‹ Prequel: The Fear Is Paralyzing

Our Secret Hiding Spot

Onze

Quinn wished that she and Kris could have taken a real honeymoon, but that was out of the question with their quick wedding. They hadn't had time to make plans for a nice honeymoon, but they had instead taken a three day trip to Canada as a makeshift honeymoon. Their real honeymoon would come in August after their next wedding.

Quinn laid on the couch with her legs draped over Kris's lap, his fingers lazily travelling up and down the bottom of one leg. Quinn smiled at him. "I don't want to go back tomorrow," she told him. "I like it here where it's just the two of us and nothing else," she commented.

Kris kissed her temple. "Moi aussi," he agreed in his native language. "But, tomorrow you get to go back to work officially Quinn Letang," he smiled at the words.

Quinn bit her lip. "Yes I do," she said, excited that they were officially married. "Not that I get to use that name," she added. Since no one was supposed to know they were married yet, there was no way she'd be able to start going by Quinn Letang. She'd still have to wait for August for that, not that she was even 100 percent sure she was going to go by Letang when it came to her career.

"Yet," he told her. "Soon, though."

She nodded her head before leaning it against the back of the couch. Her phone started ringing, and she hesitated to even look to see who was calling her. She was enjoying her time away with Kris, and she really didn't want it interrupted. She regretted looking at it immediately when she saw it was Corinne calling her. "My mom," she muttered.

"Wonder what she's calling you for," Kris said. "Well pick it up," he chuckled when he saw Quinn was fighting herself in her head about whether she should answer it or not. But, Kris settled the argument for her.

"Hi, Mom," she spoke into the phone, looking over at Kris, giving him a look that showed just how unexcited she was to speak with her.

"Quinn, how are you doing?" Corinne asked.

"I'm fine," she gave a generic answer, wanting to get off the phone as quickly as possible. She and Kris had only a couple more hours alone in their hotel before they had to get to the airport and back home to Pittsburgh.

"I just wanted to let you know that we have to change family dinner from Thursday to Wednesday this week. Garrett has to leave for work Thursday morning. You'll be able to make it Wednesday night, right?" Corinne asked.

Quinn shut her eyes, trying to think quickly of an excuse to get out of dinner. She really wished she had the courage just to stop going to the dinners altogether, but she wasn't that brave just yet. "I'll have to talk to Kris," she finally said. Kris gave her a curious look, but she waved him off.

"Well, we really would like you there. And Kris, too, if he's free," Corinne said, and Quinn wondered what she was up to. She never really included Kris in the invitation, and Quinn knew something was suspicious. But, now was not the time to question it.

"We'll try, Mom. Look, I've got to go, I'm getting an important call. I'll talk to you later," she said, quickly hanging up the phone.

Kris turned his head to look at Quinn. "Do you use that line on me when you don't want to talk?" he joked with a grin on his face.

Quinn lightly hit him on the chest with her hand. "You know that's not true!" she insisted. "I love you," she said, placing a gentle kiss on his jaw line. "And I love being your wife," she continued, another kiss on his jaw.

Kris took the hint and took control, maneuvering himself so Quinn was on her back on the couch and Kris was hovering over her. "I love you being my wife, too," he said, his accent thick, as his hair hung down into his eyes. "I love you," he said, his voice growing huskier as he leaned down and kissed her deeply. It didn’t take long before their clothes were on the floor, and Kris was really showing her how much he loved her.

A few hours later, they were at the airport, waiting on their flight back to Pittsburgh. Quinn sat in the seat, playing with her brand new wedding ring. "I'm going to have to take this off, aren't I?" she asked sadly.

Kris turned his attention away from his phone that he was playing a game on to look at her. "What are you talking about?" he asked her.

"My ring. I'm going to have to take it off. No one is supposed to know we're married," she told him, spinning the ring around her finger again. She couldn't get enough of it. The wedding band really was gorgeous and better than anything she could have imagined. Kris had gone above and beyond when picking it out.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Or just keep it on. If someone notices, they notice. It's not like they can go back in time and stop the wedding now. You're stuck with me," he smiled at her.

"Eh, there could be worse people to be stuck with," she laughed as they made the announcement that they would be boarding their plane soon. She reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it, before gathering up her things, getting ready to get on their flight.

Quinn fell asleep with her head on Kris's shoulder almost as soon as the plane took off. She slept most of the way back to Pittsburgh, waking up just before the plane was about to land. Kris put his arm around her as they watched out the window as the plane hit the runway. "Happy to be back home?" he asked her.

She smiled as she nodded her head. "Yeah, I like it here," she commented. He gathered their carry-on bags and they made their way to the baggage claim to get the rest of their luggage. As they waited for their things, a few fans recognized Kris, and he signed autographs and took pictures with them.

"Oh to be married to a hockey superstar," she joked as they walked to his SUV.

Kris rolled his eyes. "I'm not a superstar," he told her. "You didn't marry Crosby, did you?"

Quinn laughed. "Not a chance. I'm happily married to you," she told him with a big smile.

●●●


Quinn sat at her desk in her office, trying to catch up on work from the week before. A few administrative things had to be figured out, but for the most part, not a whole lot had happened the previous week.

Mario walked in with a smile on his face. "Welcome back, Quinn…Letang, is it?" he asked her.

"I don't actually know," she chuckled at how ridiculous it was that she wasn't even sure of her last name at the moment. "Do you think it'd be okay if I went by Quinn Letang? Or is that going to get into some messy situations somewhere down the line?" she asked.

"I don't think it matters what last name you go by. Some people are going to have a problem with you being married to a player in the NHL, that's just the way it is. But, don't worry about them. We've done just fine so far, and I have no doubt we'll continue to do just fine," he assured her.

Quinn wondered if she should ask him the one question that was on her mind. Finally, she decided just to go with it. "Any update on Kris?" she asked.

She could tell it caught Mario off guard, but he covered his reaction fairly quickly. "Quinn," he began but then stopped.

"I know, I know," she told him. "I don't need details, I’m just curious."

Mario was quiet for a minute, and she thought he wasn't going to say anything. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and said, "It's not looking promising."

Quinn felt her heart drop into her stomach. She knew there was always that chance that Kris was going to go to another team if the Pens couldn't get a deal worked out with him. But, she had always thought it wouldn't come to that. "Oh," she said.

"I'm sorry, Quinn," Mario apologized, and she could tell he was sincerely sorry for it. "This isn't what I wanted. I tried my hardest to do everything we could to make a deal work."

"But, it just didn't work, I get it," Quinn said softly.

"We want what's best for Kris, and his agent just isn't happy with what we're willing to give him. It might be best for him to go to another team," he told her.

Quinn nodded her head, understanding what Mario meant, but that didn't meant that she wanted things to go this way. His phone started ringing, and Mario said goodbye, going into her office. She pulled out her phone, sending Kris a quick text. Have you talked to Evan today?

She set her phone down on her desk and tried to do work, but her mind was officially not focusing on work. Instead, she was more concerned with Kris and what was going to happen with. She saw her phone light up, and she checked to find a text from Kris. Meeting with him now. I'll call you when I'm leaving.

She tapped her fingers on her desk, trying to figure out what to do. She had a ton of emails from the last week to respond to, and she tried her best to do that, but she found herself kept thinking about Kris and Evan's meeting.

She replied to a few emails before officially giving up and decided to just wait for Kris to give her a call, though she had no idea how long his meeting with Evan was going to go. If Mario's words from earlier were any indication, their meeting would be fairly long with them going over all of Kris's options with different teams.

It was nearly an hour later that her phone finally rang, and she picked it up immediately. "Hey Kris, so what's the word?" she asked him anxiously.

"I'm assuming you heard that the Pens are basically just giving up?" he asked, and she could hear the disappointment in his voice. She knew Kris wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, but right now it seemed like that wasn't going to happen.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Mario said it wasn't looking good."

"Evan met with them last week, and they won't budge. They're keeping the original offer, which isn't nearly as good as the other ones. But, you're here, and that may be worth it," he spoke.

"Kris!" she exclaimed. "You can't make your decision off of the fact that I work and live here. We talked about this before. We can make a long distance relationship work during the season. I want you to choose the deal that's best for you and your career. If that's somewhere else, then that's what you should go with. I know you love it here, and I really wish that you could stay here, but I don't want you sacrificing anything just because I'm here. That's not fair to you."

"I know," he said in a somber tone.

"So what's the best deal?" she asked him, fully aware that she was still at work in her office, and this conversation was probably better off done at home, but she wasn't going to wait until tonight to talk with him about this. She knew Kris was liable to make a quick decision if they didn't talk it through now, and the last thing she wanted was for him to choose to take a bad deal with the Penguins just because of her.

"Philly seems to be the best. I mean based on location and the no trade clause," he told her, though it was clear that that wasn't really the deal he wanted.

"When do you have to choose by?" she asked him.

"They want an answer as soon as possible. Evan said they're getting antsy since I haven't given them any inclination of what I'm going to do. He said I need to let them know probably by Friday at the latest."

"So we’ve got a few days," Quinn commented. "How about we talk about it tonight?" she suggested. "Maybe we can have an answer then. I'll stop on my way home and grab some dinner, and we can sit down and figure out what's going to be best for you," she said.

"I really wanted to stay here," he told her.

"I know. I did, too." But, that didn't seem to be likely anymore, something Quinn was slowly wrapping her head around.
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