A/N: Uh...I didn't think it would take me over a year to get this out. I'm sorry. I've spent this whole time working on a new story that I think y'all will like. I'm not sure when it will get posted but it is close. It's close to 10k words and that's just the first chapter that might end up broken up but I'm not sure yet. If you're waiting for an update on Only a Rose...um...please keep asking for it! Motivate me please!
Guy woke up when the train jerked to a stop. He must have nodded off after their conversation. Guy barely had time to wonder how long he'd been asleep when the woman sitting in front of him said, "I have an idea. Why don't we spend the day in Grand Forks?"
He figured she had been waiting for him to wake up to spring the idea on him. "You do know there's nothing to do in Grand Forks, right?" Guy rubbed his eyes. He was sure he would never catch up on sleep during this trip. He was finding that seeing your ex after years and essentially running away with her was mentally exhausting.
"Wrong. I need to buy clothes anyway. I don't think that you packed enough clothes for both of us. I'm totally taking the Minnesota Moose shirt from you though." Connie smiled sweetly at him, knowing that he knew that she was right. "Besides, we can get a hotel!"
Choosing to ignore her comment about the shirt because it was a great shirt, he asked, "You've got your mind set on this already, don't you? What about the train?" He gestured around them. Guy didn't really care to leave the train but he knew he was fighting a losing battle.
She shrugged. "I asked a stewardess and she said a new train comes through every day."
The other passengers were beginning to move around. Some came and walked past where they sat but others took seats near them. "How long was I out?" Guy felt like he couldn't have been asleep for long but the way Connie was talking it was like she had more than enough time to plan.
"Long enough. You still talk in your sleep by the way." Connie grinned in a way like she knew something he didn't.
"Never could leave you alone for long." He stated. "What did I say?"
Ignoring the question Connie instead prodded, "So, are we hanging out in town or what?"
Guy sighed. "Fine, I'll go get my stuff."
Connie insisted that the first stop they made in town was to buy clothes. She said that she wouldn't need much time. Guy knew that they wouldn't be there long. He didn't need anything so he followed her around as she grabbed a few shirts, shorts, pair of pants, some underwear, and bras.
Afterward, the couple waited outside the department store waiting on a taxi.
"So, tell me." She started. "When are you going to get moved up to the first line? You're better than anyone on the first or second line."
Guy couldn't help but smile. "I wouldn't say that I am." He said in response. It's true, he thought of himself as a strong third-line forward. He considered himself good on the power play unit, though.
"You are." She insisted. "You are the most well-rounded player on that whole stupid team. You can play center or winger. Plus you're a team player and actually pass the puck instead of taking a shot that has no way of going in. Unless your gameplay has changed these last few years."
His style of play hadn't changed much since high school it had just become more refined with all of the training he received. He was a skill player and not a gritty sandpaper type. "We just traded for Seever and Donaldson is solid." He pointed out.
Connie played with a loose strand of hair that had become undone from her hair tie. She shook her head while rolling her eyes. "Seever can go fuck himself and Donaldson gets injured every other month. He's not reliable at all. Sure he has the skill but you could easily take his spot full time and that line could get, what, at least ten to fifteen more goals a season with you on it?"
"Damn, Connie. Do you wanna be my agent? You sure know how to talk me up." Guy paused as he thought to himself. Gears were turning in his brain. "Have you ever thought of a management position?"
The idea of Connie as director of hockey operations or an assistant general manager sounded bad ass to him. She'd even make a great scout, Guy thought.
She laughed. "I would make better choices than a lot of the teams, wouldn't I?"
Guy wondered for the first time if working in politics made Connie happy. When they were young Connie made the decision to not pursue hockey but he always thought she could have done more if she wanted. When she was on the women's U18 team Connie received several compliments even though the team had lost to Canada in the final round. Everyone was sure she wouldn't quit after that. Connie said she wanted to do something more with her life. Talking to her now, made him think that she hadn't totally abandoned the game.
"No, I'm serious. Have you ever thought about coaching?"
Connie started laughing again. "I'm not Charlie." Charlie was a coach at, of all places, Eden Hall.
Their taxi arrived to take them to the hotel that Connie booked for them.
After getting into the car and telling the driver where to go, Guy returned back to their conversation. "Do you still skate?" He asked.
She looked at him curiously. "From time to time, why?"
"Let's go to a rink. There's several in town." She was going to think he was crazy, he thought. His thumb scraped at the woven threads that made up his bag's strap.
"When was the last time you skated just to skate?" She asked. "I mean, not for practice or training. Just for the fun of it."
Guy thought back over the last few years. "Honestly? I think it was that last time with the Ducks."
"Seriously? That was the last time?" The last time the Ducks skated together was right before the draft the year Adam and Guy were drafted. They were able to convince Bombay to let them into the Ice Palace after a few drinks. It wasn't supposed to be the last hurrah. It had been right after he and Connie had broken up and just before Guy realized he couldn't be around her. After that, he got really lucky that the Blackhawks needed him for their 3rd line. Guy spent no time in the AHL, unlike Adam who spent two years in Syracuse before he made the Tampa team. There was no time for fun on the ice.
Guy nodded. "I guess, getting on the ice is different now." He hadn't really realized it until that moment. He got so busy with playing and living in his own bullshit that he hadn't been able to come to that conclusion on his own.
Connie frowned. "Do you still enjoy it? Playing?"
"Of course. How could I not? I have the best job. Isn't that what we wanted as kids? To take playing as far as we could." The brunette sighed and Guy knew there was something deeper going on. "What about you? Do the people in your life in D.C even know who you are?"
She made a noise. "My ex, the one that took me to your game, only knew I liked hockey because he saw an autographed picture Adam gave me as a joke. Zach thought it was cute. I didn't feel like telling him or anyone about who I was in Minnesota. No one in my circle really follows hockey that close." She paused. "Whenever I have a stressful week or miss home I go to the rink. It's almost a comfort to be on the ice. It's never the same but it's helped."
Guy didn't say anything and they sat in a comfortable silence until they reached the hotel. They checked in and dropped their things in the room. Connie wanted a shower before they left, but Guy convinced her that if they showered they would never leave the room.
They decided to go to the rink closest to their hotel. When the taxi dropped them off, Guy noted that the ice rink's exterior reminded him of the Ice Palace. There were about a dozen vehicles in the parking lot so he expected not too many people on the ice.
"Okay, Guy. Why are we here?" Connie skated around him when they got onto the ice.
"I don't know. Remember, how everything seemed so simple when we were kids just skating and playing out on the pond? We thought we had life figured out."
"And fast forward you ran away with your ex and everything is fucked up?"
"Something like that." He rolled his eyes even though it was true.
"I meant what I said earlier, you know." Guy raised an eyebrow as if to say, that he didn't quite follow her. "I would move to Chicago for you. I'd follow you anywhere. If Mars had a hockey team and you got traded there I would be on that spaceship so fast."
Before Guy could even process what she was saying a brown haired boy suddenly came skating up to them. "Hey! You're Guy Germaine! Can I get a picture?"
"Sure. What's your name?" Connie reached out for the kid's phone to take the picture.
"I'm Dylan and I'm your biggest fan!" Guy and Dylan stood smiling while a few other people skated past them.
"I took a few." Connie said, handing the phone back.
The boy quickly flipped threw the photos making sure there was a good one, "Thank you so much!"
"Do you play, Dylan?" Guy asked before the boy could leave. He wanted to talk to the boy and make the interaction special for him.
Dylan nodded excitedly. "A little."
"Keep at it. Who knows, maybe one day you'll make it to the NHL." Guy said thinking that when he was a kid he would have killed to have someone say that to him.
The boy, beamed at him before his mom called him. He waved goodbye and skated off leaving the couple alone again.
Connie playfully bumped her shoulder into Guy. "What's it like being famous?"
"I wouldn't say that I'm famous." He quipped.
"Oh come on. You must get recognized all the time."
He shrugged. "Not really it happens less than you think."
"This reminded me of that time Bombay took us to the Met Center and we were able to meet Mike Modano and Basil McRae."
"Yeah, same. We were amazed. We couldn't believe we had the opportunity to meet them."
"You know when I think about all the things we were able to accomplish as kids and all the things we got to do I feel so lucky." She said. "I bet Dylan feels the way about you that we felt about them. Isn't that something?"
"I should have told Dylan about the second time I met Wayne Gretzky. It was a few years ago and he remembered meeting me during World Juniors." Guy told her. It had felt great to be recognized by The Great One even though so many years had passed.
They were holding hands skating much like they did when they were younger. It felt so natural to Guy.
Guy had always felt like Connie kept him at arm's reach. He knew that that wasn't quite true but it wasn't totally false either. It had always been like Connie couldn't completely open up with him and he'd always been okay with that because it was enough for him but he was starting to see a change in her on this trip.
Later at the hotel, they were finally getting ready for a long overdue shower together. They had the shower running and were waiting for the water to get hot.
Guy began to take his clothes off as Connie went to put her phone on the charger.
Connie turned back to him and wolf-whistled. "I wonder how many puck bunnies go to the games and sit close to the ice wearing your jersey just to try to get your attention."
"Jealous?" He pulled her in close, wrapping his arms around her.
She looked up at him, "Oh please," Connie laughed before kissing him. When she pulled back from the kiss she grinned, "They have nothing on me."
Guy would be lying if he said he hadn't hooked up with his share of puck bunnies but that came to an end when he started seeing Lizzie. It wasn't like he need more from them than a fun time but very few of them could even hold a conversation with him. That was okay since he used them to fill the Connie-sized hole she had left. Sure, the women that wear his number behind the team or by the ice are hot but truth be told none of them could hold a candle to Connie. She was everything.
Guy's phone began to ding multiple times alerting him to multiple text messages before it started to ring. He looked at Connie confused. Before he could answer it, more dings signaled additional messages.
"Hello?" Guy greeted cautiously. Connie stepped away from him to give him space. It was Jesse on the other end of the phone. It didn't take long for him to understand why his phone was still going off. His heart dropped out of his stomach. He felt hot all of a sudden. Glancing at Connie he knew she could see the color draining from his face. "Okay, I can fix this. I can, right?"
Connie mouthed, "What?" Guy made a face as he shook his head.
"Yeah, by coming clean."
"That should be done in person. It's the right thing to do, right?" Guy heard it as soon as he said it. If he could kick himself he would.
"I think we're past that, dude."
"My phone won't stop going off." He could only guess that it was his agent or some of his teammates wondering what the hell he was doing in Grand Forks of all places. Maybe Charlie losing his mind.
"You need to handle it."
Guy ended the call without saying another word. Connie came back to him and looked down at his phone with him. He went to his messages and taped on the first one. It was a link to a hockey news site.
The boy that they had met earlier had posted the picture they had taken online. The website must have found the picture somehow and thought it would be a good little story to run. A "hockey player meets a young fan" type feel-good story for a slow news day. Dylan must have tagged the location because Grand Forks was mentioned in the article. The story didn't have any real meat to it, just a few sentences and a quote from the young boy saying that he knew it was Guy Germaine as soon as he saw him but he was with a woman and he didn't want to interrupt but his mom told him to say hi but be polite. As he scrolled through the page he realized there was another picture attached. It must have been taken by the mom. It showed Guy and Dylan standing side by side similar to the first image but this time from behind. The image was a little fuzzy but it was taken from a distance and at an angle that also showed Connie.
The website's social media was popular among hockey fans and Guy knew Lizzie would see it or find out he wasn't where he said he would be and that he was with someone who very much isn't Jesse.
If she didn't already know.