The Best Job Ever.

Chapter 4:

We made it to Philly on time.

You'd be surprised how fast those buses can actually go.

We got to the arena and the boys started warming up for their morning skate.

"Olli. Hi. Umm, you wanna try to get a little lower with your swats. The lower the better and the more it wakes the muscles up." I smiled walking past him.

"Oh. Like this?" He said with his thick Finnish accent, demonstrating.

"There ya go." I smiled again.

"Olli, you don’t want to listen to her. She doesn’t know what she's talking about, kid." Beau said walking up behind me.

"Beau. You are skating on reallll thin ice there, bud. I minored in kinesiology. I think I know what I'm talking about." I said facing him.

"Oh...well aren’t you just full of surprises today?" He said.

"Beau?" Olli said.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"I think she...what do you Americans say?...um burnt you? Is that right?" He asked.

I doubled over in laughter.

"Yeah, that's right. And I think I just found my new best friend." I said
giving Olli a high-five as I walked away.

***

"Ya know, I should really know how to do this by now." Brooks Orpik chuckled.

I was taping up his ankles for support in one of the side rooms of the locker rooms.

"No, that's why I'm here!" I laughed. "Too tight?"

"No, just right. They taught you right where ever you went." Brooks laughed.

"Well, with a brother a year older and one a year younger than you playing hockey, you get a lot of practice." I said smiling.

"Brothers, huh?" He asked.

"Yeahhh. We were all taught to skate right after we learned to walk. I actually used to play hockey, but stopped when I got to high school." I said finishing up his left foot. "Right, please!"

"Why'd you stop?" He asked.

"Too much of a bookworm. I stuck with soccer and track though. I don’t know why I did track; I hate running." I said making a face.

"Me too! Sometimes I wonder why I'm a hockey player." He chuckled.

"For real!" I laughed. "Do you want your wrists done?"

"Nahhh. I think I'm good." He answered.

"Alright, Brooksy. You are all done. Would you send the next one in?" I asked.

"Sure! And thanks by the way, Anna." He smiled.

I nodded to him as I cleaned up the scraps of tape and wrap as I prepared for the next player to sit on the table. I ran to my bag to check my phone and grab a quick drink when I heard the next player knock.

"Awwe, geeze, if I knew this was your room, I wouldn’t have gotten in line" Beau said as he crossed the room and plopped on the table.

"Funnyyy." I said sticking my tongue out like a little child. "Well, what do you need?" I asked.

"Wrists pleaseee." He said sticking his arms out.

"Left please." I asked grabbing for it.

I started stretch it out a little bit when Beau winces and pulls back a little bit. "Did that hurt?" I asked knowing the answer.

"Umm, yeah, that hurt like a bitch!" He said clutching his wrist.

"In all seriousness, has it been bothering you in practice?" I asked.

He looked down towards his knees.

"Beau?" I said.

"No...Yes...kinda? Anna, don’t say anything! Just tape me up real well, and I'll be fine. I promise." He said.

"Fine. For tonight. When we get back to Pittsburgh, you're letting the docs check it out. It'll only prevent something serious, Beau." I said.

"Fineee. Now make sure you do this right. My wrists are worth a few million." He joked.

"Oh, I know." I rolled my eyes.

There was another knock at the door.

"Hey, babe." Brandon said as he walked into my room.

"Hiii." I said looking over my shoulder.

"I didn’t know you were in here until I talked to Brooksy, or I would’ve come to you." He said showing
me his wrists.

"It's okay. I got to take care of this fool instead." I laughed nodding towards Beau.

"Ha! I'm the fool?" He laughed.

"A fool, and you're done. Goodbyeee. Send in the next one." I said waving him on.

"There wasn’t anyone behind me. So, you're done too. Unless you wanna go be nasty with Suts." He said hopping off the table.

"Hmm, maybe I just will, asshole." I laughed.

He walked over to Brandon who was sitting on the table that my bag was on.

"Watch out bro, she might try to wrap your dick. And I'm sure that wouldn’t be pleasant." He said leaning in.

"Ew! Beau, get outtt!" I said pushing him towards the door.

Brandon and Beau both started laughing.

"Okay, okay. Byeee." He said leaving.

His head then popped back around the corner. "For real, dude. I'd watch out." He said.

"Okay, Beau. Leave before she kills you." Brandon laughed.

I looked at him and laughed and then crossed the room to him.

"Have I told you that I love the color red on you?" He chuckled dragging his fingers across my cheeks, ending by my chin and pulled me in for a kiss.

"No. You haven’t." I said as I pulled away.

I turned away and started to clean up again.

"You're leaving me hanging here!" He grinned.

"Too. Baddd. I have to do my job. And you need to get ready." I said as I crossed back towards him.

I put a hand on his chest and started to play with is t-shirt.

I looked up, and leaned into his awaiting lips. His eagerly joined my movements and deepened the kiss. I felt his tongue glide across my lips searching for an entrance. I graciously allowed it and breathed into his mouth. He let out a small moan, and moved his lips to my neck.

"Mmm, you taste sooo, good." He hummed against my skin, dragging out each word.

"Mmm. Okay. Stoppp. I let you win, now let's gooo." I said trying to pull out of his arms that had wrapped around my waist and back.

"Mmm, but I didn’t get enough." He said nuzzling into my neck, rubbing his nose over my collar bones.

"Brandonnn. Go. You're gonna be late. And you should take what you gettt." I laughed.

"Mmm, so true." He laughed, unwinding his arms from around me.

"That might have been the hardest thing I've had to do..." he said as I started to walk away.

"Go, Brandon. You have a game. Remember?" I smiled.

***

I didn’t think it would be that hard to watch them play.

But, now that I personally know most of them, it worried me.

Every time one of them was slammed into the boards I would gasp or cover my mouth and wince.

"You alright over there, rookie?" One of my fellow trainers, Adam, asked.

"Uhh, yeah. Just nervous." I smiled.

"Ahh, don’t worry. Half the time, if they're hurt they don’t even tell us. You'll be fine." He reassured me.

"I just haven’t been to a game since I've learned how to fix all the possible things that could go wrong." I said.

I wasn’t going to tell him that I was really worried about Brandon. Then he'll think I'm even more of a girl than I already am.

Anddd, I know they frown upon relationships...

So, there's that too.

"Like I said, kid, don’t worry!" Adam said pulling me from my thoughts. "Oooo!!! Nice hit Brooksy!
Keep it up, big boy!" He shouted after Brooks put a Flyer into the boards.

"Just loosen up and watch the game already! We have the best seats in the house!" He laughed.

"You sure are right about that!" I chuckled.

***

And enjoy I did.

We won 4-1!!!

Jussi Jokinen started it off in the second period and then Kuni added another only two and a half minutes later!

In between goals, Robert Bortuzzo got into a fight. This is where I was really nervous. But, he was fine and ended up with a five minute major.

Then in the third, Sid made it 3-1, and Geno made it 4-1 with an empty-netter to end the game. It was great hockey.

And now I'm waiting outside the locker room for Brandon around a corner and out of view.

He emerged about five minutes later in his suit again, but no tie.

He probably couldn’t tie it again.

I peeked around the corner so he could see me.

I smiled as he finally spotted me and walked towards me.

When he reached me, he threw his bag on the ground only to pick me up and spin me around.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and squealed as we spun.

"Brandon!" I giggled.

He moved his hands to the backs of my thighs to encourage me to wrap my legs around his waist; which I did. Then, I moved my hands from around his neck to his damn hair and firmly pressed a kiss to his lips. Our lips began to quicken as we deepened kiss. It continued to grow in intensity and heat with my finger lightly pulling at his hair, until someone awkwardly cleared their throats to my left.

I reluctantly pulled away from Brandon and buried my face into his shoulder with the familiar burn of embarrassment moving to my cheeks as he turned his head to see who it was.

"Oh, hey Bortz." Brandon said placing me lightly on my feet, but leaving a hand on my waist.

"I don’t mean to be a buzz kill...but I saw Brandon come this way, so I figured you’d be here, too. But, I just wanted someone to look at this to make sure it's okay." Robert Bortuzzo said pointing to his face.

Above his right eye was slightly swollen.

"I don’t have gloves on me, but I'm going to assume that you're not diseased nor are you bleeding." I smiled.

"No, and nope; you should be good. And I'm going to trust that you are neither, as well." He smiled back.

"I'm all clean." I said showing him my hands.

"Could you lean down a little? I have short girl probs." I laughed.

"Yeah, sure." He answered.

He leaned down and I pulled his face a little closer to mine. I pressed lightly and ran my fingers over and around his eyebrow and eye socket.

"Well, nothing feels broken...but that doesn’t mean it isn’t. I suggest ice, and then we can go from
there. You aren’t having any vision issues right? No blurriness or double vision?” I asked.

“Nahh, none of that. It’s just sore.” He said rubbing his forehead.

“That’s good…well not the soreness.” I laughed.

“I'll just go run and grab you an icepack real fast. Be right back." I said turning to run to a training room.

I grabbed an icepack from a freezer and ran back.

Both Brandon and Robert were on their phones.

"Here ya go, Bortz." I smiled.

"Thanks, Doc. See you two on the bus." He said giving us a small wave.

"Well, we might as well go head to the bus." He said nodding to the way Robert walked.

"Oh, wait. I need a post first game selfie with youuu!" I said pulling my phone out.

As I unlocked it and opened the camera app, he moves behind me and put his chin on my shoulder.

"Ready?" I asked smiling.

"Yupp." He answered.

Just as I went to snap the picture he pressed a kiss to my cheek.

"Okay, as adorable as that is, I need a normal picture, seeing as I haven’t told anyone we're dating...so just make a funny face!" I laughed.

I stuck my tongue out and held up my thumb up, and Brandon followed me and did basically the same.

"Perffff." I smiled.

"So when are you going to tell your friends and family about us?" Brandon asked as we began walking down a hallway to the buses.

"I'm gonna set time aside tomorrow to call my mom, and I need to make plans with my girlfriends..." I answered.

"Okay. My parents already know." He smiled.

"Oh, well that's good. I promise that there's no meaning in me not telling them, I just honestly haven’t had the time." I said.

"Anna, it's okay. I know." He smiled, grabbing my hand.

"Are you gonna post our picture together?" He chuckled.

"Yeahhh." I laughed.

'First game was a sucesssss!!! #WeWon #BrandonSutter #Flyerssuck'

I showed him the post and he chuckled, pulling me into him and kissing the top of my head.