Make It Back to Me

October 18th 2009
Evelyn squeaked as Ben’s large hands grabbed at her sides, girlish giggles following soon after. Ben laughed as he wrapped his arms around her from behind as she did the dishes. He pressed a kiss to her cheek before he hopped onto the counter and smiled down at her. She rolled her eyes and plunged her hands back into the warm, soapy water, her baby bump lightly hitting against the edge of the counter, making her frown.

Ben shook his head at his wife and hopped off the counter as she washed the last dish and moved it to the other side of the sink to dry. He picked up the dish towel and pulled her hands out of the water and into the towel, drying them for her. She rolled her eyes again, laughing at how he was acting. He had been super affectionate the past week, ever since he had shown her the house he had bought, and the house they were currently in.

Just the day after he had brought her and she had fallen in love with the beautiful Lincoln Park, brick home, she woke up to find they were out of their apartment’s lease, moving trucks were in front of their apartment building, and their things (that she assumed Ben had packed while she was sleeping) were being loaded into those trucks. Evelyn was surprised, shocked, and even a little sad, but her husband had been so excited, she just went along with it. She found it was better to not go against Ben when he was so dead-set on something. He usually always found a way to make it happen.

“What do you want to do today?” he asked as he followed her up stairs into the laundry room.

“I’m going to get some chores done. What are you going to do?”

Ben groaned, taking the basket of laundry she had picked up out of her hands and putting it down where she had gotten it from. “You’re always doing chores or cleaning the house.”

“Someone has to,” she laughed, giving him a light nudge. “Especially now that we have more space…”

Ben scoffed and grabbed Evelyn at her shoulders and pulled her toward him, moving his hands to cup her cheeks, “Forget about cleaning today. I’ll help you with the chores tomorrow. Let’s go do something!”

“And what do you expect this girl to do at six months pregnant, anyway?”

“We do happen to live in Lincoln Park, only a few blocks from the Lincoln Park Zoo…” Evelyn’s eyes lit up at the thought of going to one of Chicagoland’s two zoos, and while Brookfield Zoo had more to offer, it wasn’t in the city. Why wouldn’t she and Ben go to the free one just a few blocks from their house? Ben laughed at his wife’s enthusiastic nod. “Then, let’s go!”

Evelyn looked down at her outfit, deciding the black leggings, ballet flats, and another one of Ben’s dress shirts (an outfit she had been wearing a lot) was just fine. Ben grinned and went to pull his shoes on, but before he could, their doorbell rang. Evelyn stared at Ben curiously, but she realized he also had no idea who was at their house when he shrugged and made his way toward the door.

“What are you all doing here?” Ben asked, groaning as he looked out at some of his teammates and their wives and girlfriends who stood on the front steps of their house.

“Well,” Adam started, making Ben groan again, wondering what the resident joker of the team had planned.

“Burish,” Ben started, but Adam waved a hand in front of his face.

“Hear us out, Eags. Evelyn’s six months pregnant; the girls want to throw a baby shower, which is why they are here. Me and the guys are here because you and Evelyn went off an eloped back in the spring, and we never got to throw you a bachelor party. You owe us a night out.”

As soon as Adam had finished his explanation, the girls shoved their way into the house, Phoebe grabbing onto Evelyn’s arm and pulling her with them, and into the kitchen.

“I don’t need a baby shower…”

“Of course you do,” Kita said, rolling her eyes.

“Not when Ben comes home with something new for the baby almost every day!”

All eyes turned to Ben, the girls ‘awing’ while his teammates just stared. Ben just shrugged and wrapped his arms around his wife, putting his chin on her shoulder from behind. “Get out; me and Lyn have plans today.”

Aimee, Cam Barker’s girlfriend, scoffed, “What plans were those?”

“We were going to go walk around the zoo,” Evelyn told them, frowning at the thought of she and her husband’s plans being ruined.

Ben frowned too, realizing the awkward situation the group was in. The girls – who had come into the house so excited for a baby shower – knew they had bummed Evelyn out, who clearly just wanted to spend the day with her husband. The guys stood there awkwardly, Adam let out a cough as his eyes darted between the girls and Evelyn, who stood with her arms wrapped around Ben.

“Hey,” he said, locking his blue eyes onto his wife’s brown ones. “We can go to the zoo another time. You stay here with the girls and have your baby shower.” Pointing to the girls, he continued. “They brought food and gifts. It’ll be fun. I’ll go out with the guys.”

Evelyn nodded and stood on her tip-toes to give Ben a kiss. “Be careful,” she told him. “But, have fun.” Ben nodded and smiled down at his wife who still didn’t look thrilled at the idea of having a surprise baby shower, but luckily Patrick Kane, one of Evelyn’s closest friends brought a little comic relief to the awkward situation.

“Can I stay at the baby shower instead?”

Adam snorted, “Why the hell would you want to do that?”

“I don’t want to go out with you and the guys; I’ll just get made fun of the entire time!”

Aimee, never the one to hold back her thoughts, snorted as well, “You’ll get made fun of here, too!”

Evelyn glared at Aimee before turning to Patrick, “Of course you can stay if you want to, Kaner. The girls will be nice.”

But Patrick Sharp had other ideas. Grabbing the youngest Blackhawk by the collar of his shirt, he pulled the kid out of Ben and Evelyn’s house after him. The rest of the guys followed, laughing. Ben kissed his wife again before shutting the door behind him, leaving Evelyn with the other girlfriends and wives of the Blackhawks.

“Hey,” Phoebe started. “I’m sorry about us just barging in… Adam came up with the whole bachelor party thing, and when he decided to do it today and tonight since the guys are off tomorrow, we decided to surprise you with a party.” Evelyn shook her head, smiling at her best friend, telling her it was fine. “Are you sure?” Phoebe asked, but Evelyn nodded her head and motioned for the girls to follow her into the kitchen.

After the food had been set up along the marble counters of the kitchen and every woman had a plate full, they sat down at the large dining room table and fell into conversation, and of course, the conversation was about Evelyn’s pregnancy and her relationship with Ben.

“Honestly,” Kita said, taking a sip of her lemonade. “If you and Ben can get through a breakup like you did, you can get through anything. He was a wreck while you were gone. He loves you a lot.”

Evelyn smiled, taking a bite of her food, choosing not to say anything back. She did know how much Ben loved her, and while they did come out of their breakup and separation as a stronger couple, Evelyn still didn’t like to think about the pain she had caused her husband with her irrational and completely stupid move to New York City. She knew how much she hurt, and she had the moral support of Michael, as well as the hope that someone else – her unborn child – needed her. She had distractions. What did Ben have besides an empty apartment and a few friends, his teammates, that didn’t know what to say to make him feel better?

She shook her head and blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to fight off the tears she could feel coming, but the tears came anyway. Putting her fork down, Evelyn excused herself from the table and ran into the bathroom just off the kitchen. Before she could even shut the door behind herself, Phoebe was pushing her way in and wrapping her arms around her.

“You have got to stop thinking about what was going on with Ben while you were gone. You guys are back together now; there’s no time to dwell on the past.”

“I hate and love how you can read me so well.”

Phoebe grinned, grabbing a tissue and wiping off the tears from Evelyn’s cheeks, ushering her out of the bathroom and back to their little party. Evelyn immediately smiled at Kita, letting her know it wasn’t her fault she had gotten upset. Even the littlest things could set her off; Ben sometimes just kept his mouth shut all day in hopes he wouldn’t say something to upset his pregnant and extremely hormonal wife. Kita sighed in relief, returning the smile before suggesting, “Time for presents?”

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .- - -

Ben laughed as Kaner pulled his Chevy Tahoe into a Hooters parking lot. He turned around from the passenger seat to see Burish and Sharpie grinning from ear to ear.

“Look, Ben,” Adam started. “We knew that Evelyn… and you for that matter - were not going to be fans of us going too crazy. Good food, beers, pretty girls… Where else would we go?”

“True,” Ben agreed, as they climbed out of the car and met up with Cam, Niklas, Brent, and Jonathan who were in another car. “Hey, someone remind me to bring home some wings for Lyn. She fucking loves Hooters.” Everyone laughed, shaking their head, and Adam made a comment about it being his bachelor party, so Ben added, “I haven’t been a bachelor since December of 2007.”

“You didn’t start dating Evelyn until a few months later…” Kaner added.

“Yeah,” Ben said, “but I knew as soon as I met her that I was going to marry her.”

“You’re going soft on me,” Adam scolded as they made their way to the table that had been reserved for them.

“Whatever,” Ben laughed. “You’re in a serious relationship, too, you asshole.”

Adam sighed, but grinned, no doubt thinking about his relationship with the spunky southern girl that had stole his own heart. He realized he had no right to make fun of Ben when the same thing that had happened to his teammate was happening to him too.

“Can we just order now? I’m not digging all this relationship talk…”

“That’s probably because you’re the only single one at this table, Kaner, you loser.”

“And that is why I wanted to hang out with Evelyn.”

The table burst into laughter as Patrick Kane sulked in his seat, but Ben gave the young forward a nudge and a friendly smile, knowing that sometimes, all the heat the kid took from everyone else started to get to him. He was pretty sure that’s why his wife was always so sweet to him. While she did, in fact, adore the twenty year old, she also felt bad for him.

Adam called their waitress over, telling to keep the wings and the beers coming, for everyone other than Kaner and Barker, as they were the designated drivers for the evening. The girl smiled and nodded, walked away, and someone made a comment about her ass, but Ben had other things on his mind, like his beautiful, smart, amazing wife who was at home suffering through a baby shower she didn’t want just to keep her friends happy. That was just the kind of person she was; she didn’t think about herself often.

Her husband and their relationship was her number one priority now, or at least he would be until their son was born. And that was something Ben Eager could simply not wait for.