One Night ✔

16. Parenting

Another hour passes before I finally make it to the kitchen to start breakfast since I had to wait for Lucas to finish his shower before taking mine. I gather all the ingredients for French toast and turn on the stove, hearing footsteps behind me. "Good morning sweetheart" I exclaim brightly without turning around from the pan I'm buttering.

"Sweetheart? That's a new one."

I whip around and instead of finding my daughter standing behind me, I find Lucas. "Oh" I blush. "S-sorry, I thought you were Avery."

He laughs as he walks over to the coffee pot and pours himself a cup. "I kinda figured."

I smile as he leans against the counter with his coffee in hand. "You still drink your coffee black?" I ask, scrunching my nose up at him. He nods, bringing the mug to his lips. "Have I told you how disgusting that is?" I ask and he chuckles as he places the mug on the counter behind him.

"Once or twice" he nods. I remember in high school, I had an obsession with the frappuccinos at my mom's bakery and Lucas would always make fun of me for getting "whipped cream" instead of coffee and I would always argue that it was better than the bitter taste of pure coffee. "Whatcha making?" he asks, motioning his head to the ingredients beside me.

"French toast" I reply, cracking a few eggs into a bowl. "Do you still like French toast?" I ask, leaning my hands against the counter.

"Of course I do" he agrees. "Do you maybe want some help?" he asks, buttoning up the sleeves of his flannel.

A smile pulls at my lips. Cooking was never something we did together when we were younger since my mom was the chef in my house and his father was the chef in his. We always had the best food from them so we never bothered to cook for ourselves. "Sure" I agree.

He nods, taking another sip of his coffee before moving to stand beside me. He grabs a few eggs and cracks them into the bowl and when we have enough I let him whisk. "So, what time does Av usually get up?" Lucas asks curiously as he reaches for the loaf of bread.

I shrug. "It varies. Depends on how long she stays up on the phone with Hayden" I chuckle before realizing the mistake I just made.

His eyes narrow at me. "Hayden? Who is that?"

My heart stops in my chest as I try to think of a way out of this. "He uh, he's a friend of Avery's."

"A friend?" he questions. "Who she stays up all night talking to?"

Shit. Stupid ski lodge. Stupid Evan.

"And with the right person you can talk all night."

"Morning" Avery yawns, padding into the kitchen. She walks over to the fridge and pulls out a carton of orange juice, shaking it up.

"Morning sweetheart" I greet her, ignoring the glare from Lucas who clearly wanted more information. "How'd you sleep?" I ask as she pours her glass of juice and takes a long sip.

"Fine. Hayden was having a bad night though, his parents kept him up because they were fighting so we talked for a bit."

"I'm sorry his parents are fighting" I reply with a frown as Lucas starts placing the bread on the pan. "I'd say he could come over tonight but-."