Chapter 9

About an hour and a half later, Sidney woke up and looked at where he was. He saw he was lying on top of Karen and smiled when he looked at her asleep. He leaned up and kissed her lips. After a second, Karen softly moaned and kissed Sidney back. He pulled back and looked into her eyes.

"Hey"

"Hey yourself. Did you have a nice nap?"

"Yeah I did. Feel a little energized if I say so."

Sidney dips his head down for another kiss, going deeper every minute. Karen stopped him before it got any hotter.

"What's wrong?"

"I think I need to tell you that Rick wasn't the only hockey player I've been with."

"So, you dated someone else. Its no big deal, unless there's still feelings."

"There's no feelings past or present. I just think that you should know that I had the label of puckbunny given to me."

"And you feel I should know this why?"

"Because when it comes out that we're dating and are seen together, you might hear stories. I wanted you to hear it from me so when you did hear it, you'd know the real truth from me."

"I appreciate that. So who was it?"

"Brendan Shanahan" she watched his eyes got bigger as he processed the news "and since you said that you guys will get the Rangers next and he does play with them, I didn't want you to get the wrong idea if he sees me and tries to talk to me."

"Will anything else happen?"

Caressing his cheek, "no. It was one night that I choose to forget. I just wanted you to know."

"Will you tell me the story?"

"Ok, but not here. I want to take you somewhere that I love to go when I'm here."

"But that means I have to get off you and I don't know if I want to."

"You know you'll have another chance to get back on top of me. Please go somewhere with me?" Karen pouted with her bottom lip out.

"Oh alright. But I want a time frame of when I get to get back on top of you."

"Deal."

Sidney kisses Karen before he got off her and helped her up. Sidney put on hs shoes and Karen grabbed her flip flops. They headed out to the car and Karen told him where to go. A few minutes later, they parked the car and got out to take a walk by the river. Karen stopped at some concrete steps and looked out at the river.

"So, where are we?"

"This is the waterfront ampitheater that they built a couple years back. They sometimes have the Wheeling Symphony play here during the summer. I like to come here and sit and think about things. Nobody bothers you. I guess you could say this is my sanctuary."

Karen takes Sidney's hand and walks to the one concrete bench that was her spot near the tree. She sat down and Sidney sat beside her.

"Will you tell me?"

"It was when Shanny was playing for Detroit and after a home game for the Pens. My friend is a huge Red Wings fan and she wanted to try and meet some of the players. I went down and stood with her waiting for them to come out. She's one that doesn't have a favorite, she was waiting on any of them. They were staying at the Marriot and leaving the next day and so one of the players, I forget who, invited us to go join them for drinks. Being the good friend that I am, I went with her."

"That was smart because I heard that those type of guys can be kind of assholes."

Nudging him, "present company excluded."

"Yeah the joys of being raised right. Then what happened?"

"We got to the hotel and waited for him to meet us. When he walked in, he had Shanny with him. I don't know if he told him I was for him or what, but I was there to make sure my friend was going to be ok. During the next couple hours, they were buying anything and everything to drink and I knew I was getting drunk. Shanny started to make some moves and I know I turned him down numerous times."

"Are you sure? Sometimes you don't always do what you remember after drinking like that?"

"I was sure Sid. I didn't want anything from him."

Not sure if he could handle hearing the rest, "did he, um...." he closed his eyes but couldn't say the words.

"Yeah, he did" Karen didn't want to say it either. She knew where he was going and he knew what she meant. "I fought him the entire time but he was so much stronger than me. When it was over, I just got up, grabbed my clothes and left. I waited downstairs for my friend to come back. She did about an hour later all happy and we left."

"Wait you drove home after all that?"

"Trust me, I sobered up real fast. We got back to my parents' house and I was in the shower for an hour trying to forget what happened. After that, when Detroit came here, he would see me and smile. I just told whoever I was with that he did it to them."

Sidney wrapped his arm around her and snuggled into her neck, "sorry to hear that happened to you."

"It was 8 years ago. It must not have scarred me that bad since I am here with you. But I guess I should tell you that I am really not that impressed with hockey players."

Sidney couldn't help but laugh at that, "so no matter what I do, you won't be impressed?"

"It depends on who's doing the impressing, you the hockey player or just you?" she asked as she stared into his eyes.

"But what if the hockey player inside thinks of something to do to impress you that just me follows through on? Are you going to turn us down?"

"Let me see what you do first, then I'll let you know." Karen looked at Sidney and then glanced behind him, smiling. "Do you want to impress me?" she whispered.

"Always."

"Come with me."

Karen got up and brought Sidney with her. They held hands, walking towards a building. Karen had seen a lot of young kids go in and wanted to see what was going on. Truth is, she knew but wanted to see Sidney's reaction. At the building, Karen left Sidney standing by himself and she went to talk to the staff to see if they could go in. She explained her situation and they were allowed in. Karen told Sidney to go with her and they walked into the building.

"Why is it cold and why do I smell ice?"

"You can smell ice? Damn, you are a natural hockey player. I saw a bunch of little kids come in here and a good bit of them had your jersey on. I thought it would be nice if you dropped in on them." she said with a hopeful smile.

"Will this impress you?"

"Beyond words."

Sidney smiled and kissed her before they walked in and sat in some seats. In a few minutes, the kids and coaches came out onto the ice. They watched them play around for a bit and Karen saw Sidney's eye light up like he was remembering when he was little. Karen told him she's be back and went to talk to one of the coaches. She came back and told Sidney that they had a pair of skates in the locker room if he wanted to put them on. He practically jumped up and followed Karen to the locker room.

"Who plays in here?"

"The Wheeling Nailers. They are the ECHL affiliate to the Penguins. I'm surprised you didn't know that?" she started laughing.

"Quiet you" he said as he kissed her as he got up. He walked towards the door of the ice and waited until he heard the coach introduce him. Karen got back into the seats to watch this. As soon as Sidney stepped onto the ice, she heard all the kids gasp, sigh, and cheer. She watched Sidney talk to them and then spend a few minutes with all of them. She laughed at how he would act just like them. A half hour later, Sidney skated off the ice and went to put the skates back. He met up with Karen outside the locker room and she hugged him.

"They loved you."

"It was fun to be out there with them. Made me think of myself back at that age. How about we go for some dinner?"

"I would love some. Didn't realize how hungry I was."

"Any suggestions?"

"Chinese? I know a good one?"

Sidney agreed and they headed out to eat. They were seated in a booth near the back. Karen knew Sidney wouldn't be recognized but didn't want to take a chance. After they ordered, Sidney reached his hand out to grab Karen's hand and held it until the food came. He would rub his thumb over the back of her hand, sending sparks throughout her whole body. It was at that moment Karen realized she was falling in love with him.

When their food came, they talked about everything possible that came up. Sidney realized he hadn't talked or laughed like that for a long time. He knew there was something happening between them, he just didn't realize how long it would take to finally be able to express it to her.

After they got done eating, they headed back to Maggie's house. It was 7:00pm and Sidney knew his time with Karen was dwindling down and he wouldn't see her until after the home game on Friday. Reaching the house, they went inside and Karen told Sidney she would be back in a minute and to make himself comfortable. He sat down on the couch and waited for her, but had another visitor.

"Hi Sid" Maggie said, walking out into the living room with a tight low-cut tank top and short, shorts on. She sat right beside Sidney, almost on top of him.

"Hey Maggie."

"What happened, Karen desert you?"

"No, she'll be back."

"Maybe I can help pass the time until she does come back. You know..." tracing her finger over his chest "Karen is my best friend and best friends usually share a lot of things."

Just as she said that Karen came back from the bathroom and stayed around the corner hearing the rest of what was going on.

"Well, it's nice that you guys share things."

"And do you know what toy of hers I want to play with?"

Sidney started to get uneasy, "I can probably think of what you mean."

"You can tell me the truth Sid, if all you're interested in is one night of hot meaningless sex, you're barking up the wrong tree. I could rock your world so hard that you'd think the earth blew up. But then again, I'm not picky. If you want to lead Karen on but come see me afterwards, I'll leave my door open for you."

"I don't plan on leading Karen on. I plan on having more than one night with her."

"She never has to know Sid. You know you'd rather have this" Maggie pulled down on the neckline of her tank top to show even more of her breasts.

"Sorry, I know what I want and it's not you." As Sidney said it, Karen walked around the corner.

Maggie looked up to Karen and got off the couch "he passed, you should be very proud."

Karen stood there and shot her a look as she walked to her room. When she glanced back she saw a pissed look on Sidney's face.

"Before you go jumping to conclusions, I had nothing to do with that. That was all her."

"So, I'm to believe that you didn't set me up to see if I would actually take her up on her offer."

"Yes because I would NEVER do that to you."

"Whatever. I'm going to go since I know you'll need to get to bed soon." Sidney said as he started to walk out of the house.

"Sid wait, please." as Karen ran after him. "I swear I had nothing to do with this."

As he looked into her eyes, he could tell she was telling the truth but he needed to go. He kissed her then got into his SUV and headed out. Karen watched him leave and stood there until she couldn't see him anymore, a few tears falling too. Karen managed to go back inside and anger hit her as soon as she saw Maggie standing there.

"What the fuck do you think you were doing?"

"I was making sure he's the real thing for you. Any other guy would have kissed, touched, or taken me up on my offer. He never made a move which told me he is really into you."

"Well now he thinks I set him up to prove that. Why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?"

Stopping Karen from going to her room, "I was trying to protect you."

"I don't need protecting anymore Mags. I've learned from the mistakes that happened to me and I will be damned if that happens with Sidney. I'm going to bed."

Karen got ready and climbed into bed. She had her cell phone clutched to her chest hoping it would ring with either a call or text. She decided to send a message instead and then turned off her phone before crying herself to sleep.

When Sidney got back to Mario's, he knew his phone went off during the drive up but decided to ignore it. After he got settled in for the night, he opened his phone and saw he had one message from Karen. He felt bad the way he left after he read her message. It simply said "I'm sorry". Sidney sighed and dialed her number, but hearing it go directly to voicemail he knew she had it turned off. He left a message anyway and then watched tv until he fell asleep.