Chapter 25

I hope everyone had a happy whatever holiday they were celebrating! Sorry this update is so late but I kept finishing it and then I would re-read and keep adding it. This chapter was really fun for me to write so I didn't want to stop and I hope you all like the ending. :)

Also, don't expect any updates for the next week as I will be out of the country. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of whatever break from school and work you have and enjoy a safe and fun New Year!!!

Emma's POV:

The rest of the day passed by quickly as Christmas Eve wound down and Sidney's little cousins got more and more anxious for the coming morning. Their excitement was infectious and I couldn't help but smile- even as I got my ass beat in a game of Scrabble to Sidney's very, very competitive aunts. After losing for the 3rd time, it was apparent that all Crosby's had a spark of the competitive nature I had previously only associated with Sidney.

"Man, you suck" I heard his voice echo behind me. Sidney leaned down to examine the tiny tiles before me and I tried to not be so affected by the feeling of his chest pressing against my back. Too late, I was totally blushing in front of his family.

"Hey! Go back to whatever you were doing and leave me alone. I'm just in a slump, that's all" I said childishly trying to cover my letters with both of my hands. He grinned turning his head to mine and I realized how close we were- close enough that I could kiss him again easily without moving my head too much.

One of his aunts cleared their throats and both of our eyes shifted over to them realizing that we had a very interested audience staring back at us.

"I believe that it's your turn sweetheart. Sidney, either sit down and kiss the girl or go away."

To my surprise, Sidney just chuckled, especially when he saw how red I got, and took a seat next to me. Even though I would not have protested if he kissed me, I wasn't big on PDA and doing any of that in front of his family would have been too much too soon.

"The first thing to learn about playing with them," he told me shifting so that we could both see my tiles, "is that they cheat." His aunts protested and I grinned at their family banter.

"So wise one, what should my next move be?" I asked him curious to see him get into scrabble but mostly I wanted him to find a word from my miserable tile choices because I was going cross-eyed trying to think of a word that included a "Q" but no vowels. In other words, it was completely impossible.

"Shit." he said softly leaning back slightly. "You really don't have any options."

His aunts laughed at his comment obviously excited that my ship was sinking once again. "Ugh, you aren't helpful, Crosby. Go back to watching your cavemen sports with the guys."

He quirked his eyebrow at me and instead of moving, pulled the tiles firmly between us on the table and ignored my comment completely.

20 minutes later we still got our asses kicked but at least now I could partially blame the loss on Sidney who had tried to spell a multitude of words with the dreaded "Q" tile and insisted that it was a "silent Q."  The memory of him arguing with his aunts still had me laughing, especially since Sidney hated to lose at anything- even a game of Scrabble that he had hijacked from me.

"It's not that funny, you know" he commented pulling me down next to him on the couch and focusing his attention on the movie playing on the TV. "We just got our asses kicked by my aunts who I know cheat on a regular basis with that game."

"At least cheating and creating real words is more dignified than trying to add "Q's" to random words" I quipped smiling sweetly at him. He was about to say something back when Trina came into the room to announce that dinner was ready giving me the opportunity to hop up and ignore whatever Sidney had been about to say even though he was protesting behind me.

After a loud and hectic dinner, everyone gathered around the tree to open presents early since this was the last time during the holidays that the family would be in one place. Sidney and I had to leave in the afternoon tomorrow on Christmas day so that he could fly out again with the team the next morning and other members of the Crosby clan were also driving back to their homes tonight too.

While I was more than happy to be here watching them all open presents with each other, it was still hard to think about how close they all were with one another and remember that my parents were assholes off running around with mistresses and in my mother's case, most likely an italian gigolo.

"Here Emma, we wanted you to have this." I looked up in surprise to see Taylor standing in front of me, smiling hugely and pushing a gift into my arms. Lost in my own world, I hadn't even noticed her approaching me with such a big box.

Immediately I began to protest explaining that by no means were any of them obligated to buy me anything. I felt especially bad because I hadn't gotten any of them anything important. I had stuck to buying relatively impersonal gifts considering I hadn't met any of them before two days ago and considering how generous and sweet everyone had been over the past two days, I was now worried that their gift was going to make me feel terrible.

"Just open it" Sidney said nudging me in the side. I looked at him hesitantly before slowly unwrapping the large box and freeing it from the cheerful paper. The look in his eyes had reassured me and urged me at the same time to open the box rather than protest.

I had no idea what they could have possibly put in such a large box for me and was almost nervous as I lifted the white lid off of the top.

"What is it?" I asked curiously turning to Sidney who was smiling at me broadly. I lifted a jersey out of the paper examining it closely before turning it around and spotting "Weston" written across the back with the number 24. Even more baffling were the skates beneath the jersey. I lifted my eyes from my mystery gift and saw all of them smiling at me. Was I supposed to know what this gift meant? It wasn't that I was unappreciative, I just really didn't understand what I was supposed to do with this gift. I sucked at skating and the jersey wasn't even a Pens jersey. I actually had no idea what team the jersey was from- it definitely wasn't an NHL team.

"Okay, I'm really sorry" I stated giving in to my urge to ask what the gift meant. "What team is this jersey from? And why does it have my name on it?"

"Sidney- didn't you explain the tradition?" Trina asked also looking confused.

Internally I was a little scared. I didn't want to offend them but I truly didn't understand what team this jersey was coming from or what the tradition they were talking about was.

"Tradition?" I questioned looking down at my gift again. Everyone around me was talking excitedly but still not explaining anything to me.

"Every year we play a game of hockey on Christmas Eve and a few years ago decided to design our own special jerseys for the game. This year you'll be playing with us" Taylor explained, laughing at my look of disbelief. They had gotten me a jersey to play in their annual family game of hockey with them?

My eyes welled up with tears before I could help it and Sidney's face immediately fell in disappointment.

"I'm so sorry" I blurted out trying to contain the tears that were on the verge of flowing down my cheeks.

"Why are you crying?" Sidney asked looking worried. "You don't have to play if you don't want to. We just thought that-"

I cut him off not wanting him to apologize for so perfect a gift. Instead I gathered him in a hug squeezing him quickly and whispering "thank you" in his ear. I let go of him and stood up facing his befuddled family.

"I'm crying because I'm happy, I promise" I joked smiling and wiping my cheeks quickly. "It was just a really thoughtful and unexpected gift, so thank you."

"So, it's okay?" Sidney asked me again after I had taken my seat next to him back on the couch.

"It's more than okay" I told him squeezing his hand that had somehow found its way into mine. "I was just really surprised and it's incredibly sweet for you all to go through that trouble for me."

He looked at me, holding my gaze with an expression I suddenly didn't understand and squeezed my hand tighter before letting go and not saying anything at all.

Soon every gift was unwrapped and the room was full of commotion as everyone got up to put on coats and get ready to leave for the ice rink. After the scene I had made about receiving the gift, I had completely forgotten to mention to Sidney about how bad I was at skating.

"Seriously, I'm terrible" I confessed knowing that I was going to look stupid amongst this athletically gifted family. How could Sidney even be interested in me when I wasn't proficient in skating? Wasn't that some sort of automatic requirement with him?

Trina who had overheard me confessing my fears to Sidney in the foyer laughed and told me not to worry. "I play too but don't worry, I'm just as bad. After over 25 years of marriage, Troy still hasn't managed to teach me how to skate well. It's all in good fun anyway."

This was mildly reassuring but I knew Sidney. If he was involved, this game wasn't going to be taken lightly. He would find a way to make it intense as if it were game 7 of the playoff finals all over again. It was one thing to love watching hockey and seeing Sidney play, but it was another thing all together to find myself on skates actually facing him as an opponent. And I would have to face him- Trina had informed me that the game was always divided- men against women.

Still feeling skeptical of this whole hockey game thing, I feigned enthusiasm walking in with the rest of the ladies and heading to our bench inside the local hockey rink that had been rented for the night. Since everyone else seemed to be seasoned skaters (of course they would be), I was the last one to leave the bench and wobble my way over to the entrance onto the ice where everyone else had already gathered. I didn't want to be that girl that couldn't hold her own during something like this- especially since they had so generously invited me to partake of this family tradition.

"Skates tight enough?" Troy asked spotting me first on the ice. Umm...they felt tight enough so I nodded satisfying him enough to skate away and bark out orders to the others.

The ladies called a team meeting before the game officially started so that we could strategize and figure out who would be in what position on the team. Taylor was goalie, Sidney's aunts were going to hold up our defense and the rest of us were assigned to various forward positions leaving me thankfully to play as a winger in the middle. If I was in the middle blending, then I at least had the chance to look somewhat competent on the ice because everyone would be paying attention to the goalie and the top line forwards.

"Ready to lose, Weston?" Sidney mocked skating by me in his goalie pads.

"Yeah whatever" I mumbled back childishly knowing that I would be having way more fun if I was watching this game instead of playing in it. I loved watching hockey- emphasis on the watching. Besides, the bastard already thought that he had this game in the bag. It was evident by the way he cockily skated over to his net and winked back at me.

An hour later we were down 2-1 with the guys skating around us now like they owned the game. Both teams had regrouped with a timeout and now after listening to Theresa, one of Sidney's cousins, and her inspirational pep-talks, we all agreed that it was time to get serious if we wanted to win.

So far I had managed to avoid the puck for long periods of time, but now as the game was winding down with the score now even at 2-2 thanks to Trina, the rest of the ladies were getting a little desperate and passing the puck to me more than ever even though I obviously looked like I really didn't want it.

Theresa passed the puck to me again to avoid having it stolen from her and I felt my body seize up again as I frantically looked around for someone to pass off to. I heard someone tell me to keep moving and heard Taylor's cries of "Go!" from the opposite end of the rink from where she was still in goal. In my panic I managed to move around Sidney's uncle with the puck, my body now operating on auto-pilot. Now the only thing standing in between me and not having a heart attack was Sidney, in goal, smirking at me like he had this. He knew that he had this in the bag and was smirking at me because of it.

I paused in front of the goal feeling inexplicably angry at him for just assuming things and also from the adrenaline pumping through my blood. I continued to let my body act on it's own as I brought my arm back into a full slapshot position, feeling relieved when I finally let go of everything in explosive release. Maybe this was the satisfactio that Sidney felt everytime he played. It was the ultimate physical feeling and out of body experience combined into one. It was simply the body acting on its own, moving as naturally as a body should.

Realizing that my eyes had been closed all along, I opened them up to find Sidney sprawled out on the ground, the puck resting safely behind him well within the confines of the net. Next thing I knew, I was surrounded by my teammates all hugging me and dancing as best as they could on skates. I was too shocked that I actually scored the game winning goal to fully process Taylor's hysterical laughter and what she kept trying to tell me in between taking big gasps of air.

"What did you say?" I asked over the buzz of voices and Crosby's surrounding us.

"I said, you hit Sidney so hard with your shot, that you knocked him down on the ice!"