Chapter 5

“No, both hands.” Cody corrected her grip on the pistol, putting one hand beneath the other and then she took another deep, steadying breath.

“Like this?” she asked, closing one eye and concentrating on the target down the lane, aiming for the shadow man’s head. 

“Now you’ve got it,” Cathy patted her shoulder and Cody squeezed the trigger. She felt the vibration through her arms and into her shoulders. It felt good. It felt…well fucking powerful. 

“Fuck yeah!” she grinned at the hole she could see in the target. “Hot damn!” She turned and grinned at the agent standing behind her. 

“Empowering isn’t it?” the woman said, holding her hand out for the gun. Reluctantly Cody handed the twenty-two back. “You sure you want one of these in the house?” Cathy asked. “I mean with Reba in the house? Like it or not, accidents happen,” she added with that mother knows best social worker expression on her face. 

“I don’t intend to keep it where she can get it and I’m pretty sure I’d rather have it than be dead,” Cody stated positively, still looking at the gun. She hadn’t expected to like the feel of it in her hand but that didn’t mean she was going to go around waving it in people’s faces. “I saw a gun locker that has a code lock. That’s how you guys keep yours at home, right?” She’d probably seen it on one of those crime shows she liked to watch but Cathy nodded as she took the clip out of the gun.

“Keep them like this. That’s the safest thing to do. The clip slides in easily,” she added, demonstrating. Cody heard the sound when the clip slid into place before the agent put the safety back on. “Safety on until you’re sure you’re going to use and then, and only then, point it only if you mean to use it. A gun is only a deterrent if the person you’re aiming at believes that you’ll pull the trigger.” Cody smiled and nodded. 

“Anyone comes in the house that I don’t invite there can consider their balls targets,” she grinned as the agent slid the clip out and then handed the two pieces back, separately. 

“I had no idea you were inviting anyone,” Cathy gave her that expectant sort of look that said she wanted to hear all about it. The sad thing was there was nothing to tell. 

“If…if I invite anyone,” Cody put the gun into the case and the clip beside it before closing the case and zipping it shut. 

“So that means you’re planning on inviting someone,” the agent mused as she leaned against the half wall that divided the shooting lanes. “Anyone in particular? Anyone you’d like me to check out before you do? I can get pretty much any information you want, tax records, SAT records, dui arrests….?” Cody bit her tongue. It was only wishful thinking on her part at this point but she was also pretty sure that if she did ask, there wouldn’t be any information to find on Sidney. Not only would any school or tax information probably be off limits to the US authorities but she was pretty sure that he was otherwise, pretty squeaky clean. 

“How about I let you know if I find someone that I want to invite around. Right now, I’m pretty focused on getting Becks out of her shell.” Cathy nodded as they both turned to head out. 

“Still having trouble with the name change?” the woman prompted, to which Cody could do little but nod in agreement. 

“It’s hard enough getting her to talk without changing her name, at home at least. I try my best to remember when we’re out in public,” Cody added a little more defensively than she meant to. “She is making some progress, right?” she asked, glancing sideways at the agent who smiled and nodded. 

“She is,” Cathy agreed. “You seem to be doing a great job with her. You should be very proud of yourself. I know this isn’t easy. You’ve given up a lot to keep her safe. She’ll be grateful one day.” Cody nodded but swallowed the first response that came to mind, which was ‘only if I keep her alive until then’. 

Sidney looked down at his watch. The pool was empty and Kate was nowhere in sight. He’d been a few minutes early but now she was definitely late. 

He’d been looking forward to this all day, which in and of itself was a bit pathetic he thought, and now he was feeling crushed by her absence. ‘Shit man, you’re sad’ he told himself, but it was Max’s voice he heard in his head and that made him smile. He didn’t even have to be around the guys anymore to know exactly what they would say to him in any given situation. 

He stared down at his feet which were ankle deep in the pool. He never really thought about how pale he was during the season. It was a given. He spent almost all of his time at the rink and the gym and no one expected a hockey player to look like some gorilla from the Jersey Shore. Still, he seemed to be even more transparent than usual. At least in between morning practice and evening games he and one or more of the guys would go out and do something. Unless, of course, they were in some Canadian city, in which case he’d be stuck inside playing on his PSP. 

Where were the guys today? Normally he’d know the schedule off by heart but for his own sanity he’d taken it off his fridge. When all he wanted to do was play, it sucked to know exactly what he was missing every time he got up to have a glass of water or grab a piece of fruit. Was it New York, New Jersey? Nowhere warm, so he wasn’t missing much there but still….

“Sorry we’re late.” Sid looked up to find Kate standing over him, not wearing her usual bathing suit and cap but in her street clothes. She did have on those boots again but she also had a red toque with a white pom pom pulled down over her dark hair and a red and white striped scarf wound around her neck. “I’m not really in the mood to swim today and…well I have my niece with me again and she really, really wants to go to the zoo, dontcha squirt?” Sid looked over at the little girl who nodded, her sparkling blue eyes wide and watching him with hopeful interest. “I don’t suppose you want to come?” He found himself grinning and as soon as he nodded, the little girl squealed, launched herself at him and threw her arms around his neck. Taken off guard, Sid sat there, not sure what to do and then, eventually and carefully, he folded his arms around her small, slight back. He looked up at Kate who gave him a grateful smile. 

“I don’t think I’ve actually been to the zoo,” he told her honestly as Kate’s niece unwound herself from him and, almost as if she remembered that he was really a stranger, backed up stuck her thumb in her mouth and went back to watching him with those huge, round eyes of hers’. 

“Really?” Katie looked shocked. “Darn…I was hoping you’d be able to be a kind of guide for us. Beck…Reba’s not really great with strangers…or she isn’t usually,” she corrected herself, shining another one of her amazing smiles down at him as he struggled to his feet. 

“I’m sure we’ll figure it out right?” he beamed back at her. “I mean, one Polar Bear is pretty much like all the rest…right?” She nodded and then, he was almost sure, she started to let her gaze fall down to his bare chest, catching herself at the last minute and blinking as she met his gaze again.

“You sure you’re up to this?” she asked with a quick, sideways glance, down at her niece. “I mean...she asked if you could come but I’d totally understand if you didn’t want to.” Sid wasn’t sure, but he thought she was the one looking hopeful now, or was that just wishful thinking? He had been almost sure last time they’d been here that she felt something too, even if it had just been for a moment but, as the guys would remind him time and again, his experience with women was, to say the very least, limited. 

“Like I said, I don’t think I’ve been and...yeah, I’m up for it,” he replied and wondered if he sounded a little too eager. After all, she wasn’t asking him out. In fact, he told himself firmly, she was probably only feeling guilty about jamming out on a paid session. That was all there was too it and making anything more out of it was...well, in Gronk’s words, amateur hour. “I’ll just...I’ll get changed...two minutes,” he promised holding up two fingers like she needed more of an explanation that what he’d just said. Shaking his head at himself, he turned and headed for the dressing room.

She’d had her doubts when Becks had announced that she wanted to be taken to the zoo and she wanted that ‘cute boy’ to come with them. Cody had been packing her swimsuit and towel and Cathy had been trying to put Becky’s My Little Pony back pack on her, but the little girl had been steadfastly refusing to cooperate.

It wasn’t that her arm had to be twisted too hard to be talked into going to the zoo instead of swimming. She’d had to toss a handful of Pamprin down her throat just to get her ass out of bed and the idea of putting on a swimsuit when she felt bloated and a lot like staying in bed didn’t exactly appeal. Still…asking Sidney Crosby if he wanted to spend the day at the zoo…well, that had filled her with a similar amount of trepidation.

No Cody was trying to remember the last time she’d seen Becky skip and she was thinking maybe never. Not even last Christmas, when she had unwrapped the easy bake oven that Cody was still sure she was way too young for. Now, as she looked down at her niece skipping beside her, she felt her heart swell. 

“Poldy bears!” Becky suddenly screamed and pointed at the exhibit they were coming to. Cody was about to let go of the little girl’s hand but instead of running ahead, Becks reached for Sid’s hand. Cody felt her heart squeeze painfully in her chest as she waited, expected him to rebuke the little girl’s innocent and enthusiastic offer. It would wipe the wide, exultant grin from her niece’s face if he did and she silently hoped that he would somehow know or guess that.

She watched a multitude of emotions flash behind his hazel eyes hidden in the shadow created by the bill of his ball cap, which he was currently wearing, pulled low over his handsome features in an attempt at anonymity. Not that it had worked. She’d seen the double takes, heard the urgent whispers and turned around once or twice to see a phone being held up to take a picture of the famous forward. She hadn’t really thought about the compromising position she had asked him to put himself into until the woman at the ticket kiosk had gasped when he’d handed her his credit card. Now Cody was all too aware of just how profound Becky’s request was to him, no matter how innocent the child’s actual intent. Cody was already formulating the explanation she was certain she would have to give when Sidney took Becky’s hand and winked down at her. 

“Swing me!” Becky demanded, jumping up and down. 

“Ready?” he asked, grinning over at her. Cody nodded. “Okay. Here we go. One…two…three!” They swung her high in the air and Becky screamed with delight. 

It had been a good fucking day. When was the last time he’d taken a day to do…well something like this? Be a tourist, do…nothing. Enjoy just…being. He’d even had a hotdog, and some of Reba’s cotton candy and he hadn’t thought about his head all day. ‘I guess this is what the doc meant by getting away from the rink’ he thought to himself as he smiled at nothing in particular. 

“She’s tired,” Kate explained as they had to stop for maybe the fourth or fifth time as Becky began to drag her feet. “I’ll have to carry her.” 

“Let me,” he offered, turning to scoop the child up and hold her on his hip like he remembered his mom doing, like he’d seen Dupes and some of the other guys on the team do with their own kids. 

“Piggy me,” Reba yawned and then laid her head against his shoulder, her tiny hands gripping his jacket as her eyes fluttered closed. 

“Okay squirt, you’re the boss,” he told her as Kate helped to swing the child around to his back. Her little arms nearly choked him but he didn’t mind as he adjusted her weight. “I think she had a good time,” he whispered to Kate who fell in step beside him as they headed towards the car park. 

“She’ll sleep tonight, that’s for sure,” she replied with a grin. They walked in silence side by side for a minute before he felt her eyes on him. He glanced over and she quickly glanced away. His blood suddenly felt warmer in his veins and the smile he had already been wearing got bigger. “Thanks for today. I didn’t really think about…well your fans,” she added tilting her head to indicate a pair of young women whose eyes had suddenly got very wide, wide enough that he could see the big wad of bubblegum in one girl’s mouth. 

“Honestly, it was my pleasure. Just part of the therapy, right?” he asked, partly in fun and partly because he was hoping that she would admit that she’d enjoyed the day enough that he could ask her to do it again; only maybe next time without the tiny chaperone.

“I do what I can,” she said instead but the sideways glance she shot in his direction told him that the way he was thinking was on the right track. He was just wondering if she would prefer sushi or Italian when they got to their cars, her Volvo parked beside his Land Rover. It didn’t take a mechanic to tell something was wrong with her car. 

“Son of a….” She managed to edit the curse before it came out of her mouth but he couldn’t blame her for wanting to let the expletive fly. Her front two tires were absolutely flat and, as they circled the car, so were the rear two. 

“That doesn’t look like a coincidence,” he offered, not very helpfully as he turned to look at his own vehicle, which, he was grateful to see, looked untouched.

“It’s not…shit.” He turned to see her pulling her phone from her pocket and, holding up her finger to ask for a moment, she walked a few steps away. 

“Wot’s wong?” a sleepy voice asked in his ear. 

“Something’s wrong with your Aunt Kate’s car,” he explained, opening the back door to the Land Rover and then turning so his passenger could scramble inside. “She’s just calling a tow truck.” At least that’s what he hoped she was doing as he watched her pace back and forth, gesticulating wildly as she whispered into her phone. “Aunt Katie will be right back,” he added, trying to comfort the child who was now beginning to make the sniffing sounds that portended a tantrum. 

“I want Aunt Cody,” the little girl insisted, her big, sapphire blue eyes starting to fill with tears. Cody? Sid shook his head. Must be some kind of pet name, he thought, turning the name over in his mind, deciding that it sounded enough like Katie that a nick name was the most likely explanation. 

“She’ll be right back squirt,” he repeated, wishing he was the kind of guy that kept snacks in his car; that he had something, anything, to distract the normally happy child and stop her from crying. 

“I’ll have to call a tow truck…,” she grumbled as she returned to stand in between their vehicles but her gaze was nervously taking stock of their surroundings. “It’s probably just kids but….” She fell silent and then heaved a huge sigh. “Look,” she turned her gaze to meet his. “Why don’t you go? We’ll be fine here. I’m sure the tow truck won’t take long and….” 

“I’m not leaving you here waiting in the cold,” he insisted, opening the passenger door for her. “Give me your keys, I’ll get the booster seat out and then I’ll have your car towed to a guy I know and it will be back at your place in the morning,” he added, giving her what he hoped was a positive and encouraging smile. “Okay?” 

“I really appreciate the offer but you really don’t want to get involved in this,” she muttered, all the while looking longingly at the leather passenger seat inside of his Land Rover.

“I insist and besides,” he added, giving her a conspiratorial wink “if this has something to do with some pain in the ass ex boyfriend, I think I could probably take him,” he added, flexing his bicep, which, as he thought about it wasn’t really that worthwhile considering the heavy wool pea coat he was wearing. Still, Katie finally cracked a smile. 

“Well…I guess if you insist.” 

“I do,” he added, holding his hand out for her keys. With another sigh, she put them in his hand and he felt it again, that sudden jolt of electricity charging up his arm through his veins that he’d felt the other day at the pool. “I’ll uh…I’ll get the booster seat,” he mumbled, tearing his gaze away from her shocked one so that he could turn his back on her and take a deep breath to clear his head. 

“I’m sorry about the way the day ended,” he said as Cody tried to unlock the front door of the house. Her hands were shaking. They’d been shaking ever since she’d seen the car sitting on all four of its’ rims. Worrying about being responsible for a Canadian icon getting shot because he was in their company had done nothing to make her feel any better either. 

“I’m sorry you had to come all the way out of your way to bring us home,” she apologized as soon as she got the door open. She turned around and offered, with open arms, to take the sleeping burden from his arms but he just slid past her and into the house. She watched him go, trying her best not to stare at his ass the entire time which was a task easier said than done considering it reminded her of a big, ripe peach that she wanted to sink her teeth into. 

“Right?” he asked as she closed the door behind them. 

“Yeah,” she replied, following him down the hall. “Left again,” she directed and then followed him to the end of the hall to the door with the Dora the Explorer growth chart on it. He gently kicked the door open and Cody leaned in the door way to watch him tenderly lay his burden on the pink and purple bedspread. Becky grunted like a little pig and promptly curled into a ball, her thumb in her mouth. Sid stood over her for a long minute and Cody’s chest ached at the sight of him looming protectively over her charge. Having a man in the house, no matter how anti feminist it sounded, felt safer than being without one.  

“She’s a good kid,” he whispered finally as he turned and followed her out it into the hall. Cody pulled Becka’s door partially shut and then tip toed down the hall after him. 

“Thank you,” she said as they reached the junction between the dining room at the front of the house and the short hall to the front door. This is where, to be hospitable, she should ask him in, but it wasn’t safe here for him and she wasn’t about to get involved with a anyone, let anyone get close to them, no matter how crazy fucking hot he was or how sweet. “I haven’t seen her that happy in…well…I’m not sure when.”

“Well I had a great time to. We should definitely do something like this again soon,” he offered brightly and Cody got a sudden vision in her head of an eager puppy barely able to contain a sit stay as his gaze held hers’. In his eyes was a message that he wasn’t exactly suggesting a trip to the petting zoo. The woman in her that was in a new strange city with no friends leaped at his words and was just like a puppy in a pet shop window, jumping and barking for attention. The wary old guard dog who had glanced in the rear view mirror the entire way home trying to decide if they were being followed overruled the puppy. 

“Oh…I’m sure you have much better things to do than hang around us,” she said, trying to be diplomatic. 

“You’d be surprised,” he mumbled, shrugging. “Since the injury…yeah, I’m pretty sure I’d rather hang out with you than sit at home by myself.” He didn’t wait for her to argue again. He took two steps forward and then she felt his hand on her arm. She wanted to look down at it, to see if he could wrap his whole hand around her arm but he was too near and besides, she couldn’t make herself look away from his gold bronze orbs. “I’ll see you soon,” he said confidently and then his full, soft lips were brushing her cheek as he brushed past her, leaving her standing in the hallway as if frozen to the spot, her heart hammering like an air hammer in her chest while she listened to him pull the door closed behind him. 

“I almost thought I was going to have to go out one of the windows.” Cody slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the scream that scratched its way out of her throat as Cathy appeared from the kitchen, a steaming mug of something in her hand. “Well, if you were going to start making out with Sid the Kid I didn’t want to cramp your style.” 

 “Jeeezusss,” Cody put a hand out to the wall to steady herself. “I think I’m having a heart attack.” 

“Sorry kiddo, but I thought announcing my presence might interfere with the romantic moment,” the agent added with a sarcastic smirk. Cody rolled her eyes. “Besides, you didn’t look like you wanted to hear about your car when he was kissing you.” 

“He didn’t kiss me,” Cody muttered, though it was taking actual effort not to reach up and touch the spot on her cheek where his lips had touched her skin. “So…what the hell was that about? The shit with my car?” 

“The agency is picking up the car from the mechanic your boyfriend had it sent to,” Cathy continued to tease despite Cody shooting her a warning look. “They’ll dust it for prints. We’ll know better in the morning. Meanwhile, there’s an unmarked cruiser across the street and I’ll stay the night. I hope someone just didn’t like Swedish cars but…we may have to talk about moving.” Cody shook her head as she accepted the fragrant cup of tea from the agent’s hands.

“I’d hate to do that to her,” she sighed as she took a sip that tasted of peppermint and something slightly floral. 

“I know, but I’d hate to see you both dead.”