035

Sidney could sense that something was wrong with me, but he waited until he had me pinned in the airplane to ask me what was up. "I don't know, I've just been thinking about us a lot lately. Now that the season is over, and the brewery is open I can't help but ask, what next?" "Well what do you want to happen next?" he asked. "I don't know. I just want to enjoy this summer with you, our first summer together. I'm just scared we're going to get bored, that you are going to get bored." The way he looked at me I knew I sounded ridiculous. "There's nothing you could do that would make me bored. It makes me a little sad to know you are thinking like that though," he said to me in a very soft tone and I began playing with the ring on my necklace. "We're going to have a great summer, you get to see Nova Scotia, where I grew up. Then we'll spend some time in Pittsburgh before heading to Ireland. It's going to be a great summer," he smiled holding my hand in his. I nodded my head and smiled. Why am I thinking this way? Get married or break up? Doesn't make since!!

The plane touched down and I finally made it to Nova Scotia. "Welcome home baby," Sidney grinned as he took off his seat belt. "Next summer can we go to Seattle?" I asked him climbing out of my seat. "I've always wanted to go there, why go next summer? Why not this summer?" That's a lot of flying! "I guess we could, we will talk about it," I smiled before giving him a quick kiss and we walked off the plane. We took a cab to his house, thirty minutes from the airport and his house was more beautiful than he had described. He opened the front door then turned around and swept me up into his arms. "Welcome home," he smiled walking me into the house. "Sid your house is beautiful, your mom did a really good job in decorating it," I giggled as he set me down on my feet. He didn't argue with me, he knew I was right. "This is your house now too you know," he smiled wrapping his arms around my waist and began to kiss me. "Hey, how about we grab out luggage and shut the front door?" I asked laughing. He winked at me and pulled our luggage in and shut and locked the front door. I followed him upstairs to the master bedroom and threw myself onto the bed. "So we're having dinner at my parents' tomorrow night, other than that, I thought maybe we could take a day just to drive around and I can show you everything. All I really want to do is just relax with you, it's been a crazy month," he smiled before crawling into bed next to me.

After a quick nap, I went downstairs and headed out back to check out the lake. It was a beautiful day, and very warm outside. I didn't want to waste the day light so I decided it was a good time to lay out and maybe start a tan. I headed back upstairs and Sidney was still fast asleep in bed, holding onto my pillow. I slipped into my bikini, grabbed a towel and made my way back outside. This place was truly amazing, very secluded and you could only hear the birds. "I was wondering where you went, I got scared for a minute thinking you left," Sidney said as he sat down on the lounge chair next to me. "Why would I leave?" "You've been acting weird, it's scaring me. What's going on in that mind of yours Avery?" Just ask him already! "Sid?" I started as I sat up to look him in the eyes. "Were you going to ask me to marry you Saturday night? Max and Colby made it seem like you were." He hung his head and starting rubbing his fingers over my thigh. "I didn't know what I was planning on doing," he slid his hand up to my arm and rested it on my bruise. "I was so mad with myself that I allowed him to do that to you." I winced a little as he put a bit of pressure on the bruise. "That night was just one big mess, you couldn't be everywhere at once. I was disappointed though, Ivan was always a cool guy, he has changed a lot over the past four years. But Sid, that doesn't answer my question," I put my hand under his chin and lifted his face up to look at me. "I didn't know what I was going to do, I told Max and Colby I was going to ask you on a whim but then I started thinking about it, and I don't know. I don't want to be in a position right now where our only choices are get married or break up." I felt a tear rolled down my cheek. Why are we thinking like this? "We're happy as we are right now, why do we need to change that?" His head hung once again and he took a deep breath. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you Avery, I know that, and the next thing to do is to get married. I feel like I'm forcing myself to propose to you." "Why do we feel like we're being forced to get married? That doesn't make sense." The tears were flowing more freely now and he couldn't look me in the eye. "Why are we like this Sid? This isn't like us. Why can't we just continue what we're doing, enjoy Halifax, enjoy Ireland and then we will see what happens later on. I love you Sid, nothing is going to change between us. I'm not leaving you and I can only pray to God that you won't leave me." He slowly brought his eyes up to meet mine and then lunged forward to kiss me.

Before Sidney could even reach for the door knob there stood his mom in her apron. "Welcome to our home Avery!" She smiled dragging me into a hug. She immediately took me into the living room ignoring Sidney. We sat down on the couch and in front of me were a dozen or so photo albums. "There's so much I want to show you, and I know you aren't here for very long," she smiled very excitedly. "Do you want anything to drink?" she asked before she threw me head first into the photo albums. "White wine would be nice, here I'll go into the kitchen with you," I smiled trying to compose myself. That was a little crazy. We headed into the kitchen where Troy and Sidney were talking, and Troy just smiled at me. I have to crack him at some point. I looked through Trina's selection of wine and poured two glasses of white zinfandel. "Taylor, can you come downstairs please, Avery is here," Trina shouted up the stairs before resuming our places on the couch. I could hear footsteps running down the stairs. "Sidney!" she yelled as she leaped into his arms. "Hey I want you to meet my girlfriend," he smiled setting her down on the ground. "It's about time, I hear you talk about her all the time," she laughed as she looked over at me. It was amazing how they looked exactly alike, curly hair, big lips and those eyes. "Hi Taylor, it's nice to finally meet you," I smiled getting up from the couch to pull her into a hug. "Oh Avery, you are just as beautiful as my brother described you," she smiled and sat down on the couch next to me. I looked up at Sidney and he smiled and walked back into the kitchen with his dad.

"I am so sorry I'm laughing, but those teeth," I couldn't control my laughter, Sidney's teeth were way too big for his face when he was younger and he almost looked like a beaver. "We didn't do braces because, well with hockey it would have been a waste of money. Luckily he grew into them though," Trina laughed as she continued flipping through the pages of the photo albums. "You guys are still looking at those? How much more torture are you going to put Avery through?" Sidney laughed as he stood on the other side of the coffee table sipping on his beer. "We only have two more books to go through," Trina smiled. "I really liked the blond hair Sid, it was hot," I said as sarcastically as I could. "It was a phase!" Sidney snapped back before escaping back into the kitchen. The last album we went through was from Sidney's last year in junior when the NHL was in lockout, with pictures from the draft. "Wow so the whole hockey world had their eyes on Sid during the lockout, no wonder Mario looked at me so funny when I didn't know who Sidney was," I laughed. "Really? We thought since you were such a big hockey fan you would have known," Trina giggled. "Well being in South Africa from 2003 til 2007 really took me out of the hockey loop. That must have been so hard on him though, all the attention on him, and he is still so humble. You raised one hell of a kid Trina, thank you for that."

"So glad we made it! So glad we made it! You gotta gimme some lovin! Gimme some lovin! " Trina, Taylor and I sang along in the kitchen as we cooked dinner. This is the family I want twenty years down the road! I felt a tap on my shoulder and tilted my head back to see Troy. "Can I speak to you for a minute," he smiled pointing to the front porch. "Sure, hey Taylor, want to mash up these potatoes a little bit more, I'm going to talk to your dad real quick," I smiled to her and she jumped into my spot in front of the stove. I followed Troy out onto the porch where Sidney was sitting on the bench and he patted on the bench for me to sit next to him. I sat down and Troy leaned up against the railing in front of us. "Avery, I just wanted to clear the air a little bit about my feelings toward you dating my son. I will admit, at first I didn't like the idea of Sid being in such a serious relationship at his age. I thought that his mind might wander and he would easily get distracted by you and start screwing up his career. I've been proved wrong though. Sid talks so highly of you, and I haven't seen him like this since he was a little kid, it kind of reminds me when he got his first pair of skates. The excitement in his eyes, it's been missing but it's back, and it's back because of you. So I wanted to apologize if you felt like I was being rude to you over these past few months, just try and understand that I'm looking out for what is best for Sid, and he's made it clear that you are what's best." Sidney squeezed my hand and I smiled. "Thank you Troy, I really appreciate that. I know I would never do anything to jeopardize Sid's career." I reached up and starting playing with my necklace. "Dinner's ready!" Trina shouted from inside the house and we made our way in.

A nice home cooked meal that wasn't made by me was something I had been missing for such a long time, and this meal that Trina prepared was amazing. Sidney made it obvious that he missed his mom cooking too as he engulfed his food and quickly piled his plate for seconds. "So when do you kids head back to Pittsburgh?" Troy asked. "Saturday, so another three days to relax. I have some media stuff back in Pittsburgh, Avery has to work, and then the first of July we're heading to Ireland for a week, and then a day after we get back I have to go to New York to do more media stuff at the NHL store. So it's going to be a busy summer, but I'm trying to squeeze Seattle in there somewhere," Sidney smiled looking at me. New York? Why is this the first time I've heard of that. "We're just throwing this out here, but there are a lot of family members that want to meet Avery, and we were thinking about having a BBQ tomorrow afternoon. You can say no if you just want to relax," Trina said looking at me with a big grin. "I would love to meet the family, is that something you want to do Sid?" "Yeah we can do that, nothing over the top okay mom," he said laughing.

The ride back to Sidney's house was quiet and uneventful, but I still had New York stuck in the back of my head. "When did you find out you were going to New York?" I finally asked him when he pulled onto his street. "About two weeks ago, I didn't tell you because of how stressed out you were, but I guess that's no excuse now," he replied rubbing his hands on the steering wheel. "How long will you be there for? You're going to be exhausted." "I'll be there for a week, but the whole jet lag thing doesn't really effect me anymore, I spend probably thirty percent on my time on a plane. Sure I'll be tired, but going on vacation with you alone is far more important than something in New York." "Good answer Crosby," I laughed as he pulled into the garage. We walked upstairs to his room and I stood in the bathroom taking my jewelry off, stopping at my necklace, looking down at the ring. Why am I so scared all of a sudden? "So I should warn you about my family for tomorrow. Sometimes they are worse than the press," he laughed and I walked out into the bedroom to see him sprawled out over the bed in just his boxer briefs. "Your family is amazing, you don't need to warn me about anything. Your sister is a hoot, obviously she got all of the cool genes," I laughed as I pushed him on the bed making room for myself. "I got some of them, but you're right she did get most of them. Taylor is very taken by you, she's at a stage right now where she doesn't like a whole lot of people, so that's really cool." I smiled to myself and crawled underneath the covers. "I love you Sid." "Love you too."