Page 70 of Sven

After about thirty minutes, she checked on Winnie, who was still sound asleep. It was almost noon. Winnie would probably be waking up hungry, and she didn’t have any bottles in here. Allshe had was some puffs and maybe some crackers but nothing substantial.

She walked over to the wall and turned the volume up just to see if he was still there.

“Did you see that? Where is the follow-through?”

They had been reviewing game videos for over an hour.

“Did you move my puck?”

“What?” Sven asked.

“My winning puck from game seven. I thought you kept it here on your mantel.”

“Oh, I’ve been doing some redecorating.”

Natalie’s face scrunched. What was he talking about? She turned the volume back down and decided to clean her little kitchenette just for something to do.

Almost an hour later, there was a knock at her door. She pulled back the curtain to reveal a Sven, who was trying to look easy and breezy.

“Hey, I can take Winnie back,” he said, standing outside of her little house.

“Come on in. She’s actually still sleeping.”

Sven walked in and quietly walked over to peer down at Winnie in the Pack ’N Play. “I see how you are, you little traitor. Up all night for Daddy, sleeping for Natalie.”

Natalie walked over to him and ached to put her arms around him. Even this morning, the residual anger was still there, but after hearing the way his dad talked to him, all that anger had melted. Sven was a wonderful father and listening to the one he’d grown up with it seemed almost like a miracle.

“How’d things go with your dad?” Natalie asked carefully.

“Good. He was just stopping by,” Sven said, trying to brush her off.

“Does he do that often?”

Sven shook his head.

“And you haven’t told him about Winnie?”

Sven took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and shook his head.

“Can I ask why?”

Sven ran his hand through his hair and went and sat on the couch. “I don’t know.”

Feeling an almost magnetic pull to be close to him, Natalie joined him on the couch. When she sat, a loud squealing came through on the intercom, and she hopped up, trying to shut it off before it woke up Winnie.

She started pushing buttons, trying to make the squealing stop, but nothing seemed to help. Soon, she was joined by Sven, who took over and managed to turn off the whole thing.

“Thanks,” she said barely above a whisper.

“Could you hear my dad?”

“What?” Natalie squeaked in a tone about three octaves above her normal voice.

Sven’s eyes pinned her in place. Natalie deflated.

“Okay, I may have listened a little because I was still so angry about last night, and I wasn’t sure why you didn’t want to tell him about Winnie. I know I shouldn’t have.”

Sven chewed on his bottom lip as he looked at his feet. “What did you hear?”

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