The Truth Is...

When Claudia woke up the first thing she did was yank her phone off of the charger next to her on the nightstand, she squinted as she turned it on and quickly turned the brightness down. It was almost ten in the morning, she had been up until nearly four the morning before working and she was exhausted but still she had to check her phone. There were no texts from anyone, but that didn’t mean much. She opened the NHL app, found the Preds news and instantly wished she hadn’t bothered.

‘Preds protect forwards Arvidsson, Forsberg, Janrkrok and Johansen.’

Letting out a sigh she dropped onto her back on the bed, blew her blonde hair away from her face and stared at the ceiling.

Part of her wasn’t sure who she was trying to fool, she knew what was coming, it had seemed so glaringly obvious to her that he wasn’t going to be protected. Even James had remained optimistic about it, much like she, because nothing was set in stone yet and he hadn’t been told one way or another at that point.

The nail in the coffin, so to speak, came when it was leaked that Jarnkrok was being protected. She couldn’t deny it any longer, she knew it then and she had it confirmed when James had chosen to say nothing, not a single word about it, when they had talked on the phone that night. For a few days Claudia thought for sure they would make some kind of a deal with Vegas to still protect James, much like many teams were doing, but there was nothing even rumored and that made her nervous.

So nervous that she couldn’t sleep the night before, and now she thought she might vomit.

Letting out another sigh Claudia looked down at her phone and saw two waiting messages, one from Lucca, the other was from Kelly.

‘What a load of shit, but hey, what else is new, right?’

‘This. Is. Mind. Blowing.’

Claudia wasn’t sure if she should call him or not, he hadn’t text her at all since yesterday afternoon and she knew he was likely trying to enjoy his time with his family while they were visiting and she didn’t want to disturb that but she felt almost desperate to hear his voice. She wanted to get a feel for how he felt about it, she wanted to know that mentally he was okay because he was still recovering from game 6 both physically and emotionally.

As if it were kismet a text came through from James.

‘Going out for drinks with some of the guys, I don’t wanna be the only single guy there… wanna come?’

She responded back quickly, probably a little too quickly, she figured he probably thought she was waiting by her phone for him but she didn’t really care because, technically, she was.

‘I guess I could make an appearance, but I can’t stay late.’

Another text from him came through a minute later, and a second one just after that.

‘Great, can you pick me up?

Also, do you want to grab dinner Tuesday, I’ll pick you up at seven?’

‘Alright, see you tonight. Dinner sounds good, casual or fancy?’

She always, always liked to ask ahead with James because she never knew with him. Sometimes he took her to super casual places, he had even taken her mini golfing before, and other times he took her to five star restaurants where you couldn’t even get in the door if you weren’t wearing a tie. He was just a low key guy in his day to day life, a little high maintenance when it came to game day suits and his hair but other than that he was very much go with the flow.

His answer took a moment but eventually she got it.

‘Dress up but not too fancy… bring a bathing suit with you.’

Her brows crunched together but she had learned a long time to not question him because he was very much into secrets and surprises and not even she could convince him to give up a surprise early.

‘See you later.’

She heaved herself up to a sitting position in bed, running her fingers through her blonde hair to push it back out of her hair. Her entire day felt long, like a never ending chore, and if she was feeling like this over it she wondered how James felt about it, but she didn’t ask.

Instead she put her phone away and she got up, wrapping a robe around herself as she headed into the kitchen. She made herself some tea and then she took her steaming mug into her office and sat down at her desk in front of her computer. She went back to going through and flagging pictures from a recent shoot she had done as potential promo shots for social media and the website.

After nearly three hours of working Claudia finally put it away and went into the kitchen, intent on making some lunch. That was when a knock on the door caused her to change her direction from the kitchen to the door. Lucca was standing behind the door with a brown paper bag in one hand and a tray with two to-go cups in the other, she smiled and said, “I come with food and everyone knows that’s the international signal for girl talk.”

So Claudia stepped aside to let Lucca into the condo, she locked the door behind her and then followed Lucca into the kitchen, where she grabbed two plates and then sat down at the table and started to fill them with their lunch. Which happened to be chicken wraps and fries, Claudia’s favorite.

Taking the seat across from Lucca Claudia watched her curiously, and her eyebrow raised when Lucca asked her, “So how are you?”

“I’m fine… you?” Claudia asked her slowly, watching as Lucca shrugged her shoulders and popped a fry into her mouth.

“I’m good.”

“And… what is this girl talk you wanted to have about?” Claudia asked her, and when Lucca shrugged her shoulders she went on to ask, “Me, or you?”

“Me.” Lucca told her.

Claudia watched her for another moment, and when it was clear that Lucca wasn’t going to say anything more Claudia asked her, “You gonna tell me or were you planning on making me guess?”

“The thought crossed my mind.” Lucca told her with a smile and when Claudia shot her a look she sighed, and then cleared her throat and explained, “So… Colin brought up marriage last night.”

Claudia choked on her strawberry milkshake, paused, coughed twice and then put the to-go cup down on the table again and asked her, “Pardon me.”

Lucca nodded while shoving a few more fries into her mouth, she was notorious for stress eating. Once she was done she said, “Yeah, out of nowhere. That was the absolute last thing I was expecting to come out of his mouth.”

“So… are you gonna fill in the blanks here?” Claudia asked her in surprise, picking up her milkshake to take another sip.

“In a second, I need some liquid courage… do you have any tequila?” Lucca asked her, getting up from the table to root around the kitchen cupboards.

Claudia turned and watched her for a second before she said, “It’s one in the afternoon.”

“Five o’clock somewhere, right?” Lucca asked her, letting out a noise of triumph and excitement when she found the alcohol cabinet. Claudia was notorious for moving things around in the kitchen every few months, no one ever knew where things were.

“If you say so.” Claudia said softly as she watched Lucca grab a glass and carry it along with the bottle of tequila over to the table.

“I’ll replace it, I’m good for it I promise.” Lucca told her and Claudia shrugged because frankly she didn’t care. It was James’ bottle of Patron anyway, she couldn’t stand the stuff. After she poured herself a drink and downed half of it Lucca finally told Claudia, “So, we were out for dinner with my parents last night, my dad had to be back to work this afternoon so he couldn’t do father’s day with us on father’s day… things were really great, I’m lucky that my family really likes Colin because… my brother’s girlfriend is another story.”

There was another long pause while she took another drink from her glass and then when she set the glass down she didn’t continue to talk to Claudia gave the conversation a little nudge by saying, “So you went for dinner.”

“Right. So dinner went well, we dropped my parents off at home after and then we went home and we were watching TV and he just looked at me and said ‘do you wanna get married?’ and I just… like who just randomly blurts that out?” Lucca explained, pushing her hand through her dark hair.

Claudia nodded slowly in agreement but then asked her, “So what did you say?”

“I asked if he was kidding.” Lucca said, her cheeks becoming instantly red before she added, “And you should have seen his face Claud. I don’t even know why that was what came out of my mouth it just was and I feel like the world’s biggest asshole.”

“What happened after?” Claudia asked her curiously.

“Well he got up and went to bed and we haven’t talked about it since.” Lucca told her, leaning her head back to hang off of the back of the chair, staring at the ceiling. She wondered out loud, “Why do I always self-sabotage?”

“I’m sure it’s not that bad, just go home and talk to him, tell him you didn’t mean what he thinks you mean by it and explain your reaction to him. I’m sure he’ll understand… whatever you meant by what you said.” Claudia told her, reaching out to pat her hand gently.

Lucca explained to her, “Honestly, the question freaked me out because I am so not ready for that, and honestly, neither is he. We are not ready for that, we’ve barely been together two years. This is crazy.”

“So tell him that… maybe leave out the whole him not being ready for marriage thing and the crazy part though.” Claudia said, and Lucca let out a laugh. She went on to tell her, “There’s nothing wrong with not being ready for marriage, that’s a huge step Lucca, you should absolutely make sure you’re ready to take it on.”

Lucca let out a sigh and nodded, before she lifted her head back up and asked Claudia, “Are you going to this thing tonight?”

She nodded her head, “Who’s all going?”

“Uhm… Colin and I, Craig and Kelly… and Roman I think.” Lucca informed her, putting the lid back on the bottle as she said, “And I should stop drinking now since we’re going to be drinking later.”

“Probably a good idea.” Claudia told her, and they finally started in on their lunch.



“You look nice.” Claudia told James when he climbed into her SUV that night, she was honestly surprised that he was in jeans, rather than sweat pants, paired with a white t-shirt and a leather jacket.

He shot her that signature James Neal smile and asked her, “Checking me out, huh?”

Rolling her eyes Claudia let out a laugh and said, “You’re nuts.”

“I can see your ass.” James stated as he blatantly looked at the skin showing from underneath her dress as she sat in the driver’s seat.

“I didn’t have time to put my underwear on before leaving so I did it at a red light and haven’t pulled the dress back down, jeez.” Claudia told him, explaining why her dress looked so short. She reminded him, “I know you have this thing with being the last person to arrive somewhere, so I sacrificed my dignity for you.”

James leaned back in his seat, elbow on the edge of the door by the window, hand over his eyes and laughed out loud. He told her, “I would have been fine if you text me to tell me that you just had to put some panties on before you came to get me.”

Shrugging she told him, “I was not about to risk it, alright.”

“Alright.” He told her, adding in, “I think you look pretty damn hot though, just so you know.”

“Thank you.”

She raised her eyebrow when James looked at her with that mischievous grin she knew all too well and she jumped when he reached out and lifted her dress just slightly, before he said, “I thought they were pink but I wanted to be sure.”

She slapped his hands away and said, “I would have told you.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” He asked her with a grin and then he reminded her, “They’ll just end up in my laundry anyway, just wanted to take a look to make sure I didn’t throw them out later thinking they were someone else’s.”

“You’re gross.” She told him as she drove.

“And yet you still love me.” He told her with a confident smile.

“That might be an indication of my mental instability though.” Claudia told him with a grin, she reached out and laid her hand gently on the back of his neck, rubbing his skin with her thumb. To her surprise he reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand down and clasping his around it, where he kept them both on his lap. Curiously she asked him, “What’s with this dinner thing Tuesday?”

Shrugging James explained to her, keeping his eyes downcast on their hands, “My parents leave Tuesday morning to go back home, I just thought we could get together… I feel like I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

Her cheeks flushed, “I’m sorry, I just put a bunch of work stuff off until after... the playoffs, and I’ve been busy trying to get it all done.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” He told her, for what felt like the fifteen time since they made the cup final.

Nodding she said, “I wanted to.”

“Well, I want to take you out for dinner, I have some things I want to talk to you about.” James told her honestly, and this piqued her interest.

“Oh yeah? Like what?” She asked him, knowing full well he wouldn’t tell her now.

“Just some stuff, it can wait though. I think it’s about time that we went out and had some fun, so we can worry about everything else later.” James told her, and she really, really didn’t know if she liked the sound of that or not.

What in the world could he possibly want to tell her that couldn’t be done now?

James waited for Claudia as she adjusted her dress before getting out of the SUV after parking in the bar lot, she didn’t want to flash anybody walking by. He took another look at her dress now that it was laying properly on her and grinned as he announced, “I liked it better when I could see more of your legs.”

Rolling her eyes she let him pull her into his side and she asked, “What is it with you men and women’s legs? Is this what it feels like to be Carrie Underwood?”

James let out a loud laugh and he leaned down, because even in five in heels she was still shorter than him, to whisper in her ear, “Carrie Underwood has nothing on you.”

“Now you’re just trying to flatter me.” Claudia told him, rolling her eyes again.

“Maybe so, but I’m being serious.” James told her as they walked into the bar and looked around trying to find their company for the evening.

Claudia spotted Lucca first, so she dragged James over to the table that she and Colin were sitting at, Kelly was on the opposite side of it, and when they sat down Claudia asked, “No Craig?”

“He’s getting us drinks.” Kelly told her, adding in a second later, “We didn’t know how long everyone else would be.”

Claudia nodded and James got up from his seat, leaning down to speak to her, “I’m gonna go get a drink, jack and coke?”

She smiled up at him, “You know me so well.”

He wore a smile as he headed to the bar, and Colin asked her, “So… how is he?”

Her brow raised, “Good?”

“I mean with the protection list thing.” Colin explained his initial question to her.

She made an ‘o’ shape with her mouth, nodded slowly and then she glanced over her shoulder to James, who had his back to her while he stood next to Craig at the bar waiting for their drinks. She watched him for a second before she turned back around to face Colin, and she told him, “Honestly, I don’t know, he hasn’t said anything yet.”

Colin nodded but the conversation halted when Craig and James came back to the table with everyone’s drinks. Craig set the three beer bottles down for himself, Colin and Kelly and then he handed Lucca her concoction of tequila and various mixers.

James placed Claudia’s drink in front of her, and as he sat down she asked him, “What did you get?”

“Bourbon, don’t ask what kind, it was a recommendation from the bartender and it better be good because it was fucking expensive.” James told her with a smile and when she nodded her head he picked it up and held it out to her, “Try it.”

She took the glass and sniffed what was inside it first, making the guys laugh, before she took a small sip, made a face, swallowed and said, “Yeah, you’ll like it.”

“Good to know.”

After three drinks for James and four or five rounds for the beer drinkers Roman arrived, late as usual lately, and Colin held his beer bottle up and told him, “Welcome to the rejects table, we’re taking donations for whoever ends up in Vegas.”

Lucca hit him in the stomach, Roman let out a small chuckle as he sat down and he said, “Might not even be any of you.”

James scoffed which caught Claudia’s attention, he took a drink, and chose to hold onto his glass instead of setting it down as he said, “Everyone at this table knows whose getting picked Wednesday.”

No one really knew what to say to that so their table was quiet for a while. Claudia reached out and put her hand on his thigh, trying to warn him that he should watch what he was saying and maybe cool it a little bit.

It seemed to do very little because when Craig went to respond, trying to be a good friend and talk James off the ledge, James interrupted him to say, “No man its fine. Really, I’ve dealt with it. It is what it is, accept and move on and all that self-help bullshit.”

“James.” Claudia started, a warning, but when he lifted his glass to his lips and finished what was left of his fourth drink she stopped short.

He set the glass down on the table, a little loudly, and then wondered out loud, “Do you think self-help books actually even help anyone? Like do you really think people read that fucking shit and think they can conquer the world after, because honestly, it just seems like a steaming pile of shit to me.”

Claudia surprised him by standing up and pulling him with her, she turned to their table, who all looked a little awkward to be sitting there, and she told them, “I think we’re gonna head home, one too many drinks for the night.”

James argued with her the whole way to the door and down the sidewalk right to where she had parked her vehicle before she practically shoved him into the passenger seat. Once she closed his door she turned to find Roman jogging toward her, he had her purse in one hand.

“You forgot this, I figured I’d bring it out to you.” He told her softly, handing it to her.

She took it and slung it over her shoulder before she glanced at James in the car, his face was illuminated from whatever he was doing on his phone. She turned back to Roman and said, “I’m sorry about that… He’s drunk and… I don’t know what that was.”

Shaking his head Roman told her, “Don’t apologize, honestly if I were him I think I’d have the same reaction. It sucks, especially when there’s nothing you can do to change it.”

Claudia nodded, “Yeah.”

“Are you okay to drive?” He asked her, and when she nodded he leaned down and hugged her gently. When they parted he told her, “I’ll see you around.”

She nodded her head and then got into the vehicle and as she pulled away from the curb James asked her, “What was that about? You hug my teammates now?”

“Go to sleep.” She told him in annoyance, turning the radio up so that she didn’t have to listen to him.

James was awake when she pulled into the driveway of his house, he struggled next to her as they made their way up the stairs to the front door and Claudia used the key on her car keys to unlock the door. She settled the dogs down as James made his way down the hall to his bedroom, she wondered if he had been ordering doubles all night, her guess was yes.

Once she got the house locked up again she made her way to his bedroom to check on him, he had managed to strip down to his boxer briefs and was sitting at the end of the bed with his head in his hands. He must have heard her coming because without looking up he said, “I don’t get it.”

“Me either.” It always seemed like they were on the same wave length, neither one of them really needed clarification on the subject they were talking about.

He blew air out of his lungs and then he told Claudia, his voice soft but she was listening so close that she could hear the little irregularities in it when he asked, “What the fuck did I do this time?”

“What do you mean?” She asked him, this time she had no idea what he eluding to.

He looked over at her with sad eyes and asked, “Ever since I got off the phone with Poile yesterday I’ve been trying to figure it out…if they really wanted to they would have protected me… so what did I do wrong?”

Her brows crunched together and she moved to sit next to him at the foot of the bed, wrapping an arm around his shoulder while the other hand laid flat against it, and she rested her chin on her hand as she told him, “You didn’t do anything James, I know you want to find fault in yourself but it wasn’t you. You know that.”

“Yeah, I know, it was contracts and the future but what the fuck does that even mean?” He asked her, sighing before he said, “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you tonight.”

“There are few things that you could do to embarrass me and you should know that by now.” Claudia told him with a soft smile. She lifted her head from her hand on his shoulder and reached out to brush his hair away from his face as she told him, “Positive thoughts, it’s not worth making yourself sick over.”

“You’re a self-help book kind of girl, aren’t you?” James asked her with a smile.