Life in the Wind

26

"Mama! Mama!" Riley whined in the middle of the night. Lacey had already been up several times to feed Lyla, so Ryan was the one to wake up and hear their oldest.

"Hey Lace," he whispered as he gently shook her shoulder, "Lacey, Riley's calling for you,"

"Mmmm," she mumbled as she got out of bed, going to their oldest child's room. "Riley, what's going on baby? You have a bad dream?" She asked as she lifted the near 2-year-old out of her crib. She glanced at the hatch machine clock seeing that it was just past 4 am and Riley usually wasn't up this early.

"Mama" she mumbled again, hiding her face in Lacey's neck.

"I got you, baby, you wanna sleep with daddy and me?" She asked, feeling the little head nod as she walked to the bedroom. "Alright sweetie, let's go to bed," she sighed, laying Riley in between her and Ryan and allowing them to slowly drift off to sleep again.

The alarms started going off at 6 AM, waking Ryan up to see Lacey and Riley snuggled up beside him. He chuckled and snuck a photo, letting them sleep as he went to make Lyla's first bottle of the day.

Lacey got up around 6:30 with Riley, getting them both ready before getting her some breakfast.

"Ryan, did you feed Ly?" She asked, rushing around the kitchen to get everything ready.

"Yeah, just fed her at 6, slow down," Ryan asked, grabbing his stack of files for work.

She sighed and chuckled, kissing her little girls. "I gotta go. Will you drop off the girls?"

"Yes, I will," the husband smiled, kissing his wife before she grabbed her bag. "Love you,"

"Love you too," Lacey smiled, hugging Riley one last time before leaving.

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"You're late," Jay chuckled, leaning against his truck as Lacey pulled up.

"Oh. 2 minutes, big whoop. Voights not even here yet," the woman chuckled, pushing the car door shut.

"Cam must be having a rough drop-off. Hails not here either,"

"That or my daughter caught her. I swear I hear her say "Aiwey" seven thousand times a day,"

"That's more likely," Jay chuckled, palming in and opening the gate for Lacey.

They both sat at their desks, looking over what they could find as Hailey came up

"My kid catch you?"

"And gave me 6 hugs and 2 kisses before she let me put her down," Hailey chuckled, setting her stuff down.

"That girl," Lacey sighed, glancing at her picture of Riley on her desk.

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Lacey: Shock of the day. I'm off! I'll get the girls. I love you 💕

Ryan: I'll probably be home late. Love you too babe

She smiled and set her phone in the cup holder, heading to the daycare. She sighed as she pulled up, going inside and ducking past the toddler room and to the infant area.