The Hat Trick (ON HOLD AS OF 2/17/16)

Chapter Thirty-Five: Bailey Part I

Long awaited update, hope you all enjoy. 

Brooke

Bailey

"Are we there yet?" I asked for the second time, two hours into J's grand kidnapping plan. He still hasn't told me where we're going and for the life of me I'm either missing important highway signs or the sign gives me lame ass information such as we're two hundred and forty-eight miles away from St. Louis, Missouri. I know we're not going that far east.

He reaches over and squeezes the top of my left leg, right above my knee. So far he's been immune to my annoying long car ride tendencies like playing games such as I Spy or Slug Bug; not a good game to play with a hockey player mind you.

"You're such a brat," he teased, his hand heavy on top of my bare thigh. "We've got another hour," he laughed when I made a pouty face. "Why don't you just lay your head back and take a nap you've had a very tiring morning so far." He wiggled his eyebrows in an old school villain way.

I slapped at his wandering hand, now halfway up my thigh his blunt finger tips brushing at the fraying ends of my jean shorts. "Ha ha you're so funny." He returned to gripping the steering wheel with two hands, the cocky smile remaining fixed on his lips.

"You're the one who should be tired Mr. Five a.m.," he sent me a sideways look. "You don't have a Tempur-Pedic darlin'; I know when you get in and out of bed at random times in the night."

He looked startled for half a second and then his features smoothed out as he turned his focus onto switching lanes. "You just let me go without question?"

I shrugged a shoulder, sitting up straighter in my seat I tried focusing on the next oncoming sign, I think I could make out the word 'Lake'.

"Yeah, you were putting on your running shoes." I looked back at him noticing how stiff his posture had gotten, without even thinking I started rubbing at the tight muscles around his neck and shoulders. "The only time someone ever wakes up that early is to clear their head, why do you think I set my alarm that early every morning?"

The muscle started to relax under my fingertips; he took my hand from his shoulder placing a kiss in my palm. "Never took you for a runner," he laced our fingers together resting them on top of his right thigh.  

My throat squeezed remembering why I started running in the first place, because of him. "I wasn't really, not until you and the boys went on that long road trip a while back." I turned my gaze out the passenger side window forgetting all about my need to solve where we're going. "I couldn't sleep at all while you were gone; those were some pretty sucky times for me." I winched remembering all those bitter words we shared. "I'm sure you're nights weren't much better." I paused wondering if he'd correct me or tell me something different, when he didn't jump at the chance for sharing and caring time I cleared my throat wetting my lips to continue.

"My nights sucked too," was all he said and to be honest it was all I needed to hear.

Smiling to myself I pressed on unsure why I needed to explain my new obsessive habit. "So, I just started running to tire myself out. Every night for hours at a time, I'd run at the gym in my dorm, I'd run outside though my lungs about froze. It was more to tire my brain out than my body and most nights my brain did not want to shut up." I turned at the feel of his hand squeezing mine reassuringly. "I swear I had insomnia for those two weeks."

He chuckled, the deep sound reverberating through every cell in my body. "You weren't alone in that feeling." 

Neither of us pressed too hard for conversation after that, we relaxed into an easy silence. The quiet was nice, not overbearing or smothering; it was something like our relationship. We never had to jump to fill in the silence; we knew that the other didn't really care all that much about the weather it was one of the nicer things about our relationship.