How Do We Do This?

Twenty Six

After getting up several times during the night, both Hailey and Jay were exhausted. Paislee was up right at 8 and running all over the house as usual while Riley slept in after being up so much.

"Paislee don't touch the presents okay? They're for tomorrow," Jay told the little one, watching her while she eyed the present.

"Wiwey?" She asked, walking over to her dad with her blanket in hand.

"Riley's sleeping still,"

"Why dada?" Paislee asked, climbing onto the couch carefully and into Jay's lap.

"Because Ri had a rough night honey, she didn't sleep good. She had some dreams that scared her and made her wake up so she's gonna sleep a little longer," he shrugged, trying his best to explain it to the 2-year-old.

"Otay," The little one nodded, jumping back off the couch and going back to her toys.

It wasn't more than an hour later when Riley came down the steps, still looking like she hadn't slept a wink.

"Morning kiddo,"

"Mhm," She mumbled, waving as she went to the kitchen, "Do we have any iced coffee?"

"Back of the fridge," She nodded, getting one of the coffee tumblers out of the cabinet while Riley got the coffee carton, creamer, and ice out.

"I feel like I didn't sleep at all,"

"Well, don't get addicted to coffee," Hailey told her.

"Like you would let me," Riley scoffed jokingly as she made her own little coffee concoction.

"Yeah, that's right," She nodded, "You hungry?"

"Not really,"

"Can you eat something?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"You do," She nodded, "But I really would like you to try,"

"Fine. Do we have any yogurt?"

"Yep. Vanilla or raspberry?"

"Vanilla please,"

Hailey nodded and grabbed the small container and a spoon, setting them both in front of Riley. "What's on your mind?"

"I don't know," Riley shrugged, "I just keep thinking about her,"

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Hailey asked, sitting on the stool beside Riley.

"I miss our little traditions on Christmas Eve. Instead of a big fancy dinner, she used to take me to Waffle House and we'd get breakfast for dinner. We'd drive around and look at Christmas lights after and then we'd both go to bed in her room, and we'd usually watch the first Santa Claus movie," She explained, stopping to take a bite of her yogurt, "Christmas morning we'd open gifts and cuddle all day after,"

"Sounds like it was just you 2?"

"Always," She smiled, "I knew she didn't have a lot moneywise but she always made me and our quality time a priority,"