Chapter 27: Cecile II--Unused to Strangers

Chapter 27: Cecile II—Unused to Strangers

It didn’t feel the same at all. Cecile thought that she would have been in heaven just to be near Danny again. And for the first few minutes it was. She had missed him so much, and just seeing him again had warmed her so much on Friday night. Leaning against his shoulder and watching that inane hockey game, she had felt good. She had been waiting all week for Saturday, so she could be with him all day.

Perhaps her resolve diminished when she walked into the huge house. Within the minute, before she could even get a good glimpse of Danny, that little girl had snatched her hand with an eerie amount of strength and dragged her all the way up the stairs to see some sneezing bear. Could she last the weekend? Could she last one day?

Still, Cecile knew that wasn’t the real problem. She knew she was looking for excuses. As Danny held the car door open for her, his smile as big and white and warm as ever, she smiled back and sat quietly in the passenger seat. It was at that second that she knew something was wrong. Usually she was laughing and smiling back, euphoric to be near him. Now she just felt..scared.

It was as if her mother was casting a long shadow, as if she was watching and pointing her bony finger. She was disobeying Pauline, right under her nose. There was no freedom anymore. Cecile felt that.

The list went on! Something about the Roys made her uncomfortable. It wasn’t just the children. She knew how much regard Debbie Sakic held Michele in. It was one of the main factors that urged Cecile to go to Michele for help. Still, she had always felt wary of the scrawny French woman. There was something about Michele’s face, and her eyes that reminded Cecile of a hungry, feral cat. Something that she would never want to turn her back on. And then now, she had just met Patrick.

Right away, he frightened her. He always had when she’d seen him in games on TV and the camera would focus on his crazy blue eyes, and that twitchy head of his. Danny had told her over and over that Patrick was fine, and that he was just really focused in his games and that in person he was a real sweet guy.

The second she met him face to face, his eyes met hers only briefly and the gaze still frightened her. It was almost as if she had been pierced by them. Immediately she sensed too that he was sizing her up. She’d seen men do it before, it was nothing new, but this time she had felt like a food item.

Cecile sighed and leaned back against the seat. She was just unused to strangers. She was too sheltered, she decided and she had to toughen up. The world was imperfect. Not everyone said their prayers or even had a moderate understanding of the Bible and other such things. Mrs. Sakic believed that the Roys were a sweet family, and so did everyone else. So what if they had hyper kids?

"You OK?" Danny asked as he made a turn out of the neighborhood.

Cecile blinked and then looked at Danny, a weak smile on her face. "Yeah," she said. "I’m fine."

Danny glanced at her, his large eyes concerned. "You look kinda pale. You’re not getting sick are ya?"

Cecile shook her head. Danny was always so concerned about how she was feeling. She suddenly felt better. "I’m fine, really. I’m just a little...roughed up!" She laughed for good measure.

Danny smiled. "Aw, hon, I’m sorry. I guess those kids are a bit forward, aye? Give em a chance, they have huge hearts. They’re real obedient too, just tell em to do something and they don’t question ya."

Fat chance that’ll happen, Cecile thought.

"Yeah," Cecile said. "I’ll remember that."

"You hungry?" Danny asked. "I’m starving!"

Cecile smiled genuinely this time. "Starving?" she asked. "Didn’t you just eat breakfast?"

Danny laughed. "Naaah. I had a dinky bowl of Froot Loops. That’s not breakfast and I fed half of it to Jana."

Cecile laughed too. "OK, I’m hungry too. I’ve been on a diet all week! I need some real food."

"Diet?" Danny asked with a frown. "Why? You look great!"

Cecile shook her head. "No, I can stand to lose a few I suppose."

"Who say?" Danny asked. "Your mother?"

Cecile could feel herself blushing. Why did he have to mention her? "I don’t want to talk about it," she said quietly.

Danny slowly shook his head. "OK," he said. "Sorry, I don’t want to make ya feel uncomfortable."

Cecile gnawed a bit on her bottom lip. The last thing she wanted for today was to be a downer. "Come on," she said brightly. "How about that great pancake place! The one that has all those different syrups."

"Now you’re talking!" Danny chirped with his huge smile back.

"Hey, hon," Danny said with his mouth working on a slice of bacon, "Would ya mind going with me to the practice facility today? Pat’s gonna check out my noggin, and I might hang around a bit, make sure the guy’s haven’t forgot who I am."

Cecile shrugged, swirling a piece of pancake in the rainbow of syrups she had poured onto her plate. "Sounds good," she said. "It might be fun!"

Danny washed his food down with a swig of orange juice. "Yeah!" he said. "You’ve never properly met any of the guys have you? You’d love em, they’re all like me!"

Cecile smiled. "I doubt that," she said. "No one is like you."

Cecile shrunk against Danny when she saw Alex Tanguay with the Roy kids in the parking lot of the practice facility. It looked like he was handing them off to Eric Lacroix who bundled the litter into his car. She was not in any mood to be confronted with them if she didn’t have to be.

Cecile watched the Avalanche practice as she sat in the seats next to the glass. The first thing that amazed her was the size and speed of the men as they thundered over the ice, and the size of the goalies in their pads. It was imposing. Danny wasn’t on the ice, though, he was still getting his check-up.

She looked around her, and noticed that there was other people watching the practice. Fans? Cecile shrugged, she didn’t understand it. This wasn’t a real game, it was just a sweaty old practice. Why would anyone want to see this?

Cecile sighed and placed her chin back in her hands. She wondered if it would have been so much easier if Danny had continued in West Point and gone on with his goal of becoming a FBI agent. He’d always told her that hockey was just a hobby and that he would become an agent. The FBI academy had even accepted him too! Cecile just knew that her mom would have approved of Danny if he’d only done that. Instead he was in Denver, playing a rather archaic game.

She watched the goalie for a bit. It was definitely Patrick Roy. That bob in his head gave him away. He made some saves with his pads, and then stood up, taking a squirt from his water bottle. After spraying some of it down his back he skated around his net and then stopped. Cecile straightened in her seat when she noticed that his blue gaze was in her direction. Did he see her? Was he looking at her? She felt her skin prickle.

Patrick flicked his head around and began talking with one of his redheaded teammates. She couldn’t remember his name, a real trollish looking man. Cecile relaxed a bit and began to watch some of the other players.

When Cecile looked back towards the net she screamed and ducked from a puck that shot at her face, hit the glass and bounced off onto the ice. Her heart was racing as she slowly sat up, blinking back tears of fright. Slowly, she realized that the glass had stopped the puck from hitting her. When she looked back onto the ice, she saw that redhead looking at her, he grinned and winked one of his big, blue eyes.

Cecile took a deep breath and anger slowly seeped into her. Had Roy told that man to do that? Why would he do something like that?

Her cheeks reddened and she barely payed attention to the rest of the practice. She was just waiting for Danny.

"Aw I’m sure he told Keaner to do that, but it wasn’t to be mean or anything," Danny said to Cecile as he wrapped his arm around her waist.

Cecile shrugged him off. "Why else?" Cecile asked. "It wasn’t to be friendly!"

"Sure it was," Danny said. "In fact think of it as a compliment. Whenever we see a pretty girl in the stands then we flick a puck over there just to get her attention.....maybe I should be mad..."

Cecile raised her eyebrows. "Flirting? They were flirting?" she asked.

"Yeah," Danny said, grinning and nodding his head.

"Oh," Cecile said quietly.

"Hey, Danny! Wait up!" a voice called from behind them in the parking lot.

Cecile and Danny turned around. Peter Forsberg was trotting after them. Cecile recognized him easily enough.

"Why you two leaving so soon?" Peter asked.

"Well," Danny said with a grimace, "I’m still not cleared to skate, and I didn’t want to keep Cecile here all day....."

"Really?" Forsberg grinned. "You always whisk her away from us, we never get to meet her!" He looked straight at Cecile. "I can see why!" he said. "You’ve got a beauty here."

Cecile blushed and looked at her feet.

"Is practice over?" Danny asked.

"Pretty much," Forsberg said, "It’s just the Black Aces skating. Tangers already split with Patty’s kids. I don’t know how he can have energy to take them on for today."

"That tired?" Cecile asked.

Cecile felt her heart actually race a little bit when Peter focused his wolfish eyes onto hers. She was suddenly feeling a bit nervous. "Well, yeah," Forsberg said. His voice was real soft, almost lyrical. He didn’t sound Swedish at all. "You know how hard it is to skate? And coach ran us through a big one today."

"Oh," Cecile said, shaking her head. "I wouldn’t know, I’ve never skated before."

Forsberg raised his eyebrows and then looked at Hinote. "Danny!" he said. "That’s unforgivable! We have to get her on skates!"

"Believe me," Danny said. "I’ve tried."

"Oh no," Cecile said shaking her head and placing her hand on Forsberg’s forearm. "I couldn’t do that, I’d break my neck."

Forsberg looked at Danny, "The ice will be free in about a half hour, and she’s getting on it!"

Cecile’s heart stopped and she looked at Danny who was laughing. "How about it, Hon?"

Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen Danny all week and she was eager to do anything that would please him. That would have been the way Cecile wanted to think of it. But somewhere, deep inside her, she knew that she made her decision only after she looked back at Peter’s impossibly pale eyes.

"Alright," she said, taking a deep breath. "Do ice skates come in size six?"

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