The Next Year

Thursday was a blur of activity getting ready for Friday’s party. We had made sure the deck was ready as well as the grill and such. Not to mention making sure we had the food we were supplying. Everyone was going to be bringing something to donate to the buffet we would be setting up. Right now we had several pounds of ribs marinating, along with burgers, hot dogs; the potatoes and macaroni ready for salad making tomorrow.

I was walking along our beach trying to think of something else we could do that was fun and not something we did every day. That’s when I tripped over a rock. Yeah I fell and scraped my knee doing so but I also found several more good-sized rocks. This gave me an idea on how we could have fun and be warm when night fell outside.

I hobbled back to the house and was patching myself up when Sid came back in from the Gym. “What happened babe?”

I grimaced as I cleaned my knee. “I tripped over a rock on the beach. We should have a fire pit so we can have a fire tomorrow night.” I saw his face turn into a grin.

“We already have one. It’s in the garage; I just hadn’t gotten it out yet. I have benches and tables in there too, not to mention the grill. I was going to pull them out today and set them up. If you get yourself into the Gym I’ll start pulling those out and we can set them up how we want them later.” He put the band-aid on my knee and gave it a kiss. “Good as new. Get along and we’ll get it all sorted out.”

I got gym pump on and worked out my frustrations from falling. After a shower I was feeling much better. I then joined Sid in the garage. “Wow! I had no idea we had this in here.” There were folding tables and benches, a couple of gliding benches and the fire pit.

Sid scoffed. “Why do you think I have a 3 car garage here? I needed somewhere to store this stuff where I knew it’d be safe. Let’s move the gliders out first. We can tuck those near the house.” It took both of us to move the gliders but they looked great tucked near the house under the eaves coming off the roof.

Sid brought out the fire pit and set it up on the deck at first. I thought it was odd cause we had _so_ much yet to do but I didn’t argue with it. Instead I got things on the inside ready for the invasion. The bedrooms were ready for guests just in case, the towels were easy to get to in case of swimming, even the sauna was ready and clean. In fact I had cleaned the entire house.

Sid came in as I was finishing getting the veggies and such I would need tomorrow ready. “Wow you’ve been busy. You know we have a cleaning company right?” I just stuck my tongue out at him as he laughed. “Okay, okay have it your way. What are we doing for dinner?” He snagged a carrot end as I worked.

“I dunno. I hadn’t thought about it.” I said as I finished grating the carrots and other veggies. “You have any ideas?”

He shrugged. “We could always go into town and find something, so the house will stay clean of course.” He was up to something; I could feel it.

“We could, but you aren’t doing it to keep the house clean.” He sighed, caught.

“I have a surprise for you that coming in to the airport in about 45 minutes. I know that you’re not gonna want to cook after you get it either. Go clean up and get ready and we’ll go.” He shooed me into our room while he finished putting the kitchen to rights.

I skipped into our room and my closet. If we were going out I wanted to look nice. I took out my jean skirt and laid it on the bed. How girly did I want to go? I decided very girly so I skipped back in and found my pink H & M V sleeveless v-neck top, pink ballet flats to match and of course the obligatory pink baseball cap. Once that was all laid out I went into the bathroom and fixed my hair so that it laid nicely at my neck and wouldn’t get into my face. Then I got dressed and put the few finishing touches on. Coming back out about 10 minutes later I found that the kitchen was indeed clean and Sid was waiting for me.

“Ready?” I nodded as he asked. He offered me his hand and we went into the garage. Once we were on the road he couldn’t resist teasing me. “I just know you’re gonna love your surprise. We’ve wanted to do this for years but the timing had never been right until this year.”

I laughed and rolled my eyes. “You just like teasing me. I can guess that it’s not Mari and Geno cause they’re in Russia now.” He snorted and nodded that I was right. “How long have I known this person?”

We pulled into the arrivals at the airport and noticed a lone guy sitting there that looked familiar. “Oh wow, I didn’t think he’d be out here already.” Sid pulled up near to the guy and rolled down my window. “Going our way?”

As the face turned to us, I gasped. It was Jack! “Well that depends. Is food somewhere in the plans? I’m starved.” He stood and hefted his luggage into the back of the car then joined it. “You’re right her face is just precious. Close your mouth Mal, the mosquitoes are coming closer.”

I glared at him for a second then closed my mouth. Sid smirked as we drove into town for dinner. “Of course, dinner is next on the agenda. I had to make sure she was on board with the idea before coming to get you.” From there the shock wore off and it was like we’d never really parted.

We went to one of Sid’s favorite places for dinner. The food was _so_ good. If we weren’t having our own barbeque the next day I would have gotten some to go too, it was that good.

Getting back to the house Jack was impressed. “This place looks great! Marriage really agrees with you two!” I set his stuff down in an unobtrusive corner while we showed him around. “Man this place is beautiful. Mal you’ve out done yourself.”

Sid and I both laughed. “I didn’t _do_ any of the decorating Jackie. If I had it would look a lot different than this. This screams professional to me.” Sid was just nodding. I wanted to make some changes, fewer knick-knacks for one. “It’s well done and I like most of it, there’s too much kitsch for me. I like a more streamlined vision.” We headed upstairs and showed off the bedrooms we had up there.

Jack chose the one at the top of the stairs for his stay, which I thought was a great choice. The other big room was right over ours and I didn’t really want to have to be quiet so we wouldn’t disturb him during the night. He grabbed his stuff and set inside the door of his chosen room.

We spent the rest of the night just relaxing and talking through how the morning was going to go. Rather I told the guys I didn’t want to change our routine too much and they agreed.

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Friday dawned crystal clear as I stepped outside for my run. The boys were in the kitchen making protein shakes before hitting the gym, I wasn’t a fan. I’d put the protein powder into things I would be drinking but I couldn’t stand the texture of the shake. I’d stick with flavored waters and such. It masked the taste _so_ much better in my opinion.

An hour later I returned and heard the music coming from the gym. Instead of joining them and ruining what might be a good workout, I grabbed a stick, my gloves and wrestled the net into position. Dumping out the road hockey pucks I began firing them at angles where only a portion of the net was open to me, mimicking the screening goalie.

I fired until my side was empty, gathered them up again and chose another angle. I was on my 4th round when I heard footsteps behind me. “You know Sid doesn’t like his gear messed with.” Oh joy, Matt was here. I fired a couple more pucks from where I was before answering.

“He won’t mind me firing as long as I put it away after. It’ll help for next year too I’m positive.” I fired a few more and heard a few more footsteps join him.

“Girlie put the stick down. Sid doesn’t like it when people mess with his stuff.” Here’s Dave right on cue as well. I sighed, stopped firing and turned to face the two who were the biggest opponents of Sid and I being together.

“Look, Sid isn’t going to care if I’m using the net and the pucks, he’s told me so. As for the gloves, they aren’t his and before you say anything; neither is the stick.” I showed the gloves that were obviously in Caps colors and the stick was clearly marked as well with _my name and number.

That’s when I had a young boy of about 8 run up to me with a big smile. “I know who you are. “You’re Mal from the Caps, my friend Brad didn’t like you at _all_ during the playoffs, Looch either.” That told me who this young man was.

“You must be Marchy’s girlfriend’s son. I’ll let you in on a secret.” I motioned him forward a little bit. “I didn’t like them much during the playoffs either, but outside of then Brad’s a nice guy.” He boy grinned and nodded his head.

“I heard that _and_ I’m telling Looch!” Marchy exclaimed as he and his lovely lady came up. I just laughed at him. “You look good, I thought for sure we’d find you hung over at least.”

I chuckled. “Nope, have more important things to do with my time than get drunk celebrating winning it all. Like prepping for the _next_ one.” No Cup hangover for me! Hell I wasn’t even getting my day with the Cup until September; it almost felt like they had forgotten me at first. Then I got a call from the Hall of Fame yesterday making sure I knew when my date was. I had no clue so I was happy to find out that they knew and were wondering what I was going to do with it.

Marchy just grinned as he ruffled the boy’s hair. “Don’t let her fool you, she’s one tough woman. Took a lot hits from Looch, Segs and even a slapper from Big Z during our round and she never stopped coming. I’m proud that she’s in the league and not taking anything from anyone. She makes us all better by doing so.”

Jack and Sid had come up the walk and both had grins on their faces. “She deserves every award she gets. God knows she works hard enough for them. Don’t know too many people who battle harder than Mal.” I could have kissed Jack for saying that.

Sid came over and checked out the angle I was firing from. “Isn’t this steep compared to normal?” He asked as casually as he could.

I just smiled. “I’m trying to replicate having hardly any room between the goalie and all the guys in front of him. Besides, I did get one past Timmy with less room.” I wasn’t trying to rub anything in, just stating a fact.

Marchy laughed. “Are you kidding me, not even _he_ understood how you got that past him until he saw the tape. You _just_ squeaked it in under his arm. It was a slick goal and a damned good one for a first NHL goal. Timmy was actually proud to be the guy who you got it past. Took a lot of heat in the room with how he handed it over too.”

I flushed and ducked my head as I turned back to face Marchy. I saw the look of absolute shock on Matt and Dave’s faces as they were listening to what we were saying. “I gotta say that was the classiest thing I’ve ever seen. He could have just gone to the trainers and done it that way but he didn’t. I know it probably made some guys mad but for me, it was one of the best things I could have had happen.”

Kyle, another one of Sid’s childhood friends (and one who was on the fence about me), spoke up. “Wait you aren’t Malakhov from the Caps are you? Man I thought the announcers were nuts when they said they had a woman on their team.”

I turned to him and nodded. “Yeah that’s me. I get my day with The Cup in early September. Half my plans for the day are already set; the other half I have to wait to make cause school isn’t in session. I’ll probably have a get together after the hospital in the evening. When isn’t set yet cause I don’t have the first part of the day planned yet.”

Kyle smiled and nodded. “And you’ve been Sid’s girl for _how_ long now?” I heard both Matt and Dave scoff at the question but I just grinned.

“We’ve dated for 8 years and have been married for _almost_ 2 weeks now.” Sid came up and put his hand around my waist as Matt and Dave coughed through their surprise.

“Best two weeks of my life so far. Babe do you know what you’re wearing to Flower and V’s wedding next week?” He looked at me.

I sighed. “You forgot that it’s this weekend didn’t you? And to answer your question, yes I have. I even know how I’m doing my hair so that I’m not overheating in July in Montreal.” Yep, I was reminding him how hot it was likely to be, hoping that I could talk him into something cooler.

“Oh crap. That’s, they’re gonna kill me if I’m not there.” I just simply nodded. “Did you remember this before or after we were ready for this tonight?”

“After, it hit me on my run this morning.” I heard Jack sniggle quietly. I debated flipping him off but there was a kid here so I didn’t. “You’re right too, they _will_ kill you if you aren’t there. Fortunately, I’ve already checked with the airline and hotel and we’re all set. So the real question now is do we put this get together off until next week or let them go on without us?” I left it up to him; I could work either way.

Sid sighed. Marchy jumped in on the conversation. “It’s not a big deal to push this off. Gives us all a chance to get things ready ourselves for what we want to bring instead of throwing something together last minute.” He glanced at Jack then at his girlfriend. “We can even entertain Jack for the weekend so he’s not bored and lonely.”

Jack laughed. “You _gotta_ go man. The last thing you want is your goalie mad at you.”

Sid let go of me and sighed. “I’ll go make the calls. You realize this will mean _more people right?” I shrugged, it didn’t matter to me, we’d deal. He looked at everyone and sighed. “Come on you guys can at least come in and see the place. Babe you gonna hit the gym?”

I nodded. “Yeah gotta get the second half done or else I’m gonna feel off all day.” I started to clean up what I had taken out when Sid stopped me. He took my gloves off and my stick. “Shouldn’t I?” He shook his head. “You’re gonna want to shoot some too.” He nodded. “Fine but I tried to clean up what I took out.” I got shooed into the gym.

Over an hour later I came out stinking to high heaven and _more_ than happy with the work I had put in. I came in to Sid, Brad and Jack sitting at the table chatting. I waved as I passed them and headed for the shower. Later I came out feeling refreshed and feeling good. I had most of my items picked for the weekend, but not packed.

I found out that Brad’s Girlfriend had to get her son to his dad for the weekend so he was stuck here unless we wanted to give him a ride. I didn’t mind that so we piled into the car, along with Jack’s stuff and went for a drive.

Marchy’s place was nice too, we ordered lunch and talked during eating. Soon enough Sid was getting antsy to get moving so we could pack so we thanks Marchy for lunch and promised that we’d get together next weekend.

We made our flight to Montreal easily that afternoon and got to our hotel before dinnertime. Sid texted Flower and I hit V’s phone up letting them know that we were here. We found out that several of the guys were in the same hotel and made plans to go out as a group for dinner. It was a fun night, one that promised a lot more fun for the next day.