Holiday Hockey Tale The Icebreaker's Impasse (By Ivory Row) novel Chapter 90

Easton

She and Cole choose a clear one in the medium size. They add in a snowy base with a tree.

She returns with something flat and silver, gluing it on top. “Go grab some of the skates.” She tells Cole and he comes back with three small skates. Luci adds in a sled and she finds something that I think was meant to be a tree branch but she turns it into a hockey stick. “See if you can find a puck.” I search and find a small black disk meant to be part of a snowman. She glues it down and then shows me.

“Look Daddy, it’s an outside rink.”

“It is. Now where do we put our names?” I search and grab three snowmen. They are different sizes and one is clearly female with a pink scarf. I add our names to them and stick them at the edge up against the glass. “How’s that?”

“That’s pretty great. You are fairly creative. I won’t tell anyone, don’t worry.” She whispers as we walk to the front to buy it.

“I’ll buy your silence with dinner.” I add as it’s bagged up.

“How did you know about that?” Luci asks as we leave.

“Mrs. Hutchins again. She sent that home as a child–friendly activity for the weekend.” I admit ruefully.

“I love her. She’s an amazing preschool teacher.” Luci sounds wistful.

“I know someone else who would be an amazing preschool teacher.” I tell her softly. “Which reminds me. Dean Rogers wants to meet with you a few days before the spring semester begins. I imagine he needs to finish cleaning up the absolute fuckery the Fuckphries trio created.” I whisper in her ear. “I’ll go with you. Dad might come too with Jessie.”

“I’ve never met with him. The associate dean below him is who I complained about Marshall to. She basically told me to be happy he paid any attention to me and keep my head down, hoping the team would leave me alone.”

Cole is holding my hand staring at all the holiday decorations as we walk toward the restaurant I picked.

“He’ll be hearing about that too then. I mean it Luci. I want you to change your major if you want. I will pay for you to finish school if they have the nerve to ask you to pay for extra semesters after what Gina did to you.”

“I know. I’ll think about it.” She answers softly.

“I’ll accept that for now. Discussion is still open. I’m very stubborn.” I tell her.

“You are?” She mocks me and I pull her more into my side.

“Attitude again. I’ll deal with that later. Look over there. They are having an ice sculpture carving competition. Some of them use chainsaws.” I tell them as we walk. I can hear one cutting into the ice already.

We approach a large brown brick building with a huge cobblestone terrace. You can see the ice sculptures to the left of it.

“Look at those!” She points excitedly at the clear thick plastic domes on the cobblestones.

“It’s called a snowglobe dinner.” I walk closer to the entrance and a guy in a black parka moves our way.

“Good evening. May I help you?”

“Reservation for Easton Reed.” Luci and Cole’s hands both squeeze mine.

“Right this way, Mr. Reed. Your snowglobe is this one. You should have an extraordinary view of the ice carving contest.” He opens the door to it and we let Luci walk in first. “Ladies first

Cole.” I say quietly.

He nods solemnly. “You pull her chair out, Daddy?”

I nod slowly. I hurry to do that as Luci spins slowly looking at the lights hung all over the insulated plastic. I patiently wait for her as she looks it over, that wondrous amazed smile on her face. “Your server will be out shortly.” I nod at him and he leaves. Cole moves next to Luci with his head tilted back. She grabs his hand and leads him to the table. “Come sit here Luci.

You can see the ice sculptures best.” I hold her chair for her along with Cole’s. She sits down and grabs my hand.

“This is amazing. It’s like being in a snowglobe truly. And all the snow on the ground around us makes it seem like some kind of wonderland. How did you find this?”

“That happy face is amazing.” I whisper to her before I press a soft kiss to her lips. Cole is

grinning and bouncing in his seat as I push him closer to the table. “Becker found this. He saw it on tv. They are going to do it all winter. It’s been popular.”

The waiter comes, and we order before going back to watching the ice sculpting. One guy comes past with his chainsaw and Cole waves frantically to him. He was the one carving a huge elephant with that. He waves to Cole after grabbing a glass of water and goes back to carving. We all three watch enraptured as he finishes it and begins making a swan with what appears to be a spray of water behind him. It’s hard to force ourselves to eat when the food arrives. “That’s talent. I wonder how you discover you can use a chainsaw to carve huge ice sculptures and with such detail. That doesn’t seem like something you can simply stumble upon.” Luci says with a laugh.

“I’ll agree there.” I take a minute to search for the guy’s name. “Ted Larkins and he has won a lot of competitions.”

We’re having dessert when I see the chainsaw guy tapping on the little zip door to our plastic igloo. I move and open it. He nods to me. “Hi, sorry to intrude. I’m Ted. I wanted to bring your son something. He’s been clapping and watching with so much attention.”

“We appreciate that.”

“No, I appreciate someone taking an interest.” He holds out a small sculpture of a dragon with wings unfurling behind him.

Cole’s eyes almost pop out of his head. “Daddy, look at the dragon!”

“It’s incredible.” Luci says. “You are very talented. That elephant is unreal. Actually it looks real.”

“Thank you.” He holds the dragon out to Cole. “You can take it home and put it in your freezer. It will keep there for a long time.”

Cole’s mouth falls open. “For me? I get to keep him?”

“You do. I wanted to thank you for being so excited watching me. I love having an interested audience. My son loves to help me. He’s a little older than you but he used to watch me like you do when he was very little. You made me smile as I remembered that.”

“Thank you lots and lots. I’ll take care of him.”

“I bet you will. Goodnight.” He walks out after I thank him again.

“You made his night.”

I sit down and Luci touches Cole’s hand. “See, you made a stranger smile. I told you that you’re real.”

“Luci! I need to name my dragon.”

“Hmm what about fireball since your other dragon is named icebreaker?”

“Firetail.” I suggest jokingly, but of course Cole loves it.

“Hi Firetail!”

I pay the bill as Cole is having a full conversation with his dragon. “I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” Luci says and slips out. She doesn’t return for a while and I’m beginning to get worried. I have sudden thoughts of Maxton following her when she steps in slowly. She’s pale but otherwise appears fine.

“Sweetness, you ok?” I look her over.

“Yes. We need to go. I’ll tell you once we get home.” She glances at Cole.

“Porter?” I ask cautiously.

She shakes her head quickly. “Alright. Let’s go then.” I bundle Cole back into his coat before slipping mine on. As we step out of the globe, our waiter tells us goodbye and I turn almost running smack into my mother.

“Easton…” She says softly and puts her hand on my arm.

“Luci, take Cole to go see the ice sculptures up close. This won’t take long I’m sure.”

Mother watches them walk away. “You are very serious about her aren’t you?”

“What do you want Mother?” I ask quietly. Can we not have a date without it ending in drama?

“I wanted to see you. Talk to you. I’m so sorry Easton. I can’t believe I listened to her. I want to come home and I want to do better. I know I can help you with Cole. I heard that Lorelei is back. I can help with her.”

“How?” I bite out.

“Well for starters, I can talk to her. She’s not as bad as Vivienne. I can probably reason with her.”

I interrupt ruthlessly. “You can’t reason with crazy, Mother. You should know that well.”

“I can sign over for you to have sole temporary custody. That should be something. I’ll come to the house and do it tomorrow. I’m sure your father can get the paperwork by then with his army of lawyers.” She sounds bitter but I honestly have not an ounce of sympathy for her. “I know I messed up Easton but I can fix what I did. I’ve seen the error of my ways. I miss my boys.”

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