The Tales of a Future Hockey Wife

Chapter 65: Stealing

~Eleanor~
~December~ 

Ben's plane should land any minute now. I got to the airport early since I wanted to be sure to have time to go to the gift shop. I bought a balloon with the words "Welcome Home" written on it. I tied it up to Ophelia's wrist with a thin white ribbon that she keeps trying to put in her mouth. Everyone who passes us smiles at her when they see the balloon. A couple even asked who we were welcoming and when I said we were waiting for my boyfriend, the woman started crying. I didn't understand why until she told me to thank him for his service. I didn't have the heart to tell her that he is not in the military, that he just plays hockey, so I smiled at her. My eyes go from the stroller to the screen with the flight information. Next to Ben's flight number, the word "arrived" is written in capital letters. My heart rate starts to speed up, but I don't know if it's out of anxiety or excitement. Maybe a little bit of both. Even if we spoke on FaceTime at least once a week and texted almost every day, I haven't seen him in over five months. I haven't touched him, inhaled his scent, kissed his lips or played with the soft strands of his hair. He hasn't touched me in over five months, and I am just realizing how much I miss it. I miss having him around during the day and I miss having him in my bed at night.

I am not saying that I regret letting him move to Germany by himself, but I do regret not seeing him every day. I also don't regret moving to New York. I learned so much working with Matthew and his team and living with him has made my life so much easier. We fell into a routine only a few days after Ophelia and I moved in. I wake up at the same time as Ophelia, feed, and change her. Matthew is usually up by the time I'm finished. He goes running in Central Park with Ophelia in her stroller for about half an hour which gives me time to have breakfast and shower. I start working as he showers, and he joins me afterwards. In the afternoon, I ago back and forth between taking care of Ophelia and writing with Matthew. We are doing pretty good so far. We try to write at least one chapter per day and since we write in different point of views, we wrote about half of the book. It's been that way every day for the past month. Every day except today. Today is the first day since I moved that I won't write a single word.

I come back to reality when people start coming out of the arrival department massively. At first, I wonder if it's Ben's plane, but when I hear someone speak what sounds like German, I don't have any more doubts. My heart beats even faster than I thought was possible and I haven't seen him yet. I look everywhere in the crowd trying to spot a tall man with curly brown hair as I push the stroller back and forth to try ad calm my daughter's babbles.

I don't know who spot who first, but he started running and I started pushing the stroller faster. I forget all the words I had prepared to say to him when his arms wrap around my neck and his nose is buried in my hair. I keep one hand on the handrail of the stroller but wrap the other one around his waist and grip him so hard I'm afraid to hurt him. I inhale the scent of his shirt, hoping to feel the same sense of familiarity as before, but I only get half of what I was used to. He isn't using the same detergent as before, but the sweet smell of him still coats the fabric, making it so hard for me to pull away. He wipes the tears that formed in my eyes as soon as I saw him.

"Hey beautiful," he says with the biggest smile illuminating his features.

"Hey handsome," I answer, probably with the same goofy smile. He gives me a firm kiss that makes my head spin before he lets go of me for the first time. He turns away from me to bend in front of the stroller. He unties the balloon from her wrist as he lifts her up. He holds her close to his chest for a few minutes, and I can hear him whisper in her ear how much he missed her. A few people stopped walking to watch the scene in front of them. I smile at a few of them before focusing on my boyfriend cuddling our baby.

"She's so big, El. Much bigger than in the pictures or on FaceTime," he says without taking his eyes away from her. He swings her on his hip making her giggle.