The Truth Is...

"Wanna know a secret?" Claudia asked as she jumped into James' bed. From his spot next to her, still under the covers he groaned loudly. She placed her hands on his back and gave him a shake which only made him groan again. She resorted to poking the hot, red skin of his bare back until he finally rolled over.

Without even opening his eyes he asked her groggily, "How are you awake right now?"

"Because generally people thirty and older are awake at ten in the morning on a Monday." Claudia told him, laughing when he blinding reached out, his hand settling on her hip before he pinched her skin through her t-shirt gently.

"What do you want?" He grumbled.

Claudia leaned forward and brushed his hair from his face, before she kissed his lips softly. He responded to that by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her tightly on top of him. Once she got settled, slipping between his outstretched legs, Claudia asked him again, "Wanna know a secret?"

"If that secret is your enjoyment of a six foot four two hundred and some pound hockey player with a bushman beard who lives in Montreal no." James told her with a smile.

She pouted, "Well damn… I'm all out of secrets now."

"I still can't believe you thought he was good looking." James noted out loud.

"Wanna know the real reason he's so attractive to basically every female with half a brain?" Claudia asked him and when he nodded his head slowly his eyebrow raised when she explained to him, "It's the dimples. One hundred percent."

"So you're saying dimples are the way to a woman's heart?" James asked her in amusement.

"Well that's not the only reason. Women tend to like the idea of being safe and protected and he's just .. Dreamy. Honestly forget McDreamy, I'll take Shea." Claudia told him with a serious face.

James looked over at her and asked her, "Are we really gonna talk about Shea Weber while I'm naked in bed with you?"

"What else would we talk about?" She asked him with a wide grin.

James wrapped his arms tighter around her and rolled them over so that it was he who was on top of her before he told her, "Literally anything."

"Okay well now that you mention it that Reilly kid on your team is pretty cute too." She told him, laughing when he practically growled at her.

His response was, "I distinctly do not remember mentioning that."

"It's okay though, he's too young for me." Claudia told James nodded his head in agreement, glad the conversation was over. Or so he thought because Claudia couldn't resist one last joke, "But age doesn't matter in the day dream world so at least there's that."

James shook his head and rested his forehead on her collar bone as he shook with laughter. Claudia smiled to herself as his voice rang out, muffled against the fabric of her shirt, "God I've missed you."

"I was mildly surprised you were still alive when I got here, I can't tell a lie." She joked and again he laughed.

Glancing at the clock on the nightstand next to them James sighed and got up off of her, and as he headed toward the closet he told Claudia, "We should get up and ready, we're supposed to be entertaining in a few hours."

"Hey do you think that number nineteen kid is gonna show up to this little shindig?" Claudia asked James and when he stuck his head out of the closet to look at her she let out a laugh, "Oh your face was so priceless, so worth it. You are such a jealous person and I never knew that about you."

His cheeks flushed and he admitted, "Well, I finally have a reason to be jealous."

"Now you're just trying to get in my pants. But just so you know you so don't have to try that hard." Claudia informed him as she climbed out of the bed and walked past him into the closet where she had started to put away some of her own clothing.

James let out a laugh and Claudia stopped only to press a kiss into his bare shoulder before she found an outfit that looked casual but still put together.

She would never admit it, least of all to James but she was incredibly nervous to meet his new teammates and their respective wives and girlfriends. This was a whole new group of people that she would, for the first time, be introduced to as his girlfriend and she was afraid of whether or not she would fit in here the way she did in Nashville. There was more pressure now that they were dating rather than just friends.

James couldn't help but laugh, "Overalls?"

"They're comfy." He still shot her an odd look so Claudia reached out and pinched his side as she informed him, "Hate is a choice."

"Yeah, yeah. Let’s go get started on the fridge full of good you bought yesterday." He still thought she had bought too much food, but Claudia had been around hockey players long enough to know that there simply wasn't too much when it came to food.

As she followed him downstairs she told him, "I would rather have too much than to run out. Plus there has to be options, what if someone doesn't like something?"

With a laugh James told her, "You're nervous."

"Shut up." She muttered as she passed him and went straight to the fridge. They were in for a long couple of hours. Another thing Claudia didn't do was premade food.



Claudia had opted to remain hidden in the kitchen with the food when the doorbell rang and the first round of James’ teammates arrived. She was beginning to feel the nerves a lot more now and while she knew she couldn’t hide away forever a few seconds of solitude to remind herself that everything was going to be just fine were definitely welcomed.

The first to arrive was Marc-Andre and Elise, not surprising to either James or Claudia, but with them came a few of their younger, single teammates. James greeted them all and then he lead them to the kitchen so that they could officially meet Claudia, most of them felt that there really was no need for introductions seeing as they had heard enough about her by now.

“Claud this is Cody, Jonathan, Nate and Shea.” James told her, and then he looked at her and joked, “Don’t get any cute ideas on that last one.”

She laughed as there were odd glances exchanged between his teammates and Claudia threw him under the bus by explaining with a grin, “He’s mad because I’ve always had a massive crush on Shea Weber.”

As James’ new teammates laughed Elise smiled over at her and asked, “Who wouldn’t?”

Marc-Andre groaned, “Really?”

The doorbell rang again and James disappeared to let the next group of guys in, leading them into the kitchen yet again as Elise made herself at home and got to work helping Claudia with the food as if they had known each other for years. That was something Claudia appreciated.

“Alright this is the last round of introductions.” James stated, pointing guys and their significant others out as he introduced them to her, “David and Marie, Deryk and Colin and Caitlyn.”

Claudia noted the fact that James didn’t introduce the brunette standing directly beside him but it was okay because she recognized him and exclaimed, “Oh! We were just talking about you!”

Reilly raised his eyebrows as everyone turned to look at him and James and he asked her slowly, in confusion, “You were?”

Claudia nodded her head as she started placing finger foods onto a plate, and James warned Reilly, “My tip of advice is to stay away from Claudia at all possible times. She’ll drive you absolutely crazy.”

Claudia rolled her eyes at James and then she looked at Reilly and asked him curiously, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

His cheeks flushed as the guys laughed and laughter got louder when James smiled and stated, “Jesus Christ.”

Nate threw Reilly under the bus by telling Claudia, “No, he does not. He’s very single.”

“Interesting.” Claudia mused, grinning over at James who was watching her in amusement. She held out two plates and told him, “Take these and our guests to the living room, the rest of the food will be done soon.”

Taking the plates James mentioned to her, “By the way you have flour on your face.”

“You introduced me to your teammates with flour on my face?” Claudia asked him in surprise, instantly reaching up to wipe at her cheeks.

James grinned over at her, “Did you expect any less from me?”

Sticking her fingers into the flour she had spread onto the counter Claudia reached out and flicked her hand, succeeding in covering half of James’ face with flour and she grinned as his teammates all laughed at him and she said, “Well now you do too.”

“You’re lucky you’re cooking us food.” James noted.

As they headed into the living room Claudia called after him, “On the contrary, you’re lucky I’m cooking you food.”

“Yeah, I’ve had Nealer’s cooking. Thanks Claudia.” Marc-Andre hollered from the living room, and there was a round of laughter that followed.

Once the boys were gone Elise zeroed in on Claudia, asking her, “So when are you here permanently again? We have an even amount of ladies right now and it makes it very difficult to break a tie when it comes to decisions.”

Claudia let out a laugh and told her, “Soon. Two weeks, give or take a bit. It’s been a process getting everything squared away and ready.”

“Yeah, I guess you don’t really have the experience with moving like James does.” Elise noted, and Claudia nodded.

“Hopefully this is it. I know this was hard for him, as I’m sure it was hard for most of them, but it is gonna be really nice to be closer to my family again, especially with my parents getting older.” Claudia stated softly.

“Where are they?” Marie asked her curiously as she gently moved Claudia out of the way to grab the tray in the oven when the timer went off.

Claudia shot her a grateful smile and told her, “Phoenix.”

“Yeah, living by family would definitely be a plus.” Marie noted, and the accent in her voice made Claudia assume she was from Quebec, just like David. That was a long distance away from family and Claudia couldn’t imagine being that far away.

“Well, we all can’t wait for you to get out here permanently.” Elise told her and when the other girls nodded Claudia smiled gently to herself. Elise then added, “We all like to get together when they’re on the road, keep each other company and do touristy things to try to get used to Vegas.”

“I’m sure I could use a brush up.” Claudia stated and when eyebrows were lifted she explained, “I used to live here, I think I was here for over five years.”

“We’ll get acquainted and you can get reacquainted.” Marie told her with a smile and Claudia nodded her head in agreement.

Claudia called out to James, “Foods up!”

James came around the corner and took the last remaining three plates from the counter and as he left Elise joked, “He is trained so well.”

All four of them burst into laughter as they gathered drinks and glasses for everyone and then finally they joined the men in the living room. Once Claudia sat down, in the empty spot James had kept next to himself, Nate asked her, “Alright, tell us the truth. Nealer keeps telling us he picked this place out by himself but none of us believe him.”

Claudia told him, “I swear he did.”

“Bullshit! I saw his house in Pittsburgh.” Marc-Andre exclaimed, making everyone, James included laugh.

Holding her hands up in a surrender like fashion she said, “He did. We weren’t even together when he bought this place.”

“Yeah, Claudia had a different boyfriend then.” James stated, grinning over at him.

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, let’s not go there.”

“Wait… hold up.” Cody stated, glancing between the two of them before he asked in curiosity and confusion, “How long have you two been together?”

Claudia and James looked at each other and she started, “What… one… two…”

James finished for her, “Probably going on three months now I think.”

“Okay… wow… was not expecting that.” Cody admitted in astonishment.

It was Deryk who stated, “You two do not act like a new relationship.”

“That’s just because I was putting up with him for years before we started dating.” Claudia informed him, and James reached out to pinch her thigh gently. She smiled over at him and added, “I guess the politically correct answer would be to say that we were very good friends first for a very long time.”

Everyone chuckled and James added, “It took her three years to finally give in and say yes to me.”

Rolling her eyes Claudia joked, “It took you three years under my guidance to even become dateable.”

“Ouch.” Nate stated.

James shrugged, smile on his face as he glanced at Claudia and said, “It’s true.”

After a few hours of chatting and enjoying food and drinks the house was finally empty and quiet again and James was sitting on the counter drying dishes while Claudia washed them. He watched as she scrubbed a bowl and then rinsed it under hot water and handed it to him and he carefully dried to and set it next to him to put away once they were done.

Claudia noted out loud, “That wasn’t so bad actually.”

“Were you really that nervous?” James asked her curiously and she nodded her head.

She explained to him, “It’s different. It was easier to meet people through you when we were friends, less pressure. Now it’s like… I need to make a good impression more than I did before. Especially with the girls because now that we’re together and I’m gonna be here all the time I need to get along with them.”

“It’s human nature to want people to like you.” James commented and Claudia nodded her head.

She then raised her eyebrow at him and joked, “Have you been reading self-help books?”

“I’ve dabbled.” He said with a laugh, and when she chuckled he added, “In all reality I’ve just been thinking about some stuff lately.”

“Oh yeah?” She asked, and when he nodded she asked him, “Like what?”

“Like… How I want to change, and how I can get there. You know, I've kind of reflected on the last few years and I wonder how things got to where they are now. I don't think I realized how different my life is from what I wanted even four years ago. So I've been doing some thinking about... you know, just working towards being a different person, a better person. Trying harder to be the player I know I can be, but to also be the man I know I’m capable of being. I guess what you said at the airport kind of stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.” James told her honestly.

Claudia smiled over at him, drying her hands on the towel he was holding before she stepped in between his legs and leaned up to kiss his lips softly. When she pulled back and dropped onto the heels of her feet again she looked up at him and smiled, “I would say I’ve had quite the positive influence on you Mr. Neal.”

“Don’t tell anyone but I kind of like it.”