Seven Year Ache

Riley was standing in front of the dresser putting her earrings in when she heard Shea enter the house. She heard shuffling around but stayed where she was, he had left her a note earlier that afternoon telling her to be ready for seven and not to come downstairs until he came to get her. She fluffed her hair, having washed, straightened and then curled it into loose waves. She smoothed her hands over her dress; a knee length black sleeveless dress with a v shaped plunge neck, and sighed.

She walked over to the bed and sat down, slipping her feet into bright yellow four inch pumps, the pop of color against the black dress and her tanned skin. Turning the bracelet Shea had given her for Christmas around on her wrist Riley busied herself on her phone while she waited for Shea to come upstairs and get her.

Ten minutes later there was a knock on the door before the door open and Shea stepped inside. He was wearing black dress pants and a baby blue button up, and he looked at Riley and smiled, telling her, "You look beautiful."

As she stood up and he linked their arms together she smiled at him and said, "You don't look so bad yourself."

He guided her down the stairs and instead of going left toward the door he steered her to the right and into the kitchen. Riley noted the groceries on the kitchen island and turned to him with her eyebrow raised and Shea told her, "I thought about making a reservation at a restaurant."

"But?" Riley asked him both curiously and amused as she studied what was on the counter. Steak, potatoes, ingredients for some kind of salad, strawberries and a few other items wrapped in things so that she couldn't see what they were.

"Then I remembered the first time we had dinner in this house." Shea told her and Riley smiled at the memory. He stood behind her and wrapped both arms around her, crossing his forearms over her chest. She leaned back into him, clasped her hands onto his forearms and turned her head enough to press a kiss against his jaw.

"So you thought let's try it again and see where it goes this time?" She asked him with a smirk, both of them knowing where that night had gone.

Shrugging Shea told her, "A night at home seemed better than in a crowded restaurant."

"I know. It does." She supposed maybe Shea was right; this time was different. He was making an effort and reminding her of all the reasons she fell in love with him in the first place. So for that reason she decided to take him seriously about this not being like all the other times before this. They would make the effort. She turned around in his grasp, grinned up at him and asked, "So what's in those little bags?"

With a smile he told her, "Those are a surprise."

He unwrapped her from his arms and walked around the counter and out the patio door to turn the grill on. She contemplated looking inside the bags to see what they were but decided against it, and opened the fridge, finding a bottle of red wine in the door. She smiled to herself as she took it out and pulled 2 wine glasses from the cupboard above the sink, filling them both as Shea walked into the kitchen.

She handed him one and he asked, "Ready to start?"

Nodding Riley glanced around the counter, not sure where to start. Shea took the lead, handing her a bunch of vegetables to cut up while he peeled the potatoes. They worked in silence, sharing a few looks here and there until the salad was made and in the fridge to wait for dinner and the potatoes were boiling. It was then that Riley asked, "When did you have time to get all this stuff?"

"I went right after practice, that's why I said not to come downstairs until I came to get you." Shea told her with a smile.

"You are something else." She told him with an amused shake of her head. He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her against his chest.

As he reached down and tucked a curl behind her ear Shea told her softly, "I just wanted this to be right. I miss this stuff."

"Me too." Riley told him, resting her chin against his chest. This was something they used to do often, even after late games or a late arrival from a road trip they would set up camp in the kitchen for a few hours and cook whatever they had on hand. Shea enjoyed cooking, but it was Riley who was better at it. She would often come up with interesting concoctions he was surprised actually tasted good, often he would come home to her mixing something on the stove. Busy work was what she called it.

"I thought we could cook and have dinner and then maybe watch a movie?" Shea asked, making sure she was okay with his plans for their free evening together. Riley nodded and he smiled, telling her, "I also thought that you might like taking a trip down memory lane."

"Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?" She asked him curiously.

"I was looking for a pair of dress shoes in the storage room and came across a bunch of photo albums." He himself had completely forgotten about those photo albums. One Riley had put together the season before while he was in Sochi, bored upon Shea not allowing her to come with him, the other had been a gift from his mother many years ago.

"That sounds perfect." She told him, smiling as he leaned down to kiss her before he took the steak outside to put them on the grill.

Riley brought her glass to her lips and took a sip of her wine as she leaned against the fridge and smiled to herself. She hadn't wondered it lately but often before she wondered how she had gotten so lucky, and right now she was wondering it again. She wondered how she had gotten lucky enough to have a guy like Shea in her life, and how she could have almost thrown it all away. They both had a lot of work to do still but it didn't seem so daunting anymore.

"I think I see smoke." Shea stated as he walked back into the house. When Riley whipped around to look at the stove he let out a laugh. She turned back to him and he joked, "You were thinking pretty hard."

"Rude." She stated, pursing her lips and crossing her arms over her chest for good measure.

Shea laughed again as he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into him. He kissed her cheek before telling her, "I'm kidding. You're very pretty when you think."

"Better be." Riley told him with a grin. She leaned up and captured his lips with hers, pulling him into a soft kiss that he didn't want to pull away from. It was Riley who pulled away first and pushed him toward the patio doors stating, "If you overcook my steak I'm ordering pizza."

She could hear his loud laughter from outside and it made her smile. Leaning against the counter with one hand she used the other to reach down and pull her heels off one and a time, tossing them toward the wall beside the fridge. She checked the potatoes, turning them off and mashing them while Shea brought the steak inside. He set the table while she plated their food, and before they knew it they were seated and eating.

"How's your steak?" Shea asked her as he cut into his own.

Riley cut into the middle of hers, looked at it before joking, "Overcooked."

"What?" He asked, immediately leaning over to see. When he saw it was cooked to medium rare perfection he shot her a look and said, "You're on thin ice tonight you know."

"Am I? What's my punishment?" She asked him with a cocked eyebrow.

Shea shrugged and stated, "You won't get to see what the surprise is."

"That's just rude." She stated, popping a piece of steak into her mouth. She chewed, swallowed and told him, "This is delicious and you might just still have a job here after all."

Shea let out a laugh and reached out, grabbing her free hand and giving it a squeeze before he let go of it and took a drink of his wine. This was the way things should have been months ago.

Nearly an hour later they were finished their meal and the dishes were all done, and Riley was waiting impatiently for Shea to show her what was in the bags he was torturing her with. He was hulling the strawberries and she was rinsing them with water and putting them in a clean bowl, every so often she would look at him and make a motion to hurry up that would make him chuckle.

Finally he tossed the knife into the sink and threw out all the garbage, before he walked over to the counter where the 2 bags sat. He pulled out a box of popcorn, pulling a bag out and putting it in the microwave, before going back to the bag. The next was a container full of lemon zest he had prepared earlier that day and a container of sea salt, which she raised her eyebrow to and Shea asked, "Did you think I forgot how to make your favorite popcorn mix?"

She smiled at him, honestly surprised by his gesture. He set the two containers of popcorn mix aside and went into the next bag, pulling out a container of chocolate mousse. Curiously, and a little excitedly she asked him, "Is that from…"

He nodded, "Yup. I was gonna do strawberries and fondue but then I passed by this place on my way to the rink and figured this was better."

"Did you seriously go to my favorite bakery and buy chocolate mousse?" Riley asked him in excitement. When he nodded she took a few steps forward and leaned up, kissing him square on the mouth before dropping back onto her heels she told him, "I love you."

Shea chuckled and opened the container, holding it out for her. She stuck her index finger into the mousse before she licked it off of her finger and Shea waited for a smile. Once she smiled he dipped his own finger into it and copied her. As the microwave dinged Shea took the mousse to the strawberries and filled them with it while Riley mixed their popcorn, Shea always managed to get the ratio of lemon zest to sea salt wrong when he did it.

Once he had all the strawberries filled with the chocolate mousse he held one out for Riley, and she bit into it, chewed, swallowed and took the other piece from his fingers, popping it into her mouth. He waited until she nodded and told him, "You did good."

Then he grabbed one for himself, chewing it slowly for the full flavor effect before he took the plate in one hand and both their wine glasses and walked into the living room. Riley grabbed the bowl of popcorn and followed him, dropping onto the couch beside him as he navigated through the Apple TV for the movie he had rented them.

When it showed up on the screen Riley let out a laugh and asked, "Barbershop?"

"Trip down memory lane right?" Shea asked her, reaching out to grab the two photo albums from the bottom shelf on the coffee table. He placed them on his lap as the movie started and informed Riley, "I'm pulling out all the stops tonight."

"I can see that." She stated, taking a drink of her wine before setting the glass onto the coffee table and leaning against his side as he opened the first photo album. She pointed and laughed at a picture of Shea in his first year as a Rocket and said, "You were so dopey looking."

"Yeah well you looked like you were twelve when we met… except you had massive boobs." Shea jokingly fired back, laughing when Riley fake gasped.

She looked down at her chest and sighed before saying, "Unfortunately one does not out grow that."

With a smirk Shea shrugged, "I mean… I don't hate them."

She rolled her eyes but laughed at his comment anyway and flipped the page for him. There was a picture of the two of them, they were probably in their mid twenties, Shea was holding onto Riley from behind trying to teach her how to perfect a slap shot. It made them both smile. When he flipped the page there was a picture of Shea and his mother and Riley told him, "That's one of my favorite pictures of you."

"Yeah?" He asked curiously, glancing at it once more quickly before turning the page.

Riley nodded, her head against his shoulder as she told him, "I like seeing you happy. You're so different when you're enjoying yourself not so focused."

"Sorry." He wasn't sure why or what he was apologizing for but he did it anyway.

"Don't be. I get how hard your career is. It's just nice to see you more like yourself every once in a while." She told him, patting his thigh. Her eyes caught on a picture of Shea and Dave, Riley had forced them into a picture when Dave had come to visit when the house had finally been finished. What had started out as a normal picture quickly turned into one of the best pictures Riley had ever taken; Dug had decided to photo bomb the picture by jumping up against Dave who was laughing and Shea had a look of absolute panic on his face.

"I cannot believe you let my mom print that." Shea muttered as Riley laughed.

He flipped the page again, finding a large picture of he and Riley the first time they had the chance to see each other after he won his first Olympic gold medal in Vancouver in 2010. Shea was still in his equipment and Riley had her legs wrapped around his waist the best she could, they had their lips pressed against each others and the medal hanging between them. The very next picture was taken a few hours later, Shea out of his equipment but the two of them standing beside each other. The medal around his neck, and Riley was holding it gingerly in her hands while staring at it in pride, and Shea was looking at her with big, brown eyes. He could remember the way he felt about Riley being there with him and knowing she was proud of him outweighed even the medal itself in that moment.

"Your next Olympics you know what I want?" Riley asked him.

Shea turned to look at her and said, "That's in another four years. Might not make it then."

Riley shook her head, "You will. I know it. And you better give me what I want for it."

He raised his eyebrow, "And that is?"

"A mini you or me to cheer you on with." Riley told him with a small smile.

"Yeah? You want that?" Shea asked, hoping she didn't get offended by the surprise in his voice.

She nodded and told him, "A bunch of them."

"I can absolutely do that for you." Shea told her, leaning down to kiss her softly.

"Promise?" She asked him softly, reaching up to rub the side of his face, running her fingers over his bearded cheek.

He nodded, "Say the word."

"One day, not right now though. Is that okay?" She asked him, unsure of what he would think of that idea.

"That's perfectly okay Riley, whenever you want, but know that I'm okay and ready for that with you whenever you are." He assured her, kissing her softly once more before he smiled and told her, "Frankly I can't wait for that."

"Yeah?" She asked with a smile.

Nodding Shea told her, "Oh yeah. A bunch of little ones running around driving Dug nuts, making a mess in the house and breaking stuff and blaming it on each other."

Riley let out a loud laugh and told him, "It's gonna be weird. I never had siblings so I think anything could surprise me."

"Not me. Me and my brother were always doing that kind of stuff. Drove our parents crazy and as crazy as it sounds I can't wait for that." Shea told her and Riley smiled at his words.