the way upstairs is ridiculous hopefully it’s never an emergency pee!”
“I hear ya loud and clear there’s more than enough room down here to put a bathroom in”
“Thank you”
Carrie walked out of the room as Nate yelled a “you’re welcome” after her and up the stairs dropping the plates in the sink and headed towards the stairs. As she was coming back down she heard a knock on the door reaching the bottom she opens it to find Lacey
“Hi, its 11:30 which means your date either went bad and you’ve been driving around for 4 hours or your date went well and in that case why are you here”
“Carrie I need you to sit down when I say this”
“Okay?” Carrie walks towards the kitchen sitting in one of the bar stools
“Babe who was at the door? Oh hey Lacey what are you doing here?” Nate says entering the kitchen from the basement
“Hi Nate, so Carrie I, well I don’t even know how to tell you this but uh”
“Are you dying?”
“What? No!”
“Are you moving?”
“Carrie”
“Oh my God you’re not pregnant are you?”
“No! Oh my God no I’m engaged!”
“You’re WHAT!?” Carrie says standing abruptly “To who?”
“Did you really just ask that? Tyler ya know Enzo the person I had a date with tonight”
“And so you go from dating to hating each other to engaged? What happened to friends what happened to slowing things down, this seems a lot faster Lacey Elizabeth”
“Carrie will you chill out? We aren’t getting married for at least a year and I mean really I don’t see myself with anyone else 20 years down the road. I want to do this”
“Then congratulations” Carrie says with a smile giving her friend a hug and looking pointedly at a smirking Nate “You mister, why are you smirking?”
“I knew about that ring. Honestly I thought when everything fell apart he would have taken it back”
“You knew! And you didn’t tell me?”
“Carrie you can’t even keep her birthday present a secret from her, you would not be able to keep that a secret”
Carrie scoffed and narrowed her eyes at him. Lacey laughed but nodded agreeing with him and then sticking her hand out for Carrie to see her simple ring
“Oh it’s so pretty” Carrie says with a smile “We have so much stuff to plan! At least this time we get longer than a day to look at dresses, oh my goodness this is going to be so much harder than mine, we have to start from scratch for you; mine was half planned for me”
“Whoa calm down there, it’s so pretty and the whole dress shopping thing is about as much girly as I can handle from you in one sitting. Besides, I haven’t even told my dad yet, he’s going to be pissed. Then he will get over it and want grand children” she said shaking her head
“Well you better get home then good luck my friend” Carrie said with a laugh walking with Lacey to the door.
“Back to movies?” Nate asks after Lacey pulls out of the driveway
“No I think it’s time for bed I’m tired”
“Ok you go up, I’m going to take Cash out again”
Carrie nodded and headed up the stairs to their room changing into her pajamas and crawling in bed

With Lacey
She pulled up in front of her house it was a little after midnight, she was surprised to see lights still on and was hoping it was an accident. She got out of the car and headed towards the door unlocking it and stepping inside. Sitting on the 2 recliners were both of her parents and Lacey mentally cringed
“You’re home late” her mom says with a smile “How’s Tyler?”
“He’s good, we’re good I’m going to bed”
“What’s wrong?” her dad asks and Lacey shakes her head “You don’t ever talk that little when you come home and you never go right to bed, you always at least check the fridge”
“Ok fine, don’t kill me, or Tyler. He asked me to marry him and I said yes. Good night”
“He what?” her parents echoed at the same time her mom looking slightly amused but her dad’s face was a mix of disappointment and anger
“He proposed I said yes, we aren’t getting married for at least a year but I do love him, I really do and I want to marry him.”
“You are out of your mind” her dad says turning back to the tv and Lacey sighs
“Yeah I might be, but I’m never going to learn unless I mess up right? I don’t feel like I’m messing up this time, nothing about this is normal and I know that and marrying him will ensure that my life is never normal but I’m okay with that because I love him”
Her dad looked at her concern still evident in his face, her mom’s face matched his and Lacey could feel herself about to start a temper tantrum when her dad slowly began to smile
“This means grand kids right?”
Lacey shook her head with a smile “Ya know I told Carrie you would ask that” her dad response was to only laugh
“Okay let’s see the ring, have you set a date?” her mom asks practically snatching Lacey’s hand
“No, we are going to wait a while and just plan it slowly. I really am tired, and I am going to go to bed”
Both of her parents nodded and Lacey turned to walk up the stairs. Lying in her bed in the dark her mind began to wander, she could feel the ring foreign on her finger she was engaged to Tyler Ennis. Buffalo Sabres, Tyler Ennis who in her wildest dreams she never even thought she would meet. A smile spread across her face and within a few minutes she was asleep.