To Philly With Care

The first time I spotted her was at the Comcast Spectacor Charity event. She was shaking the hand of Mr. Snider, her face was alight with a smile and letting my eyes travel down she filled out the dress she was wearing extremely well too. Hartsy nudged me. “Who are you looking at Talbo?” He followed my gaze and chuckled. “Good Luck man, she’s _way_ out of your league.”

“Who is she, I’ve never seen her before.” I whispered back. As we watched Paul Holmgren shook her hand. Her petite frame was balanced well, but she seemed still out of place.

Danny came over. “Who is who?” Then he spotted who we were looking at. “Ah! That is Jassmine (Yas-min) Richard (Ri-chard). She’s the new face for the Richard Foundation. I heard she gave a rather large donation this year.” Before I could ask more the evil PR witch came over and broke us apart.

I circled the room keeping half an eye on the Auburn beauty that had captured my attention. She went from conversation to conversation without ever losing her smile. I could do the same but it was harder for me. For her it seemed effortless.

I got pulled into a conversation debating the pros and cons of the new CBA so I was unable to watch her circulate for a while. By the time I got myself out of the conversation I had lost track of her. Soon though I found myself ‘escorting’ three lovely ladies around the room and making small talk. They were being _extremely_ suggestive in where this evening could go and while I would normally be _all_ over that idea. I couldn’t get this mystery woman out of my head.

As I was about to answer them; Lavy tapped me on the shoulder. Now there was someone you didn’t mess with. “Coach, haven’t seen a lot of you tonight.” I said brightly, silently thanking him for getting me off the hook.

“Good to see you too Talbo. Ladies if you will excuse us, I have some business to discuss with Max here.” He extracted me from the three of them and moved away from them towards another group of people. “Straighten up Talbo, you’re about to meet some _very_ important people. People that will be working closely with us this year.” We were going over to meet, oh wow we were going over to meet her!

She was standing with a brunette and Mr. Snider who beamed when he saw me. “Ah there’s _our_ superstar.” I grinned, as we got closer. “Ladies this is Max Talbot, one of our players. Max, these lovely ladies are Danielle Lyon and Jassmine Richard. They are joining with our own Charity to help us find the kids that are the ones we _really_ need to help with warm winter things and hockey gear for those who play. Max has done something similar when he was in the Western part of the state with his _last_ team. He might be able to tell you how they did it, of course we want ours to be better.”

***Jass’s POV***

I couldn’t believe my ears when Mr. Snider said that they wanted the Flyers aid to be better than the Penguins. Yes, I know they are in state rivals but isn’t the point of all this to help the _kids_? Dani took hold of my elbow and not so subtly reminded me not to argue this point. Reigning in my temper I managed to smile and actually sound happy instead of the seething I was feeling. “Nice to meet you. I hope you can help give us an idea of how the program worked with the Pens. There are just as many, if not more, deserving children here in Philadelphia. I would _love_ to see them warm and happy this winter.” Dani’s grip relaxed on my elbow.

Before I could make a mess of things by telling Snider off, Danielle took the lead. “Yes, the Richard Foundation along with the Children’s Hospital here in Philly are hoping to forge a strong bond between our charities and the Flyers Organization. Hopefully you all will be willing to help with those programs as the years move forward.” She held out her hand to Max and he shook it.

He seemed to be nothing but a playboy, but his reputation preceded him in many ways. That’s when I was surprised when he smiled. “So what kind of work does the Richard Foundation do? I know what the Children’s Hospital does but how do you fit into this plan?” Normally people don’t come outright and ask me that.

Taken a back for a brief minute I answered him. “My Grandparents started the Foundation to work with teens who are at risk in various ways, from abuse of various types to flat out just running away. Bastion de la sécurité is the house they can go to for help. Problem is a lot of these kids leave with little on them, so _they_ are the ones in need of winter gear. We are looking into ways to start up our own in-house ball hockey team so they can have something besides video games to do. We already have a few other in-house sports they can play but they have _asked for some form of hockey. Basketball only distracts them for so long.”

***Max’s POV***

Bastion de la sécurité. I had heard of the place, even driven by it’s façade but I never would have guessed that it was a safe place for teens to go if they needed a way out. “I’ve heard of it, had no clue what it was until now. Sounds like a local version of Covenant House, what are the differences?”

Jassmine smiled fondly. “It is a lot like Covenant House except we don’t use a religious message. We have a staff of trained therapists that listen and help the kids find good solutions to problems. We have experts that help with life skills and job skills as well helping to set them up to stand on their own two feet. Right now we have 2 “houses” in the Philly area and are looking at possibly expanding into New Jersey as well in the future.” You could tell by how her eyes got just a bit soft around the edges she loved that place.

“Sounds like a place that can be hard to work in. Teens in trouble and needing help and all that.” I said, mentally smacking my self for saying something so stupid. I wanted her to like me, not think I was a dumb ass.

Fortunately for me she laughed, it was rather musical as far as laughs go. It made me feel all warm inside. “Oh it isn’t a cake walk by any means, but it’s _so_ rewarding when they are ready to go out on their own. In fact we have a graduation tomorrow of a few of our kids. Once they hit 18 we can’t legally keep them, but we can make sure they know they _are_ cared about. We work on life skills by having _them_ take care of the house with supervision. This way they can at _least_ care for themselves when they walk out the door. Job skills come with finding out what they _want_ to do and helping them make a plan to get there.”

She sounded like a proud mother as she spoke of how the house ran. “It sounds like you’re the proud mother of the kids.” That earned me another musical laugh. “I would _love_ to get a closer look at the house. I’ve driven by one of them but until now I wasn’t curious enough to go in and ask.”

“I would love to show you, and anyone else from the team who wants to come, the inner workings. The graduation is supposed to be in the afternoon at 1 p.m. I’m positive that you all would be welcome.” Now there was an invitation I couldn’t pass up, so I extended one of my own.

“I would love that. If you aren’t busy before then, maybe you could come watch practice and then invite the team yourself.” I wasn’t looking at Lavy but I didn’t think he’d mind all that much. I mean practice was scheduled for 10 am and I didn’t know of anyone who had something to do after practice for the team.

Her blush clashed with her hair but not so badly that she looked bad. “I would love to come to practice. I don’t know much about hockey yet myself, but I do enjoy the game. I’m learning but I’m still new to the game overall.”

I was in shock, she not only was admitting to not knowing the game well but she was also saying she was learning about it. This was no bunny by any means. “Well I’m positive that you will find many people willing to teach you the game at practice. In fact you just _might_ have people fighting over you.” I hoped not but you could never tell with the guys sometimes, Jass wasn’t the normal type of person _any_ of us would be interested in but damn I wanted to know more about this woman.

She ducked her head and laughed. “Well in _that_ case, I’ll be there at 9:45 if that’s alright with you and your coach.” She hadn’t forgotten Lavy and I hoped he wouldn’t be mad.

“We’d be honored to have you join our practice tomorrow, you and Ms. Lyon. If either of you have skates you’re welcome to come on the ice after, or at another time if you can’t do it then.” Lavy was being more than just polite, that worried me.

The ladies looked at each other. Danielle answered. “Unfortunately due to the graduation party tomorrow we can’t skate tomorrow, but another time would be great.” Lavy made sure they knew where to go and everything and we parted ways. I expected him to bitch me out about not checking with him first but he surprised me. “Good move Talbo. Ms. Lyon works for the Children’s Hospital and we will be working with them again this year. Ms. Richard is the head of the largest and oldest Foundation in the city. They help _so_ many people beyond their own programs. Now we’ll have to wow them at practice.” He wandered off and soon rather than later I was making my farewells and going home empty handed. Yep I was going home without female companionship for the evening. I had a sneaking suspicion that Jass wouldn’t get too close to me if she saw me do that.

***Jass’s POV***

“I can’t believe _we_ got invited to practice.” I gushed as soon as we were out of hearing distance. I had told the truth, my knowledge was small but my desire to know was huge.

Dani snorted. “You mean _you_ got invited and I got added on. You know that’s kind of a twist, normally I’m the one getting invited places with you as my add on.” She laughed but she was telling the truth. That was part of my gushing too.

“You’re right, I’m kind of excited now. What _does_ one wear to practice?” I asked only half seriously. I was probably going to wear layers so I wouldn’t get cold. I did the same when we went to games.

Dani nearly bent over double laughing. “We _might_ need to start looking for a jersey for you if you become any _more_ of a fan.” We linked arms and enjoyed the rest of the evening.

As I got home that night I got to thinking about Mr. Talbot and those eyes of his. They were deep and dark, in fact I couldn’t tell what color they were. I readied myself for bed but couldn’t bring myself to sleep just yet. Those eyes haunted me; they held secrets ones I think I wanted to find out. I got a glass of water and stared out over the Philadelphia skyline. I wanted to get to know the most notorious womanizer in all of Pennsylvania… fuck.