"Skyler you need to come down to the PT room right now." Sarah said knocking on my office door in a hurry, she seemed worried and was acting like there was something wrong.
"What happened? Is Jamie okay?" I asked, getting up from my chair immediately.
"I don't know, Chad just said to get you and bring you down immediately." She replied. I ran. As fast as I could I ran down the hallways towards the team area and into the PT room.
"What's going on? Where's Jamie? Is he okay?" I asked, out of breath, basically not able to breathe.
"Jamie's okay, there just might be a little issue with his situation." Chad said.
"Okay, what is it?" I asked.
"It's a long story, after the surgery we thought it would just be 4-6 months, with the torn labrum."
"Okay, Chad, love the explanation but no offence I was there and you're making me nervous and I really need you to just tell me what's going on." I said, I know it was a little rude, but he kept dragging it on and I needed the explanation.
"Skyler, he might be done playing hockey." Chad said. I dropped my phone which was held tightly in my hand, and the tears started brimming in my eyes.
"You're lying." I said, my voice was already shaky.
"I'm not." He replied.
"No, you have to be lying it's just a torn labrum, it'll be fine in a couple months, he's going to play in a couple more months." I said, shaking my head and clenching my fists at my side.
"I'm sorry, Skyler, I thought it would come from me better than Jamie, he's a little shaken up right now."
"Fucking hell." I said, now slamming my fist against the door frame of his office. "He was doing so well, he was getting better." I said, now crouching down in my position and pushing my hair back with my finger tips, tugging on the roots a little bit whilst squeezing my eyes shut, trying not to let the tears fall.
"Skyler?" I recognized the voice pretty well, but it wasn't the voice I wanted. It was Trevor, he set his hand lightly in between my shoulders.
"What?" I asked hastily.
"Come outside with me." He said, he also looked upset. Did Trevor know before me? I stood up slowly and he rested an arm around my shoulder.
"Why are we going outside?" I asked, taking both of my middle fingers and rubbing directly under neath my eyes to get the flaky mascara off.
"Because there's someone out here you need to see." He responded.
"Jamie?" I asked.
"No, not Jamie." He said.
"Who the fuck is it then and where is Jamie? Is whoever this is more important than Jamie?" I asked. I was angry, I was upset, I was fully heartbroken about the news.
"Right now, yes they're more important than Jamie." Trevor said as he opened the door and we slipped out.
"No one's more important than Jamie, at any point and especially right now, Trevor. I need to find him, where is he?" I asked. I was looking around the parking lot to see if I could find his Audi, and it was no where to be found. Trevor took his arm off of my shoulder and stood in front of me. "Let's get whatever this is over with, Trevor." I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Two hands then landed on my shoulders from behind me. I turned around and hovering behind me was a no longer slinged up Jamie Drysdale.
"Jamie!" I yelled and closed the few inch gap in between us, wrapping my arms around his torso. I missed the feeling of both of his arms around me and squeezing, every once in a while I get a hug with both arms while we're going to bed, but this felt good, I know for both of us. He had the sling on for almost two months, it's already December 10th.
"Did you like our prank?" He asked, through a little bit of laughter.
"Thanks for reminding me." I said and took a step away from him, smacking him, still in his good arm, and then walking over to Trevor, smacking him in the arm as well.
"Hey!" Trevor exclaimed. "What about Chad? It was his idea."
"Thanks for throwing me under the bus, dipshit!" Chad yelled from the doorway. I didn't even say anything, just walked calmly over to Chad and smacking him in the arm too. "Skyler!"
"What? You didn't expect that? Whether you were here or not Trevor would've said something." I said, walking back over to Jamie and wrapping my arms around him again.
"No I wouldn't." Trevor said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Don't lie to me." I said, trying not to laugh. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face, I was over the moon excited and happy for Jamie. "How does it feel?" I asked him, looking up into his eyes as I moved my hands to rest on his hips.
"It feels so good, I don't have full and complete comfortable movement yet but it's getting close. I'm so happy with it. Chad says that as long as I keep taking it easy I should be able to at least do a little bit of practice with the team by the end of the season. Maybe some no contact practices." He said, he looked so happy. This might be in the top 3 moments of how happy I've ever seen him look.
"Jamie, I'm so happy for you, this is incredible." I said, stepping on my tip toes and kissing him.
"I love you." He whispered against my lips.
"I love you most." I replied.
"Ready to pack up for the road trip?" He asked.
"What?"
"The road trip, we're going with for it. I pulled some strings so we're going to Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton with the team. The most of Canada road trip." He said.
"Really?" I asked. I was so happy, I missed home. That was the worst part of being in California, I couldn't see my family, ever. Every time I had time to call them everyone was asleep, so I barely ever got to talk to them too.
"Yeah, and both of our families have tickets to the Toronto and Montreal games so we'll be able to be with them for that." Jamie said. I wrapped my arms around his torso again and squeezed him basically as hard as I could.
"Let me grab my stuff from the office and then we can go home." I said excitedly, which he chuckled at a little bit.
"Since when were you guys going on the roadie?" I heard Trevor ask Jamie as I ran towards the building and to the door.
"A while, I didn't tell you because you can't keep a secret worth shit." I heard Jamie respond which made me laugh a little bit.
"Sorry about the prank, Sky." Chad said as I saw him in the office.
"I really don't think you are since it was your idea." I replied, packing my stuff into my bag.
"I'm not, but it's the thought that counts, right? Plus I think you needed that pick me up. You've seemed a little off the past few days. Anything you'd like to share?" He asked, stepping into the office and leaning on the wall.
"No, I don't think so. I think I'm just a little homesick." I said.
"Okay, well, if you ever need anything. I'm here." He said, tapping on the wall and walking out of the room. I sighed deeply and rested my head on the desk.
"How's it going in here, pretty girl?" Jamie asked, leaning up against the door frame.
"Ready to go!" I said, lifting my head and throwing my bag over my shoulder, grabbing my keys from the top drawer of my desk. Jamie and I walked out to my car.
"My turn finally." He said, grabbing the car keys out of my hand and making his way over to the drivers side. I was oddly really happy about him driving again. We drove home and went upstairs immediately packing some clothes for the trip. "What if we stayed home until after Christmas?" Jamie asked while throwing stuff in his suitcase.
"I would love to say yes, but we have home games on the 21st and 23rd, so we have to be here for that." I replied.
"That's a good point, I forgot about that." He said. I knew as good as it felt to get the sling off, it was still heartbreaking of him to not be playing yet, and knowing that it would still be a few months before he can get back on the ice. I finished packing everything within a couple minutes and laid down on my back on the bed.
"You know what we should do while we're out there?" I asked.
"What's that?"
"Send out the wedding invitations." I said, most of our invitees were going to be in Ontario anyways, so it made sense to send them out from there (mainly because it would be cheaper).
"Yeah that's probably a good idea, do we have them here or do we still need to print them off?" He asked.
"I have them printed off" I said, standing up from the bed and going to the closet to grab the box of unfilled out wedding invitations.
"Have I seen these before?" He asked, grabbing one of them out of the box.
"You should've, seeing as we made them together." I laughed out.
"When did that happen?"
"A couple weeks ago." I laughed, shaking my head and starting to count our the invitations that we should take with us. "Are any of our friends coming to the game or just family?" I asked.
"A few of the guys are coming, I invited some of the girls for you but the only one that had any interest was Jessa, the other girls said they'd still be away at school."
"Okay, sounds good." I said.
"Why, what's up?"
"Just wondering, we can hand deliver some of the invitations then which might be a little nicer for us." I replied. I packed away the invites in the carry on bag so we can fill them out on the 7 hour plane ride to Ottawa. We sat on the bed cuddling for a while before we had to leave for the flight, I had never actually been on a private jet before, and especially never been on a flight with the team. It was super rare that anyone from the front office was on a flight with the team, only ever happens if they're going to their home town, but even in that case it's a rare occasion. It's pretty rare for a player that's been put on LTIR to travel with the team too, so I guess we kind of got double special treatment for this roadie. Jamie drove his car to the airport and we got on the plane pretty fast.
"Jimmy! Sky!" A couple players chorused. I knew the team a little bit better than the average front office employee, except for maybe the social media team. In game operations it wasn't rare that we knew the players, but it was pretty weird that most of them have been in my house or I've been in theirs.
"Waddup girly pop?" Max said as I passed by him. He held his hand out for a little hand shake, we just slid our hands against each other and fist bumped.
"Hey buddy." I replied to him, smiling.
"Hometown trip?" Troy asked.
"Of course, best time of the year, right?" I asked.
"It's also the birthday trip." Jamie said, putting his hands on my hips and walking behind me.
"No sling!" A few of the guys all chorused out at Jamie once they noticed him. The guys all continued to greet us as we walked to the back of the plane where Trevor and Mason were sitting, and we sat across the aisle from them. Jamie started talking to them for a bit during takeoff, until we were up in the air and we started filling out the invitations.
"Yo, what the fuck are you two doing?" Mason practically yelled from the window seat on the other side of the plane.
"Mason shut the fuck up, dude!" Troy yelled from a few rows ahead. Almost everyone on the plane laughed at the two of them. Troy and Mason bicker like an old married couple most of the time, it's like me and Trevor to be honest.
"Here." I said, handing Trevor and Mason two of the invitations.
"Should've given me this at home, I'll lose it." Trevor said, looking the card over on the front and back.
"Yeah he's irresponsible guys you should know that."
"Shit, did I leave the oven on?" Trevor said, standing up from his seat, genuinely worried.
"No, Trevor, you didn't you didn't use it this morning." I told him, shaking my head. The only reason I knew that is because I have to meticulously check everything before I leave the house, especially if no one's going to be there for a while.
"Thank God, I was worried." He said, sitting back down and putting a hand over his heart. Jamie and I laughed at him a little bit and shook our heads, basically ignoring his comment. We spent the whole flight working on the invitations and then playing a few rounds of Uno with Trevor and Mason, as well as watching part of a movie.
"What the fuck did you do?" I asked Jamie as we walked into a box that Jamie bought for the game in Toronto. The guys lost yesterday in Ottawa so the short flight to Toronto last night was pretty quiet.
"I didn't do anything, I don't know what you're talking about." He said, smirking and looking around the room.
"How many people did you get tickets for what is happening?" I asked.
"I don't know, I mean, your parents, my parents, your brother and sister, my brother, Justin, Jessa, Ryan, Max, and Chris. So 15 I think I count." He said. I walked around and looked at everything that was set up.
"J Dawg!" I heard Justin yell, the four guys plus Jessa walked into the suite.
"This is incredible, holy shit." Jessa said, walking immediately over to me and engulfing me into a hug.
"I am so happy you're here." I said into her arms.
"I can't believe we're here in a freaking box?" She replied, letting go and taking a look around. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. I can't believe you get to do this every game."
"Definitely not every game." I said, following her through the room.
"What? Do you not go up there with the girls?"
"No, I have to work during the games, I haven't been in a suite since Jamie's first season." I said, which reminded me that I haven't actually seen the girls in a few weeks, and they keep blowing up my phone about seeing me soon. I've been super busy planning out all the games, plus events for the team that I have completely forgotten about the Lady Ducks Fashion Show in March that we have to put on.
"That's lame, this is so cool." Jessa said.
"This is also about 10 times better than the Anaheim boxes." I said while we were looking out at the arena that was slowly filling up.
"Auntie Sky!" I heard from the doorway. Jamie said my sister was coming, but never mentioned everyone else from her family, so I just assumed Aiden was taking care of Amelia for the night. I turned around and ran over to the doorway where my family stood, and picked Amelia up in the air, wrapping her little legs around me and hugging her tightly.
"Oh my goodness, I missed you so much, my girl." I said, stroking the back of her head and squeezing her tightly.
"Uncle Jamie!" She yelled in my ear once she saw Jamie.
"Hey kiddo!" Jamie called back and came over to us immediately, grabbing Amelia out of my arms and giving her a squeeze. He just took her away and went back to his friends with her. I walked over and put a hand on his back, using my other one to scratch the top of Amelia's head.
"I feel so betrayed right now." I said to her.
"What does that mean?" She asked.
"It means you picked Jamie over me?" I asked, a smile on my face, I couldn't ever actually be mad at her, she's the cutest almost 6 year old I've ever seen.
"I love uncle Jamie!" Jamie closed his arms tighter around her and swayed back and forth as she enclosed her arms around his neck tightly.
"What about Auntie Skyler?" I asked.
"I love you, auntie Sky!" She said, giggling a little bit.
"Hear that, babe? She just loves me more." Jamie said, smiling very proudly.
"My own niece." I said, shaking my head. I went over to see my mom and dad as they walked into the box. "Hi mom." I said, giving her a hug.
"How's the injury going?" My dad asked me.
"Better, he just got out of the sling a couple days ago, honestly shouldn't be holding Amelia that much but if it's not bothering him I guess we'll deal with it later. But he's doing pretty good. The worst part for him is being at the rink and not playing, not being able to be on the ice. I think it's starting to get to him and we're only about halfway through the season."
"How long is he out for?" My mom asked.
"He'll be out until the end of the season unfortunately." I replied. I talked to my mom and dad until the game started and I went to the seats with Jamie, where he had Amelia sitting on his lap the whole time.
"I don't want to brag or anything, but she said I'm her favourite aunt or uncle." He said, smirking at me. I rolled my eyes at him, knowing he was just saying it to annoy me and make me jealous.
"Little missy you are lucky you're cute. I hope you know that." I said to Amelia, poking her in the side.
"I know I am." She smiled brightly up at me. The players came onto the ice and they started the pre game ceremonies with the anthems. They got done pretty quickly and the game started.
"So you were both Leaf fans growing up, who are you cheering for?" Tina asked as she came over, resting one hand on each of our shoulders.
"The team that pays me." I replied, trying to make a little joke out of it. This was always the game that was hard, because I loved the Leafs growing up, and it was extremely hard to have to cheer against them.
"What she said." Jamie agreed, laughing a little bit.
"Auntie Sky which one is that?" Amelia asked.
"The one wearing the white jersey, kiddo." I replied.
"What are they called?" She asked.
"The Anaheim Ducks."
"The Anaheim Mighty Ducks." Jamie corrected.
"No one calls us that anymore, J." I laughed out. We all continued talking throughout the first period, and by the end of it we were losing 2 - 0.
"Skyler and Jamie, can I talk to you guys for a second?" Erin asked, standing behind me. I nodded looking up at her, Jamie stood up and sat Amelia down on the ground, she had been firmly planted on his lap the entire period, honestly it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.
"What's up?" I asked Erin as we stepped just outside of the box, Adien also following us close behind.
"We wanted to tell you guys since everyone else already knows, I'm pregnant again." She said, her face lighting up as soon as she said the word. I immediately wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her tightly.
"Congratulations!" I exclaimed, I was over the moon for her.
"Thank you." She said happily. "I wanted you to be the first person I told, but with you like 36 hours away I didn't really want to say it over the phone."
"I am so happy for you, and it's honestly even the thought that counts." I was so happy I could cry.
"Congrats guys, that's awesome!" Jamie said, hugging Erin as I hugged Aiden, once I let go of him, Jamie shook his hand and they pulled each other into a hug.
"There was one other thing we wanted to talk to you about." Aiden said.
"What's that?" Jamie asked.
"Well, we wanted to make sure with you guys, we'll have a one month old by your wedding, and we just wanted to double check that you were still okay with us coming, and Amelia, and then potentially the baby." Erin said.
"Seriously?" I asked. Erin and Aiden gave each other a confused look.
"Yeah? Why wouldn't we be serious?" Aiden asked.
"Because you're family. And you're my maid of honour, there is nothing that would make us not okay with you coming." I said.
"And the kids, both of them. We'd be happy to have them both there." Jamie added. He put an arm around my shoulder, pulling me in close to his side, and I rested a hand on his chest briefly.
"Are you guys sure?" Erin asked.
"We are most definitely sure. It wouldn't be the same without you." Jamie said.
"Well, thank you. We wouldn't be offended if you guys changed your minds though." Aiden said.
"Honestly, I'm a little offended you even thought that we would." I said to him. He laughed in response and we all went back inside the room. Jamie and I decided to grab a drink so we hung back a little bit.
"How are you doing, pretty girl?" He asked, wrapping his arms around my shoulder and squeezing me tight, as I slid my arms around his torso. There was a bunch of people talking, the arena was loud as the players started coming out onto the ice again, but I couldn't hear any outside sound other than Jamie's voice when I was in his arms.
"I'm good. Thanks for doing this." I said.
"Of course, it only makes sense. Plus, anything for my girl."
"I love when you say that." I responded, pulling my head away from his chest and looking up at him.
"What? Anything for my girl?" He asked.
"Just your girl. It still gives me butterflies." I said, smiling. He is the most smiley person I've ever met, not to mention has the most beautiful smile in the world.
"You still give me butterflies everyday." He responded, and kissed the top of my head, he was hugging me like he never wanted to let go, and I didn't want him to, he has the most loving and caring touch. He's a very touchy person, which is honestly one of my favourite things about him.
"I love you so much." I said, slowing standing to my tip toes.
"I love you most." He responded. I leaned in to kiss him, but before I could touch his lips, Amelia pushed her way in between our legs.
"What do you think you're doing?" I asked her, looking down.
"I was told to tell you to break up the smooch fest." She said, the biggest smile on her face, she looked very proud of herself. Jamie and I looked at each other and then over to the boys and Jessa, a couple of them hunched over laughing, and the others holding their chests in laughter.
"What did you guys do to my niece?" I yelled over at them.
"She's on our team now." Max yelled back, Jamie flipped them off in response and I quickly turned Amelia's head away from him, whilst simultaneously smacking him in the arm.
"Little eyes, Jamie." I said.
"Sorry, sorry, come here cutie let's go teach these boys a lesson." He said, picking Amelia up and walking over to them. He took her hand in his and told her to make a fist and punch them. So she did, she punched each one of them individually, making them fake being hurt for the little girl, it was honestly really sweet to see them being so nice and amazing to her. As far as I knew, none of them were really around kids that much. I pulled my phone out and took a video of the interaction, mainly to use as proof to them for an argument we'll probably have at some point. I posted the video to my Instagram story, tagging all of them with the caption 'feels good to be home with these idiots <3'.
"He's really good with her." Tina said, coming over to me while we watched them.
"He is, even watching him with the kids at the arena, he's really good with all of them." I agreed.
"Are you guys having any? When do I get to be a grandmother?" She asked.
"Honestly, I don't want any of my own, and I thought he didn't but I'm not sure if that's changed by the looks of it." I said, I've thought about it before, and how he always seems so happy and he's so good with the kids, it's hard to think that he doesn't want any.
"If it's any consolation, I think you would both be great parents, but I understand if you don't want any, I don't want to pressure you into that." She said, looking overly sympathetic to me.
"Thanks, Tina." I said. We continued to talk for a little bit, watching Jamie and the guys with Amelia for the first little bit of the game, no one was really there for the hockey itself, honestly not even us. Especially seeing as by the end of the second we were losing 4 - 0. It was not good on our teams part. Not that we're supposed to be a good team anyway, rebuilds right? (No we just suck for the most part).
"Okay, so I need to go shopping for my dress, what colours am I not allowed?" Tina asked, I could see my mom perking up from the corner and quickly making her way over to us.
"Me too, I need to know too." She said.
"Hey, baby? Come here for a second please?" I asked Jamie, grabbing his attention. He set Amelia down from his arms and quickly made his way over to the group.
"What's up, love?" He asked.
"I think it's time." I said, smiling at him. He nodded, knowing exactly what I meant by that. He went over to the closet and grabbed my bag. The intermission was just starting before the third period, so this was kind of when we planned to do it anyway, in case anyone wanted to leave the game early to get home. I shuffled through the envelopes in my bag to grab the ones labelled 'Mom & Dad Cowen' and 'Mom & Dad Drysdale', handing them off to the two mothers.
"Is this what I think it is?" Tina asked, her eyes lighting up at the sight of it. "Gary get over here!" She yelled.
"Ken!" My mom yelled over to my dad. Both of our dads came slowly sauntering over to their wives and taking a look at the envelope in hands. We waited to see their reactions.
"No blush pink or sage green." Tina read out loud. Jamie put his arm around the back of my torso and kissed the top of my head as we grabbed the invitations for all the guys and Jessa, handing them out.
"Oh my god, is this an invite to your birthday party, Skyler?" Justin asked, in a valley girl voice.
"How did you know Justina, did I put enough flowers all over it? Please tell me you can come to my sweet sixteen!" I said, mocking him.
"I would never miss it!" He exclaimed back, finally opening the invitation.
"This was designed so cute, did you do this?" Jessa asked, laughing a little bit.
"Aren't they though? I found some random girl on the internet who has really good graphic design skills to help." I said, laughing, knowing she's the one who designed them. We went over to Erin, Aiden, Mason, and oddly enough Charlie was hanging out with them, so we gave them their invites too. It didn't take long for every single one of the RSVP slips to be handed back to us, they were already all in my bag before the third period started.
"It feels real, I'm so excited." Jamie said as we put the slips in my bag and into the closet.
"I know, I can't wait to marry you, Mr. Drysdale." I said, wrapping my arms around his neck and finally going in for the kiss.
"I can't wait to marry you, future Mrs. Drysdale." He whispered, and leaned down to kiss me.
"Get a room!" Ryan said, coming over and passing by us to leave the room.
"Hey, where the fuck are you going?" Jamie asked, still not moving from my embrace.
"Gotta piss, idiot, calm down." Ryan laughed. We smiled a little bit, shaking our heads and leaning in for another kiss.