Chapter 30

The month has just flown by and the charity event is upon us already. I have never announced that Wayne Gretzky is coming as I don’t want Sidney to know, I have never even told Mario as they are very good friends and have not seen each other in a while so it will be a nice surprise for him also.

That afternoon in training I sent the lads away early using the excuse of tonight’s events. I had noticed Wayne Gretzky sitting up the very back of the stalls throughout the entire training session. No one noticed he was there so he stayed hiding in the shadows. Although he is so good with his fans he would not have minded spending time with the whole team. Normally I would have said something but this was my surprise for Sidney, I wanted it to stay just for him.

Once the guys had left Sidney was helping me tidy up as the ice was about to be melted to make way for the arena to be set up for the charity night. I didn’t let on to Sidney that Wayne was there so he thought we were alone. He kept putting his arms around me and wanting to kiss me, I kept skating away telling him that he couldn’t because the crew would soon be coming in to remove the ice and we needed to clear everything up.

Eventually Wayne made it known that he was there and Sidney’s face was a picture, he was astonished.

“Good afternoon Sid, pleasure to meet you. That was a pretty impressive training session”. After shaking Sidney’s hand he came over and introduced himself to me, it really was a pleasure to meet him.

“Listen guys I need to go home for a couple of hours, I have got a few things I need to do before tonight, feel free to use my office or you can come back to mine and catch up there and have a few beers or something before getting ready for tonight.”

They looked at each other and agreed to come back to mine, there would be less chance of interruption there.

The rest of the afternoon Sidney and Wayne chatted like old friends and got on like a house on fire. Eventually they got ready when I told them they would be at the same table tonight and they could carry on chatting then. Before they knew it the car was picking us up to go to the charity event.

The whole team were suited and booted for the event, they scrubbed up well. I decided to wear a long deep burgundy dress that fitted around my chest then flowed nicely, I curled my hair and let it fall naturally over my shoulders and I put a small butterfly clip in to keep my hair from my face. I liked these days to make an effort with my appearance it is a change from when I was in Scotland.

Of course the press were there but that was something that even my family had become accustomed too.

We had managed to keep Wayne away from Mario today so he was thrilled to see him when he came through the door with Sidney.

The night went well and all of the bands including Nickelback were liked by all. We made an astonishing $92,000 for the Mario Lemieux fund.