"Baby you have to come out to the water, don't just tan there all day." Jamie said, coming over to Jessa and I on the beach shore at Ryan's cottage.
"I don't know what you're talking about, I barely got any colour in Barbados I need this."
"Girl, how do you never tan you're one of the most pale people I've ever met, you live in California and you never have any colour." Jessa said.
"I'm just as confused as you. Every year I buy a foundation one shade darker in hopes I'll be able to actually use it, but it never happens." I said, laughing a little bit.
"When's your Muskoka Golf thing with Quinton and Connor, J?" I asked him.
"Hey, it's not a golf thing, it's the Wasserman Hockey training camp, with a golf tournament." He said, trying to defend it.
"Oh, so sorry, my bad, too many words confuse me you know that. That still didn't answer my question though, when is it?" I asked.
"It's after this week, so when we're done here we get to go home for a day and then I'm back up here." He said. He reached into the cooler beside me to grab another beer.
"How long is it?" I asked.
"Two weeks."
"Oh." Was all I could say. Two more weeks without him.
"I'll be back after two weeks, it's not that long." He said, giving me a soft smile.
"I know, what am I going to do without you, I'll be so bored." I said, trying to return the heartfelt smile and feeling in his chest, but I couldn't do it, it wasn't coming out right.
"I love you, always." He said, leaning down and giving me a kiss, his lips tasted like Budweiser, not that I hated it, I just didn't love it.
"I love you, most." I replied as he walked back away to the guys.
"I don't know if I could ever do what you do." Jessa said, pushing her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"He's away all the time. How often do you even get to see him?"
"More than you think. The shorter road trips aren't too bad, but the longer ones are hard, especially when I'm watching the games or in office until puck drop. It makes it hard." I told her. "But they are around pretty often, and I at least get to hang out with the other girls every once in a while too which makes it easier since they all know what it's like too."
"At least you have your support system." Jessa said, leaning back down on her towel, I followed her actions and picked my book back up, opening it and starting to read. We stayed like that for another hour or two before the guys came back over, Jamie laid on his towel right beside mine in the sand.
"How's your book?" He asked.
"It's good, it's an enemies to lovers, fake married trope and I love it. Packed with action it's great so far. Plus the cover is really pretty." I said, closing my book and smiling at him.
"I love the way you talk about your books. It's the same way you look when you talk about hockey."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"You just seem so happy. I feel like I should get you a Kindle or something, you brought three heavy books up here for one week." He said, putting his arm around my shoulder. I shimmied myself into him, leaning my head on his chest.
"I would totally get a kindle, I feel like I'm just too lazy to go to the store to buy one." I said.
"That's the only reason?" He asked me, I could feel the vibration of his small chuckle in his chest.
"Yeah, pretty much. And it costs money, I don't get paid that much." I said. We don't share a bank account, Jamie insists on paying for most things, but when it's for me I try to not let him pay.
"Were we talking about money? I said I was going to buy it for you, I don't want you to worry about that, they're what, three hundred dollars? That's nothing." Jamie said, pulling me in closer and squeezing me with his one arm.
"I love you." I said, and lightly kissed his chest.
"I love you most." He replied and kissed the top of my head. We stayed in silence, kind of just listening to what everyone else was talking about, Jamie just ran his fingers through my hair.
"You two realize that you don't have to be touching each other 24/7, right?" Justin asked. Jamie wrapped both arms around me and pulled me fully onto his chest, squeezing tight and rocking me back in forth on his chest.
"Yes we do." Jamie said, his face was smushed a little bit on the top of my head so it came out a little muffled.
"You know, I never thought that J Dawg of all people would be so into PDA?" Chris asked, laughing a little bit.
"Only since Skyler." He said.
"Can I get off of your chest now?" I asked, my voice still muffled by his skin to skin contact.
"Nope, you're stuck here forever." He said, squeezing me even more as if it was possible.
"Okay, I'm going to take a nap then." I said, closing my eyes, not expecting to actually fall asleep. But I did, the sun was setting and the sound of the waves rolling in, mixed with the feeling of Jamie's chest rising up and down with every breath he took was calming.
"Baby, it's time to wake up." Jamie rubbed my almost bare back gently, his fingers hgetting caught on the clasp of my bikini top.
"I don't want to move." I said, rubbing my face on his chest, my way of trying to wake myself up.
"I know, pretty girl, but it's time to get up." He said. "Everyone else left an hour ago." I propped myself up, putting my hands on the towel on either side of him.
"You mean you just let me sleep on you for an hour while everyone else was gone?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow at me and looked confused.
"Why wouldn't I?" He asked.
"I don't know, I just figured you'd want to get up with everyone else. You could've woken me up and gone in too."
"I know, but this was kind of nice. I think probably nicer than going up there with all of them." He said, smiling softly down at me. I sat up, straddling his lap and his hands instinctively held onto my hips. I turned my head around and saw the sun was setting, the sunset was a beautiful bright pink.
"Can we just sit here a couple minutes longer to watch the sunset?" I asked him, giving him my best puppy dog eyes. His smile slowly grew as he just stared at me.
"Yeah, we can." He agreed. I got off of him so he could sit up, opening his legs for my to sit in between them, Jamie wrapped his arms tightly around my torso, resting his head on my shoulder.
"You know, when I was in high school, probably only a couple months before I met you, I had class with this one girl named Samantha. She was a little bit of a bitch, tried to make me jealous all the time for no reason. She thought that just because I worked in the OHL that I was only there to flirt with the players and hook up with them, not that I actually wanted to work in hockey." I said, starting to tell him an embarrassing story before we had met that cold February night.
"Okay? Why are you telling me this?" He asked.
"There's a story." I said, which made him chuckle for some reason.
"Okay, continue."
"So, one day in our law class where we sat beside each other, she was scrolling through her phone and you guys were playing a school day game so I was listening to it. Honestly I think this was actually right before we met come to think of it because you were out with a concussion. But, anyways, she's scrolling and gets a follower notification on Instagram and obviously looks at it. Then she exclaims super loudly for the entire class to hear, 'oh my god, Jamie Drysdale just followed me on Instagram'. I know that it was more to brag to me about it because she knew you were one of my favourite players. She kept looking at me for my reaction, which I never gave her. Anyways, later that night because I was in fact jealous I went to creep on her profile and searched your name in her followers and noticed you weren't there. I never said anything to her, I just thought it was hilarious. I don't know if you ever did follow her and unfollowed afterwards or if she was faking it for attention, but whatever it was I enjoyed it either way."
"So what was her reaction once that first picture was posted of us together?" Jamie asked, I turned to look at him and his face told me that he really enjoyed the story.
"She tried to be my best friend again at school, commenting on every picture I posted, trying to talk during class and hang out at lunch or on the weekend. It was quite comical to be completely honest."
"Oh my god it's that Samantha? I've seen her comments, and she's commented on my stuff a couple times too. That's kind of hilarious." He said, laughing a bit, his chest moving up and down.
"Yeah I saw that. I creeped on her account the other day and apparently she's dating an AHL player now." I said.
"Oh no way, what team?" He asked.
"The Texas Stars I think?" I said. "I don't actually know though I didn't pay enough attention."
"You paid enough attention to creep on her account apparently."
"Yeah, but I was creeping on everyone from high school, seeing what they've been up to. It's not a competition obviously, but it makes me feel good, I'm the one with the most exciting life." I said, flipping my hair over both of our shoulders. Jamie laughed again, nuzzling his head a little closer into my neck, kissing lightly.
"As long as it makes you feel good, baby. You do have a pretty exciting life. I mean, not to brag, but you are married to an NHL player, you live with two more, and you work in the NHL." He said, laughing a little bit.
"Live in Anaheim, which in itself is exciting coming from a small enough town, but then piling all of that on top of it. And it's all thanks to you." I said.I turned my head around to look at him as best I could, and lightly kissed his nose.
"All thanks to you." He repeated, and followed my actions in kissing my nose as well. I giggled as he leaned back a little bit and smiled brightly at me, then leaned in and kissed my cheek, and then my other cheek, my temple, everywhere on my forehead, down my nose, my chin, and finally landing on my lips. A slow, passionate, loving kiss. "Wanna go back inside?" He asked, still leaning against my lips.
"Yeah." I whispered and nodded. Jamie kissed me one more time before standing up and reaching out a hand for me to take, pulling me up to stand. I dusted the sand off of me and started helping him grab our things, throwing my towel over my shoulder and started walking up the path back to the cottage. Jamie and I went up to our room for the week and dropped our stuff down, getting changed into something a little bit warmer for the cold the sunless sky was bringing in.
"Can you wear this sweater?" Jamie asked me, throwing a black sweater from his bag on the ground. I picked it up and looked closely at it, it was one I had never seen before. Flipping to the back it said DRYSDALE across the bottom. "Flip it over." He said. Right on top of the heart was the Anaheim Ducks logo, and underneath that was "Game Operations" stitched in.
"What is this?" I asked.
"It's something the team sent as a wedding present apparently. I got one too, says number six and defence on it. Cute little matching hoodies." He said, smiling happily.
"That's so sweet." I said, immediately pulling the hoodie over my head. It fit perfectly and was the most comfortable sweater I have ever worn. Jamie put his hoodie on too and we walked downstairs once we were ready. Everyone was sitting on the deck underneath the gazebo, with a bunch of chairs and small couches.
"Well look who's now the cute cringy couple they never wanted to be!" Justin exclaimed as we made it outside with everyone else.
"Hey, you can blame the team for this one." Jamie said, emphasizing the Ducks logo on his chest.
"Those are super cute though." Jessa agreed. "Let me see the back, is there something there?" Jamie and I both turned around to show just our newly shared last name. We turned back around and went to the open bench seat, as we sat down Jamie automatically put his arm around my shoulder, pulling me close to him.
"What's for dinner?" Chris asked.
"Nachos, they should be done any minute now." Myles responded.
"So we're thinking of actually coming down to Anaheim finally this season." Ryan said.
"Really?" Jamie asked, leaning forward on the couch a little bit.
"Yeah, we were just taking about it, granted you sign that damn contract dude." Max added.
"I will, I'm not even talking to them about it, it's my agent. He's not taking any shit. He wants them to do over 2 million but I played like 8 games last season? I doubt that I'll be making over 2, if anything it'll be high 1's." Jamie said. It breaks my heart when he doesn't believe in himself, I know it's different with the money but either way he deserves at least 2 million.
"Will it be done by the start of the season?" Ryan asked.
"I hope so, I don't want to miss anymore hockey." Jamie responded.
"You won't, baby, it'll be fine." I told him, reaching my hand up and squeezing his that was around my shoulder. He simply leaned over and kissed my temple, sending shivers down my spine. Myles stood up as the oven timer went off, walking into the kitchen to presumably get the nachos out. Which, he indeed did, coming back out to the deck with the tray of nachos in his hands. "Do you need any help Myles?" I asked him.
"That would be awesome if you could." I nodded and pushed myself off of the couch, following him inside to help grab a stack of plates, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and some extra cheese. We walked outside and I shook the bag of cheese at Justin.
"This is just for you, Jus." I said, smiling at him and trying to hold back a little laugh. He is severely lactose intolerant and makes it everyone else's problem whenever he has just a little bit of dairy.
"Hand it over, baby, that's for me and me alone. Pass the sour cream too, if I'm going to be bad, I'm going to be a menace." He said, with a huge smirk on his face, already pre-proud of what he's going to be accomplishing throughout the night.
"Am I being replaced?" Jamie asked, referring to Justin, not even to me.
"Baby, I could never replace you, especially not with her." Justin replied, standing up from his seat and walking over to Jamie, his arms stretched out in front of him. Once his got to Jamie he put both hands on either side of his face and kissed Jamie hard on his cheek. "Love of my life, forever and always." He said, and walked back to his seat, the bag of cheese also now in his hands as be practically ripped it out of mine.
"Why are you walking away so fast? Come cuddle, kiss me more." Jamie said. Justin looked up at me, his eyes wide and hopeful about stealing my seat, but respectfully.
"Go." I said, letting out a little laugh at him. Justin got up from his seat super fast, and ran over to Jamie, sitting on the bench seat beside him, throwing an arm around his shoulder and leaning over to kiss his cheek. "Do you want my side of the bed tonight too?" I asked.
"If you're offering, I think you know I cannot say no." He replied. I just started laughing again, everyone else also joining in.
"Depends on what you're giving me in return. This is a trade, Justin, you don't get him for free."
"I didn't know I was up for grabs." Jamie said, shrugging.
"I'm willing to give you the second half of this beer." Justin said, no hesitation.
"I think I'm worth more than half a beer that's getting warm and has your backwash, Justin." Jamie said.
"I don't know if I'd go that far." Justin and I both said in unison.
"Hey!" Jamie exclaimed. "My best friend and wife don't think I'm worth more?"
"No." I said.
"You're worth so much more, love." Justin said.
"Is this some new throuple we have to be worried about?" Chris asked.
"I think it's more likely Jamie cheats with Justin." Jessa responded.
"Already been done." Justin said, turning his head and moving to kiss Jamie on the cheek again.
"Yeah that ship sailed a long time ago." I said. "I think he talks to Justin more than me still."
"Honestly, yeah." Jamie said, laughing a little bit.
"Not something to be proud of, honey." I said. For some reason I've started calling him honey lately.It kind of suits him, he's sweet like honey.
"Well, no, but I still sleep with you either way, because you love me." Jamie said, puffing his chest out a little bit.
"Oh, ha ha very funny." I responded, finally taking some nachos and putting them on my plate, as everyone else had already started eating. It started to rain lightly, making small little tapping noises on the canvas gazebo roof.
"So, what are we thinking tonight?" Ryan asked after everyone had almost finished their plates of food.
"Game night?" Max asked.
"Drinking game night?" Myles asked.
"Party?" Chris added.
"How about we sit in silence and not bother each other night?" Jessa asked.
"Someone is not in a very happy mood today." Justin said, leaning over the side of his and Jamie's shared bench seat and poking his sister in the arm.
"I just want to sit and relax and do absolutely nothing for once." Jessa said, setting he paper plate on the table.
"I'm with Jess to be honest." I said, copying her actions, and clapping my hands together to wipe them off from the chip dust.
"You guys are so boring." Chris said.
"Why is it that you always want to party?" Jamie asked.
"I'm horny dude, that's it." He responded, making everyone laugh at him.
"Well, don't look at me to help you there, I've already got two beauties on my arms." He said, looking very proud of himself. Justin leaned towards one side, letting out the most rancid smell I think I've ever experienced.
"Justin!" Everyone exclaimed.
"Who was that?" He asked, trying and failing to not laugh.
"Dude, eat some veggies." Max said, waving his hand in front of his face.
"Not my fault, blame Myles, he's the one who made nachos. Those are very dairy involved."
"You added more cheese." Jessa said, shaking her head.
"I think I'm going to go back over to Skyler." Jamie said, standing up and coming over to my chair.
"Oh, sorry, I don't know if there's room for two over here." I said, smiling and looking up at him as he towered over me.
"I think we can squeeze." He replied, confidently. He grabbed both of my hands and pulled me up, sitting down on the chair and then sitting me on top of his lap. I slung an arm around the back of his shoulder, and put my legs up on the arm rest of the chair. "See? We both fit super comfy."
"Yeah, you're right. Hard to stay mad at you." I said, kissing his cheek, and holding the other one with my free hand.
"Yeah, I know." He said, leaning over and kissing my lips lovingly.
"I love you." I said softly, leaning my forehead onto his.
"I love you most." He said.
"Would you two shut the fuck up over there, we get it you're in love." Chris said, sounding genuinely annoyed.
"What's got your all annoyed?" Jessa asked, and then her face lit up. "You're not just horny! You just want a girlfriend!" I gasped along with her. We both wanted more girls up here for these weeks, not that we don't love each other, but with only the two of us girls, it would be nice for a couple more. Sometimes some of the girls from the neighbouring cottages come over for the night, but they weren't very fun if they weren't drinking, and even then they become a lot. Just a lot less bitchy.
"So what if I do?" He asked in a huff, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Oh, don't worry little buddy, we've all felt that way since these two." Myles said, patting Chris on the shoulder.
"Why don't you guys just do it then? It can't be that hard for you." Jamie asked. I think he knew deep down that since we got together they had all been a little bit jealous, and especially since we got engaged and then married it's gotten a little bit worse.
"Tinder girls just don't do it. They want a free meal, or the attention. I am yet to find one that would want to go on more than two dates and maybe not hook up right away. Nor can I find one I like that's interesting enough anyways." Chris said.
"Why don't you just find a girl from your university?" Myles asked. The guys kept going on and talking all about Chris's girl struggles, giving him advice. Everyone one in a while either Jessa or I chimed in with what girls usually like from guys. All of them seemed to feel a little bit better after the conversation, which took quite a while to get through.
"Let's just play some cards for a bit." Ryan eventually suggested. We all unanimously agreed on it and started cleaning off the table from the plates and empty nachos tray, bringing everything inside. The rain had started the get heavier, and then wind was picking up, there was too much of a chill in the air to hang out outside any longer, so we played in the garage, mainly because that's where the drink fridge was.
"Stop gaining up on me!" I yelled at Jamie with a laugh in my voice as he had been targeting me in every single game all night.
"Well stop distracting me and I wouldn't have to!" He exclaimed right back.
"What do you mean distracting you? What am I even doing?" I asked.
"You're just looking so pretty." He said, smirking.
"Shut up and play nice." I said, smacking his arm with the cards in my hand.
"Fine, just because you asked so nicely." He said.
"I would've asked nicer, baby." Justin said, wiggling his eyebrows at Jamie. I laughed loudly, it was so unexpected that it shocked me, and I quickly covered my mouth with my hand, just making everyone else laugh. They were all a little more tipsy than I was, I had only had one drink compared to the entire case of 24 beers that had been destroyed by the guys.
"Can we go to bed?" I asked Jamie as the last game finished, and everyone was quietly talking for a little bit.
"Yeah, let's go." He said, standing up from his chair and taking my hand. We said goodnight to everyone and went up to our room, getting changed out of the too heavy to sleep in clothes and getting into bed.
"How was your day?" I asked as we got comfortable in the bed.
"It was good, I got to spend it with you and the rest of my friends, it was relaxing." He responded, and kissed the top of my head, making me melt into his chest. "How was your day?"
"Good, I had a good nap on my favourite pillow, and you know I can't complain spending the entire day on the beach." I said.
"That's true, it is one of your favourite places to be." He agreed.
"Do you know what the first two are?" I asked him.
"I have a pretty good idea that one is the rink." He started, "And there's a couple other places that the second one could be, Starbucks, Target, that one pizza place by the house in Anaheim that makes the pizza in front of you." He said, adding a little laugh at the end since I do love that pizza place but neither one of us can ever remember the name of it.
"In your arms." I said, looking up at him. As he looked down to meet my eyes it looked like I had just made his life by saying that. His eyes were so bright I could see the sun, and the crinkles by his eyes that showed every time he smiled when he was the most pure kind of happy.
"That's my favourite place, to be in your arms." He said, squeezing me in his arms.
"I can't believe you're mine to this day. I hope you know how happy you make me, J." I said, scooching my body up closer so our faces could be in line with each other.
"I can't believe you're mine after all this time. You've made my life so much better." He said. I leaned in and kissed him as passionately as I could. He was everything to me. I know that he knows it, but I can't help but wanting to prove it to him all day every day.
"You've changed my life so much, and made it better than I could ever imagine. I have two new families, with your family and friends, and the team too. It's incredible and shocks me every day. Not to mention I can't remember the last time that I was genuinely sad." I said.
"The only couple times I've been upset in the past three years, every single time the second you come around you've made me feel a million times better." He whispered, and leaned in, kissing me one more time.
"I want you for the rest of my life, forever and always." I whispered.
"You'll have me for the rest of your life, forever and always, as long as I can have you."
"You can have me however long you want." I said, leaning back down into his chest. Every time I think about him and the rest of our lives together I want to cry of happiness, I never imagined myself being this happy and being with him in general, let alone this long, changing my last name, anything.
"Falling asleep, my love?" He asked, his words slightly muffled as his was resting his lips on the top of my hair, one of his hands just running through my hair. I nodded against his chest. "That's okay, fall asleep. Sleep tight, and dream of me, okay?"
"I dream of you every single night." I responded, and within seconds falling asleep.