Holiday Hockey Tale The Icebreaker's Impasse (By Ivory Row) novel Chapter 47

Easton

“Luci’s almost here.” I tell Cole as I finish helping him brush his teeth after breakfast.

“Yay, time to make cookies. Daddy, do you think Luci is pretty?” I blink a few times at the sudden swing in topics.

“Uh yes she is. Why are you asking me that?”

“Asking. Luci is real pretty, Daddy. I’m going to grab my lightsaber to make the icing behave like Luci said.” He dries his hands and I try to keep a straight face. I hear a chuckle from the doorway and find my brothers all there.

“Wait, what do you mean?”

“Luci said sometimes you have to force the icing to behave. I’ll bring my lightsaber and use the force.” He races out with Kingston calling after him. “Go to Baker once you have your icing behavior modification device.”

Becker is chuckling hard. “I love that kid. I’m writing that one down.” He pulls out his phone and types it up.

“Hey East, you might want to watch it today. Dad is in the kitchen with Baker and you don’t exactly keep your hands to yourself when Luci shows up. You kiss her every time you first see her.” Kingston pauses after quietly laying that out.

“I don’t…..” I think hard. I’m not like that; spontaneously affectionate with my girlfriends.

“Didn’t even realize he was doing it.” Jackson tsks.

“Gonerrrrrr.” Becker sings dramatically. “Yeah, you do. The other night you went right to her and kissed her in front of Baker as soon as we got home. Good thing Dad was three minutes later coming in the back door.”

“In class lately too.” Jackson adds.

“s**t. I haven’t done it in front of Dad, have I? I didn’t even notice.” I groan, throwing my head back to roll my eyes to the ceiling. “Because all I need is him mentioning that to our Mother.”

“No, because he hasn’t chewed your ass yet. Just be mindful. That contract isn’t over.”

Kingston warns before he walks out.

I head for the kitchen with them and hear Cole talking to Dad happily about the cookies.

The knock on the door has me tensing up to not forget myself.

“Morning Baker. I brought you something.” Her happy voice carries into the kitchen.

Baker laughs. “I like it. Thank you, Miss Luci.” Then he begins to fuss. “Why are you carrying all of this heavy stuff by yourself? Hand me that.” I flinch and start to head that way, worried about what she’s packing in.

Baker rounds the corner with a large rollerboard suitcase and then a huge cooler on wheels. Luci carries a smaller one and we all exchange quick glances. Baker is wearing a camouflage apron with the words “Fa La La La Oorah.” He looks quite proud of it.

“Luci!” Cole leaps down and almost launches at her.

“Cole, you’ll knock her down!” Dad stops him and he looks disappointed.

“Hi everyone.” Luci says quietly. Kingston takes the cooler from her to place it on the floor.

I nod to her as Becker waves and Jackson tells her good morning. Kingston raises a hand and Cole looks confused. Dad releases him and he runs for his hug. “Are you ready to make cookies? You ate breakfast?”

“I did. I’m all ready. I brought my lightsaber to make the icing behave.” He announces proudly as he points to it. Her eyes dart from it to him as her brow scrunches up slightly. “You said I need to force the icing to behave.”

Understanding dawns on her face. She smiles widely and hugs him tighter against her. “I did say that. An excellent idea Darth Coco.”

She glances up at all of us. “Alright if we start on the cookies?”

Dad remains in his seat, but I can feel him staring at me. Becker even taps the back of my ankle with his foot. “Knock yourself out.” I say coolly and turn to get something from the fridge, ignoring her.

Baker intervenes thankfully, because I am clenching my fists at how angry this makes me.

She’s mine and I hate hiding it. “I have the oven all set up and I cleared a shelf in the fridge.”

Dad rises to his feet. “You are giving up your day off to decorate cookies with Cole?”

“Only part of it, Mr. Reed.” Luci says softly.

Dad only nods slightly. “I’m heading to the arena site. I’ll be back late for dinner.” He lingers though, watching Cole with Luci.

Luci is busy crouching down on the floor to open the rollerboard with Cole’s help. “Here I brought you something.” She holds up a kids Darth Vader apron.

“I love it, Luci!” He cries out and she slips it on him. “Where’s yours?”

“Right here.” She pulls out a pale pink apron with a loaf of bread wearing a black mask, holding a fencing sword. It reads Bread Pirate Roberts. “It’s from an old movie.” She explains and avoids looking at us. “Now I brought cookie dough to bake two pans so you can have fun with that. And then I have a lot of cookies to decorate already made.”

Dad finally walks out the back door. We wait until we hear the garage door close. “He’s gone.”

Becker breathes out.

“Sorry Luci.” I move her way and she nods with an understanding smile.

“I brought over a hundred cookies if you guys want to help or if you want to eat a bunch later.

With enough icing for everyone to use.” She adds. “And aprons for you, not pink ones or girly,

themed ones that I thought were funny but you know what that’s not….you probably don’t

want….”

“I

Kingston intervenes before I can. “Luci Louuuu.’

She blinks and stops scratching her nail. He never calls her that. “Sorry.” She says.

“Don’t apologize for that. Now which apron do I get because I am definitely decorating cookies?” Kingston tells her with a slow grin.

Becker sighs dramatically. “Oh thank fuc..ccacia for that. I thought I was going to be the only one. Where’s mine?”

“Like I’m missing out on this.” Jackson adds as he steps closer.

Luci shakes her head. She holds up four black aprons. “I have Darth Baker, then there’s Come

to the Dark Side, We have Cookies. Umm Baking Jedi and finally May the Force Be with You, Along with Cookies.

Becker cackles. “I call Baking Jedi.”

Kingston grins. “I’m may the force be with you.”

Jackson is laughing as he looks at them. “Darth Baker here.”

She tosses me the last one before she starts setting up icing and sheets of paper all over the island and tables. She helps Cole onto the stool. “I’m going to let you cut some out and bake them. While they cook, you can help me put icing on. Let me show them how to do it.” She pulls out trays of cookies from the large cooler. “These are already prefilled and ready to decorate with toppings. I have completely undone ones. The prefilled with icing ones you can just take those icing bags and start on them with whatever design you want to make.”

She demonstrates on the blank cookies about using thick vs thin icing and how the bags are labeled. We listen to her and I know I’m going to completely suck at this. “You can always put icing on them completely and use sprinkles or the other decorations instead of other colored icing.”

“How do you know so much about this? And you made all these cookies?” I stare down at her with wonder.

“No. Sydney’s dad is a champion cookie decorator. He taught all of us over the years and they spend an entire weekend doing this. He made all of these for me when I told him my plan to take Cole to the fire station. And all the icing bags.”

“Well, let’s see what four hockey players do with this experiment.” Becker says with a quick eyebrow waggle and he dives right in.

Luci moves to help Cole roll out dough and then cut his shapes with the cookie cutters she

brought. I listen to him laugh as they work. “You have a Batman cookie cutter, Luci?!”

“Well yes, who doesn’t?!” She says mock offended.

We concentrate hard on our cookies and she finally comments on it. “You four are acting like this is a challenge.”

“It is.” Kingston mutters. Even Baker is icing cookies. It isn’t long before we are munching on some of them as we work and that’s before Becker decides to squirt icing at Jackson for fun.

Which leads to a mini–icing battle between us. Most of the counter is covered along with our aprons. Suddenly, a lightsaber descends between us.

“You were right, Cole. We might need this to make the icing behave.” She is trying not to laugh.

“Are you calling us icing?” Becker feigns offense.

I reach around her and squirt some on her nose. “I can see this devolving quickly.” Jackson cackles.

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