Hockey Christmas (A Holiday Sports Romance Love Story)

by Naomi Niles

  “I won’t let you fall,” I laughed bemusedly at her. “It’ll be fun.”

  “Will it?” She asked sarcastically. “When I’m being overtaken and embarrassed by five year olds.”

  “You won’t be that bad,” I laughed. “Trust me, it’ll be fine. I’ll be there with you; I’ll make sure that you don’t embarrass yourself.Honestly you’ll love it.”

  “Urgh,” she sensed that she was fighting a losing battle, so she relented begrudgingly. “Okay, fine, let’s get going.”

  We said a quick goodbye to her father and got out of the door, where we felt like we could finally be ourselves once more. As soon as we were out of sight, I pulled her in for a hug and placed a light kiss on her lips. It wasn’t that we were trying to hide our relationship from her parents for any particular reason, it was just a lot easier to not involve too many people when it couldn’t last forever.

  As we walked over to Buddy’s, I asked her a little more about her dreams for the future. “So what is your life like in Cali?” I started. “I’ve been trying to imagine you in the sun, but the only time I’ve spent with you is in the snow, so that the only way I can picture you.”

  “Ah, it’s amazing!” she exclaimed excitedly. “I can wear summer dresses twenty-four seven.” An image of her in a summer dress instantly popped into my brain, and I had to force myself not to groan in joy. Every girl looked good in a summer dress, so to imagine Danielle’s curvy body dressed in the best clothing item ever was almost too much to bear. “And it barely rains; it’s heavenly! We never get any of the crazy, freezing-cold, white stuff.” She made me laugh once more – something that I only seemed to do so much when I was with her.

  “And what about college?” I asked, needing to change the subject before I got too wrapped up in my summer dress fantasies. “How’s that going? Have you decided what grade you want to teach yet?”

  “I was thinking third grade,” she mused. “That seems like a good age – too young to start being really cheeky, but old enough to pay attention and actually want to learn.”

  “Sounds great,” I tried to imagine her in a classroom setting, and she really fit. Danielle was caring and attentive – the perfect qualities for a teacher in my mind. “Not long before you’ll be able to get there.”

  “Well, a year and a half yet,” she replied sadly, thinking exactly the same thing as me. “Luckily I have the best roommate ever, so I have someone to keep me sane when things get a little crazy.”

  “What’s she like?” I asked intrigued. I liked trying to form an idea of her life in my mind; it made me feel even closer to her.

  “Her name is Kim, and she’s great – fun loving, really funny, and super cool too. Her boyfriend, Spike, is awesome too; he plays football.”

  I smiled at her, not wanting to make any more derogatory comments about how weak football players were compared to ice hockey players, just in case it hurt her feelings. I’d already done it once or twice, I didn’t want to push my luck! I wasn’t too sure how close a friend this Spike was to her, but the thought of him did raise a further question. “So, you really don’t have a boyfriend back in Cali? You weren’t just saying that before?” As I asked this, my heart pounded with nerves. Much as I knew that we didn’t have a future, I didn’t really want to hear that she had someone either.

  She turned and popped me in the chest, not actually hurting me but I feigned pain anyway, just as a bit of a joke. “I would never cheat on someone,” she exclaimed a little too ferociously, making me think that maybe it had happened to her at some point. “Of course I haven’t got a boyfriend.”

  We got to the ice skating rink, which was not as busy as usual, much to my relief, and pulled on our skates. I noticed out of the corner that Danielle was much quicker at lacing them up now, proving that she’d been practicing while I was away.

  Maybe I was about to be pleasantly surprised.

  But it wasn’t long before she was tumbling once more, proving that while she’d clearly been out on the ice, she hadn't progressed too much. As I caught her in my arms for the third time in a row, I stared into her laughing eyes, feeling my heart melt all over again.

  “How the hell are you single?” I heard myself asking, without even really thinking about it. “You are the most beautiful girl that I’ve ever laid eyes on, and you have an amazing personality too. You’re exactly the sort of girl that any guy would want. I guess I just don’t get it.”

  I stood her back up and watched her face turn a little sad. “I guess I was put off guys by one horrible experience for a while. I don’t know why I allowed it to affect me for so long. We weren’t even together that long; it’s stupid really.”

  I took in a deep sigh and admitted that I’d been through a similar pain myself. “Yeah, I got pretty screwed up for a while after my ex-girlfriend, Hailey, cheated on me.” For a moment, I allowed that horrifying moment of finding out about the sex tape to shudder right through me. “It put me off for a long while too.” I wanted her to know that I got it, that we shared something, and that if she ever did want to go into detail about it, that I would understand– not that I really expected her to, of course.

  She looked at me with an intensity in her eyes and asked me the last question that I was expecting. “Would you put all of that aside? Do you want me?”

  “Oh my God, are you kidding?” I exclaimed in shock. “Of course I do; I would give anything to be with you.But of course we can’t, really. I mean, long distance is impossible and there’s really nothing we can do about the distance – you have your course and I have my team.” I thought for a second, considering if there was any way around it, even though I knew there wasn’t. “I would never ask you to give anything up for me. Your family piles enough pressure on you to be someone that you aren’t, and I could never do that to you.”

  She smiled and nodded at me, a shining of sadness in her eyes. “You’re right,” she said. “It’s a little sad though.”

  “I know,” I agreed with her. “I feel like I’ve met the perfect person for me, but at the wrong time in both of our lives. It’s unfortunate that we both have so much going on, but it’s stuff that we need for our future.”

  “Maybe one day?” she smiled weakly at me.

  “Maybe one day.”

  With that, I took her back out onto the ice and tried to get her to a better level once more, all the while imagining what it would actually be like if we saw one another again in the future, when our lives were actually at a place where we could actually be together.

  Chapter 22

  Danielle – Two Weeks Later - Tuesday

  By the time Miles suggested that we leave the ice skating rink, I was more than ready to go. It was getting a little embarrassing spending so much time on my ass, and I was sick of all the looks I was getting, Miles might not have been aware of it considering he spent his entire life being looked at, but I hated it.

  “I have a table booked at the restaurant I was telling you about,” he told me with excitement shining in his eyes. “Do you still want to go?”

  “Of course,” I gasped happily, eager to spend more time with him. “That sounds awesome.”

  As we got there, I could quickly see why he was so keen to take me there – it was absolutely gorgeous. Really picturesque and in the best location ever, but even better, it wasn’t one of those posh, pretentious places with only small portions of strange meals.They did proper meals, and I had really worked up an appetite.

  “Is this where you bring all your dates?” I teased as we went inside. “I can imagine that it’s gotten you laid a lot.” Outwardly I was joking, but inside I felt like I was really trying to get to the truth of what he was like – which was a little crazy for someone who was only ever going to be a fling. He’d riled up my thoughts by mentioning his hurtful ex-girlfriend, but I didn’t want to press him for details because I didn’t want to discuss my own past either, and I knew that I would feel obliged to if he shared.

  “Nope,” he reassur
ed me, popping the p. “The only other person that I’ve brought here is my mom. She loves it though,” he laughed, and I couldn’t help but join in. After a few days apart, it could have easily been a little awkward between us, but it was as if we’d instantly slid back into our old roles, and I adored that about him.

  Urgh God, it was going to be so hard to leave him behind, but he was right, there wasn’t any way around it;we really could only be together for a very short while.

  We ate our food and chatted happily throughout the meal, growing a more intense bond between us. He told me even more stories from his childhood and youth, and I did the same, wanting him to at least know that about me even if I didn’t want to go into detail with the douche bag that broke my heart – I just didn’t want any of that, interfering with this. Especially as we didn’t have long left.

  Once we finished our food, Miles told me about a dessert shop nearby that had homemade cakes that were to die for. I had to trust his judgment considering I had no knowledge of Minnesota, and I was right to do so because the slice of chocolate fudge cake that we shared was to die for.

  The weird thing was, as we sat there laughing and joking, we were more like a real couple than I’d ever been with anyone before. He had his arm around me and my fingers were looped in his, lightly and comfortably, and he kept feeding me my pieces. If I’d seen anyone else acting so loved up, I would have demanded the sick bucket, but because I was a part of it, and because it felt so right, I found myself loving every damn second of it.

  What the hell was wrong with me?

  “Where are we going after this?” I asked happily, imagining going back to his place and having another fun night of doing all kinds of crazy things to one another’s bodies. I had been missing him like mad, and now that he was back beside me, and we were acting so romantic with one another, I found myself craving him, aching for him.

  “Well, I’m going to have to go home,” he admitted sadly. “And I would love to invite you back with me, and to spend the night with you, but I have such an early practice and I’m shattered from the week anyway.” There was a definite sadness in his eyes, which I was certain was mirrored in mine. “I know it sucks when you don’t have too much longer here, but I promise I’ll make it up to you, all right?”

  “Of course, I understand,” I nodded – and I did, I just wished that it didn’t have to be the case. “You’ll just have to call me the moment that you’re free again. I have missed you.” But then an awful realization hit – I would have to get used to that missing him feeling because soon it would be all I had.

  “Shall I walk you home?” he asked, clearly wanting to, but I shook my head sharply. Now that awful feeling had consumed me, and I was too emotional to start acting normal around him; really all I wanted was to be by myself.

  “No, please, you go and sleep. I don’t live too far from here anyway…” I trailed off, knowing that he would argue, before placing one quick kiss on his cheeks and stalking quickly from the shop. I didn’t want him to think that I was mad at him because I really wasn’t, but I also didn’t want to cry and there were frustrated tears behind my eyes, threatening to pop out at any moment.

  I reached my home in only about fifteen minutes because we really weren’t that far away, ready to go and have a nice hot relaxing bath to wash the stress away from me, but what I found in my bedroom stopped me in my tracks.

  “Cyn?” I asked to the shaking figure on her bed. “Are you okay?” As I moved closer I heard the sobs racking through her body, which made me even more afraid. This was clearly something awful, but I didn’t know what, so of course a million and one possible scenarios span through my mind – each one worse than the last. “Cyn, what’s the matter?”

  As she looked up at me with distress in her eyes, I felt my heart break for her. Whatever minute problems I was going through, it was clearly nothing compared to my sister, and I’d been too self-absorbed to notice. Even during the week that Miles wasn’t around I was wrapped up in texting him and thinking about him all the time.

  “I…I think I might be pregnant.”

  As soon as those dreaded words left her lips, I felt my blood run cold. “Wha…what do you mean?”

  “Well, you know the night of the New Year’s Eve party?” I nodded, remembering her making out with Marek like a teenager, despite my warnings. I also recalled leaving her there with him, knowing what he was like. “Well, obviously as you know we slept together, and…well, in the heat of the moment, I didn’t think about protection.” I nodded slowly, feeling sick rise through my body. “And now I’m late.”

  “Have you told Marek?” I whispered, fearing for any answer to this question.

  “Marek is a fucking asshole,” she spat back at me. “I hate his guts. I mean I know that I never expected to fall in love with him, but I thought he might be a decent human being. He hasn’t even spoken to me since that night, and when I messaged him to tell him about this, he replied by calling me a fame-hungry liar.”

  I gulped down a whole range of emotions as she showed me their message exchange. I wasn’t even sure that Miles knew quite how bad this douche bag was, but I intended to tell him nest time I saw him. This prick was something else.

  “So what are you going to do?” I asked nervously, feeling really shocked.

  “I have a test,” she stared at me with pleading eyes. “Will you wait with me while I do it?”

  “Of course,” I nodded. “But go now, before you manage to freak yourself out. You need to know the truth before you get too worked up when it might actually be nothing.”

  Please God, let it be nothing! Don’t let her be pregnant with by asshole.

  As she went to pee on the stick, I paced the room in shock. This was the consequence of allowing yourself to let your hair down and have a little fun. This moment – whatever the outcome – would have to be a warning to us both to be a lot more careful in future. I’d only been worrying about having my heart broken, when really there were far more complex consequences to have to deal with. What if Cynthia was pregnant? How would she deal with a baby? Where would she live? How would she afford it? How would it affect her career? There were all life changing questions, all for one, slightly drunken night of fun.It just wasn’t worth it.

  “Okay,” she came back out, looking scared and small. “Now I have to wait for a couple minutes.”

  We sat on the bed in silence, clasping hands tightly. I wanted to show her support no matter what, but there was no denying that I was absolutely petrified for her.

  “Okay,” she eventually gasped at me. “I think a couple minutes have passed.” She handed me the stick, her hand covering up the area where the result would show. “Will you look at it for me? I’m too scared.”

  My heart pounded and my mouth ran dry with fear as I slowly looked at the stick, almost as if it were my own future at stake, but what I saw wasn’t what I was expecting at all.

  “Oh thank God!” I cried out happily. “It’s negative; you’re okay.”

  She threw her arms around me, taking the news very joyfully, and I hugged her tightly, feeling her heart pounding wildly against my chest. She was scared by this, absolutely petrified, which meant she had clearly learned her lesson – she certainly didn’t need a lecture from me about it all.

  As her excited panting turned into happy sighs, she turned to me with a different emotion in her eyes, one that I couldn’t quite make out. “You know, I have had a lot of fun in Minnesota this Christmas, and I’ve really enjoyed spending time with you, but all of this has made me realize how crazy I’ve been acting, and I think…” she pursed her lips thoughtfully for a second. “I think it might be time to return back to my real life.”

  “You’re going back to Boston?” I asked a little sad.

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “I need to sort things out from my break up with Derek anyway, and think this might be the best time to do it – I really could use a clean slate right now.”

  All of my own feelings and e
motions simply vanished as I felt the acute loss of my sister in my chest. I knew that we would see one another again – it wasn’t like this was a goodbye forever – but our time apart was always much too long.

  “I’ll miss you,” I told her, enveloping her in a hug. “But I understand.Just remember to keep in touch a little better okay? We’re both a little bit crap at that.”

  She giggled and agreed through shining tears. “I will,” she promised me. “And I’ll come and visit soon, or you come to me.” This was another thing that we always said to one another, that we didn’t follow through on – we always became much too busy by our own lives – but this time as I nodded, I truly meant it. If this trip had taught us anything it was that we needed one another, and that was something I would never forget.

  “I love you, sis,” I whispered into her ear.

  “I love you too,” she pulled back to look at me. “And you take care of yourself, okay? Don’t end up in the same mess I did.”

  “I won’t,” I reassured her, having learned a hard lesson. “I can promise you that.”

  Chapter 23

  Miles – Wednesday

  “Fuck!” I yelled out as another shot missed the target, knowing that it spelled bad news for me. I went home early the night before to try and get some decent rest to ensure that my head was in the game, but now I could see that it had been pointless. I was completely dicking everything up anyway. “Fucking hell.”

  My bad attitude, and the fact that my head wasn’t in the game was completely screwing up everyone. I was looked up to, the other guys fed off me, and when I was playing like shit, then they did too. My mood affected everyone, and right now I was dragging everyone down.

  I needed to fucking sort my head out. I needed to get it in the game or I would end up losing fucking everything that I’d worked so hard for. I had dedicated everything, given up so much, and now all of that was threatened because of my distractions.