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+15 Points
104: Interrupted
Easton
I pace the waiting room of Tamara’s office. Luci’s been in there for almost an hour and I was ready to tear down the wall imagining her upset or in pain right now. We agreed I would stay out so she could talk without worrying about how I would react. But dammit I want to be in there with her. I force myself to sit down knowing this isn’t about me. Like with Cole though, I don’t handle this well. Not being able to help her.
The door opens and I’m on my feet quickly. Tamara stands there with a smile. “Easton, can
you join us?”
I nod and almost run into the room. Luci sits on the couch, curled into herself. Her face shows
the evidence of her crying. She holds one hand out to me and I have her in my lap
I
immediately. Tamara takes her seat as I say nothing but hold her. “Luci tells me you talk to her and help her fall asleep when it storms.”
“I have the last two times, yes.”
“The next time there is a storm, I don’t want you to do that right away. Luci is ok with me
telling you what she’s going to do and she will need your help. You are going to help her with something called cognitive restructuring. She is going to make a list and I want you to help her do that. This will be before the storm and then you are going to read through it with her
several times.” She informs me. “Luci wants you to have the details in case she forgets or
can’t focus when it starts happening.”
I listen to her carefully. It’s simple enough especially with the paper she hands me. “That’s
what we came up with and Luci can change it as needed.”
“Got it.” I assure her.
She smiles at Luci. “We’ll meet again once you have your schedule.”
Luci nods. “Thank you Tamara.” She looks drained as we leave and I drive to her apartment.
“You can nap there and decompress. We don’t need to pick up Cole until lunchtime.” I frown,
realizing I’ll be leaving right after that for our game tonight.
“I just need a few minutes. No nap.” She protests as I lead her inside.
“Sweetness, you look drained. You can sleep for thirty minutes.” I pull her on top of me on the bed and run my fingers through her hair until she falls asleep. I set my alarm but have no
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intention of sleeping. Instead I watch her face as she sleeps. She wakes on her own when the alarm begins to sound.
“You put me to sleep.” She fusses.
“Would do it again. You needed that. Was it bad?”
“Not like normal. I think telling you and Stormi has helped me open up to it more.” She shifts a little so she can look up at me better. “You’ll be home late tonight, right?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” For once, I’d rather not have a hockey game.
She shakes her head. “Don’t be sorry. I was thinking tomorrow though, I could take you and
Cole for an afternoon family date and then your dad offered to keep him if I wanted to take
you out by ourselves. Unless you would rather just stay home and lay around. You might be
too tired.”
“No. Let me sleep in and I’ll be fine by lunchtime. What do you have in mind?”
“That’s a surprise. Cole and I have some ideas.” She smiles and I can tell she’s back to her
normal now. She kisses me softly and I hold onto her.
“Good luck cardio?” I tease her and she laughs.
“I think I could use that.” She tells me and I don’t need to ask twice.
When we leave for the game, Cole hugs me and tells all of us very seriously “I’ll be watching and teaching Mommy what you’re doing. Sending you all the luck.”
“You do that Coconut.” Jackson gives him a fist bump. We need it as it’s the roughest game
we’ve had in a while. The Ice Furies fight dirty and we get slammed around quite a bit though took a few of them out myself. We only win by a point which we really don’t even care about
by the time we head for home.
We walk into the house dead on our feet. I take Jackson’s bag to his room since his shoulder is killing him along with his ribs on both sides. My side is going to be bruised badly. I try not to wince as I drop it off, “See you guys at like two tomorrow.” Becker mutters, stumbling to his room. I hesitate deciding if I should go see Cole and Luci in their rooms first. “Shower first.” I whisper and step into my room. What I see has me smiling tiredly though. They are both in the bed here. Luci has the nightlight for Cole and I catch the paper on my pillow. I lift it and resist the urge to just curl up behind her and sleep. On the outside of the note, it says Check your desk. I look over and see a sandwich, some pink looking water and a huge brownie. I grab them and inhale it all not realizing how hungry I was.
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I tiptoe into the bathroom and close the door. Cole drew me a picture of a hockey player scoring at the top with Luci’s handwriting underneath. Hope you are not hurt too badly. I left you some medicine with some more water by the sink. Snacks on your desk if you missed the outside note. Left you a heating pad on the nightstand too. Your dad said you’d decide what you need. Figured this way, we get to “wait” for you. We won’t wake you in the morning, don’t
worry.
I look over and sure enough the pills and water are there. Along with one of those ice and heat
patches. I swallow the pills down and let the hot water wash some of my aches away.
I crawl under the covers behind her and wrap my arms around them. I’d sleep next to Cole, but he might kick my side. Luci doesn’t move once she’s asleep. “I love coming home to you two.”
I whisper and instantly fall asleep.
I wake around 11 feeling much better. Next to me are Icebreaker the dragon, Corndog, Snowy
and King along with another note on Luci’s pillow.
Cole was very concerned you might be lonely. You have a nasty bruise. Can I slap them with a
hockey stick? See you later. Going to lunch with the girls and Barrett. Love you.
When I finally leave the bed, I throw on sweatpants and a shirt before trudging to the kitchen.
The others are slowly walking in too. Becker is the only one already sitting there. He looks up
from his phone. “Luci says she’ll be home in about thirty minutes.”
I frown in confusion as I sit across from him. “Why is she telling you? I miss something?”
“I was thanking her for my brownie and pain meds she left me. She asked me if you were up
yet and then gave me the message. Was very concerned about waking you.”
“She left you stuff?” I ask as Dad walks in.
“All of us I think.” Jackson answers. “Pain meds, some patches, a brownie and some
electrolyte water bottles. You got a good one East.” He sits, gingerly flexing his shoulder.
“She and Cole were very worried about you four.” Dad brings us our plates.
We’re eating when Luci and Cole come in the back door. “Daddy! Uncle Jackson, Uncle Becker,
Uncle Kingston! It’s snowing. Are you hurt? Mommy said not to hug you less I ask.”
I hold my arms open. “I’m ok.”
“We all want our hugs. Just careful with Uncle Jackson’s shoulder.” Becker tells him.
He leaves me to hug them. Luci comes to my side and I hold my arms out for her too. She frowns and lifts my shirt instead. “Hey, you gotta buy me dinner before you start ripping my
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clothes off.” I tease her.
+15 Points
She frowns harder at me. “You’re hurt. Even Cole said they were playing dirty. I brought all of
you a special cream that Banning swears works on bruises.”
“They are notorious assholes, Luci.” Kingston answers her.
“I saw them hit you on purpose.” She tells him.
“I’ll go get changed if you tell me how to dress for today.” I take my plate to the sink.
“We’ll stay here so you can rest.” She offers and removes Cole’s hat before leading him toward the playroom. I shake my head as I follow after her.
“Good luck East.” Becker laughs.
I catch up to her as she’s walking into Cole’s room to let him nap. “Hey.” I grab her hand and get in front of her. “I’m not hurt like that. If you hit me in that side it won’t feel good but it’s a bad bruise Luci. I’m ok. We are going out for whatever you two planned.”
“Are you sure? It looks painful.” Her eyes are full of concern.
“I’m sure. You haven’t been around hockey players for long but we get hit pretty hard. Jackson
dislocated his shoulder so he’s the worst of us. Now how am I dressing today? Outdoors,
indoors? We’re not disappointing our Coco.”
“Outdoors.” She says quietly.
“Alright. Now can I have my kiss good morning, sassy Luci?”
She stretches up and holds me to her instead. “I’m not used to it yet.”
“I know. I’m not just grumpy sweetness. Pretty tough too. Thank you for taking care of me last
night. I loved you two being there waiting for me.”
She leans back and smiles at me before kissing me. “We’re going sledding at the tree farm.
Can your side handle that?” She whispers.
F
I grin slowly. “Definitely. Cole is going to pop.” She gets him to take a short nap but he’s
almost too excited.
Once we arrive at the tree farm outside of town, Cole is bouncing in his seat. “What are we
doing here buddy?”
“You’ll see Daddy.” He almost tugs us to the sledding area.
“Ta da Daddy. We get to ride on rafts and slide down the hills.”
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Luci rents one group one and then an individual one in case Cole wants to try that. He laughs
and squeals the whole way down the first one. As I carry him back up the steps, he lays his
head on my shoulder. “Daddy, can you get Luci to move in with us soon? I not want her to go
back to her house.”
“Did she say something?”
“No. I just scared. I liked waiting for you like she said last night.”
“Me too. I’m working on it. I promise.”
After sledding for two hours, Cole is tired. “Next we’re going to the laser tag place Daddy.”
“Awesome. I get to hunt my two favorite prey.” I grin at them. They outfit us with glow in the
dark laser vests and I give them a ten second head start. Though, Luci proves to be as stealthy at this game as she is for snowball fights. Cole sticks with her and doesn’t give any
sounds away.
In the end, stealth Luci and I end up tied. “I demand a rematch soon.” I tell them as we take
Cole home for his Grandpappy evening which he’s very excited about. We kiss him goodbye after changing. Luci said jeans worked for tonight. “Be good for Grandpappy. Call if you need
us, Dad.”
He grins. “We’ll be fine. I raised four of you fairly well. Now go, so we can break out the junk
food. Have fun.”
We laugh as we leave the house.
“What are we doing?”
“Dinner and then your favorite local band is playing in the campus theater hall. I got tickets.”
She holds them up and I stare at her with surprise.
“How did
you know?”
“You listen to them a lot and you always drive. You also hum or sing along. I pay attention.”
She smiles and shrugs.
“Yes you do. You are truly the best, Luci.” I kiss the inside of her wrist as I park in front of the
restaurant.
Imogen
“Order for Imogen Reed.” I tell the bartender for my to go order. I cook but tonight I was ready for something different. I let my eyes scan the tables. I catch a familiar blonde head of hair and move a bit to see better. Easton is laughing as he sits across from Luci. I smile at that
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sight. He looks happy and relaxed. She’s really perfect for him.
I turn not wanting him to catch me here. As I make sure my back is facing them, I catch a familiar voice.
“Should be an easy job.”
+15 Point:
Lorelei…l swing my head slowly toward the direction of her voice. She’s with a brunette whose
face I cannot see.
“What exactly am I going to be helping with?”
“Don’t play dumb Nicole. You already know.”
Nicole Haney…I recognize her now.
“Fine. It’ll cost you.”
“I’m willing to pay.”
“Good. I need to visit the bathroom. Order me the chicken fried steak.” She slides out of her chair and I follow her to the bathroom.
I wait until she comes out to wash her hands. “Mrs. Reed?” She looks surprised.
“Hello Nicole. Is your meeting with Lorelei Winters about my son?” I fold my arms keeping my expression cold.
“That’s not for me to say.”
“I’ll pay you triple what she is for you to keep me in the loop and to record all your
conversations.” I offer remembering this girl’s past. She used to sell gossip to the tabloids and
papers.
She grins slowly. “I think I just became your newest employee.”
