Chapter Sixteen

Sid woke up in the morning slowly opened his eyes. The early morning sunlight was filtering through the room through the thin drapes that hung on the window behind the bed. He moved his head to the side and kissed the top of the head, still curled up on his shoulder.

"Mmmm…" Amber stirred, stretching out like a cat.

"So this is what waking up with you feels like…" Sid whispered into her hair. "I could get used to this."

Amber looked up to Sid's face and smiled. "How long are you going to bring that up?"

"It's my right."

Amber rolled her eyes and jabbed him in the ribs. He laughed and then a devilish smile came onto his face. "I'll stop but I would be lying if the thought of tying you to the bed didn't occur to me more then once last night."

"I doubt you have a kinky bone in your body!" She teased him.

"Oh? You don't think so…" He bit down on the side of her neck.

"I wanna find out…" she whispered into his ear.

"We shouldn't… the guys might be waking up… I should go back to my room… but I definitely want a rain cheque on this one!" Sid used all his will power to push away from her.

"I hate your logic…" She moaned.

Sid flopped onto his back. "I should head out for a jog."

"I didn't give you enough of a workout?" Amber asked, acting hurt and a little surprised.

Sid laughed and decided he wouldn't let her know how exhausted he really was. The jog was really just to clear his head and hopefully shake out the dirty thoughts, so he didn't walk around with a crazy hard-on all day. The guys were bound to notice that one.

Sid reached down and grabbed his boxers off the floor. He pulled them up over his morning wood, tucking it in, so it wouldn't be too obvious.

"Maybe I could help you with that…" Amber looked up with a sultry look, noticing the awkward tent in his pants.

"You're killing me right now, you know that?"

"Maybe," Amber giggled and curled up into the blankets, pulling a pillow in close to her body.

Sid lowered himself down and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you at breakfast. French toast right?"

"Mmmmhmmmm…"

-.-

Max held up the bottle in his hands to see if he could drain another drop out of it. That one was empty too. After finishing off the scotch, he went looking for something more. He found a half bottle of vodka and a bottle of peach schnapps. He debated going for the bottle of baileys but wasn't sure how that would help the mix in his stomach. The sun was coming up and he would be able to get Jordan to drive him back to the city soon enough.

He didn't want to have to explain why they were leaving without Sid but he knew Jordan would probably ask questions. He didn't have any answers. The only reason he was waiting for Jordan to wake up to leave was the three empty bottles on the table in front of him. Max put his head down on the table and wrapped his arms around his head to block out the light. He forced himself to take deep breaths and concentrate on not throwing up.

He wasn't sure how long he had his head down but the only reason he raised it was in hopes of finding Jordan standing behind him, digging through the fridge.

"Oh, it's you…"

-.-

"Morning man! Just going for a run, wanna come?" Sid offered, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge. He turned around to see Max, slumped in a chair at the table, surrounded by empty booze bottles. "Whoa buddy, what's goin' on?"

"What's going on? Why don't you fucking tell me what's going on!"

Sid took a deep breath and felt his cheeks get red. "I don't know what you mean…" he offered, not wanting to incriminate himself, in case there some other reason Max was mad and not the one he figured it probably was.

"Cut the shit! Why don't you tell me the fucking TRUTH!" Max yelled across the kitchen.

"Max listen, it's not what you think…" Sid offered calmly.

"So you're not fucking her?" Max hissed.

Sid was quiet. Max was clearly drunk. He had to plan his words carefully and not make any sudden movements.

"It's not like that… it's more then that…" Sid said quietly.

"More then that? More then just fucking?" Max repeated.

"I met her last year and then at the Olympics and… and … we've kinda developed something…" Sid tried to explain.

"Last year? Developed something? What the fuck?" Max shook his head in disbelief. "Why didn't you fucking tell me? You let me go on about her… you let me think it was someone else… you fucking lied to my face…"

"I didn't know how to tell you or what to tell you… our relationship has been kind of… messy, complicated and, and I'm sorry man, you have no idea…"

"You went behind my back…"

"I swear that was not my intention. I wanted to tell you. I really did but you've been so weird… with your plots and schemes and you've been so crazy…"

Max sat back in his chair. He ran through his behaviour the last couple of days. Crazy was being polite. He felt like he had damn near lost his mind. If he had been thinking clearly, he would have seen this coming, should have seen it. Now he was mad at himself.

Jordan emerged from upstairs and came into the kitchen. "What's going on in here?"

Sid shot Jordan a look that said both 'shut the fuck up' and 'run and save yourself'. Jordan looked around the room, and saw Max sitting at a table surrounded by empties and decided he was better backing up out of the room slowly.

"I assume you knew about this, you slimy piece of shit?" Max hissed across the room.

"Ummm… I had a slight indication…"

"And you fucking defended him to me? You told me FLAT OUT he wasn't fucking her!" Max stood up and turned around to face them.

"I didn't know then, I only found out last night, after dinner…" Jordan offered in his best defence, shooting Sid an 'I told you so'.

"Leave him out of this…"

"NO! He might as well have been fucking her too!"

"I wouldn't say no… I mean come on, she's hot…" Jordan tried to lighten the mood, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth he wished he had bit his tongue. Max lunged across the counter at him and connected his fist with Jordan's face, knocking him back. Sid grabbed Max from behind and pinned his arms behind him, which wasn't too hard because of the lack of blood in his alcohol system. Max struggled free and went to take a swing at Sid but lost his balance and went crashing against a wall. He let out a long string of curses then regained his composure and turned to back to them.

"You're both fucking dead to me!" He yelled, waving his arm at them.

"That's enough Max," Amber said quietly, coming down the hall towards him. Her voice was like a whistle from a ref, stopping the play dead. She walked past him and Sid felt his pulse quicken again. If Max so much as touched her, he would kill him. But he didn't. He didn't even look up at her. Instead he let her walk straight past him to the sink, where she reached for the dish cloth and walked over to where Jordan was holding his nose, blood creeping through his fingers. She grabbed his hand and moved away, quickly replacing his hand with the cloth and instructing him to bend his head forward.

"Max, go outside." She didn't look at him, she didn't have to. To Sid's surprise, Max listened and went to the back door to head to the deck. He stumbled a few times, trying to gain his balance but he made it outside and slammed the door behind him.

"Sid… go for your jog," Amber shot Sid a look that meant she wasn't kidding but his protective instincts were up and he didn't want to leave her with Max drunk like this.

"I don't want to leave you alone…"

"Jordan will be here. Go." She stated calmly, checking on her patient.

Sid hesitated. By the look in her eyes and the calmness of her voice, he knew that she was in charge of the situation. She probably had more experience handling locker room fights then anyone here and could probably hold her own. She was also probably more familiar with Max and his temper then she wanted to be, having grown up next to him and his brothers. Sid grabbed his water bottle and headed for the front door.

-.-

"You must be really good in bed, hey?" Jordan laughed. Only a hockey player could laugh with a potentially broken nose.

Amber poked him in the ribs, which made him squirm.

"They have never fought," Jordan explained. "I mean don't get me wrong, there have been plenty of times when we thought they would, or probably should have… Max can be hard to take sometimes. Not that Sid is always a saint but Max is usually the trouble maker..."

Amber just nodded. She was familiar with that aspect of Max.

"… you know, one thing I don't understand about this whole thing is that you knew Sid and Max were team mates, Sid didn't know you knew Max, we can't really blame him… but you knew…"

"You think I wanted this?" Amber asked. "You think I planned this?"

"No, that's not what I am saying…" Jordan defended himself.

"I tried to get away from this hell. I never pursued him. Ever! He's just so stubborn…"

"Oh, we all know he's stubborn! I get that! Sid gets something in his head and won't give up until he gets it," Jordan admitted, thinking of how many times they had to drag Sid of the ice after he didn't make a play or get an easy goal.

"Max is the same way. I thought Max understood that we were over, but he's caught up on this idea that we were meant to be together and it's like he forgot all the reasons why we're not."

"Maybe it's a good thing they never fought… one would have to end up dead for it to end."

"You need to understand that this was the last thing I wanted…"

"I never thought you wanted it, but I think you probably could have prevented it…" Jordan was shocking himself, he was never the voice of reason in the room. His mom would be proud.

"Shoulda, coulda, woulda…" Amber shrugged and turned to the freezer to get some ice for Jordan's face.

"I get that, but what are you going to do now?"

"There's a bridge not to far from here, I contemplated throwing myself off of…"

"Please don't do that… from the looks of things, they would probably follow you… and I really want to win another Stanley Cup!"

"Wow… thanks…remind me why I haven't poked you in the nose?" Amber threatened, handing Jordan a package of frozen peas.

"You better not! Oh Shit! I have a photo shoot next week, there better be no bruising!" Jordan got up and ran towards the bathroom to check his face.

Amber looked outside to where Max was slumped in a deck chair. She decided to let him sober up a bit before talking to him and instead went to work making some coffee. She went about preparing the grounds and heard Jordan swearing from the bathroom, which made her laugh. He emerged from the bathroom with toilet paper stuffed up his nostrils. The sight of him was absolutely ridiculous and Amber couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm going to go have a shower… will you be alright with him?" Jordan asked, after Amber calmed down.

"Yeah, I can handle Max Talbot. If he did anything, his brothers would murder him…"

"If Sid let him live…"

"Yeah, I guess so hey? I'm just going to make him some coffee and maybe give him some time to calm down before talking to him."

"Well, I won't be too long and Sid will be back… he tends to run forever though… the guy's ridiculous! Like dude, settle down! We get it, your awesome… take a break…" Jordan headed upstairs for his shower and the smell of brewing coffee began to fill the air. When the machine was done, she poured two cups and headed out to the deck.

"Here," she stated simply, forcing a cup into his hands. Max took it and grunted something that sounded like a thank you. He closed his eyes and took a sip of the hot beverage. It felt good though not much of him did.

"You shouldn't have drank so much," Amber stated.

"You shouldn't have fucked my best friend," Max retorted sharply.

"You're probably right," Amber agreed after a short pause. She had nothing. She had no argument for that. She knew what she had done was wrong and now all that she could do was let him be mad at her. "So let me have it… What do you want to say?"

"I don't know. What can I say? If I say I don't want you to see him will you listen?" Max asked calmly but the anger in his voice evident.

"No."

"Well then, fuck, that doesn't leave me a lot of options, does it?"

"I guess not."

"If I tell him that I don't want him to see you, he will listen. That's who he is. He'll never put you above hockey."

"I know… I seem to go for that in a guy," Amber shrugged. "If that's what you want to do, then I can't stop you. But what will that accomplish? You think that will make you feel better? You think hurting him – and me – will make you feel better? We didn't mean to hurt you… I didn't think I would see him again, until I came to your party and he was there… and then you wouldn't listen and you showed up here and, fuck, you just don't listen!" Amber was losing her calm.

"Oh, it's my fault now? The woman I love sleeps with my best friend and it's my fault?" Max snapped.

"You don't love me Max! Quit it with that shit! You are hung up on an idea that is dead. Move on. Find someone else!"

"Like you have?" Max asked quietly.

"Yes." Amber offered, lowering her voice.

"Do you love him?"

Amber paused, then nodded.

Max felt a tear slip out of his eye. She was all he had really ever known. He had known a lot of women but not like her. He had only ever planned a life with her. He thought they would be together forever. Letting go of her was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done, especially if he had to do it watching her with Sidney fucking Crosby.

"What if I can't… you know… find another woman?"

"You haven't tried."

"I didn't think I had too."

Amber reached out and put her hand on his, which he quickly laced his fingers into.

"Can you do me a favour?" He asked.

"I can try…" she responded.

"Can you not, you know, be too lovey dovey around me? You know, no PDA's or 'how are you smoochy?' bullshit. I don't want to accidentally rip off his face… "

Amber laughed softly, "I can probably manage that…"

"I haven't forgiven him…" Max snapped.

"Okay. I get that…" Amber shrugged, then softened her voice and added "Have you forgiven me?"

Max took a deep breath and looked at her. She always had the power to calm him down, even when he was madder then hell, one look from her melted his heart. If was unfair really, cause he really wanted to be mad.

"Sorta…" he offered. "I mean, for all the shit I put you through, I am the last person that should get to hold a grudge."

"That's the most logical thing you've said in a while…" Amber smiled.

"So you love him… what now? Are you going to move to Pittsburgh?" Max asked, taking another big sip of coffee.

"I dunno… I mean, ugh, Pittsburgh…"

"It's not so bad… it would be nice to have my best friend nearby again…"

Amber smiled, "I agree… we've always been better friends then anything…"

"We weren't exactly bad at the other stuff, especially not the fun stuff," Max argued. Amber just rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, taking a long sip of her coffee.

"You understand that if he hurts you, or does anything, I will kill him… and I don't mean that as a euphemism. I will literally kill him." Max stated in his most serious voice.

"Oh, I am counting on it! How else am I supposed to keep him in line? A little fear will be good for the relationship!" Amber laughed. "I am going to head inside and start breakfast. French toast, just for you!"

"If you're living in Pittsburgh, I will be by every Sunday morning with an empty plate," Max called after her, as she walked into the house. He watched her go. He would let her think this was the end but it was far from over.