Chapter 17

Eliza's POV:

I watched from my position on the bed as Max packed to leave for a roadtrip with the team. After shopping we had returned to his house so that he could get ready to leave by 5 and fly out to Detroit tonight. I pretended to be engrossed in work on my laptop but was secretly wishing he wasn't leaving for the week. The past 24 hours had been so nice that it was sad to see that broken by his departure and now I would have to return to my apartment and bed all by myself.

He finished packing his bag zipping it up and walking into his closet to change into his required suit. "So I'll be back late Thursday night after our game in L.A. and we have a home game on Friday if you want to come. Sid told me Nathalie Lemieux has been asking about you if you want to sit with them" he told me looping a green tie around his neck and looking at me expectantly.

"Okay" I said still pretending to be engrossed in work and feeling slightly panicked that my urge to make him stay was so strong.

"So will you be here on Thursday when I get back?" he asked finally dressed. Did he want me here waiting for him?

"Um, I'm not going anywhere, I'll be in my apartment I guess" Why did we have to be so awkward? Where did he expect me to be, still loitering around in his house after a week?

"Well if you want, I can give you a key and you can just come here after work on Thursday and then we'll get to see each other." We were moving into the key stage now? We had only just started dating! Did he do this with every other girl?

When I didn't say anything and just stared at him, he smirked and rummaged around in a drawer pulling something out.

"Here" he told me placing the object in the hand he had unfolded. "I want you to have this just in case. And that way I don't have to have Mrs. Rollins let you in all of the time. You can just come over when you want."

I stared down at the key in my hand and didn't know what to say. I knew that I should say something and he actually looked worried by my silence.

"Thanks" I said finally smiling and leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. "I'll just come over on Thursday if you're sure you don't mind."

"Lizzy, I want you here" he told me still holding my hand and the key wrapped in my palm. He leaned over to kiss me and I felt myself melting into him all over again. Did he really have to leave?




It was after 4 and he really did need to leave soon if he was going to make it on time. "You shouldn't be late" I told him studying our joined hands and his swollen lips. As he gathered his stuff up I packed up my laptop and walked downstairs to make sure all of the doors were locked up for when we both left.


"Sid will be pissed if I'm late again" he said walking loudly into the kitchen.

"Again? Do I even want to know why you were late those other times?" I joked trying to lighten the suddenly somber mood.


Instead of continuing our conversation, Max pulled me into a hug and I breathed in the smell of him through his suit. He always smelled so woodsy and like expensive cologne that it was a combination unique to Max and Max alone. I liked to think that the woodsy smell was what he had always smelled like even as a kid from Canada and now the cologne scent was a part of his adult life and evidence of what he had achieved.

"I'll miss you" I muttered into his shirt.

"I'm glad you admitted it" he said laughing before kissing my nose and adding, "I'll miss you too."

"Can I be silly and ask you to text once you've landed safely?" I hoped that he didn't think this was a clingy request or that I had to know where he was every second of the day. People close to me traveling made me nervous since my Dad had died and I just wanted to make sure that he was getting form city to city safely.

"Don't worry, you'll be hearing from me anyway but I'll let you know when we land tonight" he told me leaning down to give me one last kiss on the lips before we both got into our cars and drove away.
"Later gorgeous" he told me as he got into his car ready to pull out of the garage. I waved pretending that I didn't feel sad and added his key to my keychain before steadily backing down the driveway in my car to head over to meet family for dinner.


It's going to be a long week.

Max's POV:

Even though she had just sat there staring at me, I thought that she had taken the key gesture pretty well. I didn't care if she was ready or not, I wanted her there in my bed when I got home Thursday where I could see and feel her. I didn't think that was a bad thing and I was pretty relieved when I didn't have to convince her beyond sticking the key in her hand and kissing her goodbye.

Now I was on a plane to Detroit trying to concentrate on my PSP game but failing.

"Dude, you're not even trying" TK whispered leaning over to watch me get detonated by Marc who I heard laughing hysterically three aisles away.

"I'm not really into it I guess" I told him exiting the game and sliding it into my carry-on.

TK looked at me like I was crazy PSP really is sacred on this plane and continued to play muttering "thanks, man" for leaving him alone on our team. I closed my eyes ignoring everyone around me and figured I could at least get some sleep and maybe wake up in a better mood in Detroit.

"We have now landed in Detroit, Go Pens!" the pilot spoke over the loudspeaker welcoming us to our first stop on the week long roadtrip.

"Are you sick?" Malkin asked in his heavy accent following me off of the plane. Since I had woken up 20 minutes ago from my short nap, I had been constantly bothered by different people asking if I was coming down with something. Couldn't I just be quiet on a short flight, or tired without it seeming suspicous?

"Go see the trainers" Coach ordered as he passed all of us walking to where there were cars waiting to drive us to the hotel. I rolled my eyes knowing that he thought it was my shoulder bothering me again and got into the first car that I saw sliding into the backseat.

"You better not be off tomorrow, Talbot" Sid ordered following me and sliding into the SUV too.

"I'm fine, seriously." I told him trying to smile and lighten the mood. He seemed to believe me finally and we talked about what was on the schedule for the night before the game tomorrow afternoon. I turned on my phone letting Sid talk about plays and strategies waiting for my messages to load.

No new messages. Okay, so she hadn't texted or anything while I was in the air. I did say that I was going to text her though.

Hey, I'm in Detroit- have a good night. My phone buzzed a few seconds later making me smile. So maybe she had been thinking about me.

Good. I'm at dinner with my family right now. zZzzz..

I laughed knowing that she hadn't really wanted to go.

Bored without me already, huh? Talk later?

Nope I'm perfectly entertained. Call me later when you have time.

I smiled and shoved Sid away who was trying to read my screen. Okay, xoxo I typed back and hit the send button before pocketing my phone.

"Was that Eliza? You guys didn't come out last night" Sid asked. I wasn't going to mention that I had had a much better time with her alone last night. A much better time.

"Eliza? She's way too good for you man" Kris piped up from the seat in front of us.

"Oh come on, I mean she's a lady. Definitely smarter than the girls you used to hang out with. You can't treat a woman like her like those puck bunnies" Kris explained when I had yet to say anything back. They were right. She was probably too good for me but did they have to say it like that?

"Thanks for the support guys but she is dating me so there must be something okay about me" I knew I sounded stupid but weren't my teammates and friends supposed to stick by me? It wasn't like me to be insecure about anything but I couldn't ignore the fact that Kris was probably right. She was way too good for me and I wondered when she was going to realize. And what I was going to do about it. I pushed the thought out of my head, listening to the guys still joking around me.

"Think she'll go for me instead?" Sid joked smiling obnoxiously.

"Not a chance buddy" I said punching him in the shoulder and not caring if I bruised the face of the NHL.

We lost to Detroit 4-3 in OT the next day and were getting ready to head out for our next game in Vancouver. I felt my phone buzzing and saw that I had missed a call from my parent's house and had one text from Lizzy that she must have sent before the game saying Good luck!

Instead of texting back I decided to call her and see if she had watched the game. She picked up on the fourth ring sounding distracted with a lot of other noises in the background.

"Hello?"

"Hey, where are you?" I asked still hearing all of the people in the background.

"Max, hey" she said sounding much nicer now. "I'm at a Panera trying to get some work done and it's pretty busy in here" she told me. "I've been checking the game on the internet and I'm sorry you lost." It was cute that even though she hadn't watched, she had still paid attention to the game in some way.

"It's okay. We played well, the refs just made some bad calls because we were in their house tonight" I told her not adding that we had gotten frustrated by the bad calls early and had let it get to us the rest of the game. I could imagine her nodding in that understanding way of hers and bit back a laugh.

"So how was dinner with your family?" I asked her trying to change the subject.

"It was okay, pretty uneventful and I had to listen to one of my Aunts tell me all about her knee problems."

"Ouch, that does sound boring." I grinned imagining her politely trying to escape her Aunt and looking annoyed the whole time.

"Believe me, it was" she laughed. We were silent for a minute before she spoke up. "I have to get back to work but I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

I didn't really want to get off the phone but said, "Okay, yeah I'll text when I land again tonight."

"Okay that sounds good."

"Yeah" I said not really having anything better to say.

"Hey Max? I miss you" she said over the louder voices in the background.

"I miss you too" I told her smiling stupidly and finally letting her get off the phone. I decided that I could probably call my Mom tomorrow and avoid another conversation about bringing Eliza home with me next month. I still hadn't talked to her about meeting my family and knew that I had to tell her soon. Especially because my Mom would continue to ask me about it everytime that she called. Until then, I was going to enjoy what we had together and worry about asking her once I was home later in the week.