ON YOUR LAST BREATH | Mike Schmidt ✔️

chapter two .. a special donation

CHAPTER TWO —    " a special donation "

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          HALEY PASSED MIKE HIS USUAL THERMOS and just as he was about to object as passionately as a man used to skip looking too long in the mirror in the morning to notice the dark circles under his eyes, she locked eyes with him and shook her head. Of course she knows I didn't sleep last night, Mike couldn't help the half-proud, half-embarrassed thought, pushing him to accept the thermos filled to the brim with coffee before they headed out together, all three of them, at exactly 6AM, when the fog was hanging low and the sun was struggling to actually rise above the horizon line of the small town.

"The car's so dusty," Abby laughed, dragging her finger along the side of the car while jumping her steps to the backseat. Haley looked accusatory over the vehicle, prompting Mike to roll his eyes — some other time.

Their routines have blended together during school days rather harmoniously about as soon as Mike and Haley started dating and taking their relationship seriously too. While before, his nightshifts demanded that he drive home to pick the girls up, drop Abby at school and Haley at the orphanage, before getting back home and sleeping until late afternoon, now things were looking promising for their schedules to overlap even better.

After dropping Abby off, it was only a ten minute drive to the orphanage.

"Excited for donations week?" Mike inquired, draped back in his seat, with his left elbow on the window sill, hand ready to sustain his head should it become too heavy from sleepiness. To fight that dangerous urge, he took advantage of the next red light stop in the town center to pick up the coffee thermos and take a sip.

"Of course," Haley exclaimed breathlessly, earning Mike's chuckle — he knew all to weel she was about to go ranting on him, and his delight to it was coming in anticipation. "This is the second year we host it," she didn't fail his expectations, starting to explain once again the work she was so passionate about, "and I can already feel a success on the horizon. People in this community like to be involved to the best of their extent in the lives of these children and they were very receptive last year to bringing a piece of Christmas warmth from their homes into St. Joseph's. But I've also had way more business partners this year and I am expecting some state businesses taking interest in our project. We also have the recital..." Her voice faded into a deep sigh, making her find stillness at last by leaning back in her chair. "Every child deserves a perfect Christmas," she added, a little sadder, her eyes growing absent as they stared ahead.

"Abby pitched the idea that we go Christmas tree shopping early," Mike, noticing the sudden nosedive of Haley's mood, swept in with a proposition that was in fact mostly his own; it was incredibly easy and convenient to hide his attempts at being romantic behind his sister's innocence.

He didn't fool Haley Anne though. "Did she now?" She looked back at him, her smile returning.

"You could even stay over," Mike shrugged innocently.

"You cheeky bastard," Haley chuckled along before her joy bubbled out a distinctive shine across the freckled bridge of her nose. "I would love to."

St. Joseph's Orphanage came into view, with its large open gates before a medium sized parking lot. Past the gates, a small paved walk raised over a couple dozens stairs leading into an old building that has gone from monastery, to college, to orphanage over the span of almost four hundred years, making it the oldest proof of settlement of the town. The fences around the property spanning further back behind the main building and the various security cameras were all new additions brought for the children's safety, currently in number of two hundred eighty-seven.