Love Is Forever

Sidney had been gone on a three day road trip.

“babe I’m home.” Sidney called from downstairs.

“I’m up here.” I yelled. I continued to look in the mirror at my stomach wearing only my bra. I don’t know why, but whenever I was pregnant I would just stare at my stomach for long periods of time.

A few minutes later, I saw Sidney leaning up against the door way.

“Oh god your back to this?” Sidney asked laughing.

“I know, but I just can’t help it. It still amazes me that there is a little baby in there. I mean look at how big Sid and Brent are. They were in this stomach too, and now they are in school and talking and walking, before we know it they will be in college.” I said

“I know a little baby is in there.” He said walking over to me and putting his hands on my bare stomach. He just rubbed his hands on my baby bump. It always felt so soothing when Sidney did this, I felt so safe.

“I missed you so much.” I said to Sidney

“I missed you too.” He said giving me a small kiss.

“How was the road trip? Anything funny happen?” I asked. Sidney always had a funny story to tell me and I always couldn’t wait to hear them.

“Yeah Jordan started making out with some girl when we went out to a bar, but then the girls boyfriend showed up and he wanted to fight him.” he said laughing

“oh my god is he okay?!” I asked very nervously

“Oh yeah he is fine, the security stopped the guy before he did anything. It was really funny though.”

“What are we going to do with Jordan? Always making out with random girls, we need to find him a girlfriend.” I said laughing

“Yes or else he is going to get some random girl pregnant.” Sid said laughing

“Don’t say that, that would be awful!” I said playfully hitting Sidney

“Oh I love you so much Nicole.” Sidney whispered in my ear and then he kissed my neck. His hands were still on my stomach, and I started to lean up against his chest.

“I love you too.” I said. We stayed there for a little while, just being with each other, and having Sidney hold me in his arms, there was no place I would rather be.

“I have to go pick up the boys from school.” I said looking at the clock

“I’ll go with you.” Sidney said removing his hands from my stomach.

“It’s fine Sid you have a game tonight, you should take a nap.” I said walking over to the bed and grabbing the shirt off the bed and putting it on.

“No come on I will go.” He said grabbing my hand and kissing it. We walked down the stairs and he grabbed the keys and we headed out.

We pulled up to the school and I got out to help the boys to the car.

“daddy!!” Sidney jr. yelled running up to Sid and giving him a giant hug.

“Hey boys how are you doing?” Sid asked picking up Sidney jr. in one arm, and Brent in the other.

“I learned to count to ten today daddy!” Brent said smiling

“You did well let me hear.” Sid said smiling

“One…two….thrrreee….four…..five…..six….seven….eight….nine…ten!!!!” Brent said smiling. You could tell he felt very accomplished, because he puffed his chest out like he was a body builder.

“Good job Brent we are going to have to teach you to count all the way up to eight seven.” Sid said placing our two sons back on the ground.

“I think someone deserves pizza for dinner!” Sid said smiling.

“yes!!!” the boys yelled at the same time. Sid just looked at me and we both laughed.

We went home and the boys played a game with Sidney. After they finished the game, he went to take his pre game nap. I took the boys outside so that they could play.

After they played for a little while, Brent and Sidney Jr. came over and sat down next to me on the swinging chair. They each sat on one side of me and I pulled them into my body.

“Mommy why does daddy have to leave so much?” Brent asked. The minute those words left his lips, I felt a part of my heart break. I didn’t know what to say to that.

“well daddy has to leave for work.” I said

“but Eric’s daddy works, but he doesn’t leave all the time.” Brent said looking rather sad.

“Well daddy’s job makes him travel a lot, he needs to work so we can have all the things that we do.” I said, but part of me knew he wouldn’t understand.

“But why cant daddy work here?” he asked looking at me with his big brown eyes. His eyes were the exact same as Sidney’s. They were beautiful and brown and big and you could almost see the exact same passion and outlook on life that Sidney does just by looking into Brent’s eyes.

“Well daddy is in the NHL. They cant stay here if they are in the NHL.”I said. Boy this was going to be a lot harder to explain than I thought it would be.

“But why is daddy in the NHL?” he asked

“Well daddy is in the NHL because he loves hockey and he is good at it, and when you love something so much you make it your life.” I said

“But doesn’t daddy love me?” he asked and my heart broke into a million pieces.

“You know your daddy loves you, your dad does all of this for you, he does it so you can be whatever you want when you grow up. He does this so you can have an education and you can go to college. I do know one thing though, your daddy loves you more than anything.” I said and I gave him a small kiss.

“Brent I love you and your mommy and Sid more than anything else I have ever loved in my entire life.” Sid said and I jumped, I didn’t even know that he was standing there. I turned around, and there was Sidney standing over us. I smiled at him and he smiled at me. He picked up Sidney Jr. and sat down next to me, he put Sid on his lap and wrapped his arm around me.

“Brent can I tell you something?” Sidney asked. Brent nodded his head.

“Well I know you might not understand this until you are older, but when I was little all I thought about was making it to the NHL and being the best player I could ever be. But then I met your mom and we got married and we had you two boys, and I learned that being the best hockey player isn’t the most important thing in my life. Being there for you and your brother and your mom, and your sister on the way is. As long as I have all of you, I will be the happiest man alive.” He said and I felt the tears building up in my eyes. I looked at Sidney and he just smiled at me and I smiled back at him and leaned in and kissed him.

About and hour and half later I was cleaning up the boys dinner before we had to leave for Sidney’s game. He already left, so it was just me and the boys. Luckily it was a Friday, so I didn’t have to worry about them being tired for school tomorrow.

We headed out to the game and went to go sit in the box. Sid and Brent went to go play with some of the other players kids, so I sat there and talked to Nicolette, Tyler Kennedy’s girlfriend.

“so are you excited for a little girl?” Nicolette asked

“yes!” I said smiling I really couldn’t wait.

“a little girl, now you can dress her in pretty dresses and put bows in her hair.” She said smiling

“Oh yes and now I can have someone in my house that doesn’t need a hockey stick in her hand all the time.” I said smiling

“well you never know, she might the NHL’s first women player.” She said laughing

“yes you never know. When I Sidney and I first got married, he told me girl or boy there were going to play hockey. I just hope he forgot about that.” I said and she laughed.

The penguins were playing the Rangers today, and the game was just about to start. The Penguins won the game 4-3 and Sidney got a goal and an assist. We walked down into the locker room, and Sidney was just about done. He was just trying to tie his tie. We walked in and the smile on his face grew. The boys went over and gave him a hug and I walked over and wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.

I felt someone hit my butt and I turned around and saw Jordan smirking. I couldn’t believe that he actually hit me on the butt.

“Jordan Staal! What do you think you just did!?!” I asked walking up to him and pretending that I was going to hit him.

“It was an accident, my hand just happened to swing towards your ass, but I must say for having two kids and another one on the way, it is mighty firm.” He said and I could see it in his face that he was trying so hard not to burst out into laughter. I couldn’t help it, I just started laughing too.

“Oh I missed you Jordy.” I said giving him a small hug.

“I missed you too. How are you feeling?” he asked

“I am feeling fine. I heard about the girl at the bar.” I said laughing

“Sidney you told her about the girl at the bar?!?” Jordan asked sounding very pissed off.

“dude you just spanked my wife’s..” He covered Brent and Sidney’s ears “ass, I should be the one yelling at you!” Sidney said. I mean maybe it was a little weird that my husbands team mate was hitting my ass, but Sidney knew that Jordan didn’t mean anything. I mean Jordan was like my gay best guy friend minus the fact that he wasn’t gay, he was extremely attractive, and a known womanizer…. Okay maybe it was a little weird.

I walked back over to Sidney and our sons and I looked at him still trying to put his tie on.

“Sid just leave it off, I am going to take it off as soon as we get home anyways.” I said laughing and sending him a little wink.

“But I thought you liked to pull me with it.” he said laughing. He took the tie off and threw it in his bag.

We said goodbye to the team, and Jordan decided to walk out with us.

“So Jordan when am I going to meet this other Staal brother?” I asked laughing. Jordan always told me so much about his family, I felt like I knew them. I already met Eric and his wife Tanya, and they were very nice.

“You can meet him today if you want.” He said smiling

“Oh really?” I asked smiling. Sidney just laughed.

“Marc!” Jordan called out to someone who I assumed was his brother.

“Hey man.” Marc said smiling at Jordan and giving him one of those manly hugs.

“Marc this is Nicole, Sidney’s wife and well you know Sid and these are his sons Brent and Sidney Jr.” Jordan said smiling

“Oh hi, it’s really nice to meet you.” Marc said extending his hand out to me.

“Yeah you too.” I said with a smile. He bent down and shook the boys hands. They smiled at him, it was really cute to see how they reacted with people.

“Nicole, Jordan never told me you were pregnant. He talks about you all the time, and even your sons. I feel like you are part of my family.” He said laughing. Before I could even think what to say, Jordan smacked his brother on the back of the neck.

“Oh really?” I asked laughing slightly

“Oh yeah, he told me about the one time that he was sleeping on the couch, but you didn’t know he was and you walked down with a sick and started poking him.” Marc said laughing

“Oh my god you told him that!?” I asked looking at Jordan and laughing. That was embarrassing.

“yeah well I thought it was funny.” Jordan said turning a little pink in the cheeks.

“We should go Nicole.” Sidney said sounding very pissed off.

“Oh okay?” I said. He looked like he was super pissed off.

“You guys should come down to Thunder Bay this summer, I am sure my mom would love to meet you.” Marc said laughing

“Yeah that would be fun.” I said and then we said goodbye and I gave Marc and Jordan hugs and left. The boys were already asleep when we got home, Sidney didn’t say one word the entire time home. It was very strange to see him like this. We carried the boys up and tucked them into bed. Sidney went to take a shower without saying a word to me. I didn’t know what to say to him. Why was he angry? I waited for him to get out of the shower, and when he didn’t say anything to me I spoke up.

“Sidney are you angry about something?” I asked

“Are you serious with that question?!” He said practically screaming. I was stunned, he hasn’t screamed at me like that ever.

“Of course I am mad! Did you not see what I saw?!” he asked