Holiday Hockey Tale The Icebreaker's Impasse (By Ivory Row) novel Chapter 97

Easton

My alarm goes off and I open my eyes surprised. I shut it off. 7:30 Christmas morning and

Cole is still asleep? I turn my head and see why. He’s curled up against Luci. I wonder if he got in the bed quietly or if I slept through him waking up.

Being careful not to disturb them, I unlock my phone. Luci always takes pictures of he and I. I need to start taking pictures of her with him. I snap a few before moving back in to her side.

She stirs when I do. I press my lips to her ear. “Shhh. You have a sleeping Coconut pressed against you.”

Her eyes open slowly and she looks down at him smiling. She whispers “He woke up super early and I got him to come crawl in bed here instead of waking the whole house.”

“Did I sleep through it?”

“I moved the monitor to my side so you could sleep.”

I say nothing and wrap my arms around them both. Shoving aside all the absolute hell that we’ll deal with soon enough, I blank my mind and enjoy just this. Ten minutes later, Cole

begins to stir. He rubs his eyes before turning to us, that little voice thick with sleep. “Morning Daddy.”

“Merry Christmas Cole.”

He grins happily. “Merry Christmas. Mommy said I woke up too early so I came to sleep here.”

“Three A.M. is way too early for everyone, Coco.” Luci answers my unspoken question. “Go get your socks and let’s brush your teeth. Then I think we can go see about your presents.”

He almost leaps out of the bed as I laugh. “Much more motivated today. I’ll get ready and then watch him while you do the same.”

She nods and follows him. She comes back while I’m brushing my teeth. “Bluey has him momentarily contained.” She explains and I point to her toothbrush. “Did you move my bathroom stuff in here?”

I eye her silently and finish before waiting for her. Once she’s done, I lift her up and she automatically wraps her legs around my waist. I pin her between me and the door. “I did move your stuff since you sleep here. I seem to have missed my good morning kiss and also my Christmas morning kiss too. When you sit on my lap you’re going to have to confess that you were naughty instead of nice, I think.”

“I’m not sure my answer would matter to you. You’ll punish me either way.” She mumbles before pulling my lips to hers and kissing me. I refuse to let her go after one though. “Smart girl. You owe me at least two more.” I mutter before kissing her again.

“Eastonnn.” She whispers slowly as I kiss her neck. “I think Cole wants his Christmas presents.”

“I know. Just wanted a taste of my gift I’m going to unwrap later.” I tell her with a grin. I set her on her feet and open the door. Cole bounces on the bed our way and he takes our hands to walk between us. “I want to see what’s in my stocking. And if the cookies are gone.” He’s still listing off things when we head down the hall, where we find Becker barely ahead of us.

“Merry Christmas Uncle Becker!” He takes off running for him and he lifts him up high.

“You should be more excited, Cole. I mean it’s Christmas morning. This is like level 6. We need level 9 excitement.” He teases him.

“I tried to get up at 3, but Mommy said no, I had to go back to sleep.”

“Again, best mommy ever. I think I owe her for that one.” He tells Cole as we walk into the living room.

Kingston’s waiting there drinking his coffee. “Coconut, you let us sleep in.”

“Luci made him sleep late.” Becker answers, setting Cole down. He races over toward his presents. Luci follows him to take his picture.

“All hail Luci. I was shocked to see what time I woke up.”

Baker, Dad and Jackson bring in trays with plates, coffee and juice. Cole is already asking for someone to open Spider–Man and checking out his bike.

“Grandpappy, Baker look! I got a new bike.”

“Good thing, since your legs outgrew the other one.” Baker tells him very seriously before he gets comfortable on the couch.

He races over to the pile I left for him. I snap his picture as he slips the helmet on his head

sideways. “It’s Dark Vader Daddy! Thank you!”

“Thought you might like that. It’s for practice only though. Not games.” I warn him.

He hops to the plate and glass next. “The cookies are gone. And the milk. The carrots too. Look.” He points with wide eyes before spinning and jumping as he looks up at the stockings.

“It’s full!”

I laugh at his exuberance. Christmas morning through the eyes of a kid. Last year he was excited, but not like this. Luci is laughing at him.

“Can you grab Cole’s stocking?” I watch her as she goes to lift it from the hook. Her hand freezes as she spots the one next to it. I snuck out last night and hung it up for her.

She turns to stare at me. “This wasn’t here last night.”

“Maybe you missed it. Take it down.”

She lifts Cole’s before taking the white one down that has her name on it. Cole takes his from her and begins digging immediately.

He exclaims over his superhero skate laces. “I think I want some of those. I’ll take the Hulk for hockey games.” Kingston says glancing at me.

“Maybe you should check your stocking.” I joke and Dad nods laughing. The three of them move to grab theirs and start looking. I shoved a pair of the laces in theirs last night too finding them full. Dad must have enjoyed playing Santa this year.

Luci comes to sit beside me as we watch Cole pull out a pack of Go Fish cards, a wooden ball in cup toy, chopsticks attached by a shark head, light cubes for the bathtub, and some special snowman thinking putty she added to it. He immediately starts trying to eat his eggs with the chopsticks.

“You going to see what’s in that fancy sock?” I eye her.

She reaches in and removes a pair of sparkly purple skate laces. Shaking her head, she removes a thin white wrapped box, a keychain that has a hockey stick on it with an engraved plate reading I belong to the guy who drives the puck. She laughs at that. A magnetic pen she can change into shapes if she’s bored, a portable hand warmer, and two pairs of thick super soft socks in her favorite purple colors round out the stocking stuffers. “Thank you.” She whispers and I tap the one thing she hasn’t opened.

When she opens the simple white box, I focus on her face. She lifts out the delicate silver chain and stares at the two hanging heart pendants there. One is a deep pink spinel and the other is a purplish tanzanite. “It’s beautiful.” She fingers the two stones. They weren’t overly large because I figured she would want something more subtle. Cole comes running over after

I call his name.

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