Gonna Steal Your Heart Away

Claude decided to accompany Brayden and Olivia to the briere house for the day. The twenty-four-year-old never liked to do things alone, so he exchanged his workout in the flyer's gym for Danny's home gym and running around with the three young briere boys.

Caelan, Carson, and Cameron - Danny's three children - really looked up to Claude, as odd as that sounded. Claude used to live with them, two hockey seasons ago, the same way their teammate Sean lived there currently.

"I'm nervous," Olivia mumbled when the three friends were in Claude's car, driving to Danny's. Claude was behind the wheel and Brayden was in the passenger's seat after, when back at the boys' apartment building, he had basically ran to the car, singing something about riding shotgun and acting like he was six years old. This left Olivia to all by her lonesome in the backseat, but Brayden kept turning around to her to keep her in the conversation.

"Nervous?" Brayden questioned, perking up his right eyebrow Ina confused manner. "What for?"

"Meeting Danny briere's children," she stated in return as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. A small smirk could be seen on Claude's lips. Not because of the girl's nerves, but he found it humorous that she referred to all of the players by their first and last name. He knew she was a fan before she met them, but he did not know it was going to be a difficult transition from fan to friend. "It's like a big deal to get introduced to them, right?"

"No," Claude chuckled without moving his eyes from the road in front of him. "They are just kids, Liv, not celebrities." This was the first time any of Olivia's new hockey player friends had called her by her nickname. It made her a little less tense.

"They are celebrities to the Flyers fan world. Probably more so than the actual players," she replied nonchalantly. Both boys reacted in an outburst of mock offense. Brayden held his hand over his heart as if he has just been shot while looking at Olivia with misery in his eyes and Claude shook his head vigorously while repeating the word 'no' forever. Olivia could help but giggle at how child-like they were being. "Oh come on. All a fan has to do to meet you guys is hang around after a practice or go to your charity carnival or something. How many fans get to meet Danny briere's children?"

Brayden and Claude nodded in response, understanding where she was coming from. They could not deny how right the girl was. Danny tried his hardest to keep his boys out of the public eye. And his family had a few too many encounters with people just wanting to know them and use them for the publicity. So Danny stopped being so casual with who could be around his children.

"Well, there is no need to be nervous," Brayden reassured the girl sitting behind him. "Danny already approves of you, or he wouldn't have let you come along."

"He doesn't even know me. We talked a little bit at the pizza place last week, but that's it."

"He's got a good judge of character," Claude concluded as they pulled into Danny's driveway. This was true. After dealing with so many people that only wanted to be with him because of his fame and money, he learned to successfully differentiate between decent people and gold diggers.

Olivia climbed out of the car along with Claude and Brayden. The three of them had barely approached the house before the front door swung open and a young boy - who Olivia knew to be Danny's youngest son - ran in their direction, calling out to Claude.

"Hey, buddy," Claude greeted with a wide grin on his face. The ten-year-old boy flung himself into Claude's arms and Claude spun him in circles a couple times before placing his feet back on the ground. "Dude, you are getting heavy. You enjoyed spending the summer at you grandparents a bit too much?" Claude joked and playfully patted the small kid's stomach.

"Grandmom cooks so much better than dad," the boy blatantly stated, gaining a laugh from Claude, Brayden, and Olivia. This was the first time Danny's son noticed anyone besides Claude standing in the driveway. A smile appeared on his face when he saw Brayden, but a look of confusion quickly took over when his eyes landed on Olivia. "Who are you?" he asked in a surprisingly cheerful voice. Olivia had expected him to be defensive and protective because she was invading his territory, but he sounded excited to make a new friend. This caused Olivia to lighten up and relax a little bit.

"My name is Olivia, but you can call me Liv. What's your's?" she smiled and held her hand out to the boy who gratefully took it and gave it a small shake. He told her that his name was Cameron. "I'm a new friend of Brayden, Claude, and you're dad."

"It's very nice to meet you, Liv," Cameron beamed up at her and she couldn't help but let out a small giggle.

"You have quite the manners," Olivia commented and patted Cameron's head slightly.

"Yeah, that's different," Claude accused jokingly. "Not only did Grandma Briere fatten you up this summer, but she whipped you until you became polite too?"

"Not quite," Cameron answer, swaggered like he owned the universe over to Claude, gave him a punch in the arm and quickly ran back into the safety of his home.

*~*~*~*~*

Danny curtly greeted his two teammates and Olivia, quickly introduced Olivia to his two sons that she had not met outside - Caelan and Carson - and promptly exited the house with a promise to return later that night.

"Do you like hockey?" Carson, the middle of Danny's three sons, asked Olivia the second the front door shut after Danny's departure. Olivia glanced around at the five boys staring at her, waiting for an answer. Claude and Brayden knew how much Olivia loved the sport, but they were still curious to see how she handled the boys. Hope gleamed in the Briere boys' eyes and Olivia couldn't help but let a smile creep onto her face.

"If by that you mean, is hockey my religion?" she replied with a question of her own and smirking quite a bit. Confused expressions could be seen taking over the five boys. "Absolutely! There is nothing I love more."

"Do you want to play?" Cameron exclaimed, hopping around being unable to contain his excitement.

"Does she looks like she wants to play?" Claude sarcastically asked and put a firm hand on top of Cameron's head to keep him from bouncing out of control. "She's not at all dressed."

"Oh please," Olivia huffed and looked down at what she was wearing. She was still dressed in what she had worn to work. Sure, she was in sandals that wouldn't provide any traction for running around out on the driveway, and had on white pants that would be a pain in the ass to clean if she got them dirty, but she was not about to back down from a challenge. "I can bring a pretty awesome game, if I do say so myself."

And with that, any and all glimpses of nerves Olivia had on the car ride over had been completely diminished.

*~*~*~*~*

"She kept up with them all day, Danny. It's a bit ridiculous," Brayden told Danny when he returned home close to midnight. The older man couldn't help but laugh at the scene in front of him in his living room.

There was fort build from blanks and pillows and chairs in the living room as the large TV was showing the end of The Dark Knight. There was a sign hanging from one of the chairs that held up the blanks. The sign read: NO CLAUDES ALLOWED. The sight of Claude asleep on the couch behind the fort only made the situation more laughable.

Danny made his way around to the front of the fort to take a peek inside. Carson, Caelen, and Olivia were all lying - on their stomachs and facing the TV - in a row with the boys on either side Olivia. To top it off, Cameron was lying in Olivia's back with his face burrowed into the girl's shoulder blade. All four were peacefully asleep, looking too precious to bother.

"So she passed my sons' test?" Danny asked jokingly when he walked over to where Brayden was standing on the outskirts of the living room.

"With flying colors," he answered with the same smile that hadn't left his face all day long. Olivia was something else. She rolled with everything the Briere boys threw at her and she never seemed to get tired. "It got to the point where Claude thought she was doing so well on her own that he dragged me to go workout with him for like an hour and a half."

"You guys can spent the night if you want," Danny offered seeing as almost everyone in the house was already asleep. "Feel free to take Sean's room. I'm sure he won't mind."

"I would, but Liv has class in the morning so I need to get her back to her dorm. We should probably get going."