I wanna live life, never be cruel,
I wanna live life, be good to you.
I wanna fly, never come down,
And live my life, And have friends around.
We never change, do we?
We never learn, do we?
I wanna live life, be good to you.
I wanna fly, never come down,
And live my life, And have friends around.
We never change, do we?
We never learn, do we?
“Do you realize how many hits we’ve had on your first team-mate mayhem video?!” Jimmy exclaimed when he came crashing into the booth. I was finishing up my pre-game music mix, so he easily startled me.
“W-wait, what?!” I asked loudly, pulling my head phones off my ears.
“The website has blown up from everyone viewing the Burish team prank video. You were right; people want to see more team interaction on the Stars Vision. The front office is a buzz with compliments.”
“Well that’s good news,” I smiled and gave Jimmy a high-five. “I am actually just putting together some of the individual interviews I did when we were in Boston
“I was looking through some of them yesterday,” Jimmy spoke, sitting down next to me. “You had some really good questions, meaningful ones and it showed that the guys were impressed, just from their answers…”
“Well, I wanted to ask questions that would get them to open up about them. Too often interviews are the same old questions, ‘Who was your favorite player growing up? How old were you when you first played hockey…’ these are all good questions, but I wanted to ask them more personal things and it seems to have worked.”
“It’s obvious you’ve put a lot of thought into it. Hanna, you really aren’t going to have a hard time getting a job. Your editing skills are amazing and your creativity pushes everything right along.”
I couldn’t help but blush. I was not one to take compliments very well. “Thanks,” I said meekly.
“Just don’t sell yourself short, sweetheart.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just saying that I can’t wait to have you as my assistant here at the rink for the next season, but if something else opens up, give it a good look because there really isn’t any reason that you couldn’t be a media/marketing director for a team as soon as you get that degree in your hand. I understand you probably have more than one reason to stay here in Dallas
“Sounds like you are lecturing me,” I frowned slightly.
Jimmy chuckled and shook his head. “No, honestly I’m not. I’m just trying to give advice. I know you are seeing Neal and I realize how easy it probably is for a young girl to get caught up with some of these guys, but you have your head on straight and I just wanted to keep you on track. I hate to see good talent possibly go to waste because they fall in love. You can definitely have both, just remember that balance.”
I bit my lip and nodded, looking down at my left wrist that was now sporting a hand-made handmade bracelet James had made me on the last night of our mini-vacation. I was helping my mom make dinner while he decided to snoop around my bedroom and find my thread kit I had since I was a kid. I was actually surprised he had found it when he came bee-bopping downstairs with it in his hands.
“I see you are quite the jeweler, Hanna!” he smirked while dangling one of the floss bracelets I had made in Jr. High.
“Playing super-slooth in my room, are we?” I grimaced, feeling myself blush while I swiped the bracelet out of his hands.
“No need to be embarrassed!” he laughed, swiping it back and clutching the container of probably 100 different colors of floss against his chest. “I had tons of these things growing up…I was the coolest guy in school.”
I snorted, “Oh, I’m positive you were the coolest guy…”
“I was,” he pouted as serious as possible. “I got all the girls since I knew how to make the bracelets.”
“Dork.”
“Like you are any better?!” he scoffed, tapping the container with his forefinger.
I just shook my head and went back to helping make dinner. By the time we were getting off the plane in Dallas he was tying the black and olive green bracelet on my wrist. It was just a simple round barrel pattern, but it had actually been my favorite growing up. When I looked up to give him a kiss and thank him, he dangled an identical bracelet in front of me. I took it from him and tied it onto his right wrist. I’m sure if any of the guys noticed they would make fun of him for it, but for now it was our little secret.
I found it slightly ironic that Jimmy was talking to me about balance between career and relationships when I had been the one talking about the same thing with James more than once already. However, it was a reminder I probably needed, especially since lately I found myself daydreaming about James more and more.
It was hard not to lose myself when I began thinking about how he treated me like a princess, top it off with his thick, unruly hair and grey eyes…well, I was a pile of goo. The whole relationship seemed surreal. Some on the outside might say it was perfect, too perfect, but I was excited to finally have someone that treated me the way I had always felt I should be treated. Too many of the guys I had dated in the past were losers with not on a terrible habit of treating me like shit but also a huge lack of direction in their lives. I was a woman who thrived in an environment where I had a constant plan and goal to work towards. It was nice being with a man who had those same ideas.
Even though everything was going amazingly well, I wasn’t jaded. I knew things could change at the drop of a dime. I had been there before, this wasn’t the first time I dated a hockey player. In fact, probably every guy I dated played hockey, but this shouldn’t be a surprise since I grew up in a hockey playing family. That’s why I learned to live and love in the moment.
My previous relationships seemed to have failed for numerous reasons, but the main one was the simple fact that I was too focused on my own goals to follow through with commitment. I never cheated on my boyfriends with other guys, I just cheated on them by becoming too attached to whatever project I was working on at the moment. So in essence, James and I are the perfect match. We both needed help in the balance department, and so far it was working quite well.
Our mini-trip to our hometowns was a complete success. His mom was already planning for me to come home with James during the summer and my mom and dad were already planning on me bringing him along on the family vacation to the Bahamas
“This is soooo weird to me!” Hanna laughed as she cast her line into the stream.
“What’s weird? Going fishing on a date?” I asked, slightly confused by her reaction.
“Oh no, definitely not! Every one of our dates could be a fishing trip,” she smiled brightly. I couldn’t agree more. I had to practically drag her out of the arena today so that she would just come out for a relaxing afternoon. I informed her that she deserved a break from her video work, just like I deserved a break from the hockey scene. After a few pleading kisses, I had her thinking my way. She looked adorable in a pair of jean capri’s and light pink GAP t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a messy pony tail that popped through the back of her plain black baseball hat. She pulled off the tom-boy look in style and I was enjoying the view each time I glanced over in her direction. “It’s the weather. If I was in Colorado
“It’s definitely one of the perks of playing in a non-traditional hockey market, I’ll give you that,” I laughed. “But I gotta say, I feel like it makes me more of a chicken when we get up north and play. I always loved winter when I was a kid, but now I’m finding I slightly despise it because of how the cold actually gets to me,” I admitted.
“I have to remember to pack warm clothing for the road trip,” she sighed, reeling back in her line so that she could cast out once more. “Maybe you’ll let me borrow that silly hat…”
“Oh no!” I cut in right away, knowing exactly what she was talking about. “That is off limits and it’s not silly.”
She lowered her rod down towards the water and turned to face me with her hand on her hip, giving me a look of attitude. “I’m your girlfriend,” she said in a slow broken sentence, emphasizing each word. As soon as she was done speaking, she popped out her lower lip and produced a heart-wrenching puppy face.
“Seriously?!” I laughed, throwing my hands up in the air and almost dropping my fishing pole in the water. “How am I supposed to go up against that?!” She some how kept the puppy face, even though her eyes gave away the fact that she was dying from laughter inside, and shrugged her shoulders. “You truly are evil, Hanna Richards,” I sighed, finally able to tare my eyes away from her fake sad face. “My niece gave me that hat and I have never let anyone wear it. I’m afraid they’d lose it or something.”
“Oh,” she said quietly.
There was a moment of silence between the two of us. “If it’s cold enough, I’ll let you borrow it,” I murmured, silently hoping she couldn’t hear me.
“James, you know I’m just joking with you,” she giggled. “Brad told me you were really protective of it, so I wanted to find out for myself.”
“Brad’s an ass for telling you that but yeah, he’s totally right,” I conceded, shaking my head.
Within the blink of an eye she was by my side and hip checking me. “I would never make you part with something special like that, but I have to say it’s completely adorable on how protective you are over it.”
“Adorable is not a word that should be used when describing me.”
“Why? Because it’s not manly enough?”
“I do have a reputation to hold up out on the ice,” I chuckled and winked at her.
“You’re not an enforcer…”
“No, but I am a professional hockey player and we are supposed to be all intimidating and intense,” I laughed, failing miserably when I attempted to make a severe looking facial expression.
“I find your dark, inquisitive side is much sexier,” she informed me in a low whisper.
“You’re flirting.”
“Are you having a problem with it?” she took a step back and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I was just thinking that I don’t normally take girls fishing because they can be such a distraction…”
“So now I’m a distraction?!” she took a step back, trying to act like she was appalled.
“You’ve been a distraction since day one,” I laughed, reaching out and wrapping an arm around her waist so that I could pull her towards me and kiss her; but before I could she left out a squeak and turned towards the water, watching the end of her rod bend towards the water surface.
“I’ve got something!” she yelled like a small child, bouncing up and down as she began reeling it in.
I set my fishing rod down on the ground and stepped behind her, reaching around to take a helping hold onto her fishing rod while she reeled in.
“Slower, you don’t want to bust the line,” I instructed her patiently.
“This isn’t my first time, Neal!” she bit.
“I’m just trying to help,” I informed her, playfully pinching at her side.
“You’re going to make me lose the damn thing!” she whined and giggled. Soon after she reeled in a beautiful 8 inch trout, surprising me when she reached down and picked it out of the water herself. “I’ve got my dinner, how about you?!” she grinned broadly. After taking a picture of it with my phone, we went back to fishing. It was a perfect afternoon spent together and I was quickly realizing how much better life could be with someone to share it with. I’m not sure I had ever dated a girl who was so down to earth. Constant banter was being thrown back and forth between us. It was a real turn-on to be dating a woman who was goal oriented and independent. However, the more time we spent together, the more I found she sometimes became too enthralled in her work. It was easy to see that she had the same problems I did when it came to balancing the important things, which in a way I felt comforting. She was doing a great job at keeping me entertained, which was the reason I didn’t take no for an answer today when I approached her about going fishing.
“Thanks for making me come out this afternoon. I needed this,” Hanna yawned, while reclining the passenger seat of the Escalade as we headed back to mine and Brad’s place to cook up the fish we just caught.
“You seemed a slightly stressed earlier, so I wasn’t taking no for an answer. Your internship is an internship, not a job, so I figured you needed to be reminded of that.”
“But it’s going to get me a job.”
“You are already going above and beyond for the organization, Hanna.”
She sighed and looked over at me with knowing eyes. “I know. I’m just a perfectionist.”
“Which is exactly why I brought you along,” I chuckled. “Besides, you already have your foot in the door, there is no reason to blow all your ideas during your first few months with the team, right?”
I hope Hanna doesn't get too into her job and she keeps this healthy balance with James just like they are now. I think it was soo cute that they have matching bracelets. I love how things are now and I love seeing their interactions with each other. But life can't always be bubblegum and cotton candy now can it?
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what happens next!