Chapter Seventeen
“On my birthday, he told me that he loved me. And you both know how I feel about him. We slept together.” Michelle’s expression changed to a somehow even more questioning look. “No not like that, we slept in the same bed.”
“Oh, that’s not as much fun.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” she said sarcastically. “There’s not much else to tell.”
***
Over the next few weeks Kris and Nikki talked as much as possible, and missed each other more and more with each day that passed. Nikki was getting ready to start college and had gotten a job at a local sports store to occupy her time, to keep mind off missing Kris. “Training camp starts soon,” Nikki said while talking to Kris.
“I can’t wait, I miss you.”
“I miss you too, are you still coming down early?”
“As long as you still want me to.”
“Let me see, well you could come down a day or two before camp starts which would leave next to no time for us to hang out, or you could come down two weeks before camp and we could spend an entire two weeks together before camp starts and you’re busy all day every day.”
As per their agreement when September first arrived Kris was boarding a plane for Pittsburgh. Nikki had to work for most the day or at least that’s what she had told Kris. Originally she did have to work that day, but she had gotten someone to take over her shift so that she could pick Kris up from the airport.
Since Kris was coming for training camp Nikki knew that he would be checking a bag. All she had to do when she could to the airport was find his baggage claim and wait.
She sat down near the baggage carousel and when Kris first came into view her heart skipped a beat. The time away from him and definitely made her love him more. As he got closer some of his silky dark brown hair fell over his left eye and Nikki anxiously waited for what always made her smile. He ran his fingers through the soft locks, pushing them from his face.
As she had hoped he would Kris came to stand in front of the conveyor belt facing away from her. He hadn’t seen her. The beeping started to indicate that the bags were about to start circling and Kris hoped that his wasn’t the last one off the plane. He wanted to get out of as quickly as possible so that he could get to the Marriott and wait for Nikki. Nikki took the beeping as her cue to sneak up behind her devastatingly handsome boyfriend. When she got to be about five feet away she could already smell his cologne. She couldn’t wait to be in his arms.
“Excuse moi, monsieur,” she hoped that he didn’t recognize her by her American accent. Normally it would be out of place for someone to be speaking French in Pittsburgh, but the flight that he was on did come from Montreal making the French not so uncommon.
“Ah, je regrette Madame.” He turned to look at who he had been apologizing to. “Ah, Mademoiselle,” he took her hand in his. “Enchanté.”
Nikki waited from Kris to place a kiss on her hand before she pulled it away and practically jumped into his arms. He held her tightly as he kissed her. This was where he was supposed to be. Not the airport, but with Nikki. Where ever she was. “Welcome back to Pittsburgh, Kris.”
“I’m glad to be back,” he flashed his dashing smile. “I thought you had to work today.”
“I did originally. I wanted surprise you though so I got someone to cover my shift.”
Kris smiled and kissed her again before saying, “I love you.”
“I love you too, Kris.”
***
During the two weeks before training camp Kris and Nikki were together whenever she wasn’t in class. He went to work with her so that she would have someone to talk to, well someone who didn’t annoy her. Since he had only played eight games with the Penguins the season before he was sure that almost no one who came into the store would recognize him.
Those two week however went by too quickly for Nikki and Kris’ liking. It was the day before the start of training camp and because of her classes Nikki would only be able to make it to one of the open practices. She was attending Robert Morris University and living in the dorms, making her farther away from the arena than she had been the year before, but she promised both Kris and herself that she would be there as much as possible. Sunday morning Nikki woke up in her favorite place, Kris’ arms. They had stayed at the Marriott together, getting the most of their time together. They had nothing planned for the day; they were just going to wing it. She snuggled closer, loving the feeling of being there with him. She kissed his wrist hoping that she didn’t wake him up. Her hopes were dashed when his grip around her tightened into a hug. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” she rolled towards him and returned the hug.
After they showered separately they went downstairs to Starbucks for a quick breakfast and then decided to go for a walk to and around downtown.
They spent the entire day together until Nikki had to leave to go back to school. “I’ll see you at camp on Wednesday.” Kris nodded. “I love you, Kris.”
“I love you too. I’ll miss you until then.”
“I’ll miss you too, bye Kris.”
“Good-bye Nicolette.” He pressed his lips to hers one last time before releasing the beauty from his arms.
