Sixty Seconds [Conor Sheary]

3

⠀⠀⠀The week passed slowly as Audrey's now old bedroom became more and more vacant as Kris came over everyday to take the things she had packed up. Audrey wasn't taking everything though. Kris had told her only take the necessary items because he wanted to buy her things and spoil her, much to her disagreement.

It was the next Thursday when Audrey had said goodbye to her childhood home and drove down the street in the passenger seat of Kris's truck. The only noise was faintly coming from the stereo and the sound of the tires on the road. Kris had already informed her that Alex and Catherine would not be there when she arrived so she could have time to settle in without being hounded by a toddler.

"When do you go back to the arena?" Audrey asked the older Letang quietly.

"On Saturday. We had a game last night which we won and our next game isn't until Saturday. I had practice before came to pick you up." He informed her.

"So I'll get to meet the team on Saturday?" She was curious.

"You'll meet most of them on Saturday. A couple of the players are coming over tonight. Marc is coming over with his wife and kids. They have a playdate with Alex. Well Estelle does anyway. Evgeni and Sid are coming over as well. You don't have to meet them if you don't want to though. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable." He old her sincerely.

"No that's alright, I'll meet them tonight and if I feel uncomfortable I'll just go upstairs and get a little more settled in." she said to him.

Audrey was excited to meet some of Kris' teammates. She has never met any professional athletes before. She was genuinely happy, even with the events of the past week. It was comforting to her that she has someone to talk to and she has a family who cares about her. Kris actually shows it too. Not by showering her in expensive gifts and plane tickets down south. He shows her by helping her carry her things, bringing her fast food and hugging her, telling her she's beautiful. Things a big brother should do without being asked.

Audrey of course, was quiet when they reached the fair sized two story family home. She could hear Kris' converse walk up the porch stairs while she was still say in the truck gathering her purse and bag she had with her most needed objects. Kris had told her earlier that Cath had the spare room cleaned and got it ready for her the day before she had arrived.

Audrey didn't really care what the room looked like or if it was clean or not. She just wanted a place to sleep. Audrey was quite grateful that Kris and Cath had opened their home up so freely for her. She was very excited to see how this went. Especially with the toddler.

Alex had already taken the liking for his aunt. His parents were surprised. Normally Alex would take a while to warm up to new people, but as soon as he saw Audrey he'd already ran up to her and said hi. The brunette could feel tears welling in his eyes, she'd missed out on seeing a part of her nephew's life. However, all that mattered to her now was that she was with them.

+

Audrey felt her heart beating faster the second she heard the doorbell ring. She didn't know how Kris' teammates would react to her. She wanted to make a good first impression and not make a fool out of herself.

"Audrey!" Kris yelled from downstairs. "There are some people who want to meet you."

She drew in a deep breath before jumping out of bed. Audrey wasn't the shy type at all, she'd only been so timid because of the situation. She quietly walked down the stairs to see a tall man with dark hair and his wife—who by the way, was beautiful—and daughter.

Her brother motioned her over to him. "Audrey, this is my teammate and good friend, Marc-Andre. But everybody calls him Flower. Flower, this is my sister, Audrey." She just nodded, but she knew all too well who he was.

"Wow, you two are related?" Flower joked.

Kris rolled his eyes. "Hilarious."

"Nice to meet you, Audrey. This is my wife, Veronique, and our little girl, Estelle."

The brunette smiled. "Pleasure to meet you all." She crouched down to Estelle's level. "Hi, Estelle. You're very beautiful."

The little girl giggled. "Thank you. You are very pretty too."

"Why thank you."

"Estelle, why don't you and Alex go upstairs." Veronique told her. The little girl happily did so. "You must be good with kids. Estelle doesn't normally talk to new people like that."

Kris nodded. "She had the same effect on Alex."

"Yeah, every year I volunteered at the local church for a kids program for the week. I was always with the preschoolers. I babysat a lot too." Audrey told the tall brunette.

"Maybe you can babysit them one day." Veronique joked.

Audrey nodded and smiled. "I'd love to."

The conversation between them had been interrupted when the doorbell rang.

"Must be Sid and Geno." Kris went to open the door.

"Let's have a seat in the livingroom." Cath told them to which they happily complied to.

Kris walked into the room with two men, a woman—who, again, was beautiful—and a little baby. "Audrey, come here." Kris motioned her over, smiling.

"Audrey I'd like you to meet the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby."

The brunette had to hold everything in and make sure she didn't embarrass herself in front of him.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Audrey."

She blushed. "You too."

"And this is Geno and his wife Anna. And of course, their baby boy, Nikita."

"Nice to meet you, Audrey."

"Great to meet you, too." She smiled. Audrey had a lot to say, it's just that right now, nothing escaped her lips.

The guys had eventually sat outside in the patio whilst the girls remained inside. Audrey felt right at home with them even though they were a couple years older. They'd asked her a few questions about her life, all curious as to what she'd been through.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang again. Kris walked inside. "Cath, were you expecting anyone else?"

The blonde shook her head, she was just as confused as her husband. Kris shrugged and went to open the door. A loud commotion was to be heard. The dark-haired hockey player walked back in followed by three others who Audrey assumed were his teammates.

"Audrey, these are my other teammates, Brian Dumoulin, Beau Bennett, and Conor Sheary."

In my heart and mind, Sunshine is still with us. Thank you so much for reading!

-spcrosby & kese56789