Shirts and Skins

Chapter Twenty-One

Next, we drove to Osborne Village. It's a little hipster end of town that has lots of small, private businesses with a couple great food places. We went to Kawaii Crepe, where we shared a banana and Nutella crepe. Then we walked down to Baked Expectation, which sells Winnipeg's best cheesecake in so many different flavours.

"Please, no more food." Jeff begged as we finished our piece. "I don't think I could eat another bite."

I laughed. "It's no problem, I'm done as well."

I sat there, thinking about what we could do next. I looked at my iPhone and saw that it was 4:30 pm. Then, something came into my mind.

"Hey, what sort of team restrictions do you have tonight?"

"Umm..." he thought. "Nothing other than be at the hotel by 10:30 pm. Why?"

"What are Justin and Jiri up to right now?" I asked, ignoring Jeff's question.

"I don't know, why?"

"I know this place that you'll all love! It's outdoors though. It's called Adrenaline Adventures. There's outdoor snow tubing."

"Outdoor snow tubing? What's that?"

"It's like tubing on water behind a boat, except you slide down a snow hill."

Jeff's eyes got big, and he smiled. "Yeah, I'll call the guys right now. We'll go pick them up?"

"Yeah, of course!" I smiled. "We'll have to stop by my house though. I want to grab my winter coat."

"Yeah, for sure. I should probably see your parents as well."

We paid our bill and drove to my house while Jeff called the guys. We came in my front door.

"Do you mind if Brandon Sutter comes along too? Justin and Jiri are hanging out with him."

"Yeah of course. The more, the merrier!" I said as I parked in front of my house.

"Hello?" I called out and was greeted by my two dogs. "Hi guys!" I said, scratching both their heads.

"Hello?" my Mom called out as she walked into the entrance way. "Oh, hello Jeff."

"Hi Mrs. Russell." Jeff smiled to my Mom, "How are you?"

"I'm doing well thanks, how about you?"

"I'm well, excited."

"What are you excited for?"

"We're going snow tubing!" he smiled.

"I'm taking Jeff, Justin, Jiri and Brandon to Adrenaline Adventures."

"Oh that should be fun! I love it there." she said.

"I'll be right back, I have to grab something from my bedroom." I said as I walked towards the staircase and down the stairs.

I ended up changing my outfit completely to something more suitable for going snowtubing in. I came back upstairs to find my parents hugging in the family room and Jeff still standing at the front door.

"What's going on?" I said to my parents.

"Nothing. Are we not allowed to just hug?" My Mom said to me. "We could be doing a whole lot worse."

"Mom!" I exclaimed. Jeff actually laughed out loud.

I pulled my boots on and grabbed my jacket. "I'll be home later, okay? I'll have my phone with me the entire time."

"Okay, have fun." My Dad said to us as we walked out the door.

----------------------------------------------

The guys and I had a blast. We literally spent hours and hours just sliding down hills and even having a snowball fight at one point. We had a great time. Brandon ended up being super cool. He was part of the famous Sutter family. He loved being a part of it, but hated being compared to his Dad and uncles. But missed playing with his cousin Brett, who was team captain in Charlotte.

We got hungry by about 9:00 pm, so we headed out and grabbed a couple pizza's and headed back to the Fairmont.

We ran into Coach Muller in the hallway.

"Hello Coach." The guys said in unison.

"Hey guys." He smiled at the Justin, Jiri, Brandon and Jeff. Then he turned and looked at me. "Nice to see you again, Lindsay."

"Nice to see you again as well Coach." I smiled.

We walked to Jeff's room and I jumped onto one of the beds. Jeff handed a piece of pizza, handed a box to Jiri, Justin and Brandon and then grabbed a box and sat on the bed with me. We sat around eating pizza and watching some comedies for the next hour. 

At exactly 10:30 pm, we heard a knock on our door. I jumped off the bed and threw open the door. There stood Coach Muller.

"Hi Coach. How long have you been waiting out here?"

"About a minute." he smiled. "You know what time it is."

"Yes Coach." I smiled.

"You don't want to know what'll happen if you're not gone when I'm back in four minutes."

"For sure, Coach."

"Faulksy, Sutter, to your rooms too."

"Yes Coach." they got off the bed slowly and left the room.

"I'm going to go for a shower." Jiri said, following them to the door, but taking a right turn before the door into the washroom.

"See you tomorrow Lindsay." Justin said to me.

"Bye guys." I waved to them.

"Three minutes, okay?" Coach Muller said as he made his way down the hall.

"Yes Coach." I laughed as I closed the door.

I turned and walked back to the bed where Jeff was laying. He patted the open space on the bed beside him.

"Babe, I have to go. Coach Muller will kill us if I'm not gone in three minutes."

"Just make me happy, okay?" he smiled a cheeky little smile.

I couldn't say no to that. I climbed onto the bed and he rolled on to his back. I climbed on top of him and leaned in. I felt his tongue against mine, as his hands traced my curves. My fingers ran through his hair. I knew time was running out though, so I reluctantly pulled away.

"I'm so sorry Babe, I just don't want either of us to get in trouble." I apologized.

He sighed. "I understand."

I kissed him again quickly before climbing off of him and the bed. I pulled my boots on and bundled up to go outside. Jeff and I kissed one last time before I opened the door. I saw Coach Muller heading our way.

"Look at that, even have a couple seconds to spare." Coach said to us.

"Lucky us then." Jeff said, smiling.

"Good night Jeff." I said, leaning in for one last kiss.

"Good night."

"Good night Coach!" I called out to Coach Muller.

"We'll see you tomorrow?" he replied.

"Yes Coach." I smiled.

"Atta girl. See you then."

I walked down the hall to the elevator. I was so pumped to go on this road trip with Jeff and the team. Heck, I was even excited to meet his parents. At this time tomorrow, I would be on a bus with the guys, leaving the MTS Centre on the way to James Richardson International Airport. I was going to be spending nine straight days with Jeff.

This was going to be the best trip ever.