Counting Down The Days (Counting on Hockey #3)

Chapter 1: Once again....Goodbye

Favorite picture changed, here is what it's gonna look like, well, it's the ocean behind them, not trees.

Cole tapes the last of his boxes of his room here in the condo. The moving truck sits in our driveway, holding the rest of his stuff, all except the bed and the dresser. They drive out with it to St. Paul where Cole and I just found an apartment with three bedrooms on the outskirts of the city. We visited a few weeks ago, and he and I have been signing the papers ever since. He moves out there now, and I will move out their next summer when school is done. Practice starts in two weeks for him, since he's a rookie.

~~~~~

Our suitcases hold the things we need for the next few days until the movers get here. The apartment already came with furniture, but I changed most things around to make it our own. We kept some of Cole's furniture in his room at the condo for any guest I would somehow have. The only guest I would ever think of would be Cara, and Noah would already have his own room. 

Cole unlocks the front door to the apartment. It still smells new, and we are one of the only ones on this floor because the building itself is so new. The door opens into the living room. Off to the left is the kitchen and the master bedroom, to the right, are two hallways with bedrooms and a small office.

"You're home", I say to Cole he opens the door.

With my suitcase on the ground next to me, Cole looks at me with a smirk. He quickly grabs me, carrying me bridal style into the front door. "No, we're home", he whispers to me.

"You know you're only supposed to do that when we get married, in which we aren't. At least not yet", I laugh as Cole sets me down, sitting me on our kitchen counter. He stands between my legs and plants kisses on my lips, then moves down my face and neck. "You know we can do whatever we want wherever we want in this house because someone named Noah has never been or lived here before".

"Very funny", I hold Cole's face between my hands. "Can we wait until we at least close the door first".

~~~~~

The movers arrive with Cole's very little stuff and we put it all in the first guest bedroom. They leave soon enough and we start unpacking everything box by box. I once again line all of Cole's hockey jerseys by teams, then by number. Most are Minnesota Wild, two are Chicago Blackhawks, and one of them was a Bruins jersey. Smith, 13.

All of his clothes fit in the first of two closets in the master bedroom. We unpack the pictures he has of him and his family, and of the hockey teams back home in Maine. I set them out on the mantle in the living room.

Cole inspects the frames on the mantle, looks at me for a second, then goes up to them. He moves the picture in the front of him and Noah from our graduation back to where the second picture was. The second photo is my favorite photo.

It was the summer between junior and senior year. We're at mine and Cara's going away party. A blanket wrapped around us, sitting on a log. Cole's lips find my forehead, and I'm smiling a sad grin. I was thinking about how I never wanted that moment to end.

"Now it's perfect", I whisper as he walks back over to my side, taking my hand in his.

~~~~~

We drive into the parking garage of Saint Paul Airport. We park on the top level and Cole takes my suitcase from the trunk of his new car. Cole and I walk through the garage and into the check in lobby of the terminal. I check my bag and get my ticket from an attendant. Cole walks me to security, where we have to say goodbye.

Tears have been forming in my eyes all morning. I'm leaving him and I don't get to see him until Thanksgiving. That's four months away. I know I've said it in the past, but now that this is his job, it really is true. He does have a game against Noah and the Bruins in October, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to make it, with work and all that. 

We walk up to the security checkpoint. Cole pulls me over to the benches that line the wall. He sits down and I sit next to him close. "I don't want to go", I look down at my lap.

"I don't want you to go. But school starts in a few weeks, and you have a job to get to tomorrow morning. I will see you in three months in Boston. I already got you the ticket to our game on the twenty-fifth. Right next to the Bruins Penalty box, just so you can yell at Noah when he cross checks me. He's already promised", Cole says just loud enough so only I can hear it. That makes me laugh a little.

I try to hold back tears, but I just can't anymore. They stream down my face. Cole gives me a sad look and pulls me to him. His arms wrap around me like a blanket.

"Flight nineteen-fifty to Bangor, Maine, your plane has arrived early. Boarding will start in twenty-five minutes", a female voice says through out the airport terminal.

"I have to go", I stand up from beside Cole, wiping that last of the tears from my face. "I love you, so much".

"I love you with all my heart", Cole wraps his arms around me again. I take in his scent one last time. "Call me when you get off the plane".

"Okay, I will", I reply before giving Cole a giant kiss and walking into the check point.

He watches me through the line. He stands there and just watches. His eyes look glossy, like he's about to cry. I turn back and forth between the line in front of me, and him. I go through, then look back at him one last time through the glass window that separates us from the front of the terminal. I wave at him slowly, mouthing the words I love you. He does the same thing back.

We stare at each other for a moment before he realizes something and takes his phone out of his pocket. He answers it, waving one last time, then walking away.

He's gone.