Chapter 14

**Yay another chapter! Gotta thank all you ladies for following and the comments, they are always helpful and encouraging! :)

Getting back to Chicago was not something I really wanted to do after having so much fun in Winnipeg, but I knew I would have to since this would be my new home and I would have to get used to it. Being that Jon and I roomed with Brent and Dayna, I had become good friends with Dayna, I guess maybe since she was closer to my age; all the other wags were in their late 20’s or early 30’s. We had a lot of lunch/shopping dates and even joined a gym to do hot yoga. We still spent some time with the other wags but they had other things going on; and Dayna and I seemed to have a lot of free time.

“So, I was kind of wondering, and I completely understand if you don’t want to tell me, but why didn’t you and the other wags not really get along?” I ask one day while were shopping
“Well, it was mostly the girls who were never around long, like one of the girls that Kane was dating, and Andrew’s fiancée when he was here and some other girls. They just thought I was another jersey chasing slut that was after these boys, but they didn’t know that I had been with Brent for so long, and most of them just didn’t care.”
“Geez, that’s how most girls are too, it sucks”
“Yeah, Chelsea was the first girl to talk to me and then I became friends with Abby too. And it wasn’t too long after that when most of the girls weren’t around and the rest had opened up to me”
“Well at least they finally did. I never really noticed how mean and caddy girls can be until now, with witnessing it all first hand,”
“Yeah, it’s definitely hard at first and it can always be hard every once in a while. You just have to remember who knows the real story and how strong of a relationship you have with Jon and that you guys have trust in each other and not let it get to you.”
“Yeah, definitely, trust is obviously a key factor in every relationship and I think that time of me going back home to finish school and graduate helped us”
“Oh girl, he was talking about you all the time when you were gone!” she says with a laugh
“Yeah, I’ve heard. I was home one day before graduation and Kane called me and was like seriously you need to come back asap cause Tazer will not shut up about you, I was like I’ll be out there before you know it”
“Ha ha yeah, I think Kane was just bummed because he didn’t have a wing man anymore”
“Guess he’s gotta find a new one!” I say as we both laugh
“Who do you think you’re closest with out here? Like guys on the team and the wags?”
“Well, for wags I’d have to say you, then Abby and Elina. Guys on the team…Sharpie is like the older brother I never had, then Brent and Kaner,”
“Yeah, the think I love most about always being around these guys is that they are always looking after the girls, but then giving us a hard time at the same time,”
“Absolutely”

We spent almost the whole day shopping, even though I don’t know why, it’s not like I needed more clothes or had the room for them. We had gotten back to the house to see Jon and Brent playing video games…pretty sure we could have been burglars stealing everything in the house, guess that goes to show how into the video games these boys get.
The only thing that caught their attention was us saying that we were going to go get food for dinner, and they both jumped off the couch within 2 seconds. The 4 of us went to eat at Rockit Bar & Grill, and then we decided to walk along the river walk.

Before we knew it, it was September and nearing time for the Hawks Hockey & Heels night, the convention and preseason. I had been doing a lot of work in the public and media relations departments over the summer, and dealt with new players coming in and joining the rest of the Hawks. Out of all the free agents, we only lost one this summer, and that was Fernando Pisani, the remaining free agents got contract extensions and we also signed a few guys out of the draft before sending them to the farm team. Taylor Pyatt came here from the Coyotes and signed a 2-year contract. I worked with him for all the press conferences and media stuff and he is by far one of the nicest guys I’ve met. The day that we were informing the team of the newest player and introducing him (lucky me got to do that), I thought about playing a harmless joke and giving the name of a player that they hated, but I knew I couldn’t keep a straight face, so I didn’t bother. Taylor had crossed paths with Sharpie a couple times before, being that they are both from Thunder Bay…there was clearly something in the water out there when those boys were born because they are beyond gorgeous, not to mention the Staal boys are from Thunder Bay also…geez. The boys were all welcoming of him, as they are with all the newcomers, him and Sharpie were exchanging some words, and Hammer came into the conversation as well.

Jon thought of the idea of everyone going to dinner to get to know him a little better, so with the help of coach Q and Stan, we got the Cheesecake Factory open for only the players and their wives or girlfriends. So the next night, we all got dazzled up for an introduction dinner. I hadn’t seen Laura in forever so she came over before the dinner and I helped her curl her hair and we got ready, then the 4 of us headed over to dinner.

“So who is this guy, I haven’t seen him yet,” Laura asks as we’re driving
“His name is Taylor Pyatt, he’s from Thunder Bay. He played for Vancouver before he got traded to Phoenix and they didn’t want to resign him on free agency day so Stan picked him up,” I say
“Oh, I think I remember you saying something about him before,”
“Oh yeah! When I went to see the Pens play them last year in Glendale, I saw him after morning skate when we were at the district where the arena is,”
“He’s a pretty quiet player too, not really flashy, but he’s quick” Jon says
“Yeah, he didn’t play too much when I saw them but I watched him when he played for Vancouver,” I add
“Is he hot?” Laura asks
“Yes,” I reply with a look from Jon
“Really, J?” he says jokingly
“What? It’s the truth, besides I already have a hot boyfriend, and he has a girlfriend that’s out here with him”
“Geez, Tazer, jealous much?” Kane says
“No, I’m just saying,”
“Well you have nothing to worry about, because I am alllll yours!”

The 4 of us are the first ones to arrive with Brent and Dayna and then Taylor and Savannah, we all get past the introductions; Savannah is nice too, petite little brunette, very friendly, and it’s clearly not the fake friendly either, really genuinely nice. The dinner went really good, all the guys got along great and Savannah really fit in well with the girls, with the exception of Amanda, I think that’s her name, she was Jeremy’s girl of the month, but we didn’t care because we knew she would be kicked to the curb before too long. Taylor and Savannah had settled into a nice housing development near Nik and Turco’s house, they had some time to get settled in while Savannah jumped right in with the Better Halves and helped with the Hockey and Heels event that would be coming up between the convention and the beginning of preseason.

The convention was all craziness, I was working back with Adam and the media stuff; we set up the red carpet for the guys to enter the hotel on. And between Brandon and I, we got the tables ready with all the place cards and the catered food that would be there; and arranged for the ice girls and Tommy Hawk to be there too. The planning had taken months and then it was a week of planning up to the day of, but I learned that it had been at the same hotel where it’s been the past couple years, so things went through pretty smoothly. Stan was able to get Charissa Thompson from Versus to come and talk to the guys which was pretty amazing, she’s been one of my favorite reporters so getting the chance to meet her was awesome. The only problem we had was some crazy fan who was in love with Jon and Pat, she went crazy and ended up trying to fight a security guard because she couldn’t get a picture of them, so the police escorted her off the premises.