The Right Thing

“It’s been a while,” Sid murmured as he gazed out the window of the small plane.

I tried not to look in his direction as I’d been making a show of sulking since we’d left Pittsburgh. I understood his quest for privacy, but our trips to the movies and grocery store told me that we could have survived the airport the way the public did. Security might have been a bitch and people may have seen us, but once we were in the sequestered hideaway of the people with black credit cards and first-class tickets, there would be nothing to bother us.

But instead he’d driven into a private entrance and ushered me onto a private aircraft charted just to take the two of us to Minnesota.

I’d made it clear that I was aggravated by refusing drink service since takeoff and looking the other way every time that Sidney tried to start a conversation. I was starting to believe that he got a kick out of it, enjoying my reaction and egging me on when he had the chance to do so.

He wouldn’t be enjoying himself as much if I told my father that it was the way we’d arrived. It would have been a good way to start things off on the wrong foot between them. It probably wasn’t the wisest idea, but I wanted to try it out just to make Sidney miserable.

I wouldn’t do it, I knew I wouldn’t. But I wasn’t above using it as a threat if it came down to it.

I looked out the window as well. I’d always loved the view of my home state from the window of an airplane, especially early in the morning in the way that the sunlight and colors of the sky reflected off the surfaces of the lakes as we flew above them.

I knew that we were flying above the lake near my hometown and could tell that we were headed for an airfield less than 20 minutes away. I was sure Sidney had a car waiting for us there, ready to load our things into and head for Cannon Falls.

It seemed that I was more nervous about our adventure than Sidney was. In my time in Pittsburgh, I’d fallen more in love with the man in the seat next to me. Though he was driving me crazy in that particular moment, doing things that seemed unnecessary just to facilitate more time that we didn’t have to share with other people, more than anything in the world, I wanted my father to like him.

More than that, I want my father to accept him.

The difference was subtle, but important. My father liked most people, he got along with everyone. It was just a part of his personality. There wasn’t a person on earth that he couldn’t strike up a conversation with or bond with on some level. It was one of the reasons that patients had always raved about his bedside manner in his years of practice. It was great that he could like everyone that he encountered.

But that didn’t mean he would accept them. He was more than capable of making harsh judgments and choosing not to invite someone into his life. Both of my parents could be that way at times, friendly and accepting unless there was something that kept them from allowing a person get to know them. My mother asked more questions than my father did, which was probably why she tended to trust people more than my father did at times.

Even if he did like someone, it didn’t mean that he would be perfectly fine with the idea of his only daughter spending time with them.

It certainly didn’t mean that he would be okay with the idea of his only daughter, his only child, spending what could amount to the rest of her life with them.

My hope was for my father to be accepting of Sid’s place in my life. I wanted him to trust him. That was what I wanted my father to feel when he met Sidney. I wanted him to shake hands with the man who had my heart and know that there was no one in the world that was better for me than Sidney was. I wanted that to be the only response he had to our situation. I wanted him to look at Sidney and know that when I was with him, I was safe. I wanted my father to be sure that Sidney wouldn’t hurt me and that he would take care of me.

I wasn’t sure if it would happen, but I had to hope that it would.

“I’ve always liked the view from up here.”

“Speaking to me again, are you?”

I glared, attempting to look angry. I knew that I didn’t pull it off, but the effort was certainly present. It was merely cause for Sidney to laugh at my expense.

“I thought a few hours of silence were enough.”

“You were far from silent. I’ve never heard someone sigh so loud or so often.”

“I was making a point.”

“What point would that be?”

“That private planes are silly.”

“Silly, but helpful. No lines, no crazies with camera phones, and no taking your shoes off in public.”

I tried not to laugh. But the smile was irrepressible.

“I know you should be playing hockey right now, and I know that this whole lockout madness is terrible, but I hope you don’t mind my saying that I’m glad we got to make this trip.”

“I don’t mind,” he said as I leaned towards him and rested my head on his shoulder. “I would rather make trips like this in the summer, but I’m actually okay with this. If I can’t be playing, it will be nice to spend some time with my mom and sister.”

“And meet my dad.”

He chuckled. “That too.”

“Nervous?”

“Does a bear shit in the woods?”

I laughed. He’d gone from well-spoken to ridiculous once again. I just never knew what to expect with him and a part of me loved the surprise that offered me. There would always be a mystery with him, a way for him to shock me or leave me speechless.

“At least we’re getting that part out of the way first. Then, you won’t be all stressed out when we go watch Taylor play.”

“I’m always stressed out.”

I shook my head. “You seem pretty relaxed to me.”

“I’m a great actor.”

“I’ve seen some of your commercials, babe. Denzel you are not.”

He laughed. “I’ve gotten better.”

“Still, let’s hope that you never have to rely on those skills to pay the bills.”

“Pretty sure that’s not going to be an issue.”

It was my turn to laugh as he placed a kiss on my temple. We were both avoiding talking about how serious a task was at hand. He was going to be meeting my father, which was something that held great meaning to us both. But it was such a heavy topic, something that carried so much weight; we’d tried with all our might not to discuss it more often than we had to or with any real dedication to the subject.

But that wasn’t going to last forever, and as the plane started its descent, our time to avoid the issue was growing shorter. In less than an hour, the man that I loved more than anything in the world was going to be meeting the man who loved me more than anything in the world. It was absolutely terrifying and it was fear that we were both feeling.

My gut was in knots as we loaded into the SUV that was waiting for us at the small airport. Deep down, I knew that Sidney would give a great first impression to my father; I knew that there was nothing to be afraid of. Nothing was going to go wrong. They would get along famously and within minutes I would be on the outside looking in, left out entirely.

But to realize that detail and focus on it took rational thought and in that moment, I wasn’t rational in the slightest. I was like a teenage girl preparing for a dance, waiting for her father to meet her date at the door. I was concerned that they wouldn’t get along or that they would simply not mesh well.

It was all ridiculous, but I knew as we drove towards my hometown, that I wasn’t the only person in the car feeling that way.

I’d called my father a few days earlier to tell him that I was headed for Minnesota. He’d been terribly excited by the prospect. It had been far too long since I’d returned to the place that I’d come from. It had been since the previous Christmas. I usually didn’t go so long between visits, but the visit over Christmas had been too much to bear on more than one level. I’d needed time away, a chance to decompress from the overwhelming nature of it.

My father hadn’t been in the best shape, struggling emotionally in a way he hadn’t in a while. I wasn’t sure what had triggered it, why he was suddenly dealing with so much baggage, but it had overwhelmed me. It was enough to bring me to my knees, seeing him so down. I didn’t want it to be so hard on him.

Our conversations over the summer made it clear that he was doing better. He was always better when he was up at the cabin fishing. He was always worse in the winter. The cold and the lack of sunlight tended to drive him towards the darkness that we all have the ability to internalize. It didn’t help that she’d died in the winter. Ice and snow made him think of the night she died. It did the same to me, but it always felt worse driving the roads in Minnesota than it did on the East coast.

But summer was better for him. Fresh air and sunshine were the perfect elixir to cure his ills. He smiled more easily and laughed more often. When he thought of her it was never memories of her last days or their final separation. In the summer he thought of her laugh and the way she tucker her hair behind her ears when she was listening intently to a story someone was telling. They were the memories we both preferred.

I was glad to know, just by the sound of his voice on the phone, that he was better than he had been during the holidays. I still felt guilty for staying away for so long, for taking the selfish way out of any return visits.

We hadn’t talked for long, but I’d called him early in the day while Sidney was at the rink. I knew that Dad would be getting home from the bakery where he had coffee in the morning just as I called. I knew his habits as well as I knew my own.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hey, Pooh Bear.”

I could hear the smile in his voice. It was a nickname that I’d never been fond of. Where other people simply shortened my given name, my father veered down a different path that was embarrassing in public and annoying in private. But it was what he called me when he was happy, when he was glad to hear my voice.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I’m heading your way this week.”

“You’re going to come visit me?”

“I am. Just for a few days. I want to check in on you, make sure you’re taking care of yourself without me there to keep an eye on you.”

“I’m perfectly capable.”

“You are, but I worry.”

“I know you do.”

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

“I’m not coming alone.”

“Bringing Sebastian with you?”

“No, but I’m sure he’ll be sending his best. Fact is, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

“Someone important?”

“Yeah.”

“Someone who needs my approval?”

“I’m sure he’d like it. I’d like him to have it.”

“It’s not automatic.”

“I know.”

“It’s gotta be earned.”

“I know.”

“He’s going to have to pass some tests.”

I laughed. My father could intimidate most people, but I wasn’t afraid of him. I wasn’t daunted by him, but I knew that Sidney would be. His threats were empty to me, just a man doing what the world told him he should, being the overprotective father with the best interests of his daughter at heart.

“We’re coming in for a few days. We’ll be headed for a hockey tournament one day that week; his little sister plays for Shattuck.”

“Your cousin Daniel went to Shattuck.”

“I know.”

We never were much for small-talk. We weren’t ever a pair to sit in a room and chat about anything or nothing at all. We could both carry on conversations with others, but when it was just the two of us, things didn’t tend to develop well. Quiet always felt better for the two of us.

“If you stay here, he sleeps on the couch.”

“I figured as much.”

“I’m glad you’re coming home. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, Dad.”

He was expecting us and my nerves grew worse as Sidney followed the GPS into the town where I’d spent the first 18 years of my life. The town hadn’t changed a bit, it never did. It was always the same, storefronts and houses having gone years with renovations or changes in paint color. The people didn’t change either. No one new moved into town and very few people, aside from those like me, ever left. It was a town where you were born and died, always associating with the same people whether you liked them or not. It was a town where people moved into houses down the street from their parents and married the first person they ever loved. It was a place where I’d felt trapped, a place that I needed to escape, especially after I lost my mother.

“You okay?” Sidney asked as he pulled to a stop at one of the only controlled intersections my hometown had to offer.

I turned to look at him, finding his gaze locked on me. There was no rush to move through the intersection, no one was coming from any other direction. We had all the time in the world to sit there while Sidney tried to figure out what was going through my mind in that moment.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re lying.”

“I hate this place,” I admitted. “It will never be a place that I enjoy being. It won’t ever be glad to see this town or drive down Main Street. It isn’t my home. I wish it was like Cole Harbour is for you, I wish I could fly in and find comfort, but it isn’t my lot in life.”

“Maybe Cole Harbour will be that for you someday.”

He said it quietly, like his words didn’t hold more than their meaning at face value. He said it as though he wasn’t insinuating that I would live in Cole Harbour one day, as though he wasn’t suggesting that our relationship would be long term and serious enough that our lives would be completely intertwined.

It didn’t frighten me. It didn’t even make me uncomfortable in the way I always assumed a conversation like the one we were having would make me feel. it felt like a natural progression, like there would come a time that I wouldn’t be visiting in Pittsburgh, that I’d simply be there and my time in Boston would be a thing of the past.

It wasn’t something we spoke about in anything more than generalities.

We didn’t need to. We would cross that bridge when we came to it. Until then, we would go through the motions in the way that we had been without discussion of the future in any certain terms.

“Take the next left,” I said as he finally accelerated through the intersection and further down the street. “The house is the third one on the right. White house with blue shutters and a green truck in the driveway.”

He nodded, his eyes on the road. He gaze was focused on the street, his jaw clenched just slightly. He was worried about me, concerned about my mood. He didn’t like seeing me uncomfortable, but it was rare that I was in my hometown and not feeling uncomfortable.

The house that I’d grown up in came into view and Sidney pulled in behind the truck that my father had been driving since I was in middle school.

“Are you ready for this, Wyn?” he asked.

He turned off the vehicle, shifting in his seat to face me.

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

He chuckled. “I’m not the one who looks like they’re seconds away from losing their breakfast.”

“I didn’t eat breakfast.”

“The interior of my rental car thanks you.”

I smiled. “I’ll be fine. I have a lot on my mind. It’ll be easier once I see Dad and know he’s doing better than he was at Christmas.”

I’d told Sidney about my visit over the holidays and thus my extended absence from Minnesota. He knew where my worries came from, why I was so unsure about visiting at all. But once again, Sidney was sitting next to me making me feel brave.

“I’m sure he’s fine. He’ll be too focused on putting me through his tests to think about anything else. Plus, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see you.”

I knew he was right as he leaned across the console and pressed his lips to mine.

“You better enjoy that while you can,” I said as I pulled away, a smile on my face. “You’re on the couch until further notice.”

“I don’t know how I’ll survive it.”

“It will be easier to survive than sneaking into my room and getting caught.”

“You can always come visit me on the couch.”

“You’re going to have to earn that.”

He laughed and reached for the door handle. “Better get this over with. He’s probably watching through a window waiting.”

“It’s like you already know him.”

He chuckled and got out of the car. By the time I had gotten out of the front seat, Sid was pulling out bags from the back of the vehicle and headed up the sidewalk towards the house. I rushed to catch up with him.

I stepped in front of him as my father pulled the door open and stepped out onto the porch. His arms were around me immediately, crushing me as he hugged me tight.

“Hi, Daddy.”

“Hey, Pooh Bear!”

He didn’t let go for a moment, holding on for dear life. I’d missed him; that was something that I couldn’t deny. As much as I’d done to stay away for as long as I had, I truly had missed my father. After a few moments, he finally pulled away.

“This must be—“ he stopped abruptly as his eyes landed on Sidney.

Where I’d given Sebastian limited information on my boyfriend, I’d given my father almost none. For all that my father knew of the man I was bringing back to Minnesota to meet him, Sidney was probably a businessman in Boston. But as he took in the form of the man standing just behind me, suitcases in his hands, the information that I hadn’t shared became clear.

I turned to catch a small smile playing on Sidney’s lips. I hadn’t told Sid that I had told my father nothing about him. I hadn’t told Sidney much of what to expect when it came to meeting my father, but Sidney was quick enough to deduce that I hadn’t been exactly forthcoming with my father during our phone conversations.

“Hello, Mr. Doyle.”

Sidney placed the bag from his right hand on the porch and extended his grip to my father. He’d remembered my instructions not to call my father Dr. Doyle when they met. My father had put a stop to that as soon as he’d left the medical field. He didn’t think he deserved the title any longer seeing as how he was no longer practicing medicine. He generally bristled when people forgot and it would make an introduction uncomfortable.

Sidney’s media training and memory came in handy in that moment.

“Sidney Crosby,” my father muttered quietly.

Sid nodded and reached down to pick up the suitcase again as my father led the way into the house that hadn’t changed since my mother had passed.

“You’re dating Sidney Crosby?” my father asked through his teeth, his voice quiet but still travelling far enough for Sidney to hear it.

Sid tried to suppress a laugh from behind me.

“That’s who he is?” I asked with a sly grin, my voice a low hiss. “I knew I recognized him from somewhere.”

Sidney laughed heartily behind me.

“There’s no need to be a smart ass,” my father retorted.

“You just make it so easy.”

“Well, why don’t you show Sidney Crosby where to take the bags and I’ll get some coffee going.”

“It’s just Sidney,” I corrected with a roll of my eyes. “And I don’t drink coffee.”

“You can have your tea, your boyfriend and I will take care of the coffee.”

I sighed and led Sidney towards the stairs that led to the bedrooms upstairs. My room was on the right, unchanged since I’d left. Just beyond that was the bedroom that my mother had turned into her craft room, the place where she worked on pottery and beading just to keep herself busy when she wasn’t working. I knew without looking inside that it hadn’t been changed since I was 16. Across the hall was
the bedroom that my parents had once shared, it was my father’s now. He’d never known that I knew he almost always slipped downstairs to sleep in his chair, unable to spend most nights with her memory.

I pushed open the door to my bedroom, feeling like I’d stepped into a time capsule of my life when I was younger.

“So this is your bedroom, eh?”

“It was,” I replied. “Just drop the bags anywhere.”

He set them down near my old bed before wandering the room for a moment. He looked at the items plastered on my walls. He noted the pennant and eventually gravitated towards the slip of paper that Mario had signed for me years before.

“Strange,” he muttered.

“Why?”

He looked in my direction. “I just can’t picture you living in this room. All of these things were yours once and they just don’t seem to fit with the woman that I know.”

“That’s because the girl who lived in this room was different.” I took a seat on the bed and gestured for him to join me. He took his place next to me and snaked his arm around my waist, pulling me close to his side. “She was unsure of where her life was going, lost in a little more darkness than she knew what to do with. She needed to hide from reality so she surrounded herself with little things that made her smile. Pictures of people she respected, colors that made her feel warm.”

“I think I would have liked that girl.”

“You would have been one of very few people who did.”

“There you go underestimating yourself again.”

“Trust me, Sidney. I’m a much friendlier person now than I was then.”

“We’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one.”

“I smell coffee.”

“You hate coffee.”

“Yes, but my father will soon come looking for us. If he sees the door is closed and you’re in here with me, he’ll ground me for life.”

He laughed and rose to his feet, pulling me with him. “Then we better go join him.”

“You ready for this?”

“I have no idea. Is he going to keep calling me by my first and last name?”

“I have no idea.”

I led the way to the kitchen, pointing out landmarks as we went. He stopped in the stairwell as we passed my school pictures. He paused when I did, taking a quick glance at my parents in their wedding photo, now nearly 30 years old. But I didn’t linger for long and he followed my motions.

He pointed to the one taken in my sophomore year, “You weren’t kidding about the hair and braces.”

“No comment on the boobs?”

“Not in earshot of your father.”

I laughed and pulled him along with me as we walked to the back of the house. My father was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for us. He’d poured two cups of coffee and had made a cup of tea for me. Sidney and I joined him.

“Get everything settled?” my father asked.

“We did.”

“Interesting room, isn’t it Mr. Crosby?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Please, it’s Sid, or Sidney if you like.”

“And you can call me Chuck, none of this Mr. Doyle nonsense.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“Mind if I ask how a hockey player from Pittsburgh meets my daughter who lives in Boston?”

“Wyn was at a coffee shop near her apartment, I was in town to see a friend over of the summer. She did a couple of things that made an impression, couldn’t have ignored her if I’d wanted to.”

“What exactly did she do?”

My father took a sip of his coffee and waited for Sidney to respond. I wanted to answer for him, but knew that it was all a part of my father’s process. He wanted to know Sidney’s motivation in being in a relationship with me. It was going to be a part of his final judgment of whether he liked Sidney and approved of our relationship.

“Well, she tried to return a twenty dollar bill to a man who’d dropped it, though he didn’t really seem like he deserved the consideration.”

“He was a prick,” I added.

“That he was,” Sidney agreed. “After that, she called a barista by name and gave the twenty to her as a tip when most people would have stuffed it in their pocket.”

“She gets that from her mother. Mel was always that way, kind to everyone. This may not be a big town, but I swear by the time she’d been here a month she knew everyone’s life story.”

My father rarely spoke openly about her, he never referred to her by name, at least not that I heard.

“Mel, what is that short for?” Sidney asked.

“Melody. She hated it. She always said it made her feel like no one would take her seriously with a name like that. Then she went ahead and named our daughter Bronwyn.”

I laughed softly.

“She would have liked you.”

“You’ve known him for less than ten minutes,” I argued.

“It would have taken her ten seconds to make up her mind. She would have seen the way he smiles when you talk and would have made her decision right then.” He turned his gaze to Sidney who was blushing slightly. “She would have asked some questions that she didn’t really want the answers to just to make you squirm. But all along she would have already decided that she liked you and that you were worthy of being with Bronwyn. She would have left the threats to me, but I’ve never been very good at those.”

My father liked him; that much was clear over coffee. It remained as such when he took us to the local diner for lunch. Conversation flowed easily between the two of them, like they’d known each other for years. They bonded further over a college hockey game that was playing on TV and by the time dinner was over and we went our separate ways, Sidney remaining on the couch when my father and I went up to bed, they were clearly more than comfortable with one another.

I’d had nothing to worry about.

I struggled in getting any rest that night. My old mattress wasn’t as comfortable as the one in Pittsburgh and the bed felt terribly empty with Sidney downstairs on the sofa. I tossed and turned for a couple of hours before hearing my father’s door open as he crept towards the stairs. I knew the places where the floorboards creaked, I’d snuck out more than once as a teenager, avoiding the stairs that gave under pressure and stepping over the boards that I knew would give me away.

My father wasn’t as good at it.

I slipped out of my room and sat down at the top of the stairs. I wondered for a moment how my father would explain his presence to the man sleeping on the sofa, but it didn’t take long before I heard Sidney’s voice.

“Is everything okay, Chuck?”

My father signed. “I was hoping you’d be asleep by now.”

“Can’t shut my brain off tonight. Too many thoughts.”

“Me either.”

“You don’t sleep much, do you?”

“Never in that room, not since I lost my wife. It just hasn’t felt right without her. It’s just a room, four walls and a ceiling, but it feels terribly lonely without her there. I don’t think that will ever go away.”

It was dark in the living room, but I could imagine the looks on both of their faces even if they couldn’t see each other in the dim room. My father looked sad; his eyes cast downward, the loneliness creeping up on him in the quiet that overtook his mind at night. I knew Sidney was watching him closely, trying to decipher the expression on my father’s face, his sight acute even in the dark.

There was quiet between them for a moment as I heard my father settled into his recliner.

“I can’t imagine,” Sidney said quietly.

I couldn’t imagine that there was anything else to say. I doubted that anyone could understand what my father was feeling unless they’d been through it as well. Even then, every person dealt with pain differently. There was no rulebook when it came to mourning, no set way of dealing with the hurt that came along with losing a person that you loved.

It was why it felt so lonely.

It was why my father was so lonely. Why he struggled without her.

“Can I ask you a personal question, Sid?”

“Of course.”

“Do you love my daughter?”

I expected him to pause, to measure his words carefully.

“I do. If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t know it was possible to love someone as much as I love her.”

“Then why are you down here not sleeping when you could be upstairs resting peacefully with the woman you love?”

“Because I love her and that means that I would never disrespect your wishes or your home.”

“The only thing you could ever do to disrespect me would be if you didn’t appreciate my daughter. You’re a lucky man to find someone like her. I would know, I spent over 20 years with her mother and Bronwyn is just like her. Do me a favor,” he said quietly. “Don’t ever take her for granted. Cherish every moment you get with her.”

“I was worried you wouldn’t like me.”

“Does that matter to a guy like you?”

“It should matter to everyone. But yes, it matters to me.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about unless you hurt my little girl. Then you’ll be in for a world of hurt.”

“I thought you weren’t any good at threats,” Sid said. I could hear the smile on his lips.

“Go upstairs and get some sleep.”

“Only if you promise to get some as well.”

“I’ll manage a few good hours. It always gets me through.”

I heard Sidney stand up. “Goodnight, Chuck.”

“Goodnight, Sidney. Tell my daughter that she’s not as sneaky as she thinks she is.”

I froze. I’d been meaning to slip off to my room when my father first told him to join me. But it seemed I’d been found out. I wondered if that meant that all the times I’d slipped out in the night, he’d known all along.

“She really isn’t.” He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me for a moment with a smile on his lips. “Not sneaky at all.”

I stood up slowly as Sidney made his way towards me, taking the stairs two at a time. The board beneath my feet creaked, low and slow. I heard the sound of my father laughing downstairs, a sound that I didn’t hear often enough.

“Goodnight, Pooh Bear!” he called.

“G’night, Daddy.” I said in return.

I reached towards Sidney, waiting for his hand to wrap around my own. His fingers were warm as they intertwined with mine. I pulled him towards my old room, certain that I’d manage to sleep with him next to me.

“No funny business,” I whispered as we crawled into bed.

Sidney curled up behind me, placing a kiss on the nape of my neck. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“He likes you,” I murmured.

“I like him, if that’s worth anything.”

“It’s worth plenty.” I paused and burrowed closer to him as he wrapped the covers around me. “He was right earlier, about Mom. She would have loved you.”

“I’m glad. I’m sure I would have loved her too.”

“But not as much as you love me, right?”

I felt his breath against my neck. “You were listening. I know you heard what I told your father.”

“That you didn’t think it was possible to love someone as much as you love me.”

“Exactly.”

“Ditto.”

“Ditto? Meaning you love yourself more than you ever thought possible?”

I reached back and slapped his knee. “Don’t be an ass, Sidney.”

“Your words, not mine.”

“You know what I meant.”

“Clearly I’m not as intelligent as you think.”

“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

“Sidney?”

“Yes?”

“I love you more than I ever believed possible.”

“Glad we’ve cleared that up.”

He kissed my neck again.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Now get some sleep.”

I didn’t respond as I felt his breathing slow. It never took him long to fall asleep, and the feeling of the slow rise and fall of his chest against my back was enough to lull me into my own dreams.

He made me take him on a tour of the town the next day. He hadn’t believed me when I told him that there weren’t many places to go. I took him around town, pointed out the trail that ran along the river. We took a jaunt down Main and drove past the Mexican restaurant where I’d had my first kiss. But it wasn’t long before we were back at the house with my father.

Dad decided it was a great time to break out the old photo albums. My mother had always been a fan of taking pictures. For such a beautiful woman, there were barely any pictures of her in the family archive. I found myself wondering if her parents had pictures of her, pieces of her that I wouldn’t ever have access to without them. I hadn’t thought about them much in my time in Pittsburgh, Sidney had kept me distracted, but I’d known it would come up again.

My father’s eyes landed on me as Sid flipped through photos of me as a child.

“What’s wrong?”

Sidney’s eyes followed my father’s gaze.

“I think too much sometimes.”

“About?”

I glanced at Sidney. He’d landed on a page with a few pictures of my mother. I looked more like her as I got older.

“Mom’s parents have been in contact with me.”

He nodded as Sidney slid closer to me on the sofa and my father sat back, waiting for me to continue. I didn’t know how to approach it, I didn’t want to upset him. He’d admitted to so much the night before during his conversation with Sidney. I didn’t like being the one to bring her up.

“You should tell him,” Sidney encouraged.

“They called over the summer. I’ve been avoiding them, but I don’t know if I should be.”

“Just because they aren’t my biggest fans doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least give them a chance. They didn’t handle things well, but they loved your mother. They never showed it well and they hurt her, but you’re their only grandchild. Besides, you’re grandfather has been sick for the last couple of years.”

I scowled. “How do you know that?”

“How do you think they got your number?”

He’d known. He’d encouraged the contact. I was confused as Sidney rubbed circles on my lower back.

“Why?”

“Because you deserve the chance to make the decision whether or not to let them into your life. You’re a grown woman. I didn’t want to tell them no and make the decision for you. But I didn’t want to warn you either because I didn’t want you to feel pressure from my side. Maybe I should have, but I wanted you to make your own choice.”

“Should I meet with them?”

“It wouldn’t hurt. Meet them. Talk to them. Ask them about your mother if you want to, what she was like when she was young. But it is your decision to make. It won’t hurt my feelings either way.”

“What about my feelings?”

“You have to make that call. They didn’t call because they want to berate you or attack you. If it’s too much, you have people to talk to in order to get through it.”

“I don’t want to burden you,” I murmured.

“Then burden me,” Sidney offered. “I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m actually pretty tough. Not a bad listener either.”

I felt lucky to have them in that moment. I cherished them for the rest of the day in a way that I hadn’t before. My father was a great man, selfless in so many ways. He wanted nothing more for me than happiness and it didn’t matter what it was that made me happy. Sidney was so much like him. Their personalities weren’t the same, but both were reserved, quiet and stoic at times. But they were so caring, soft-hearted in a way you wouldn’t necessarily expect.

We put away the family albums by the end of the evening. We didn’t put on any shows when it came time for bed. Sidney and I retreated to my childhood room and my father made himself comfortable in his chair.

We dragged ourselves out of bed on Sunday morning, pulling my father along with us and headed North towards Blaine. Traffic in the cities was horrendous, but beyond the frustration, I could tell from my place in the back seat that the chance to see his little sister play, a rare treat for a man so consumed with his own game, was something that he was looking forward to.

She’d called the night before; excited to tell her brother that they’d won their first game in their short tournament. I listened as she gave him the rundown. His focus was so intent, in part because he was curious about the game, but more so because he cherished the conversations he shared with his little sister. I could tell that he was simply glad she still wanted him in her life.

We met with Trina at the arena, stretching after the time spent fighting Minneapolis traffic. We didn’t get a chance to see Taylor before the first game, but we were able to find a corner and sequester ourselves to watch. They didn’t fare as well on Sunday as they had Saturday night. The first game ended in a loss and we got a chance to see Taylor for a short time between their games.

That was the same time that people started recognizing Sidney. We went from sitting quietly in our corner to me pulling my father away so Sidney could deal with the fans that kept coming his way without too much of his privacy being stolen away.

I glanced back each time I saw someone approach him for a picture or an autograph. One thing about people in small town Minnesota was that they were polite about it and Sidney never failed to respond in his equally polite way. He was a bit uncomfortable, his hands shoved in his pockets, blocking himself off the way he always did.

I focused for a time on cheering the girls on, my father trying to follow the game along with me. But he was more easily distracted by the constant stream of people approaching my boyfriend.

“Is it always like that?”

I glanced across the arena during an intermission. Sidney was posing quietly with a group of players from one of the Elite teams.

I shrugged, looking away as Sidney caught my eye. “Sometimes. Not as much in Pittsburgh, that’s usually teenager girls with camera phones taking pictures of him at GNC. But with the lockout and being in a hockey arena, it’s not a surprise.”

“He always handle it that way?”

“Always. He’ll even pose with people at the gym.”

By the end of the second game of the day, the girls had lost again. As down as Taylor was about it, she didn’t dwell in the way that I knew her brother tended to. It could have been because she didn’t wear the weight of the “C” on her sweater. But more than that, I could tell that her competitive spirit was not the be all, end all of her existence.

Sidney insisted on taking all of us to dinner, a quiet affair in the back room of a local restaurant more than happy to grant Sidney Crosby a little privacy.

We sat in the back with Taylor wedged between us. My father volunteered to drive with Trina in the front seat. Troy was back in Cole Harbour fighting off a bug that he didn’t want to expose his children to. It would have been nice for our fathers to meet, but Trina and my father were getting along swimmingly. In an odd way, it was helpful for them to meet without Troy there, his personality stronger than my father, more commanding.

It was like my father was being given a soft introduction to the Crosby family.

Conversation flowed quietly between us at dinner. Just the five of us sharing a meal.

“So, are you going back to Pittsburgh to keep my son in line?” Trina asked over dessert.

Sidney and Taylor had both quietly declined ending their meals with a treat, but that didn’t stop the rest of us from doing so. I shook my head as I finished a final bite of my lava cake. Sidney sent a sad glance in my direction.

“Back to Boston for a while,” I replied. “Sidney, stop pouting.”

“Men don’t pout,” he retorted.

“Then you should stop it,” Taylor chirped.

“Oh, so you’re on her side now?”

“Always wanted a big sister,” she replied as she took a sip of water. “Sadly I was forced to settle for you.”

“Who pays your tuition again?”

“Sidney,” I reprimanded with a roll of my eyes. I turned my attention back to Trina. “I’ll be back though. But with games being cancelled and all, Sid already has some training set up. He’ll be in Colorado this week. Plus there are meetings coming up. He’s got such a busy schedule, he won’t even notice that I’m not around.”

“Doubtful,” my father muttered around his own dessert.

Sidney flashed a look my way, cocking an eyebrow at me. “At least someone is on my side.”

He knew that I needed to deal with things in Boston and moving to Pittsburgh, as much as I was beginning to love it there, just didn’t feel like an option in that moment. I loved Sidney, but rushing things seemed terribly unwise.

We had plenty of time to do things in the way that was right for us, even if Sidney insisted upon pouting over it.