Public Relations

I stood by the customs gate in the airport texting Sid. I kept looking up every once in awhile to make sure Reid and Lily hadn’t gotten in yet. The board said their plane would be landing soon. I was mid paragraph to Sid when I saw James’ name pop up on the top of my screen. I quickly finished my text to Sid and tapped on James’ name. I kept reading the text over and over again. He said he hoped work was going well and asked if I wanted to have lunch with him tomorrow. I decided not to answer just yet. I went back to Sid’s conversation when I heard a little squeal. I look up and saw Reid.
“Mommy!” Reid screams. He runs toward me. I put out my arms and catch him as he jumps into my arms. I pick him up and spin him around.
“My baby.” I say hugging him close. I put him back down on the ground and give him kisses all over his face.
“Mommy stop.” Reid screams. I start laughing.
“I missed my baby.” I say.
“Miss you.” Reid says.
“Lily.” I say pulling her into a hug. She hugged me back.
“I’m happy we’re finally here.” Lily says. She grabs the bags off the ground next to the pole.
“Let me help you.” I say to Lily.
“No you take Reid. I’ve got the bags.” She says smiling at me.
“Thanks.” I say picking up Reid. “I’m so happy you guys are here.”
“Happy, happy, happy.” Reid says clapping his hands together. As we walked through the lobby of the airport Reid told me all about his time with his father since I moved to Pittsburgh. When we got to the car I put Reid in his car seat and Lily put the bags in the car. We drove back to the house with Reid talking the entire way.

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After we got home I showed the two around the house and let Lily settle in before getting Reid back into the car to go to Olive Garden for dinner. Reid was so excited to see me. He also liked the fact that he got to take an airplane. He told me everything he could remember about the trip here on the way to the restaurant. Once we got there we went inside and were seated almost immediately. We were sitting at a booth near the far side of the restaurant. I was facing the door when I noticed Evgeni Malkin, Beau Bennett, Chris Kunitz and Brandon Sutter walk through the door. I quickly looked down at my son who was sitting across from me colouring on his children’s menu. I flipped the page of my menu and quickly glanced at them. It looked as though they would be sitting near us. I tired to cover as much of my face as I could as I looked through my menu. The hostess led the four guys past our table. Brandon Sutter was the trailing guy and he was the one who recognized me.
“Hey Alex.” Brandon says. I look up at him.
“Oh hi guys.” I say.
“Alex, Alex, Alex.” Reid says as he colours pink all over the page.
“What are you doing here?” Brandon asks. The other three guys had all stopped around the booth by now and were looking between my son and me.
“Just getting dinner.” I say.
“Who’s this little guy?” Beau asks looking at Reid. I take a deep breath.
“Guys this is my son, Reid.” I say.
“Son?” Evgeni asks.
“Yeah.” I say. “Reid, I work with these guys, they are hockey players like daddy.”
“Hockey.” Reid says. I smile.
“This is Brandon, Beau, Chris and Geno.” I say.
“Gego.” Reid says trying to repeat Geno. We all laugh.
“Hi.” Geno says giving Reid a high five.
“We will let you get back to you’re meal.” Brandon says. “Unless you want to join us.”
“I would, but my son just got here.” I say.
“No problem. Enjoy, see you at work tomorrow.” Brandon says.
“Bring your son if you want.” Beau says.
“Thanks guys.” I say. The four of them leave and I smile at Reid. He wasn’t paying attention at all. He was so busy colouring. I sigh. I wasn’t planning on having anyone meet my son like that. I quickly pull out my phone and text Sid what happened. He tells me not to worry that he will take car of everything. He will make sure they don’t tell anyone. It takes a load off my back and makes me feel better. I don’t want to hide my son from anyone because I’m not ashamed of him, but I want to be the one to tell James.

Notes

Just a short chapter tonight, a little filler chapter!
Exciting things to come over the next chapters !!!

enjoy xoxo ;