The Girl Next Door Chapter 55

“Hey Kate!” Kristen greeted Kate as she closed the door behind her and Sidney.
“Hi Kristen,” Kate said back. “Sidney, this is my cousin Kristen Kaplan, Kristen, this is Sidney Crosby.”
“Nice to meet you,” Sidney said as he let go of Kate’s hand so he could shake Kristen’s.
“Nice to meet you too,” Kristen said back with a huge smile on her face. She was obviously excited that she was talking to Sidney Crosby.
“Oh, hey Katie, I thought I heard you come in,” Sue said as she walked into the entryway.
“Yeah,” Kate said. “Sue, this is Sidney Crosby, Sid, this is my aunt Sue, Kristen’s mom.”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Kaplan,” Sidney said as he shook her hand.
“You don’t need to call me Mrs. Kaplan, that’s my mother-in-law.” Sue grimaced, and everyone laughed. “Please, call me Sue. Are you and Katie…”
“Yeah, I’m Kate’s boyfriend,” Sidney confirmed.
They stood there for a minute talking and Sue’s husband Larry came in and introduced himself.
“Hi, I’m Larry,” Larry said as he gave Sidney a big handshake. “You must be Sidney.”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Sidney laughed.
“Are you and Katie…” Larry paused, pointing back and forth between Kate and Sidney.
“Yes, Larry, Sidney’s my boyfriend,” Kate confirmed for him.
“You never said you had a boyfriend,” Larry said all matter-of-factly.
“Long story, Larry. Can we talk about it later?”
“Sure, sure,” Larry said, waving his hands around. Kate could see Sidney was trying not to laugh.
“Well, you better come out back before everyone bombards you in here,” Sue said.
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Kate said. As soon as Sue and Larry left the room, Sidney lost it and just started laughing.
“Yeah, I know, Uncle Larry,” Kate laughed. “You get used to it. He thinks he’s a know-it-all. All you have to do is tell him to shut up. And remember, these are the normal relatives.”
Kate took hold of Sidney’s hand and they walked into the kitchen. There they ran into Paul and Mary, who were nice and shocked to hear Kate had been dating someone (not in a bad way). Luckily, at this point, no one had asked for how long.
When they made it into the backyard, everyone kind of dropped what they had been doing and made a beeline to Kate and Sidney.
“Wait, Katie,” Jack began, “are you and Sidney dating?”
“Um, yeah, we are,” Kate confirmed for him.
Luckily, Sidney stepped in and shook Jack’s hand. “Nice to see you again Jack.”
“Nice to see you too, Sidney,” he said back, shaking his hand.
“Katie!” Mary said in a sing-song voice, “you have a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, I do. You remember Sidney, don’t you?” she asked.
Kate introduced Sidney to everyone, and it looked as though he was a little overwhelmed. After they talked to everyone for what seemed to be forever, Kate and Sidney walked to a couple chairs no one was sitting in and sat down.
“Doing okay?” Kate asked, laughing, as she handed him some water.
“You didn’t lie when you said your family was nuts,” he said with a serious face.
Kate jokingly elbowed him in the arm, and he laughed. “Ow!”
“Yeah right,” Kate laughed back. “It probably hurt me more than it hurt you.”
When dinner was ready, they went up to the tables that had been set up, grabbed plates, and got their food. Kate noticed that a lot of her relatives were clamoring to sit with her and Sidney, and Kate just kind of laughed to herself, knowing that Sidney was about to get more questions. Sure enough, Sidney had to answer a ton of questions during dinner, but he held his own.
After dinner, all of them sat around outside since it was warm and just relaxed. Her cousins ran around, and Sidney was stuck answering even more questions.
“So, Sidney,” Larry began, “do you think you’ll win the Calder?”
Kate rolled her eyes, since she knew Sidney was sick of answering the question, but Sidney acted as if no one had asked him about it before.
“Well, honestly, probably not.” Sidney leaned forward in his chair and reached for Kate’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Alex has more points than me and a few less penalty minutes, so I’m thinking I won’t win. As much as I would love to win, it doesn’t matter in the long run.”
Kate smiled at him, and he smiled back at her.
All of them sat around until after eleven, just talking with one another. At that point, people started to go inside, even her little cousins, who believe it or not, were tired. Sidney decided to leave at that point as well, so he said good-bye to everyone.
“I’ll be back in a minute you guys,” Kate told her family. She reached for Sidney’s hand and the two of them walked back to Sidney’s, hand-in-hand.
“You survived,” Kate said as they left.
“Barely,” he joked.
“Hey!” Kate exclaimed.
“No, I’m kidding. But you weren’t lying when you said it would be intense, and that they’re nuts.” Sidney laughed as he finished talking.
“I told you,” Kate laughed back.
They reached the front door and they stopped.
“Well, thanks for coming over and going through that. No matter how much I try to deny it, they are my family,” Kate said as she smiled.
“They were nice.”
They stood there for a minute, just looking at each other and smiling, and then they kissed. After they broke apart, Sidney promised he’d call her tomorrow to hang out. As Sidney opened the door, Kate gave him a quick kiss and said she’d see him tomorrow. She walked back home and helped her aunt and mom clean everything up, and then she went to bed, tired because it had been a long day.