Page 45 of Second Down Scrooge

She rests her head on my chest. “I know. I’m just nervous to fly by myself with Mia. Last time we went anywhere, she slept most of the way, but I have a feeling it's going to be hard tokeep her quiet, and I’ll end up spending the entire flight trying to prevent her from kicking the chair in front of us so she's not bothering anybody around us.”

“Hey, even if she is, anybody with kids will understand. And anybody else can go fuck themselves.”

She laughs. “You know, that actually kind of made me feel better.” She leans up to press a quick kiss to my lips, but I don't let it be quick.

I grab her head and hold onto her until I feel her start to give in. That little feeling of her melting into me seems to calm her. She pulls back and leans her head on my chest again.

“We never went to your place to decorate your tree,” she says.

“I stopped by after I left my sample at the lab and put it up in my family room, but I haven't decorated it yet. It's fine. It'll give me something to do tomorrow.”

“Aside from practice,” she says.

“Aside from missing the two of you.”

She offers a wry smile as she adds more sweaters to the pile of clothes in her suitcase on the floor.

“How long are you going to be gone again?” I ask.

“A week.” She bends down to add some long-sleeve shirts to the pile.

“I can't believe I finally have a reason to celebrate Christmas, and those reasons aren't even going to be in the same state as me.”

She tilts her head at me with a bit of sympathy in her eyes. “Then let’s have our own Christmas celebration when we get back.”

“I think that's a great idea.”

She seems much calmer as she finishes packing in between kisses, and eventually we get naked and have more sex before we settle in for bed, neither one of us really wanting the night to end because daylight means we’re going to have to be apart.

But just like every good thing, our night must come to an end.

When morning dawns, the day begins with chaos. Our usually calm baby wakes up screaming, waking the two of us as her yells come through the monitor.

Kelly leaps up. “Shit! We’re late!” She takes off for Mia’s room, and I glance at the clock. She wanted to get up an hour ago so we could get to the airport with plenty of time for her to get through security with the baby by herself.

I stumble blearily across the house behind Kelly, who manages to get there first as I manage to stub my toe on the couch on my walk across the house toward Mia’s room.

Fuck, that shit hurts.

By the time I limp into Mia’s room, I see Kelly peppering the baby with kisses as she coosbaby girl, it’s okayto her.

She’s too little to tell us what's wrong, so I assume she had a bad dream. I hope it's not an omen for what's to come today since Kelly was already nervous about flying with her. I don't think waking up late to a screaming child is helping alleviate those fears.

“You go shower, and I’ll get Mia dressed and start breakfast for you both,” I tell Kelly.

She shoots me a grateful look, and even though the morning is more rushed than Kelly wanted it to be, we're ready to go to the airport with plenty of time to spare. It’s not as much time as Kelly would have wanted, but we’ll get there, and she’ll still have a good hour and a half before her flight takes off.

I can feel her nervous energy as we hightail it toward the airport. With each mile bringing us closer, she seems to get more nervous. She chugs a bottle of water. She taps her fingers nervously on her thighs.

I reach over and grab her hand to try to help her calm down, and her fingers are ice cold and trembling.

“Hey, Kaplan. It’s fine. You have plenty of time.”

She glances over at me and nods nervously but doesn’t say a word.

We are just pulling into the drop-off area when my phone starts to ring. My car’s system notifies me that it's Lily. I'm sure she's calling with the test results. This will be quick, so I take the call.

“Hey Lily,” I answer over the car’s Bluetooth.

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