Back for more? Sadly my Pens are out of the playoffs (and at the risk of ticking off Flyers fans, as far as I'm concerned that ended a 3-3 series... Game 1 was SO ours. You cannot score a goal on an offside pass!) but I'll try not to let my bitterness slip into the story ;-)

Thanks go out to my dirtybird beta :-) and to Lisa for pre-reading (and supplying me with all sorts of pictures to illustrate the chapter)

And thanks to all of you for reading!

Chapter 2

Two weeks, and another three out-of-state training sessions later, we were thrown into the first stage of trying to work with two chaotic schedules. The team had reconvened for the start of pre-season with regular practices and workouts while the coaches determined who would make the final cut. While Edward and the majority of guys returning from last year were safe, the focus on the guys called up from the minors to fill those last few spots on the bench, they were all still working pretty hard. Edward often returned with all sorts of bumps and bruises that I delighted in kissing and making better.

"What are you thinking so hard about over there?"

My eyes snapped to Edward and I had to laugh at myself for drifting off. Considering we were standing in a noisy, crowded club that was quite a feat. I shook my head and said, "Nothing. Sorry, just spaced out."

"Come on." He took the drink from my hand and placed it on a nearby table with his own.

"Hey! I wasn't done with that."

"I'll buy you another one later. I want to get my arms around you."

He pulled me to an open space in the mass of moving bodies. Women in seas of shimmering fabric draped over perfect curves moved with deliberate rhythm against designer suits made casual with the loss of a tie and a few buttons undone.

I was out of my comfort zone in places like this where the women prowled for the men who would set them up for life, and the men bought their company for the inflated cost of a cosmo. We didn't do this often, but there was a bit of a party atmosphere amongst the team right now so there'd been a few nights like this lately. After months apart the teammates were catching up, reforming bonds. They enjoyed the freedom to indulge—whether in a night out with friends or any of the aforementioned women—before the team's schedule limited such opportunities.

The attitudes and proclivities of the guys I'd met so far varied widely. Tonight was comprised of a small group that ran the gamut of devoted family man to the stereotypical manwhore. The latter reminded me why I'd had no interest in pursuing an athlete before and made me so much more appreciative of what I'd found with Edward who seemed to fit in with and gravitate with the former. While the VIP area was crawling with women ready to compromise morals, we'd managed to insulate ourselves from them in a quiet corner for most of the night.

Out here in the undulating crowd it was harder to ignore the way people looked at him and me, as they did every other couple on the floor, trying to figure out if we were actually together or just together for the moment. I'd already had my fair share of propositions, so I knew it wasn't just the women searching for 'social' opportunities.

None of them stood a chance—with either of us. Even as surrounded as we were, our eyes never left each other. Edward used the crush of the crowd as an excuse to hold me closer, tighter. So tight that, although I couldn't hear the moan as I played with the hair at the nape of his neck, I could feel the vibration of it pass from his chest to mine.

"You about ready to go?"

He let his lips linger at my ear, nipping at the lobe, and I closed my eyes so I could focus all of my attention on just feeling him.

I didn't answer the question but my response was clear when I opened my eyes back up.

Leaning down he placed his lips against mine and said, "Let's get out of here." The kiss that immediately followed was a promise of things to come.

The trip from the curb to his house was a test in patience, even more than the trip in the cab. The need to touch was overwhelming and caused too much fumbling with keys for either of our liking. Once inside, we tripped over each other up the stairs, all lips and hands and legs.

I walked backwards up the steps, his grip the only thing keeping me from falling. The only conversation was a volley of "want you" and "need you" and "now."

Inside the bedroom we started pulling at each other's clothing, as ungraceful and sloppy as it was(,) it only added to the heat and desperation. The sound of a tear made me rip my mouth from his in a gasp. We both looked at what used to be a strap as it hung limply down the front of my dress.

Wide eyed and mouths opened in shock we looked at each other.

"You ripped my dress! I thought that only happened in movies and trashy romance novels."

He immediately burst into laughter, an adorable giggle that made his eyes crinkle. I loved his laugh, so carefree and wild.

He kissed me sweetly before pulling me toward the bed. "Come on, lover, that bodice isn't gonna rip itself."

If it was at all possible to fall in love with an inanimate object then I was pretty sure I was in love with Edward's couch. A massive, cushy monstrosity that one could get lost in, it was my favorite part of his house. He had the typical bachelor pad—the bare necessities yet teeming with electronics—but this couch made up for what it lacked in style.

Especially with how roomy it was.

I was lying there, late on a Saturday morning, pretending to read a book as he sat on the edge of the cushion by my legs, taping sticks. With only boxers covering him, I had the perfect view to watch the muscles of his back ripple under his skin as he wound the tape around the blade. I flipped the page I'd been working on for the last ten minutes just as he moved to start on the handle. I'd watched him do this so many times I was sure I could replicate it. One layer of tape down, then back up. Pull a length of the tape loose and spin it until it resembles a thin rope. Wind it around the handle, perfectly angled, from the top down for traction. Then one more layer of tape back up to hold it all in place. The perfect grip.

"What page are you on?" he asked over his shoulder as he laid the stick down.

"Two fourteen, why?"

He reached over and pulled the book out of my hand and tossed it across the floor as he moved to hover over me.

My favorite thing about the couch, it had plenty of room for both of us without running the risk of someone falling off when we inevitably started to fool around. His left hand worked its way up my bare leg and pushed the well-worn t-shirt of his I'd claimed long ago up over my hips. Back to my legs, his hand started at my knee and trailed an unpredictable path over my skin and snaked up my inner thigh. At the very top, at the point that just teased the edge of my panties, he squeezed with the perfect pressure to make me gasp and throw my head back.

"Better than reading, yeah?'

I pushed him off of me until he was sitting and immediately straddled his lap.

"Much better," I said before losing my shirt.

That evening our plans differed vastly from the night before. Hand in hand we walked into the familiar sports bar where it all started just a few months ago. I quickly spotted Rosalie waving her drink in the air at a table in the back.

Greetings were made as Edward and I took the last two seats at the table where they already had drinks waiting for us. I loved how well he got along with my friends, how seamlessly our group of five expanded to six. We'd spent so many nights like this over the summer. Edward had even spent quite a bit of time on his own with Emmett and Jasper so I'd never had to worry that he tolerated my friends for my sake. They truly were his friends too.

The overlapping conversations were proof of that. The guys immediately jumped into commentary on a baseball game playing on one of the many large screens hanging from the wall while Alice, Rosalie, and I caught up with each other.

"So have you decided what we're doing for your birthday this week?" Alice asked.

I grumbled, turning my nose up at the idea of celebrating. I'd always been one for keeping the day pretty low-key. "We don't have to do anything. Actually, I'd kind of prefer that."

"I still don't understand your aversion to birthdays," Rosalie said with a laugh. "You're so weird."

I shrugged. "It kind of loses its appeal after all the major benchmarks are passed. And anything to not call attention to myself . . . "

"Not me," Alice said, waving her beer in the air in emphasis. "I'm never going to stop expecting people to make a big deal out of my birthday."

I laughed, taking a swig of my own beer. "I'm gonna see your name on 'Today' one day when you're 100 for the Smucker's birthday wishes."

"Damn right," she said, tipping her bottle in my direction as a cue for me to clink glass.

The waitress came over to take orders. I opted for the chicken wrap and had to laugh at frantic scratch of pen on paper as she tried to keep up with Edward.

"Dozen hot wings, bacon cheeseburger with everything, fries with that . . . uh, side of whatever vegetables you have . . . oh, and an order of chicken nachos to start."

"Is that all?" she asked. I barked out a laugh before I could stop myself. I had no idea how she was able to ask that question without it dripping in sarcasm, but the girl was perfectly professional.

"What?" he asked me.

I shook my head.

He stretched, pushing his stomach out and patting it. "I'm a growing boy, I need the calories."

As much as he might've been joking, it was true. He'd had a healthy appetite all summer but being back on the ice had increased it. He burned it all off so quickly, and he usually tried to eat healthier, so the occasional night of shoveling bar food into his mouth didn't matter. It was just amusing to watch.

As soon as the waitress left, conversations picked up again.

"Can't believe the pre-season games start in a couple weeks," Emmett said.

Edward gave a small snort and said, "Right? Where did the summer go?"

"What are you two gonna do?" Alice asked. It wasn't the first time the topic had come up but we'd never had any definitive answers before, not that we had any now. Playing it by ear seemed like a much better idea six weeks ago. Now it felt like the time we'd be forced to spend apart hung like a guillotine over our heads.

"I don't really know," I said.

"Well, I was thinking . . ." Edward said, glancing at me and looking slightly abashed, presumably for his poor timing. Whatever idea he'd come up with he hadn't shared while we were alone and could discuss it privately.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Well I was looking at your schedule and you're in Albany in November, right?"

I mentally reviewed my calendar and recalled the two day training session scheduled for the Lockheed Martin office there. "Uh huh."

He picked at the label on his beer bottle, a nervous habit I knew he'd hate to know that I referred to as cute.

"We're flying into Buffalo the same day you finish up there so I thought maybe you could make a side trip before you head home."

It only took a split second to catch on to what he really meant. "Oh. Oh!"

"Yeah, I thought maybe I could show you around a little since we're going to have a day off before the game on Sunday. I mean, they'll probably make us practice on Saturday but I'd have the rest of the day free."

Edward grew up not too far from Buffalo in a little town a few minutes from Niagara Falls. This wasn't just a plan to meet up mid-roadtrip. This was kind of big.

And though it took my friends a little longer to catch on, they eventually did.

"Shit, little Bella's gonna meet the parents, huh?" Emmett said and immediately started laughing, even as Rosalie elbowed him in the ribs.

I hadn't responded and I could tell that Edward was getting nervous by the way he couldn't hold eye contact and the abuse his fingers were inflicting as they raked his hair. I just couldn't seem to get words out.

"I, um . . ."

"It's okay, if you aren't ready, You don't have to," he said, this time his words quieter.

"No!" I said, a little too loudly. "No, you just surprised me. That's all."

His expression changed more hopeful than before but still guarded.

"Are you sure? You don't think it's too soon?"

He gave me a soft grin as he reached over to thumb over my cheek and said, "We'll have been together for five months at that point. No, I don't think it's too soon. Today wouldn't be too soon."

I forced a smile, though I was sure it was more of a grimace what with the butterflies dancing around my stomach. "Okay. Yeah. Let's do that then."

He leaned over and whispered in my ear, trying to ease my nerves in whatever privacy he could create. "Don't worry. They're gonna love you." It almost worked, but then he leaned back and said, "Besides, they're planning on flying here for Thanksgiving so even if you passed on Buffalo you'd meet them a week later anyway."

Later that night we were walking out of the bar, plates cleaned (he even finished mine), drinks imbibed, and games of pool both won and lost, when the topic of visiting his hometown came up again.

"I didn't mean to put you on the spot," he said with his arm around me as we walked down the sidewalk. "But I noticed that trip on your calendar the other day while you were out of town and forgot to mention it when you came back."

"It's fine. I just wasn't expecting that." I stepped up onto my tiptoes for a kiss to show how him just how 'not mad' I was. "Besides, I have no room to talk."

He stopped walking and I had to reverse the couple steps I'd gotten ahead of him.

"What do you mean?"

I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up at him, feeling a little streak of mischief run through me at the payback I was about to extend.

"Oh, nothing. Just that my dad called earlier and was tossing around the idea of flying down for Christmas. You know, the man who gets paid to carry a gun?"

His head dropped back and his eyes closed. "Shiiiiit."

"Don't worry. He's gonna love you," I said, paraphrasing his earlier words. I was teasing him, but it wasn't a lie. Charlie might give him a hard time but I knew Edward would win him over. He was one of the good guys and I knew it wouldn't take Charlie any time at all to see that.

"Yeah right. No man loves the guy violating his little girl."