Counting Stars

“Anyway,” Avery shakes her head and slows her speed a little to allow Amanda to catch up. It’s the brunette’s fourth time on skates and she’s doing a fantastic job in Avery’s opinion, until some of the faster moving children get caught up moving around her. “Don’t buy a house and plan a wedding within six months of each other. Too much hassle.”

Amanda snickers when she manages to reach Avery. “For when this potentially becomes an issue many, many, many years down the road, I’ll keep that in mind,”

Avery stutters back in surprise. “I’m sorry, what?”

Amanda’s eyes flicker over to where Pat, Jon, and their dads are taking turns stick-handling across the way. “Just don’t think Pat’ll be ready for that anytime soon. And I’m okay with that,” She hastens to add, mistaking Avery’s incredulous look. “Just—what?” She cuts herself off midsentence and draws out her question in a whine; Avery bites back her grin.

“Nothing.” She can’t bite it back any longer. “I just think maybe he’s a little readier than you think.” It’s Amanda’s turn to stutter backwards and Avery reaches out to catch her. “I mean, I wouldn’t expect it within, like, days, or anything, but if you’re worried he’s going to like pull a Jagr and you’re getting nothing until after he retires, don’t,”

Amanda’s brow furrows. “I think I missed like half the references in that sentence, you Canadian freak, but ok,” She smiles. “Thanks,”

Before Avery can smile back, her attention is drawn elsewhere. Jon’s been trying to goad her into playing steal the puck all day long—it hasn’t been working, but his attempts have been getting more and more elaborate. “Oh for god’s sake,”

Amanda laughs. “Come on, just appease him and he’ll stop,”

“He won’t! He doesn’t know how to stop!”

“You’re both too competitive.” Amanda comments. “Going to be a rough time for—“

Avery misses the rest of her sentence when she spies the perfect opportunity to steal the puck from Jon and opts to take it. The move is perfectly executed and she finishes it off with a perfect shot on net that sails past where Crawford is still playing goalie for the kids who want to take shots. Avery shoots a smug look at Jon as she passes him to rejoin Amanda and their families.

“Wedding’s off,” Jon pulls a face.

“It most certainly is not,” Andree turns her death stare on him until he grins back at her.

“Wedding was off from Christmas shinny.” Avery laughs. “Catch up,”

“So I don’t need to save the date?” Donna Kane teases.

“Over my dead body is this not happening,” Andree looks between Jon and Avery until Avery feels Jon’s arm loop around her shoulders and pull her in close.

“Nah,” He presses a kiss to the top her head. “Don’t worry so much, Maman,”

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“You’re being ridiculous, Jon!” Avery cries exasperatedly, throwing her hands in the air. “It’s going to be fine.”

Jon sighs. They’ve been having this argument for days now, since they came home from the Winter Classic to find the strange, stalker-esque photos in the mailbox. If they hadn’t been signed by James and accompanied by a less-than-pleasant note, he’d be even less accommodating than he’s being. “I don’t want to just leave you here alone after that!” He gestures toward the pictures strewn across the table. It’s the shots of them in Pittsburgh that freak him out the most, because that means James and whoever he hired are willing to go further than Chicago and Jon’s sure that means they won’t hesitate to do anything while he’s gone.

Avery steps close to him, pressing herself against him, and runs her hands up and down his arm. “I’ll get someone to come stay with me. Abby’s not far either and if I really think something is up, I promise to call the police, even if I convince myself it’s really nothing at all.”

“Fine,” Jon relents; it’s against his better judgement but he knows this is a battle he won’t win. If she really wants to stay here, she’s going to stay here.

Amanda is more than happy to come out and stay with Avery when asked, citing her hatred for being alone in Trump as the perfect excuse to come out and stay. Jon and Avery both laugh at Kaner’s protests far off in the background, as Amanda only talks louder to drown him out about her excitement for the upcoming week.

“See?” Avery leaps on top of Jon in bed as soon as she hangs up the phone. Her elbow nails him right in the side and he resettles her quickly while he tries to catch the breath she knocked out of him. “Everything will be fine,”

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“You’d think those of us with kids, waiting for a babysitter to show up, would be the ones to arrive late,” Abby says coolly to Dayna, sipping on her mimosa, as Dayna snickers. “But no, it’s the bitches living closest to the restaurant with no children to corral,”

Avery pouts. “You couldn’t even wait for us to start?”

Abby raises one eyebrow. “You were already 20 minutes late; how long was I supposed to wait?”

“Whatever,” Avery brushes her off, sliding into her seat. “What’s even good here?”

“Everything,” Dayna assures her, already set on her meal apparently; her menu closed in front of her.

“I mean, it’s no Lilly’s Palace, but it’s good,” Abby can’t even finish her sentence without laughing and Avery cracks up as soon as she mentions their old brunch spot.

“I forgot about that place!” Dayna exclaims.

“Well you only went a few times.” Abby says. “It closed in, what, ’09? It was when you were still finishing school.”

Avery turns to Amanda. “Back in the day, Abby and I used to make Pat and Jon drop us off at this place, Lilly’s Palace, for brunch, when they went to practice. But this brunch was a shit show, like unlimited all-you-can-drink wine and mimosas,”

“The meal was three parts—your choice of eggs; pancakes, waffles, or French toast; and then whatever breakfast meat you wanted,” Abby adds. “And it came with the unlimited alcohol, and the whole thing only cost $10,”

“It was like their dream,” Avery laughs. “$20 total. They’d come pick us up after practice; it’d be like noon and we’d be trashed,”

“What even happened to that place?” Dayna asks. “I remember going a couple times and then moving here and we never went!”

Avery meets Abby’s eyes and cracks up. “It closed! It was all a front for a Chinese gambling ring.”

Abby shakes her head. “They just don’t make brunch like that anymore,”

Avery tsks in agreement as the waiter returns to take drink orders for her and Amanda. Bottomless mimosa joke unappreciated, he takes both their drink orders and food orders for the entire table, before the conversation turns to Dayna and the baby.

“This week’s just been rough; it’s been getting to that time,”

“Ahh,” Abby nods, understanding.

“What time?” Avery prods, nosily.

“You wouldn’t understand, you won’t even get some from your husband for a normal person,” Abby smirks, patting her hand, teasingly.

“It’s way worse when you’re pregnant,” Dayna adds, not noticing the blush the pops up on Avery’s face at first, but quickly joining in when Amanda and Abby pounce.

“Finally jumped on her husband’s—“Abby’s glee is cut off unceremoniously when Avery smacks her hand over her friend’s mouth.

“We’re in public!” She hisses.

“A good talk lead to good sex?” Dayna smirks. At Avery’s look, she grins. “What? You can’t cover both our mouths!”

“Is the sex better now than before, the same, or are you still working back into your rhythm?” Abby leans forward across the table.

“Can’t we torture Amanda for a while? We waited years for Kaner to get himself a good girl; can’t we gossip about his sex life for a while?”

“It’s not my fault you weren’t here for two years!” Amanda exclaims. She looks over at Abby and Dayna. “Don’t torture me for her misgivings!”

“Whatever,” Avery deflects. “Can we talk about the wedding, like we’re supposed to be doing?”

“I’m going to say yes, because Dayna and I only have the babysitter for a limited amount of time today, but don’t think we won’t come back to this, just call it your lucky day!” Abby warns and Avery grins as she gets what she wants.

It’s only later that her good mood disappears, when she and Amanda return home to find an envelope in the mail box. The pictures are from that day, at brunch, and are far too close to have been taken from anywhere other than inside the restaurant.

“Just—“Avery swallows, meeting Amanda’s look of uncertainty. “Just please don’t tell Jon,”