Everyday I Think Of You

“Jackie!” I quietly expressed to my cousin as I entered their home to see her on the couch with the baby.

“Oh gee, thanks for saying hi to me as I open the door for you,” Jon smartly commented. I just gave him the finger and went over to Jacks with my little god child.

“She’s just too adorable,” I said sitting on the right side of Jackie and baby while Abby took the other side.

“Abby, meet little Evelyn.”

“She’s so precious,” Abby replied.

“She’s always hungry too, a lot like her dad,” Jackie responded and looked straight at Jon who just shrugged.

“I’m going to go get more formula, don’t let her do any heavy lifting,” Jon said before heading for his kitchen and out the door.

“First day of being a dad and you already have him wrapped around this little girl’s finger, huh, Jacks,” Abby chided. Jackie smiled and nodded her head.

“I swear, he’s more in love with the baby then me at this point.”

“Patrick was like that too when Jr. was born too. It wasn’t until we got pregnant with Madelyn that he finally noticed me again as anything other then someone who slept in the same bed as him when he was home.”

“I know for a fact that Corey was like that too when you first brought Ava home too. He may not have been your boyfriend or husband at that point, but that was going to be his daughter. He was going to make it happen no matter what,” Jackie said. I just nodded and looked to the adorable sleeping baby.

“We got this little girl some gifts,” I said and rolled off the couch to get the bags I had dropped by the door. I brought them over to Jackie and took the baby from her arms while she opened.

“This is too cute,” she said holding up a little hockey jersey with her dad’s name and number.

“Well, we couldn’t have her at a game in the near future without it, now could we?”

“No, we certainly couldn’t. But it will still be a while,” Jackie reassured. We all nodded as she went for the next one and I gave Eve to Abby.

“Now, this is more for a little girl,” Abby stated as Jacks pulled out a little dress with pink fluff.

“My daughter will not be seen in public in that outfit,” Jon said as he came back home and into the family room.

“The hell she won’t, that’s what every little girl has to wear at least once a week,” Abby replied with a grin. I just laughed when I saw how serious Jon’s face got. Evelyn started to cry and Abby and I decided that was our cue to go so the happy family could bond and rest up.

“Bye Toews family, see you Saturday!” I said on the way out.

Abby drove me back to my car where I squished behind the wheel and drove home. Corey and Ava were passed out on the couch, apparently while watching the Wiggles. I clicked the TV off and went to change into my much preferred yoga pants and Corey’s t-shirt.

I crawled into bed after the long day and turned on a DVRed Cake Boss episode before falling asleep myself.

When I awoke, it was morning and Corey’s arm was wrapped protectively around my waist. I looked to the clock and saw it was nine o’clock and turned to wake Corey up to get ready for the first day of Training Camp. I tried kissing him first to get him up, when that didn’t work, I tried to tickle him. My last resort was to slide my hand into his boxer shorts, and boy did that wake him up quickly.

“Will you wake me up that way every day?” he asked playfully before giving me a kiss. I kissed back and we ended up having some morning fun in the shower, finishing what we left off on before Ava interrupted us two nights ago.

I went into the kitchen to start some breakfast while Corey changed and woke up Ava. When Ava was up and breakfast was served, I kissed my daughter’s head and headed back to the bedroom to get ready to watch training camp. I sat to eat while Corey got Ava dressed and the three of us, with Patrick, got into Corey’s car and drove to the practice rink.

“How’d yesterday go with the kids, Pat?” I asked him when we were almost to the rink and the silence was getting to me. Corey glanced to me and then in his rearview mirror to his best friend.

“It was good; we saw a movie and went skating.” He replied like it was normal.

“Are you and Abby making any progress in counseling?”

“You’ve already talked to her, Soph, so don’t pretend you don’t know what’s going on in my life, alright. I get enough of it from Abby and I sure don’t need it from you,” and he stormed out of the car Corey had just parked. He ripped open the trunk and got his gear then headed inside the rink. I helped Ava out of the car and held her hand while Corey grabbed his own gear and followed us into the rink as well. I saw all of my teammates in the locker room before taking Ava to wait in the bleachers since the doctor forbid me from stepping foot on the ice. But during the season, at any given home game, I would be in the coach and trainer section of the bench, helping guide my team to victory after victory.

Soon enough, Coach Q joined me and surprisingly, so did Rocky Wirtz.

“I want your opinion on the prospects, Sophie; you have the best eye in the league. We followed your directive on the draft, now we want help in the guys who are trying to make the big leagues from Rockford, alright?” Q recruited my help.

“I can do that, I’ll be here anyways, so it will make me feel like a part of the team.”

“Why don’t you come and sit on the bench, be a real part of the team,” Rocky suggested. The four of us moved to the bench and I set my focus on watching the prospects and Ava at the same time, which was a difficult task seeing as she was a toddler who could get into anything and everything. They say terrible two’s, but she’s terrible at three!