A New Team

My oldest brother, Michael, helped me move out of my parents’ house in Georgetown and into my new apartment in Arlington. He said he would do all the heavy lifting on one condition, that I go to a Washington Capitals practice with him. Of course, I said yes not only because he offered to do most of the work of moving in, but because I love hockey. I have four older brothers three of them played hockey through college. I grew up around the sport. When he pulled up to pick me up I noticed that his six month old daughter, Kinley, was with him and was all decked out in caps gear.

“Is she coming?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he replied, “I can’t drop her off at daycare so you’re going to watch her while we’re there” So that’s why He wanted me to come. I was the babysitter. Whatever. I loved kids, especially babies and I would definitely make the best of this.

We pulled in and parked in the garage on level 7 and took the elevator up to the top floor to get to the rinks. We were just in time for practice to start. I followed Michael to where he wanted to sit and took Kinley out of her carrier and held her on my lap.

I watched the boys skate. They could probably skate better than I could walk. I mean it was their job to. They have a job like mine “work” in the morning then have the nights off, unless they have a game. I don’t have games I teach a daily tennis clinic to home schooled kids. I teach from 9:30 to 12:00 then I get to go home. I had today off though. I watched the team run some drills, then shoot some pucks, then the guys one by one left the ice at their own pace.

“Hey, Michael,” I said, “What time did you want me to do back to the car and feed Kinley?”

“Actually, now would be perfect.” He answered. I packed her up in her little carrier and made my way to the elevator. I got to the car and put her inside and fed her the entire bottle, she drank a lot for the tiny munchkin that she was. I sat in the back seat of the car with her for a little before I decided that it was time to go find Michael.

So I put her in her carseat while I opened the door of our car, narrowly missing the red Range Rover next to ours, to get her carrier out of the backseat. I stuck the carrier on the ground between our car and the car next to ours, and went to pull out Kinley’s baby bag. It was stuck on something. I couldn’t figure out what, and I couldn’t get it unstuck.

“Kinley,” I said in my goofy baby voice, ”your bag is causing me some trouble. Do you know what its stuck on? I don’t know what its stuck on.” I picked her up out of her carseat and put her in the carrier. I tried one more time to get that bag out but I couldn’t.

“Need some help?” asked a man’s voice. The voice had a pretty thick accent, but I couldn’t tell where it was from. I turned around and looked up. “That would be great” I replied. I looked at the man. He was tall and had longish blonde hair. He gave me a quick smile and unhitched the bag from whatever it was caught on and pulled it right out. I looked at him again. He was huge. He had to have been at least six inches taller than me and very muscular. Then it dawned on me this was definitely a Caps player. I bet I was blocking his car. How long had he been standing there? Did he hear me talking to Kinley?

“I’m sorry,” I asked in a slightly embarrassed way, “am I in the way of your car?”

“No. No,” he assured me, “Its fine I’m not in a rush today. I just parked down on this level to avoid all the people upstairs.” He was a Caps player, and his accent was Swedish. It had to be Nicklas Backstrom. I stared at him for a few more seconds, then decided to ask.

“You’re Nicklas Backstrom, right?” I wondered, “My brother talks about you alot, I think he’s waiting for you to come out upstairs. Will you take a picture with me and his daughter Kinley? I can text it to him and see how long it takes for him to rush down here.”

“That’s me.” He replied, “And of course I’ll take that picture. I can wait for him to come down too, I’m not in a rush.” “Thanks. He’s going to flip out when he sees this.” I said as I picked up Kinley and pulled out my phone for our picture. I snapped a quick selfie with him and the baby, sent it to my brother, then we continued our conversation.

“So Kinley isn’t your daughter?” He asked me.

“No,” I answered, “She’s my brother Michael’s. I’m watching her today so he could watch you guys practice because he moved all my furniture into my new apartment. This is like me returning the favor.”

“Oh,” He said, “you sounded like a mom talking to her the way you were.”

“You heard that?” I asked, slightly embarrassed that he had heard, “Did I sound just dumb, or really dumb?”

“It didn’t sound dumb, It sounded kind of cute.” He answered. I smiled at him. Was he flirting with me? He was really good looking, and he was being really nice to me and Kinley too.

“So when did you move here?” He asked.

“I’ve lived here with my mom and dad for a year now, but I finally found an apartment that was the right size and distance from where I work. I’m in Arlington now, I teach kids tennis at the Army Navy Country Club.”

“I know where that is.” He replied, “And that’s a neat job too. Before your brother gets here, I think you’re really cool and that we should continue this conversation later.”

“Me too.” I answered as I heard the elevator doors open. My brother ran out once he saw us. I laughed and looked up at Nicklas, he was laughing too. Nicklas politely took a picture with my brother and signed his jersey and talked to him about what this season would bring for his team when Kinley started crying.

“I think we’d better go,” said Michael as he took Kinley from me, “this one is getting fussy, but thank you for chatting with us.” They shook hands and Michael went to the other side of the car to put Kinley in her carseat.

“Thanks Nicklas. “ I said. As I looked into his eyes. I had only ever felt like this meeting someone once before, when I met my ex, but I didn’t want to think about that ever again so I pushed that thought out of my mind as fast as it came in.

“Call me Nicky.” He said as he shook my hand and gave me a small piece of paper with his phone number on it. He looked into my eyes, “I do want to see you again. Your brother is waiting for you though.” I smiled at him and put the paper in my pocket. I hopped into the passenger’s seat of the car and looked at him again as we pulled away. For the entire ride home I couldn’t stop thinking about Nicky. I had just met him, but I really liked him.