Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jules
“Why are you laughing, Aunt Jules?” Eli asks.
I look up from my phone, which is propped on the kitchen counter so I can scroll my socials while I make the boys blueberry pancakes for breakfast.
“I just like it when Al Gore’s entire internet agrees with me.”
“What’s Al Gore?”
“I’ll tell you once you spell every word on the spelling list correctly.”
His face lights up with a smile. “Quiz me.”
I flip a pancake, press pause on my phone, and bring a plate of crispy, perfectly cooked bacon over to the table. “Where’s the list?”
“I’ll get it.”
Returning to my spot in front of the stove, I smile.
The videos I’ve been posting of Noel have gotten a lot of attention overnight.
Someone made a montage of him scowling in videos and photos, and their post is drawing people to the team’s socials.
My favorite ones are of him at the bench during games, wearing a stern look as he’s talking to his players.
Coach Noel Turner from the Cleveland Crush got me panting over here. He can put his puck in my net anytime. That’s what the video creator captioned her post, with the hashtags #yesnoel, #tellmeimagoodgirl, and #coachmehard.
As the team’s social media coordinator, I can’t be anything but thrilled when there’s attention on the team. And I am thrilled—mostly. There’s some jealousy in there, too, because of the hundreds of comments from women agreeing about how hot he is.
He’s a walking thirst trap, and I even find it hot when he’s dismissive of me. He seems like a man with a lot on his mind, and I’m dying to know what’s going on inside his head.
Is he brokenhearted over his divorce? Lonely? Most of the players on the team are an open book if you just pay enough attention to what they say. The happily married guys congregate when we travel, for the most part. Probably because they aren’t interested in the same things as the single guys.
Leo recently announced that his wife, Mara, is pregnant, and he’s been watching parenting videos during travel downtime. Carter talks to his girls a lot. He knows when they have tests at school and calls to see how they went and just asks about their days.
Anson likes to exchange nudes with women.
Lots of women. He’s always checking to make sure no one else can see his screen and then showing it to teammates, his leering grin giving him away.
He thinks he’s discreet, but he’s louder than he realizes.
That’s how I know he likes titties that bounce, screamers, and ass eaters.
Noel is pretty much a mystery, though. I know he likes black coffee and he’s great with kids, but not much else.
The day I was filming the team teaching hockey to kids with disabilities, Noel never stopped smiling.
And it was a genuine, crinkles-in-the-corners-of-his-eyes smile.
He spent a lot of time with one little girl in particular, pulling her around the ice on a plastic sled.
She asked for his autograph when it was time to leave, and he took off his hat, signed it, and gave it to her.
“Aunt Jules,” Eli says impatiently.
“Oh.” I shake away my daze and pull a slightly burned pancake from the griddle, seeing his spelling list on the counter beside me. “Okay, um ... field.”
He’s a great speller, but we still study the list with him every week. We’re halfway through it when Blair comes into the room, going straight to the coffeepot. She usually says good morning, so I know something’s up.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Coop just puked in my bed.”
“Oh, yikes.”
She takes a long, fortifying sip of coffee. “Yeah. Looks like gastroenteritis puke, so he’s out of commission for at least forty-eight hours.”
“Poor guy. Guess no pancakes and bacon for him.”
“No. And I have a test at two this afternoon. Is there any way you can be here?”
“Sure, no problem. I can work from home all day if you need me to.”
“No, don’t do that. I don’t want you getting what he has. I’ll make sure he has what he needs before I leave for the test and I want you to stay out of his room unless he really needs something.”
I give her a pointed look. “I’ll be fine. I’ll order the groceries for chicken noodle soup.”
“He shouldn’t eat anything today.”
“Tomorrow, then.”
She furrows her brow, looking distracted. “Eli, don’t use the bathroom by your bedroom until I get it disinfected.”
“I already used it.”
“Well, don’t use it again.”
I set down the spatula in my hand and approach my sister, placing my hands on her shoulders. “Relax. It’s going to be fine.”
She shakes her head. “I’m buried in homework. The conversions I have to learn are so damn hard, and I can’t miss any when we take that test.”
“Take it one thing at a time.”
Tears well in her eyes. “But some of the things are coming at me all at once. Coop is sick, Eli has a dentist appointment tomorrow, you’re leaving early tomorrow for a road trip, I have to study the fucking conversions, and I’m tired because I was up with Coop because he wasn’t feeling well, and I have to clean puke out of my bed because he’s still lying there with it. ”
Eli comes up to her and wraps his arms around her waist. “Don’t cry, Mom.”
She hugs him back and wipes her fingertips over her cheeks to clear away the tears. “I’m fine, baby. Just a little stressed. This hug was exactly what I needed.”
“I can help with anything you need today, and I’ll text Carmen about helping when I’m gone.”
Carmen is a college senior I hire from time to time to help us with things we just can’t get to. She’s willing to do anything and she appreciates how well I pay her.
“I want to take care of my baby when he’s sick,” Blair says.
I smooth a hand over Eli’s wheat-colored hair. “Finish breakfast and brush your teeth. I’m driving you to school today.”
He goes back to the kitchen table and I put my arm around Blair. “You can’t do everything all at once. You know this. Remember what you said when we talked about this recently? You don’t want to teach the boys that women should balance more than they really can, or they’re failures.”
Her shoulder sink with a sigh. “I know.”
“You’re not just a mom and you’re not just a nursing student. You’re a whole-ass person who is raising two kids, working her ass off to get a good job, and rarely taking good care of herself. Let the village step in.”
She bursts into tears and I’m glad Eli has left the room. “It’s not fair that you have to be my sister and my mom, but you don’t get a mom.”
That hits me square in the chest. Sometimes I forget how much baggage Blair and I carry around without always being conscious of it.
“You and I take care of each other,” I remind her. “I don’t need anyone else.”
“What’s wrong with me?” She laughs lightly, wiping away her tears again. “It’s a good thing I haven’t had sex in more than five years, or I’d think I might be pregnant.”
“You’re tired and stressed. Nothing is wrong with you.”
She nods, sniffling.
I go over to the kitchen sink, open a cabinet door beneath it, and take out a bucket, passing it to her. “You and Coop move to my bed and have him puke in here if he needs to. I’m taking Eli to school and then I’ll strip your bed and get it made with fresh sheets. Take a nap with Coop.”
“I should study.”
“You’ve studied enough. Take a nap.”
“Okay. I’ll strip the bed, though. Thanks, Jules.”
She grabs a pancake and takes it over to the table, putting some bacon on it and rolling it up to eat like a burrito.
I have work to do today, and I need to get some content up on my personal socials.
It’s a great day to be able to work from home.
With the road trip tomorrow, I can create extra content to post on my accounts for the next few days.
No matter how busy things get, I have to take care of my primary income source.
It’s a good thing I deleted the dating apps from my phone. I genuinely don’t have time for dates. All the pointless chattering with potential dates is a waste of time anyway. The people I need in my life all live in this house.
I drive Eli to school, finishing the spelling-list practice on the way, then come home and load the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher. After that, I check my work email and socials again.
The video about Noel is killing it. I wish I had time to capitalize on it this morning, but it’s going to have to wait. Instead, I get the pukey blanket into the washer and order the groceries for chicken noodle soup.
By the time I film content with some cosmetic samples and new clothes, it’s almost noon. I return to the video about Noel and respond to a few dozen comments.
At least we have a hot coach going for us. With Stanton out for 6-8 weeks, we’re screwed.
I’ve got no response for that one. Carter has a broken collarbone, and everyone on the staff is shaken that we lost our star player to an injury in the first game of the season.
The upcoming road trip will reveal how the team plays without its captain. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, other than all the time I’ll have to secretly stare at Noel.