The Truth Is...

James and Claudia had gotten back into Nashville after their cabin weekend only to get straight onto a plane and fly out to Vegas two hours later. Claudia was sure she had forgotten all of the important things she needed to travel but she was so exhausted by the time that they got to the hotel that she had dove right into bed promising James they would find a drug store tomorrow for all of their unpacked needs.

Waking up that morning hadn’t turned out to be any better, James had to physically drag Claudia out of bed even after sleeping in until eleven. He ordered room service while she showered, taking her sweet time might he add, they ate, he showered and then he dragged her out of the hotel room on some top secret mission.

That top secret mission had somehow lead to the both of them sitting in chairs at a tattoo shop. How they had gotten there, Claudia had no idea.

Well, she did. James had wanted to check the place out, a recommendation from a former teammate somewhere down the line of his long career, and Claudia had gone along with it because tattoo shops almost always had air conditioning. The question that she didn’t know how to answer was how had she ended up in the chair next to James with a needle depositing ink into her skin for the first time in her thirty years of life.

It had been James' idea, one that she knew she could have said no to but she hadn't.

As a joke he had proposed that she finally get a tattoo, and that since he knew her so well he thought he should pick what it was. As it turned out, he did a pretty good job at picking it out for her. It was simple; three same size and shade dots in a vertical line.

He offered to get the matching set with her, moral support and all.

Once that had been decided James had told her that they should choose where it went for each other. James had decided that Claudia's should go between her breasts but closer to the bottom of her chest, the last dot was almost at the start of her stomach. In return Claudia decided James' should go horizontally directly underneath his collar bone.

James' reasoning for placement had been because then he was the only one who go to see it, Claudia didn't have a reason. She just knew that unlike for herself, the three dots would disappear with the rest of his ink if it wasn't placed somewhere that was an empty canvas.

Neither one of them were acting like it was a big deal because to them it wasn’t. They weren’t treating it as a couples tattoo, but rather a long overdue friendship one. But still, Claudia couldn’t help but wonder, if things didn’t work out between them, and she really hoped that never happened, they would each have a permanent reminder of that. Although, she supposed having his name in Chinese Gothic font across her lower back was worse than a couple of dots of ink.

She saw James glance at her from the corner of her eye so she turned her head to face him, eyebrow raised and he smiled at her, asking, “You okay?”

Rolling her eyes, small smile on her face, Claudia told him, “Peachy.”

“Good. Just so you know, in case you were thinking about this, if we break up you’re totally free to cover it in a block of ink.” James joked with a wide grin on his face that made Claudia let out the smallest of chuckles.

“I was thinking more along the lines of having it removed but hey, guess that works too.” She told him with a smile. He reached over and clasped his large hand around her much smaller one and gave it a squeeze.

That was when Claudia’s tattoo artist stood up and announced, “Alright, you’re done.”

He covered it with care, not even bothering to give her aftercare instructions because one look at James, sitting without a shirt on him in the chair next to them told him she didn’t need them. Claudia pulled her shirt up, adjusting it so that it covered everything again and just when she finished that James’ tattoo was finished as well and they were back out in the Las Vegas heat.

The tattoo shop, as it turned out, was only two blocks from the real estate office they needed to stop by to pick up James’ keys from, so with the promise of lunch once they were done Claudia followed behind him into the office and she waited patiently, and quietly while he signed whatever needed to be signed and was handed over a set of four silver keys.

When they headed back out into the sweltering heat James smiled over at Claudia and asked her, “What do you say, wanna go check the place out in person?”

“Will there be food?” She asked him.

He chuckled and told her, “We can order in, get pizza or something since I can afford to do that in the summer. I don’t have any furniture though.”

“What, you’ve never had a meal on the kitchen floor before?” Claudia asked him with a grin and again he laughed.

Wrapping his arm around her shoulders he pulled her into his side as they located a cab just down the street from them. James stuck his head in the window and asked if he was free and soon enough they were back in an air conditioned little area even if it was only for twenty minutes.

The house James had purchased was perhaps the most modest one in the little cul-de-sac it was placed in, that was Claudia’s first impression of the place as they pulled onto the street and she located it. Sure, it was still large, probably too large for one or two people, but it was easily the smallest out of all of them. She thought the place could use some flowers, and a little more greenery but that was nothing that couldn’t be done with a little effort. James dug in his pockets for his wallet and the keys he had been given minutes ago but Claudia had already reached through the little section in the plexiglass and paid for their cab.

Upon getting out of the car James told her, “I had that.”

“Don’t go pulling that macho bullshit already. I am perfectly capable of paying for a cab ride.” Claudia informed him as they approached the front door.

The doors were round, single not double but larger than your average front door. There was a door made up of glass, which opened to a wooden panel style door with a square window and antique style hardware. She waited slightly behind James as he unlocked the door and pushed it open, and then to her surprise, he turned around and picked her up, forcing her to wrap her legs around his waist so not to hit them on anything.

As he stepped into the foyer of the house Claudia asked him, “What exactly was the point to that?”

James grinned over at her as he set her back down on her feet and said, “Well I thought carrying you bridal style might be a little too romantic.”

She laughed and turned around to survey the foyer, which was plain with white stucco style walls that matched the exterior of the house. The flooring was tile, a mosaic type of pattern with burnt orange and terracotta colors in it. There was a short hanging light above their heads and a closet to their left for shoes and jackets.

James wrapped an arm around her from behind, his forearm laying across her chest as he said softly, “Welcome home.”

“Yeah, I think I could get used to this.” Claudia told him with a smile, adding in, “The last time I lived here I lived in a shoebox.”

He laughed, “That bad?”

“Awful. The entire apartment was the size of this foyer, you could hear everything everyone on your floor did, the place was boiling, and the electricity went out like every other day.” Claudia informed him, she wiggled out of his grasp and headed down to where the tile in the foyer met the hardwood in the rest of the house. To her right was the dining room, which closed off with a dark wood barn door, and on the left of that was a bathroom, beyond those two rooms was the large living room with vaulted ceilings and exposed beam work, and the kitchen that made Claudia wish she was a better cook.

Everything kept a similar theme as the rest of the house, even the outside; creamy white walls with a dark walnut colored wood detailing. It gave the house a cohesive feeling.

James told her, “Go outside.”

So she approached the double French doors, also round like the front door, and pulled them open, noting the fact that there was a lockable style gate that matched the size of the door, which made her feel a little more safe with all glass doors. The walkout from the door was tile, right to the pool and hot tub combination, but there was grass on either side. What really took her breath away was when she turned around.

Most of the outside of the house in the backyard was covered in trees and greenery that had grown up the stucco, and even some that was hanging down from the roof with little bloomed flowers on the vines. There was a balcony above the door for upstairs, with rounded arches and probably rounded doors, it seemed to be a theme. But what really got her was the fact that the section off of the door was framed with wood and she could see ties holding up white sheers that looked as if they went all the way around.

She looked over at James and joked, “Who knew Vegas could be this beautiful?”

He let out a laugh and told her, “I have one last surprise for you.”

“See, I hate it when you say those things. It makes me nervous.” Claudia joked, and James shook his head in amusement and motioned her back inside.

She followed him back through the house, to the door tucked in by the bathroom which he opened to reveal rather rickety looking stairs. When he reached out and flicked the light on Claudia found herself staring down at an unfinished basement and she raised her eyebrow at him but he simply started down the stairs so she followed.

What she found was, in fact, an unfinished basement.

She asked him, rather confused, “Was your surprise for me the place where you’re gonna dump my body when you get annoyed with me and kill me?”

Letting out a laugh James told her, “Think a little nicer.”

“I’m stumped.” She told him, looking around trying to figure out what it was that he was seeing and she was missing.

“There’s no windows, it’s one hundred percent underground.” James pointed out.

“Yeah… I noticed that.” She told him, her shoes making a clicking noise as she walked across the concrete floor to peek around behind the stairs to see if there was anything over there. Nothing.

“I thought we could use it as storage, for one, you know… shit we don’t really need but can’t throw out.” James told her and she nodded her head slowly, makes sense. He then told her, “But I also thought… well… we’re going shopping tomorrow.”

Her eyebrow raised, “Can you just get to the point of why I’m in the creepy murder basement?”

Letting out a laugh again James explained, “I thought we could set up a dark room down here, you know, so you could develop old school like you like so much.”

She stared at him for a second in surprise before she started softly, “James…”

When she trailed off and looked around again he was quick to tell her, “For the record I want to do it whether you come with me or not. This way you’ll have things to do when I’m not around, even if you’re just visiting. Because I know you’d never come visit me without a bag of camera supplies.”

“I mean… you’re right.” She told him with a smile, and she surprised him when she approached him and leaned up to kiss his lips softly. When she dropped back down onto her heels she said, “You’re far too good to me.”

“I know. I’ve actually been thinking about that lately.” James told her, wrapping both arms around her and pulling her into him. He looked down at her, and she was looking up at him with a quirked eyebrow so he told her, unable to keep a straight face through it, “I should probably stop being so nice, wouldn’t want you to get used to it and expect it all of the time.”

She reached behind him and pinched his back, making him jump but laugh nonetheless, and she warned him, “Watch it, I’ll tell Colin you’re mean to me and he’ll fly his ass out here and hurt you.”

“Wouldn’t doubt it.” James told her with a smile.



When James and Claudia arrived at the restaurant they were meeting her brothers at for dinner that night James let out a laugh when Claudia immediately stopped at the fountain outside. He stepped into the spot beside her as she dug through the bottom of her bag and produced two nickels, handing him one.

That was when he asked her, “Seriously Claud? So cheesy.”

She rolled her eyes, “Well I’m a cheesy person. Now make a wish before we’re late.”

So James closed his eyes and tossed his coin into the bottom of the fountain with the rest of the coins, and Claudia did the same a second or two later. Once they were both done she wrapped her around his middle and James asked, “Happy now?”

Nodding Claudia told him with a grin, “Bet I know what you wished for… more chest hair.”

He rolled his eyes, smile on his face, and told her, “Actually, I wished that you would feel this way about me forever, because I can’t even remember life before last week.”

“I bet you say that to all the girls.” Claudia joked with a smile.

James couldn’t help but joke back, “You’re only the tenth.”

She laughed as they headed into the restaurant. It was Claudia who had given her name to the hostess, unsure of where their company was sitting and she and James followed the young girl through the restaurant. Aaron and Marc had decided to make a quick trip out to see them while they were in Vegas, and while Claudia did miss them dearly, she was also, selfishly, glad that they were only there for dinner and breakfast the next morning.

The more time that she could spend just her and James the better. It helped her with her decision.

She was surprised when they arrived at their table to find three seats taken, one for each of her brothers. James must have been confused too because he shot her a discreet look as they took their seats, but Claudia didn’t know what to say to him.

Aaron broke the silence, greeting them with as much normalism as he could given the fact that there was a very large elephant in the room that nobody was going to address. He shook James hand and then said, “We just ordered drinks, we weren’t sure if we said six-thirty or seven.”

Claudia smiled and told him, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Your sister had to stop at the fountain outside.” James told them, grinning over at Claudia as she reached out and pinched his wrist.

Marc laughed and said, “Yeah, she always was a sucker for those.”

“Hey, in the fifth grade I wished that Suzie Holland would stop coming to school and the next day she was gone for the rest of the year. They work.” Claudia stated with a grin.

Aaron told her, “Yeah, because she broke her leg.”

“I mean, details.” Claudia stated with a shrug of her shoulder.

James turned to her and asked curiously, “Suzie Holland?”

Aaron answered for her, “Claudia’s childhood nightmare. The girl terrorized her in elementary school.”

“Those three months she was gone were the best three months of my entire existence.” Claudia stated with a smile as James chuckled.

“Yeah, why does it not surprise me that you were the bullied one in school?” James asked her with a smile.

Rolling her eyes Claudia said, “Same reason it doesn’t surprise me that you were the bully.”

“I was not.”

“You played junior hockey in Canada, that’s like the equivalent of playing high school football in the south. You were most definitely a bully.” Claudia told him, smiling when he shrugged.

“I tried not to be, you know, my mom did raise five pretty decent kids… I’m obvious the best one but the other four are alright too.” This she did laugh at.

Curiously Claudia asked her brothers, “So…. How is everyone? What’s going on? What have I missed?”

Aaron shrugged, “Cheryl wants to get married… so I’m contemplating moving to Alaska.”

“You could never survive there, you’re far too delicate.” Claudia told him, reaching out to pat his hand with a fake sympathetic look on her face that made Marc, Aaron and James laugh.

She turned her attention to her younger brother and he simply told her, “Well… nothing really. I’ve just been working, helping out around the house for mom and dad.”

This time Eric, who hadn’t spoken a word until now, told Claudia, “Yeah, you remember mom and dad right? You know, the old guy that had a stroke recently? In case you forgot.”

Rolling her eyes Claudia told him, “I know, I talk to mom almost every day now.”

“So it took him almost dying for you to bother to check in… I for one find life funny.” He stated.

Claudia wasn’t a person that got angry, she hated it actually, but there was always something about Eric, he always found a way to get under her skin and he knew it. She couldn’t help but fire back with, “Yeah, well at least I wasn’t asking about his will that night. Life is just hilarious.”

Marc cleared his throat, James gave Claudia’s hand a squeeze under the table and Aaron changed the subject rather quickly by asking James, “So… Claud said you bought a house. Getting all settled in before camp starts?”

Nodding his head James told him, “Yeah, we actually just got the keys today, might do some furniture shopping tomorrow so that we can get out of the hotel as soon as possible.”

“You aren’t bringing furniture?” Marc asked him curiously.

James shrugged, “I’m keeping the place in Nashville, a few of my old teammates were talking about renting it this year so I’m gonna leave the furniture.”

“Wait… ‘we’… what, you’re moving down here too?” Eric asked Claudia, annoyance coating every word.