The Next Year

Is there anything better than coming home? Ok so maybe this wasn’t my childhood home, but it is my husband’s childhood home and our summer retreat. I loved that word, husband. It’s only been a week since we got married and it’s been an odd one. You’d think we should be on a beach or something but oh no. Such is _not_ the life of a rookie NHL star. No he isn’t the new NHL star, I am.

We were coming home after spending our first week as newlywed in Pittsburgh, me at Development Camp and he was getting into the renovations we were having done to the house we bought. Turned out that it was a good thing he was getting into that and as it turned out packing the house we were living in. That house sold and we had to move into the new one before the renovations were done, hell before the construction was even begun.

Now that and the stress of getting up before the construction crew got there was over. It was now 5:25 p.m. and we’d been traveling for a little over 5 hours in the air. You’d think we’d be talking and planning out what we wanted to do first, but in truth we were trying to keep a low profile. I was reading and he was tuned out to his iPod. The captain came on the intercom and so I poked Sid, we were minutes away from landing.

A short time later we were making our way hand in hand through the terminal to baggage claim. We drew a few looks and comments but it wasn’t until we were waiting for our luggage that someone finally approached, a grandmotherly woman in fact. “Excuse me, I hate to bother you but you two make _such_ a lovely couple. It’s rare in this day that you see two young people so quietly in love.”

We both chuckled, a bit flustered, as we didn’t expect _this_ kind of attention. “Thank you ma’am. We agree it’s not who you spend time talking with that matters but who you can spend time in silence with that does.” Sid just smiled and nodded as I spoke, we’d spend plenty of time in the same room with the TV off, together but still doing our own thing.

She smiled and patted my hand. “That’s how you last. Not having to fill every second of every day with some sort of noise. Enjoy the peace; it breaks _far_ to easily.”

“Thank you. I see that our carousel is moving we should probably get in there and find our stuff.” She nodded and with another smile moved on. Sid looked at me awkwardly. “What? That could have gone a lot worse.” He nodded as if he knew I was right.

We scooted into a space and grabbed our bags, because of everything we had; we needed 2 carts to carry it all. Such is the life when you _both_ play hockey. We kept our heads down and as much of our gear bags hidden as possible, but just as we thought we were home free it happened. “I thought that was you.” It was a young man, about 8 years old.

Sid knelt down and quietly answered him. “Yeah it’s me, but you can’t tell anyone. We’re trying to get out of here without too much fuss.” He took the sharpie I handed him and signed the kids’ jersey. “You think you can keep this a secret?” The young man looked at him oddly so I jumped in.

“We’re running late today and have people waiting on us. Do you have a camera? I can take a picture if you want.” He thrust a camera phone at me; I knew that would work. I figured out the camera quickly and took a couple shots of the two of them. As I handed it back, the young man handed it to Sid who handed me the sharpie. I looked at Sid for a minute then asked. “Which one?” I meant which name do I sign.

“Either one. Up to you.” He replied which just made me smile. We were trying to keep our marriage on the down low but I just couldn’t pass on the opportunity to sign my new name. Sid took a couple pictures of me and the young man then and he was placated enough to keep quiet and let us leave in peace. We chuckled as we left the building. “Did we just bribe him with autographs and pictures?”

“Yep, and it worked. There’s Dad.” I said as Troy came up in the Range Rover. Dad got out to help but we already had half of our gear loaded by the time he had so we just all hugged instead. “Hi Dad, thanks for grabbing us.”

“It’s no problem honey. Be glad it was me and not Taylor, she’s helping Mom with dinner.” We hopped back in the car and started the 25-minute trip to their house. It was tradition that we’d have dinner with them the first night back. It had served us well over the years.

We had just seen Dad a week ago so while there was news we wanted to have all the questions answered at once. “Dad did you get up to the house in the last week?”

Troy waved a hand. “Yeah we got up there, everything is set for you two. You’ll see for yourself soon enough, but of course dinner first.” Troy said as he drove. We lapsed into chitchat for the rest of the way to their place.

Instead of going into the house and transferring our gear later, we did it when we got there. Once the transfer was done we went inside and got tackled by Taylor. She nearly squealed as she hugged us. “I’m so happy you’re home!” She was always so enthusiastic when she saw us; it was a great thing and something I know Sid always loved.

Once I was done getting mobbed I went into the kitchen to see if I could help. “Mom, how can I help?” I said tentatively as I came in. We still had to talk about what happened during planning the wedding, but I knew that it wouldn’t happen tonight.

Trina turned and saw me. “Oh sweetie, you don’t have to help not after all that travel.” I went further into the kitchen with a lighter heart. “That’s why I have Taylor.” That also seemed to be when she noticed Taylor wasn’t in here anymore. “Darn that girl. Well if you’re going to insist, finish the salad she was supposed to would you?”

I smiled mentally praising Taylor. “No problem mom.” I set to work after washing my hands. We worked in silence until everything was done and dinner was ready. I even helped bring it all out. “Looks great mom.”

She laid a kiss on my temple lightly. “Thank you, especially for the help.” Grace was said and dinner was begun. Trina was a good cook so dinner was lovely. Midway through the meal Sid knocked my knee under the table and when I looked at him, he nodded his chin. “So we had an interesting week.”

Trina had just swallowed. “You aren’t pregnant are you?” She asked hurriedly.

Sid coughed as he swallowed. I helped him and answered. “No, we aren’t pregnant. I found out the real reason they wanted me at Dev. Camp.” That got Troy and Taylor’s attention. Utensils got set down and I had their full attention. “It turns out they wanted to make sure I knew how to workout properly and get a baseline for what they could expect in September. Not to mention get me into some of the proper colors. Didn’t hurt that Jeff came by and I got to work more on the women’s line.”

Taylor giggled and Troy sighed and looked at me. “You’ve lived all your life around hockey guys, have played for years and they wanted to make sure you knew how to work out during the off season?” He shook his head.

Sid sighed. “It’s really a practical thing. I talked to Chris and Dana too; they just wanted to look out for her. To find out how she wanted them to treat her, if she wanted to be in the room or somewhere else.” I shook my head. “She is a role model for how other clubs might treat other ladies in time.”

“I’m a role model for more than just that. Guess it’s a good thing I’m so boring.” Everyone at the table laughed, it wasn’t that I was boring, I just had always been cautious about what I did and around whom.

“You aren’t boring at all. I’m boring, what did I do most of the week? Check on the new house; pack what I could and workout. Talk about boring.” Sid laughed. “At least you got out of the house further than I did.” He told them all about how the renovations were going, which wasn’t a lot of progress. “Then on top of all that we found out on Wednesday that we had to be out of the current house by the end of July as it had been sold.”

That got them all sitting up and asking all sorts of questions. “Don’t worry we got moved. I cheated and asked the team for help. They turned into a team building exercise. We even got to trade players between the teams to help simulate what it’s really like. It was a lot of fun.” Only Sid could think that moving was fun…

By unspoken consensus Sid, Troy and Taylor did the dishes. Trina and I went with them to continue the conversation. “Isn’t that overstepping your authority Sid?” Mom asked a bit worried.

Sid laughed again. “No mom they were happy to help. Billy said they were looking for something different to put the guys through. If helping to move someone isn’t different than a normal camp I don’t know what would be. They even helped us get our living room set up before they went out for their team reward of paintball.”

After dishes were done we moved into the living room. Trina summed up. “So you found out that this was a way for the team to make sure you’d be ok with your workouts this summer and ended up moving _before_ your renovations are done. Sounds like a hectic week. I hope you guys had a chance to relax after all that.”

We chuckled. “Yes and no. We were busy making sure everything was transferred to the new house and that we got it set up the way we wanted where we could. Hopefully we’ll be able to finish up when we get back there.” They had concerns for the safety of our belongings while we weren’t there but we had that handled. My folks and Cookie were going to go by and check on things as they could.

Soon enough we were beginning to droop and still had a 45-minute drive home. On our way out the door, Trina reminded us that the family barbeque would be here on Wednesday. We both successfully suppressed groans. I was hoping for a bit more time before I was subjected to the rest of the family. Sid promised that we would be here and we started on our way home.

Tonight had been for family although there was a good chance that Sid would be calling his friends tomorrow. In fact he wondered aloud who might be around as we drove. “You think the guys would be ok to come over tomorrow? I mean I know it’s short notice.”

I laid a hand on his on the consol. “It’s you and they don’t see you a lot. I think if you call they’ll come running. Don’t worry about me, I can find things to do to leave you guys alone. I mean it has been almost 2 years since I’ve been at the house. I’m sure _some_ things have changed.”

Sid sighed a little. “You’re probably right and not much. It’s _our_ home now so we can talk about changing some things if you want.” This was a big deal, that he would let me change anything proves how much he trusted me.

“We’ll see, right now I just want to get there and chill until bedtime.” He warmly chuckled a little bit. “Hey we’ve been going nonstop for months, I think we’ve earned a night off.”

“Ok you have me there, we have been really busy lately.” He seemed to drift off into his own little world for a few moments which didn’t bother me at all, I watched the scenery go by. “What do you think about having the guys and their families over on Friday for a get together?” He asked quietly a few minutes later.

I didn’t know his friends very well; most of them thought I was someone who wouldn’t last, mostly because I wasn’t glued to his side all the time. “Do you think that Marchy would come up if we invited him? If only so I had someone to talk to who _didn’t_ think I was after your money.” I looked over and saw the look on his face of utter shock. “You didn’t think that the conversation that Matt and Dave had with me a couple years ago was a pleasant one did you?” That had been a decidedly unpleasant conversation where they had accused me of only being with Sid for his fame and money. I had even cried all over again when I told Sid about it later that night.

Sid was quiet as we turned onto the road home. I didn’t bother him even when we pulled into the garage. We even unloaded the car in silence. Our gear bags went downstairs to get unpacked and set to keep dry. Then the rest went upstairs into the Master Bedroom. I set my stuff down and was gathered in to him from behind. I leaned into his broad chest and sighed. “I’m sorry. I forgot that they did that to you. If you want Marchy here then we’ll invite him. If you want I’ll talk to them. You’ve never been after my money, always been more concerned with how I was coping with everything and given me a sounding board when I needed that. They don’t know you like I do, give them another chance please.”

I laid my head back on his shoulder. “I’ll happily give them another chance. Thank you for letting Marchy come over, I know he’s not your favorite opponent.”

Sid chuckled. “He isn’t so bad overall. You’re right he does know you and what you’re about, maybe that will help the guys understand that you’re wonderful for me.” He turned me around and looked at me. “We’re gonna be amazing this year. You and me against the world.”

I chuckled and unwrapped him from around me. We went over to bed and got ready for bed. Once cocooned inside all wrapped up in each other’s arms I sighed happily. “Babe it’s always gonna be you and me against the world and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”