On Ice

OI Chapter 35

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Calla didn’t even flinch the following morning when I groggily tumbled out of bed at 6AM to go for my morning run. It’d been difficult the last couple of weeks when Russ and I had been home, to crawl out from beneath the sheets and go running when I just wanted to stay curled up next to her, especially now that she wasn’t as particularly active at night. It’d been a while since she’d last thrashed through the night. Taking a moment to rub my eyes with the heel of my palms, I slowly pushed up and off the bed. My body always protested the morning after a game and last nights had been particularly physical. Girardi* and I had mixed it up a couple of times last night. I had a couple of inches and some pounds on him, but the Ranger had seemed to be just a second faster and all over my ass like glue.

Stretching my arms above my head, I felt as well as heard a few pops from my protesting joints. Shuffling around in the predawn, I dug through a drawer and pulled on a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt. I couldn’t tell if they matched, but really I didn’t care, it wasn’t likely I was going to be seen and it was just going to get sweaty and thrown in a laundry bag to get washed anyway. Easing gently down on the end of the bed, I pulled on my socks before padding softly out of the room, pausing only briefly in the doorway to make sure that I hadn’t disturbed Calla.

The sight of clothing scattered from the front door to my bedroom made me grin, as did the sight of the two bags that had been dropped immediately inside the door. Picking up Calla’s, I returned to the bedroom long enough to place it on the chair near the attached bathroom. Fussing with mine, I dug through until I found the pair of shades I was looking for, along with my iPod. Clipping the music player to my arm, I slid the sunglasses on my head. I wouldn’t need them now, but in an hour or so, on my run back I’d be glad to have them as I ran toward the rising sun.

Over an hour later my body was starting to feel the strain and my achy muscles were begging for a hot shower as I slowed from a jog to a walk as I turned up the drive to my cabin. Wiping sweat from my face with the sleeve of my sweatshirt when I reached the porch steps, I did a few quick stretches and exhaled a long breath. Once inside I returned my iPod and Ray Bans to my bag, grabbed a clean pair of shorts, jeans and a t-shirt and hit the showers. Relaxing under the hot spray of the shower, I felt a bit of the ache in my muscles and joints recede. I probably stayed longer than I needed to, but the soothing pound of the spray felt amazing. When it occurred to me that I was using all the hot water, I turned the shower off and stepped out. I towel dried myself quickly, ran a comb through my hair, brushed my teeth and shaved over the sink before getting dressed.

As I padded into the bedroom, I wanted to crawl back in next to Calla. Finding that my feet stilled at the end of the bed, I stared down at her. Her blonde hair was spread across the pillow in gentle waves. She lay on her side facing me, one arm nestled beneath the pillow where her head rested and the other curled up over her chest with the fist beneath her chin, one bare foot peeped out from beneath the corner of the sheet. She looked so young and angelic in her sleep. My eyes drew up the length of her leg to her belly. It didn’t look any different yet, which didn’t lend itself to the believability that my child was growing there, a thought that still made my breath catch in my throat.

Shaking my head, I cleared my throat softly and somehow made my feet start working again. In the kitchen, I started breakfast. Bacon in the frying pan, eggs scrambled and ready to cook in the bacon grease. It was as I was flipping the bacon that I remembered about Calla’s tea. I know she’d been drinking the stuff like water lately saying that it helped with the nausea that she’d been having. Creeping back into the bedroom, I didn’t want to dig through her stuff, but I figured if she’d brought the tea with her it would be there. A few minutes and a thorough search of her overnight bag later, I came up with zilch. Pulling on a pair of sneakers, I dashed out to the Jeep and looked to see if she’d left it behind. We’d sort of been in a hurry to get inside; it was totally possible that she’d left it. A quick look revealed no box of Peppermint tea, not even a single tea bag.