Discovering...Love?

"Yeah, I know, but it's still nice to hear,"I say picking up the last of the beer bottles and throwing them into the heaping recycling bin, "All the neighbors are going to think I'm a drunk."

"Ha, yeah." Sid and I are the only one's left in the house. It's 11:30 and all the guys just left, luckily cleaning up most of their mess, on orders from the captain of course. The day was filled with movies, poker, and a wild game of twister, all going on at the same time.

"So you going to Army's Christmas party?" Sid asks.

"Hell yeah, it's gonna be a blast!" I say.

"Sweet, it's pretty low key, but it's definitely fun."

"I can't wait, I love all you guys and we always have so much fun."

"Well, apparently the love is mutual or they wouldn't have raided your house today."

'if only the love was mutual,' i think.

"Alright, I better get going, Victoria will be wondering where I am."

"I'm sure she knows your over here being that the whole hockey team was parked on the road."

"Yeah," he says giving me another hug, oh how I love the feel of his muscular body pressed against mine, "I'll see you on Friday at the party."

"Okay, see you then, thanks for helping me clean up."

"Are you kidding, you just had an entire hockey team come over unannounced, it's the least I can do," he says opening the door.

"Oh, and Sid, just let the dogs out."

"Alright, can do,"he replies as the dogs race out around him.

"What a day," I say climbing the steps to my bedroom changing into an over sized t-shirt, my pj's of choice.

The next two days seem to fly by and before I know it, I'm on my way to Colby's house. I pull up to his huge house with a ton of cars parked out front. If I didn't know all the guys I would be extremely intimidated, but I do have to meet all the wives and girlfriends. I ring the door bell and Colby answers.

"Hey, what's that," he says motioning to the container in my hands.

"Christmas cookies I baked, I made some for my family and I figured you guys would inhale some of them, so here," I said handing over the container.

"Thanks," he says opening the container and pulling out a cookie as he walks away. I just follow him in, knowing that that's what I'm supposed to do.

"Ummm... Hun, introduction please," a brunette asks Colby.

"Oh, right, Caitlin this is my wife Sara, Sara this is Caitlin, she's the one I was telling you about."

"Oh, Caitlin, nice to meet you. I still can't believe you housed all our boys unexpectedly," she smiles.

"Please I had a blast. Uh, Colby, does she..." I begin.

"Yeah, I know about you and Sid, and Laura, Marc-Andre's wife knows too, but don't worry our lips are sealed," Sara says giving me an encouraging smile.

"Okay, thanks. I don't know who knows and who doesn't,"I sigh with relief.

"It's cool, I totally understand. Hey before the guys sweep you up and take you away for the rest of the night, I'll introduce you to some of the girls, where all in this room over here. Colby save some of the cookies for the other guys," she yells into the next room, "He's like a little kid."

"I know, they all are," I laugh.

"You can say that again," she says leading me into a room full of women.

She introduces me to all of them and they all seem pretty down to earth, but I feel a little out of place. All the girls are wearing cute dresses and high heels. I'm wearing jeans and a sweater, with a pair of high heeled brown leather boots. I feel a bit shabby, and all the women are of course gorgeous. But they are all really nice, how Sid ended up with Victoria, I'll never fully understand. She's talking to Max's girlfriend Leah, who is trying to look for an escape from the conversation. I walk over and say hi to Victoria, who gives me a very snobby hello back.

"Hi, you must be Leah, I'm Caitlin," I say extending my hand.

"Oh, hi. I'm sorry who are you with."She asks politely.

"Oh no, I'm not here with anyone, I'm just a friend,"I smile.

"Who's?"

"Umm... basically the whole hockey team."

"Oh, you're Caitlin, the one who lives next to Sid. You, my dear, are a hero in all of our eyes for taking all the guys in at a moments notice," she laughs

"Thanks, I seem to be hearing that a lot today. Oh, umm... Laura wants to ask you something," I say slowly walking away with her fallowing me. After we're out of ear shot she says,

"Thanks."

"No problem, we could see you over there almost crying out for help," I smile leading her back to the group I was talking with.

"Super Mario!" I hear the guys shout from the other room.

"What are they talking about?" I ask.

"Everytime we get together, they have a wii competition, so they must be playing Super Mario," Ryan Malone's wife Alexis, responds.

"Hmmm...if you lady's will excuse me I'm gonna go see if I can kick some butt in there," I say.

"Yeah, go for it, we'll be in in a bit," Laura says laughing.

I walk into the other room and immediately I'm greeted by the players. Ryan Malone throws me over his shoulder caring me to the wii by the big Plasma TV. He drops me on the floor and says, "Caitlin Shaw, I challenge you to Super Mario."

I laugh out loud with the other guys and then with a wicked look I respond, "I accept, you're goin' down, Bugsy!"

Sid's POV

"Sidney, do we have to go?" Victoria whines.

"Victoria it's only for a tonight and the other wives and girlfriends will be there."

"Will Caitlin be there?" she asks.

I look over at her in shock, "Yeah, why?"

"I don't trust her, she has to be a slut for hanging out with all you guys."

"She's not a slut, she's just one of the guys." I say defending her.

"I don't know I'd watch out for her, she's just a puck bunny,"she says.

"No she's not," I say starting to get mad.

"All she wants is money and to get into ...."she begins.

"Victoria, that's enough, Caitlin's a good friend of mine, I don't want to hear you talking her down. She has worked hard to get where she is today, and there is nothing wrong with hanging out with all of the guys." I say angrily pulling into the driveway.

We walk up to the door and she says, "Sidney I'm sorry, we're still going to LA for Christmas, right?"

"Yeah, we can. But I have some things to work on tomorrow, so you can go up, and then I'll come up on Christmas Eve,"I sigh.

I agreed to go to LA with her for Christmas, instead of spending it with my family, because we don't have a game until the 27th and she has family there, if you count a Mom and her newest husband, that calls every six months, a family.

"Okay," she giggles.

I ring the door bell and Colby shows us in. The guys are setting up the wii for our infamous competition of the year. Victoria slips away with the other women, when I hear the doorbell ring. Colby leaves and a few minutes later comes back with a container full of cookies.

"Colby save some of the cookies for the other guys," Sara yells in from the other room.

"Cookies?" Jordan asks coming over to eat one.

"Yeah, Caitlin baked some cookies," he responds through a mouthful,"There awesome!"

"If they are anything like her cooking they must be fabulous," I say reaching for a chocolate chip cookie.

"Oh, my God! What would we do without Caitlin?" Petr Sykora says eating a cookie.

"Super Mario!" Max yells, and we respond with a chorus of shouts.

I happen to glance up to the doorway and do a double take. There is Caitlin, looking incredibly gorgeous. She is dressed in a close fitting sweater and dark jeans that fit perfectly over every curve, her high heels making her legs look a mile long even though she's short. She has on a small amount of dark green eye shadow bringing out her dark chocolate eyes, and her chestnut hair is in loose waves, under the lighting you can see the natural auburn highlights.

"Caitlin!" Ruutu yells, making everyone look up from what their doing.

"She looks really good," Colby says in my ear, "Sid close your mouth you're drooling."

"Shut up," I say punching him in the arm. I look back to her to see Ryan Malone picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. He carries her over to the wii, dropping her on the floor.

"Caitlin Shaw, I challenge you to Super Mario."

Everyone laughs, and Caitlin throws back her head laughing along. After it all quiets down, she gets a wicked look in her eye that makes her look incredibly sexy, "I accept, you're goin' down Bugsy!"


Caitlin's POV

I of course beat Bugs in Super Mario, and after the game is over, I slip outside on the deck with a glass of wine. I welcome the cold chilly air as it hits me and go over to the side of the deck looking out into the darkness. I hear the door open behind me and a shadow reveals a pair of incredible broad shoulders. I look up into the stars on the clear night, I take a deep breath, "It's coming," I say quietly, as Sidney comes to stand next to me.

"What's coming?" he asks looking up into the stars. The last time we were looking at the stars together was on the beach.

"Snow. It's coming." I smile. I love the snow, always have.

"Nope, the weatherman said we won't get snow this Christmas," Sid replies shaking his head.

"Maybe not in LA, but in PA we're going to get snow, I'd say sometime tomorrow." I grin, before taking a sip of wine.

"How do you know?" he asks looking at me.

"Just a feeling," I say continuing to look at the stars.

"I bet you it won't," he says grinning.

"You're on," I grin back.

His eyes catch mine and hold. He looks at my lips back up to my eyes, as if he is going to kiss me. My memory flashes back to when he first kissed me at the beach. The fireworks that went off everytime his lips hit mine, I had dated a couple times since that summer but I could never seem to have that kind of chemistry with a guy. My eyes drop to his lips as he steps closer, I inhale waiting to feel his lips on mine.

"Sidney, can we go now," I hear Victoria whine as she opens the door.

I hear Sidney sigh, barely audible and my eyes meet his and I see a feeling that I can't identify.

"Not yet Victoria, it's only 10:30, we'll leave in another hour," Sid says stepping away from me to go to Victoria.

He closes the door behind him leaving me all alone with the stars.

"Damn," I whisper, taking another sip of wine.