Chapter 1

I sit on my seat in coach as the plane heads toward the sky on my way to Pittsburgh from my home in Montreal. I'm going back to live with my best friend Kelly. As I look out the window on the plane I fall fast alseep and am awaken later by the stuartist telling everyone to remain seated.

I got off the plane, grab my luggage and see Kelly waiting for me, along with a guy. I can't help but notice how farmiliar he looks, but I'm too far away to know who it is. Kelly runs up to me and I jump into her arms, and give her a huge hug.

"Oh my God Bri you look amazing!"

"Kelly it has been waaaay too long! How are you?!"

"I'm amazing! How was your flight?" Kelly said calming down a bit.

"It was pretty good, I slept the whole time." As I said that the man she was standing there with before slowly approached us.

"Hi I'm Tyler." The guy said.

"Oh I'm sorry! I forgot to introduce you guys," Kelly said, "This is my boyfriend Tyler."

"Hi, I'm Bri. This may sound odd but you look very familiar."

"Oh, you Pens fan you! This is Tyler Kennedy, he plays for the Pens." Kelly said.

"Oh of course! That's why you looked farmiliar." I said.

He laughed, "So shall we get going my car is just parked a little away."

"Yeah let's go! We have so much catching up to do!" Kelly said.

We all headed to the car, and they loaded my luggage into the car and we headed back to Kelly's house. When we got back to Kelly's house we brought my stuff into Kelly's house and Tyler said he had to leave.

"Hey I've got to head out, but everyone just got in from their hometowns and we're having a party for all the players, you two are welcome to come. It's going to be at Sid's house. Kelly, you know where it is."

"You wanna go?" Kelly said directing the question towards me.

"Yeah! Sounds fun."

"Cool. So I'll see you two tonight." Tyler said as he gave Kelly a kiss and headed out the door.

After we put my clothes into my drawers and got me settled in, we both took naps. When we woke up we decided to get ready for the party that would be starting in about an hour. I had never been to a party with a bunch of NHL guys so I had no idea what to expect. Kelly gave me the low down on every guy on the team, and whether they were single or not. She told me that Max was the crazy one that had a new girl every night, Evgeni was the quiet Russian, but once he had a few shots of vodka he could loosen up, but he now had a girlfriend Hayden. Then there was Sid who didn't have a girlfriend, but was probably one of the sweetest people that you could ever meet. Jordan who had a girlfriend Ange, and most of the older ones were married. Lastly Kris. She said he's single and extremely quiet, but so funny and so nice.

After her prep speech as I was doing my hair and make up I had to pick out something to wear. I decided on a cute pair of grey jean shorts, and a white lacy tank top with silver heels. As we headed out the door she told me to watch out for Max.

"With that outfit on, Max is gonna be on you like a bee on honey."

"Point him out to me when we get to the party." I said.

"Oh hun, you'll know immediately which one he is"

We arrived at the party and most of the players were outside on the front lawn. Kelly pulled in and as soon as she put the car in park a very tall blonde guy came over and jumped on the car and laid across the windshield.

"That's Jordan. He's taken." Kelly said.

"Oh, good to know." I said through my laughter.

When we got out of the car Jordan practically jumped on Kelly and gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Well hello Jordan. I want you to meet someone, this is my friend Bri." Kelly said.

"HEY!" Jordan yelled, and ran around the other side of the car and gave me a huge hug. "I'm Jordan.. Jordan Staal."

"Hi I'm Bri, I just came in from Montreal."

"Oh no way! Whoa now you have to meet Max!"

He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the front yard where a group of guys were sitting on the porch with beers in their hands.

"Guys, this is Bri. She's friends with Kelly. She just flew in from MONTREAL!"

"Hey! I dig a girl from Montreal! But whoa! I really dig you." Max said with a devilish grin on his face.

"OH! You must be the Max Kelly was telling me about, the ultimate player." I said with a chuckle.

An eruption of OH's came from all the guys standing around Max and myself. He laughed and so did I.

"I like you, you're pretty cool." Max said to me.

I laughed and headed back towards where Kelly was standing talking to Tyler.

"So have you met everyone yet?" Tyler asked me.

"Nope only Max. And yes I immediately figured out who he was."

They both laughed and took me to get introduced to the rest of the team. I met Sidney who was honestly very quiet but was still super sweet. Then I met Geno who like Kelly told me was at the bar taking a shot of vodka. We got to talking and he told me he was going to take me to Russia, so I could have real vodka. I laughed and told him to call me when we're going. Then I moved on to meet some of the other players. I'd already been there for about an hour and I was dying for a drink. On my way to the bar in Sid's house I bumped into someone. I looked up and saw gorgeous brown eyes staring down at me. Then a saw smile pulled at the sides of my lips, and he immediately began apologizing.

"I am so sorry, I did not mean to run into you. I wasn't paying attention. I'm really sorry," He said in the cutest French accent I had ever heard.

"Don't worry about it. No harm done." I said.

"Hey you're Bri! I was behind Max when you were talking to him."

"Oh haha, yeah he seems to be quite the character."

"Oh he is. But anyway we were never introduced. Im Kris..Kris Letang."

"Well I'm Bri..Bri Begin."

"Any relations to Steve?

"Yeah he's my brother."

We talked for a little while longer before Kelly came over. But all the sudden I see Kelly get picked up, and all the sudden I felt myself being carried and I had no clue where we were going. I saw Jordan carrying Kelly, and Geno carrying me. I saw us heading outdoors by the pool and I began to scream but it was too late. We were both immediately thrown right into the pool. Along with about 10 guys jumping in.

We jumped out and I saw Kris with a towel in his hand, and his own clothes dripping wet. He handed me a towel and we both started cracking up. He ran his fingers through his hair, and it was one of the sexiest things I think I've ever seen. But when I looked down you could clearly see my lime green and purple bra showing under my white tank top. He obviously picked up on what I was looking at. He blushed then we both started cracking up.

"Here come up stairs with me. Me and Sid share this house so here you can borrow some of my clothes."

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much."

He gave me a kashual shirt, and a pair of his sweats. I was so wet and didnt even think to wait til he left the room. I took off my clothes and threw his on, and looked up to see him looking over at me. When he noticed I caught him looking he immediately turned away.

After I finished up with getting changed Kris and I walked back downstairs to the party was still taking place. Geno came up to me as soon as he saw me come down the stairs with Kris right behind me.

"I sorry for making you wet. I just do what I told. Looks like Kris happy though." Geno said in a thick accent. I wasn't sure if the inproper grammer was due to his English troubles, or the amount of vodka he had consumed already.

"It's okay Geno. All in good fun." I said as I gently grabbed his arm and walked away.

"I'd like to make a toast!" I hear a loud guy yell from on top of a table right by me. It was Max, go figure.
"We've been through a lot as a team, and I've only been here for a few years, but these have been the best years of my life. And I'm drunk, and rambling up here, so what I'm trying to say is, let's make this the best year ever and bring the fucking cup back to the burgh where it belongs!" Max finished up saying in which his speech was followed by an eruption of whoo's and yeah's.

The night was winding down, and I was starting to get tired. Kelly came over to me right as I yawned,
"Are you about ready to get out of here, you look tired." Kelly said to me.

"Yeah, I could use a good night's sleep."

Kelly and I headed over to Tyler who was standing with a big group around him.

"Hey babe, we're heading out of here." Kelly said to Tyler as she gave him a kiss goodbye.

"BRI! You're leaving without having a drink with me?!" Max said as he wrapped his arm around me
"Looks like not tonight Max, but we will soon. I promise. I'm here until the end of the season with Kelly, so I'm sure I can squeeze in sometime to have a drink with you."

"Good, because you're gonna need a whole night with me." He said to me with a wink. He hugged me and I went over to say bye to Geno.

"You have drink with me?" Geno said in his broken English.

"Yes Geno, I have drink with you too. Real American vodka." I said back to him trying to make him smile which I found too be extremely easy.

"No, no. Real RUSSIAN vodka. We have real Russian vodka, straight. You handle? You come to my party next week, and we drink!"

"Okay Geno. I'll be there. I'll see you soon okay."

As I headed towards Kelly who was saying her goodbye's to Sidney, I was stopped by Kris.

"Do you need a ride home?"

"No actually I'm okay, Kelly doesn't drink so I'm okay. But thank you."

"Oh I wasn't offering you a ride, I was just seeing if you needed one." He said with a serious face.

"Oh..." I said back not sure how to answer his comment.

"I'm just kidding" He said with a big grin as he began to laugh to himself.

I laughed also as I felt the redness come rising up into my cheeks.

"Well have a good night, hopefully I'll see you soon." He said with a smile as I turned to walk away.

On the way home back to Kelly's I thanked her for taking me to the party. It had been a long time since I had been to a party since Matt and I had broken up. When we got home I dragged myself up the stairs into my new room where I'd be staying for the next nine months. I washed my face, and brushed my teeth before setting my alarm for nine so that I could go into my mom's office at around ten. I fell asleep quickly in the same clothes Kris had given me.