Don't Let These Boots Fool You

Today was the first day I would be stepping into Flyers territory, on top of all of that I was having to face the guys when they showed up to play the Flyers. I rolled over hoping to see Danny and snag a ride from him to work. I was still unfamiliar with the territory and figured that since I had a guide I should use it. Instead of finding Danny lying on his pillow, I saw empty space. That was odd, he had woken after me both times I’d stayed and now he was just gone as if I didn’t matter as much as he said I did.

I rolled off the bed and stood up letting his wooden floors smack against the bottoms of my feet as I jogged downstairs hoping to find him. I figured he might be in a different room, but I needed some juice before I could actually function and get to work. I opened his huge fridge and found a piece of paper attached to the bottle of juice. I found Danny’s scrawl written there. I was glad I had found something because I was starting to get worried.

I unfolded the paper and looked at his words reading them carefully, “Sorry I left and I’m still trying to figure out why I put the note on the juice instead of on my pillow, maybe it’s because I know you’d come get juice before you really started to look for me but either way. I had to go up to the arena for an early practice, I should be home by about 10 and can take you back to get to work by 12. Don’t worry about my pre-game nap; I’ll still be able to take one. You need to have a little help getting to work since you don’t know the area, shower and be ready I’ll be honking the horn at 10 sharp.”

I smiled to myself knowing he had actually left me a note to say where he would be. He was a lot sweeter than what she gave him credit for. He was one of the nicest guys I had met and I wanted to know what I might have with him because the guys in Pittsburgh weren’t what I wanted in a guy, sure it seemed like it at the time but really they weren’t the type of guy I wanted. I walked back up to his room and into the bathroom ready for the warm water to wash over my body.

I went through the motions of my shower routine and into his room to search my duffle bag to find some clothes to put on for the office but could double for the game. I went back downstairs after getting dressed, and ready for the day to wait for Danny to honk outside. I looked around the room at the pictures that I hadn’t noticed in the days that I had been at the house. I saw pictures of Danny alone, Danny with his teammates, with his kids, his parents.

I smiled as I came to a picture of the boys and him in a picture on the ice. All of them skating circles around Danny. He was the perfect dad and it made me smile because he was such a great dad, I just wasn’t sure if I could be a good mother for his kids or good for him. I walked to the front door and sat on the porch looking at the nice houses surrounding me. I saw him pull into the drive and smiled, I wanted to try this whole idea of a thing with him.

“You going to get in?” he laughed through the rolled down window. Smile all over his face as he got out of the car and walked over to me. “You okay?” I looked up at him and smiled a little. I was okay but I didn’t know the degree of how okay I was yet. I pushed off the ground, followed him to his car, and got in the front seat. “I’m sure everything will be similar to Pittsburgh, minus the teammates.”

I laughed at that comment and felt a little more at ease than I did when we had first got in the car. I wanted normalcy, I always found normalcy in the middle of a secluded area that had no people, and I wouldn’t find normalcy here in Philadelphia. “I just want normal. That’s hard to do when all of the people getting close to you are famous people who have cameras shoved in their faces.” I ducked my head and felt bad for what I had just told him because it wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

“You know we are just people who want normalcy too. You aren’t even in the spotlight and it’s hard for you, imagine what we go through. I’m not saying that what you go through on a daily basis isn’t hard but everyone’s life is difficult to them on different levels.” He smiled over at me as he pulled into the player’s parking lot. “Your new office awaits m’dear”

I slowly got out of the car just staring at the building hoping that if I just looked at it would go away. Maybe things wouldn’t be as bad as I made it out to be. I could like this job, maybe the guys wouldn’t come after me like they had in Pittsburgh, but then again the guys of Pittsburgh knew that I was hurting and wanted to rescue me. “Bye Danny, I’ll see you at the game.” I was pulled into a hug by him; his head was resting on the top of my head. I felt his lips on my cheek as I pulled away from him.

“There will be a ticket for you at will call. Be ready to face the guys, I’m sure they’ll hunt you down to see you.” He got back in his car and drove off, I’m sure it was so he could take his pre-game nap. I looked back at the building and braced myself for the questions that would start to ensue once I walked through the doors. I pushed the glass doors open and followed the directions that Danny had written down for me.

“God I hate these places now.” I muttered under my breath as I moved from the player’s entrance to the office area so I could get to work on their charity work for the year. I found my office filled with nothing but a computer, their schedule and my schedule on the desk and nothing else as I had specified. I wanted no remnants of my previous life and nothing to remind me of Pittsburgh.

I started to compare schedules with each team and tried to make sure I could be at both places for each event. I didn’t want to miss one event because I was at a different one altogether. I sighed and placed my head down on the desk, ready for the day to be over and see Danny. He would make my day better; he would know just how to make me smile. I sat back up, looked at the clock, and saw that it was almost game time. I scrambled to my feet and went running through the hallway trying to find the will call booth to get the tickets Danny left me.

The woman looked at me, “Name?” she glanced at me and made the face of recognition, “you’re Kelly aren’t you. Hi, I’m sally I know who you are. Here, Danny left these for you.” I looked at her a little skeptically and then down at the envelope and then at the bag with tissue paper. I nodded my head and turned to find the seat.

I moved the tissue paper to the side and saw a jersey with 48 stitched into the sleeve. I smiled knowing it was Danny’s jersey. I looked at the sections and seat number on the ticket and the numbers on the wall. I finally found my seat and realized right where he put me. I was in between the Flyers and the Penguins, right between both benches. I looked to the ice to see Danny skating around with a shit-eating grin on his face. “You suck,” I yelled loud enough for him to hear me over the noise. He stopped skating in small circles and looked back at me.

He smiled at me as he came to a stop in front of his bench. He pointed to the pass around my neck. “After the game?” I knew he wanted me to come down to the locker room and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It was risky business walking down to the locker room. I sat down in my seat and saw the penguins file out of the locker room and skate around on the ice. I got nervous to see them. They had helped me through some of the worst things I could have experienced in my life. I wanted to turn and run but I couldn’t because they would have noticed me when they skated on the ice. Damn Danny for leaving me this close to them, I knew it would be bad after the first puck was shot against the glass in my direction.

The guys all smiled at me as they shot pucks until one of them pressed it against the glass and I read what it said. The puck said that I was to be down in the family waiting room after the game. I laughed hoping that they would still treat me the same way that they had before everything had happened between us. I watched the minutes turn into hours and soon the last second had ticked by as the game ended. I forced myself to stand and move to the players’ lounge for the Penguins to see the guys and hopefully fix anything that had been left unsaid.