Master of Timing

Lyndsey sat in the driver’s seat, her hands nervously folded in on each other as she stared at the steering wheel. Sid had texted her while she had been sleeping, and asked if she wanted to join him for dinner near the hotel. He obviously couldn’t go far, but he didn’t want to eat in the restaurants there in case someone saw him. He didn’t want to be “Sidney Crosby” on their first date.

She looked up from her view and saw the Italian place that he’d had found on yelp. She’d never eaten at Gino’s, but she laughed a little when he told her the name.

’Really? Are you sure your liney won’t mind you’re eating at a restaurant with his name WITHOUT him?’

‘Eh, what he doesn’t know won’t kill him.’ came his reply.

“Now or never,” she muttered, opening the door to the freezing January air. She wrapped her coat around her shoulders tightly and tried her best not to run across the parking lot, catching herself before she slipped on some ice by the door. She held the door open for a family that arrived two steps before she did and she welcomed the warm air like nothing else.

When the maitre d' asked her for the name, she paused and bit her lip. “Oh, my friend made the reservation, I didn’t think to ask.”

Like he knew a knight in shining armour (more like, a crisp white shirt and tie) was needed, he appeared out of thin air. “Hey,” he smiled, leaning forward to kiss her cheek. Lyndsey bit her lip again, and sent back a blush. “I’ve got us a seat this way.”

The maitre d' smiled, and let Sidney walk her back to the table. Ever the gentlemen, he pulled out her chair and handed her coat to the server waiting to hand them their menus. “The special tonight is grilled Atlantic salmon with hollandaise sauce and sweet potato glazed with honey. The wine list is here,” He pointed to the back of the menu and handed them both a folder each. “I’ll be back in a few.”

“Thank you,” Sid said, his eyes on Lyndsey as she took in the restaurant. She had never eaten in a place as fancy as this, and because of that she was going to avoid looking at the prices on the menu for as long as possible. Even though she knew the man across from her wasn’t going to let her pay, she didn’t want to think about the money he could be spending on other things.

Her eyes danced across the fancy pictures on the walls, the candles on each table, and two kids that ran past where they were sitting before she locked eyes on his. For a moment, they did nothing but stare at each other, before Lyndsey laughed a little and bit her cheek, opening the folder.

“How was your sleep?”

She shrugged, taking a sip of the water near her knife. She wasn’t nearly as nervous as she thought she might’ve been. “Not too bad. I think the adrenaline of everything wore off and I crashed pretty quickly.”

“Oh, so an normal day's rest then,” He joked, not really sure if it actually was, but Lyndsey’s laugh and nod told him he was right. “Would you like appetisers?”

“Oh, uhm,” She paused, trying not to show her astonishment at the numbers after the dollar sign. “I think I’ll be alright with just a main.”

Sidney put his menu down, and leant across the table, resting his hand on hers. He hoped it wasn’t sweaty. “Lyndsey.” She looked up at him, shyly. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” She frowned, and he squeezed her hand gently, sitting back in his chair.

“That biting your lip, ‘why is he doing all of his for me’, cute as hell frown thing you’ve got going on.” He smiled. “You took care of me once, let me treat you to a nice dinner.”

He thought she was cute as hell.

She was even cuter when she blushed, he noted.

“Okay,” She agreed, taking a quick look at the menu again.

The spent the dinner swapping stories, talking about why she got into nursing, what high school was like for someone destined for the NHL. Their mains arrived quicker than expected, but that didn’t stop the endless flow of conversation. Both of them were surprised that they had more in common than what they thought. Apart from a mutual love of The Outsiders, Sidney actually listened to a few of the bands she liked, although he had to admit he couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone to a concert. They disagreed on her love of pugs, and she refused to acknowledge that he’d never tried a B52 shot.

“And you call yourself a Canadian,” She teased, and he just rolled his eyes.

As much as he tried to not talk about his career, she seemed genuinely interested in what he did when he didn’t have hockey to worry about. And it was a test to him as well, to come up with the truth.

“Honestly, during the season, it’s basically wake up, train, lunch, nap, game, sleep, repeat.” He smiled wistfully. “It sounds boring but,” He shrugged again. “It’s the only life I’ve really known since I was 15. I wish I could say I save all my fun for the summer, but even then it’s pretty routine.”

“No wild parties and getting trashed with your friends from home?” Her eyes twinkled in the dim light that Sid had only noticed had been turned down as the night wore on. Now, the reflections of light from the candles near the wine glasses bounced off her skin and he was struck very suddenly by how beautiful she looked. “Sid?”

He blinked and looked at her again. “Sorry?”

She giggled, reaching forward to take her glass of wine, her hair falling past her shoulders as she moved in the seat. “Are you sure you’re still not concussed?”

He laughed a little, and leant forward, resting his arms on the table. She copied his pose, eye brow raised as she danced the wine glass in between her fingers slowly. “I’m pretty sure I’m not.” He stared her down in such a way that Lyndsey felt a flush come to her cheeks, and it wasn’t because she was embarrassed. “Lucky I know this really great nurse.”

“Oh yeah?” She questioned, her eyes glancing down to watch his fingers drum up and down against hers where she was holding her glass. He seemed fixated, until his tongue darted out to lick his lips slightly, and Lyndsey wiggled her fingers. Maybe it was the wine making her a little daring, or the man in front of her, but the shyness she had walked in with had left the building hours ago.

They didn’t say anything, but Sidney gently moved his fingers between hers, and once he held her hand, he brought it to his lips to kiss the back of it. His smile reached his eyes as he squeezed her fingers with his own, and he placed their hands carefully on the table, his thumb running back and forth slowly.

“Yeah,” He sighed, looking at her hand in his. “She does have a habit of taking care of patients that aren’t hers though.” He looked up quickly to see her cover a laugh with her free hand, ducking her head down. “I better keep an eye out or I might get jealous.”

Their moment was interrupted only a few minutes later, and Sidney grabbed the bill to slide his credit card in without even looking at the check. Lyndsey frowned to herself at the thought that the night might be over, and even if a quick glance at her watch told her it was nearly midnight, she wasn’t at all ready to go to sleep.

Sidney wasn’t either.

“I know it’s cold out,” She started, before she bit her lip. Sid just watched her expectantly after his eyes flicked to the window.

He prayed it didn’t start snowing.

“But…” He prompted.

She shrugged. “There’s this really great spot I go to think sometimes, and it’s got a great view over the city.” She imagined herself crossing her fingers. “I know you don’t always get a chance to explore the cities you’re in when you play, I thought maybe you’d like-“

“I’d love to.”

She smiled, wider than he’d ever seen her smile before. “Okay. Great.”

He took his card back from the black envelope and signed off on the check, while she finished her wine and water. He stood up and held out his hand for her to take and he squeezed gently as they walked to the front door, before he held open her coat for her.

Neither of them noticed that they were the last two in the restaurant.



The radio was playing gently in the background as Lyndsey steered her car gently down the parking lot of the nature reserve. They would have to walk a little to get a good spot with a view, but the beauty (or stupidity, whichever way you looked at it) of them being out in the beginning of January at midnight meant that no one else had the same crazy idea they did.

Lyndsey just hoped that the wind would stay away.

He grinned at her as they came to a stop, and she couldn’t help but send one straight back, hardly daring to believe that she had Sidney Crosby sitting in her passenger seat.

Although, he wasn’t really the hockey superstar to her as such anymore. Now there was a personality behind the face, something that the media didn’t get to see.

“Wait here,” He told her, before he jumped out of the car and moved quickly to her side, opening the door and holding his hand for her to step out. Which was a good thing, because she nearly slipped on the snow. Again. “Whoop, careful.” His free hand holding the door had moved to her waist to keep her steady and she put hers on his bicep, blushing. Again.

“Okay, I’m good,” She laughed, moving to the side to shut the door.

“Well,” He tucked her arm in behind his waist and put his around her shoulder. “I’ll keep hold of you, just in case. I don’t trust the snow.” He glanced down. “Or your heels.”

Smooth, Crosby.

She leant into his body a little and pulled her coat around her closer, leading the way down the path to the massive open deck the council had commissioned last Spring. Their footsteps echoed along the wooden deck that someone had cleared of snow earlier, and their breath came out as fog in front of their noses. He pulled her closer to him as they rounded the bend and he smiled at her when she gripped the back of his coat tighter to walk down the two steps, before they reached the platform that showed them the view of the city.

Sidney stopped walking once he looked up and actually saw what was in front of him. “Oh, wow.”

Lyndsey grinned, and pointed over to a bench for them to sit. It was her favourite spot in the whole park, and she usually came here during the summer on nights when she wasn’t working and just wanted to sit and contemplate life. She told him as such.

“I wish I had a spot like this in Pittsburgh.”

He still had his arm around her shoulders, and she looked over at him, his face only inches from hers. “You don’t?”

He shrugged, his eyes dancing over her face, smiling a little at her red nose. “I usually put it aside until I’m back to Nova Scotia.” He glanced at her frown. “It’s not like I’m keeping anything bottled up inside. I just have enough distractions that sometimes I forget anything but hockey exists.”

She felt brazen, the wine from dinner still hinting at her cheeks, and she rested her head on his shoulder, crossing her right leg over left to lean into him more. He pulled his hand from his coat pocket and took hold of one of hers, their gloved fingers lacing as best as possible.

“Do you get lonely?”

He sighed, resting his head on hers. Did he get lonely? Right now, sitting here like this, with her wrapped up beside him, with an amazing view, at this moment, loneliness was the farthest thing from his mind. But when he tried to remember the last time he had sat like this with someone, someone he thought was important enough to disrupt the life he had created for himself, he came up blank.

“A little.” He could admit that much.

She didn’t say anything, but Lyndsey could hear more of his answer in his tone. She squeezed his hand harder, her eyes moving over the lights from the city. She was happy that it was a clear night, and from where they were she could see some of the stars that the street lamps hadn’t had a chance to devour yet.

He wanted to sit there all night. It had been so long that the stress of his job, his life, the concussion hadn’t weighed on his mind, and he realised he hadn’t thought about anything but Lyndsey since the moment he saw her walk through the door. A couple of years ago that would’ve scared him, but he was beginning to think that his team mates with lives of their own and families they’d settled down with might be onto something.

“Hey, Lynds?”

She murmured a ‘hmm’ and sat up gently, moving to face him. His hand on his shoulder moved to brush some of her hair away from her face, and his eyes glanced down at her lips, a little blue thanks to the cold.

“I hope you understand how much our little talks mean to me,” He told her honestly, and he prayed to God or whatever power there may be that she really understood just what he was saying.

He didn’t let new people into his life very often, and he stuck to his routines pretty hard. There was something, okay many things, about the woman in front of him that made him start to change his mind and he didn’t think it was going to be a bad thing. Distance would probably prove to be a problem, but they had managed just fine to become friends, or whatever it was they were, in the last couple of months without actually having spent any time face to face. There were nights after the team suffered a bad loss when he knew he could text her, because she conveniently was awake when most of the world was asleep, and she knew exactly what to say and how to say it. When the worries of the concussion symptoms appearing out of no where get him down, she distracts him enough to get his mind off it for a while.

Lyndsey watched him, as his eyes kind of looked through her. It took her a moment to figure out he was clearly thinking about something he couldn’t quite tell her yet, but she knew he was that kind of guy, just from the formal interviews she’d seen, and the way he watched her back when she read to him in the hospital all those months ago. Lyndsey was sure that he didn’t know she knew he was watching, and she wanted to keep that bit to herself, for the times when reality crashed through those moments where she pictured a whole different life for herself.

“Sidney?”

Her whisper broke through his reverie and he blinked softly, his eyes moving over each part of her face, a lingering glance at her lips before he settled on her eyes. She went to talk and he shook his head, pulling his hand from hers to settle it on the side of her cold face.

“I could kiss the hell outta you,” He told her quietly, his thumb brushing against her cheek. He gulped. He’d never said anything quite so bold off the rink before. Maybe ever.

“Well…” She paused, and his quickened single breath didn’t go unnoticed. “I’m not going to stop you.”

He grinned, his eyes meeting hers briefly before they slipped shut, his lips connecting with hers and warming her body better than any cup of her favourite tea in the world could. He remembered he was still holding her around her shoulders, and he pulled her closer, gently angling his face and running his tongue along her bottom lip ever so slightly. He cheered to himself when she gasped and opened for him, her mouth feeling like it was on fire against his and the bitter cold air that they were sitting in.

He had somehow wound his fingers through her hair, and her hands were grasping at his lapels on his coat. She used it to his advantage when he pulled away slightly to chance a look at her, but he only caught sight of a grin before she was kissing him again, their lips moving at a rushed but gentle, “why did it take us so long to do this” kind of pace. Sidney moved his hand down to tuck his arm behind her knees, moving them over his lap as he held her closer to him.

It wasn’t until he moaned gently that she seemed to remember where they were, and she broke them apart shortly after, their breaths combining in front of their faces. Her nose was still red and her lips a little swollen, his cheeks finally matching hers for colour. He ran his hand down her thigh to her knee, where he squeezed gently and they let out a gentle laugh, Sid leaning forward to capture her lips softly just once more.

“I don’t really want you to go back to Pittsburgh,” She whispered, leaning her forehead against his. She had closed her eyes, because she wasn’t sure she wanted to see his reaction to the truth in her statement. He squeezed his arms around her and pulled her impossibly closer, moving to press a kiss to her neck.

“I don’t really want to either.”

It scared him a little how much he meant it.

“I had such a wonderful time tonight,” She spoke into his shoulder, tucking her head in to face his chest against the weather. She shivered slightly and he kissed her neck again, leaning back a little to direct her face up to his. His smile said it all, and she leant up to kiss him, slowly brushing her lips against his as she wound her arms around his neck.

He pulled back after a moment, holding her face in both his hands. It was only because she had shivered again did he decide that it was probably best they got out of the cold. He knew for sure one of them was going to get sick.

“I had an amazing time with you, too. Thank you,” He agreed, nodding his head at the view of the city, before glancing at her lips again. “And thanks for that as well.” He smirked, and he made a promise to himself to never forget the way she looked when she curled into his chest and laughed.



Lyndsey broke apart from him, her hands pressing against the skin where his neck met his jacket.

“Sorry,” He laughed, licking his lips a little and cleared his throat.

Lyndsey rolled her eyes and leant forward again, brushing her lips against his with a whisper soft “don’t be.”

“I just can’t help it,” and he thread his fingers through her hair to hold her close to him, pulling her closer to him across the middle of her car. He couldn’t get enough; once he’d had a taste of her sitting on the park bench, he needed more.

He had no idea how he was going to get on a plane and fly 1800 miles away from her.

Lyndsey groaned, breaking them apart once again. “Sid.”

“Okay, okay,” He relented, taking both his hands away and holding them up so that absolutely no part of him was touching her anymore. Except that part where she had brought her knee up and it was justresting against his thigh. His hand was instantly drawn to it.

“You’re insane.” He quirked his head to the side, a grin threatening to break out across his face. “No really! I mean, I know you said you wanted to see me but why did you fly all the way out here?”

Sidney knew what she meant. Yeah, he’d explained how he didn’t want to use Skype, and as far as he was concerned a phone call just wasn’t going to do it justice. He took a deep breath and turned his attention to the empty parking lot they were in, the neon lights of the ceiling shining brightly. He shrugged a little. “It felt like the right thing to do. I… I have no idea what I’m doing but I couldn’t sit at a computer and try to figure this out with you, I would’ve lost my mind. I needed to see you. To actually see you, have you in front of me. I tried to stop thinking about my time in the hospital but I couldn’t. I didn’t even think I’d get this far, I mean, sending you my number with some flowers was probably the riskiest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“I wouldn’t have done anything bad to you,” She offered and he nodded again, still not brave enough to turn to face her. He had come this far, he was going to tell her the truth damn it.

“This whole thing kind of scares me a bit.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded once, then shook his head. “Okay, a lot.” She giggled and at that he turned to her, reaching for a hand that was resting in her lap, her knee still against his. “You trust me when I say that I don’t really do this, ever. Yeah?”

Lyndsey smirked. She couldn’t resist having a little fun. “What? Sending a girl flowers, flying to another country to see her, sit in the passenger seat of a car making out with said girl at two in the morning…” He sent her a be serious look and she burst out laughing. “Oh, come on Sid! Yes, I believe you.”

“That I’m not some typical ‘hockey player’ or whatever.”

She nodded. “I know.”

“And all of this,” He waved between them with his free hand, eyes darting down to her lips before going back to her eyes. “This scares the shit out of me.”

It was possibly the most honest thing he’d said to a woman in his entire life. He wasn’t about to pretend that he totally had game and did this thing all the time. Lyndsey would see right through it. And she made him feel like he didn’t have to pretend to be something the media or the fans wished he’d sometimes come out and be; a guy with a lot of cash to spend and one who appeared to be accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. It wasn’t his thing.

He was frowning so hard he almost didn’t notice when she leant forward, resting her head on his shoulder, moving their intertwined hands to his side of the car so she could press her forehead into his neck. “But?”

He took another deep breath, his hand holding her tight enough he had to remember to try not to break her hand. “But I’m fed up with looking for someone like you in everyone else.” He felt her hold her breath, her fingers twitching against his. “I think it’s about time I got scared.”