Chapter 53

***Thought I woulda gotten this up sooner but with the combo of my birthday and finals, I got super busy. Another one should be up soon. :)
~J

Before we knew it, it was time to fly back to Chicago. The trip here and gone by so fast, but I was soon realizing more that Chicago was really my place to call home, and I loved it, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The day after getting back home, Easton had another check up, Dr. K just wanted to look at him and see how he did on the trip, and he turned a month old on that day…a month old already…couldn’t even believe it!

The middle of July, it was the hottest it had been in a while and I was so glad I wasn’t pregnant during this time of year, because I knew I would be miserable. Our one-year anniversary was here and Jon had everything planned out, he sure didn’t disappoint me, but then again he never does. Patrick and Abby had watched Easton for a few hours again, while Jon took me to dinner on a riverboat he had rented for the night. He also got an anniversary band to add with my engagement ring and wedding band, which was absolutely beautiful.

Jon had been doing some work with Jake for a fundraiser that would be held during the first week of preseason, and since it wasn’t one that the Better Halves weren’t helping with, Dayna and I decided to take our boys and spend the day downtown. We were about to go for lunch when I saw Jordan and Marc walking towards us

“Why hello, Mrs. Toews!” Jordan said
“Hi Jordan! Hi Marc!” I say giving them hugs
“How’s it going? How’s the little one?” Jordan asks
“Good! He’s good too,” I say, lifting the blanket up for the guys to see
“What’s his name?” Marc asks
“Easton,”
“And yours?” he asks Dayna
“Austin,” She replies
“Wow, handsome little boys you ladies have,”
“Thanks!” we both say
“So what are ya’ll doing out here?” I ask
“We just wanted to get away from T-Bay for a while,”
“You’re a horrible liar, you know that, Jordan?”
“That’s why you shoulda asked me! And I take it you haven’t been at the UC lately?”
“No, I asked Stan if they needed help with free agency or anything and he said he’d let me know,”
“So that explains why you didn’t know that I’m a Hawk now?”
“Are you serious??”
“Yeah, Stan picked me up on FA day, Jon didn’t tell you?”
“No, he hasn’t been there either, we went to New Mexico then we’ve been hanging out here with Easton,”
“Oh, where is he anyways?”
“At the arena actually, Jake is having a fundraiser the week of preseason, so he asked Jon and Troy to help him and Stan with everything,”
“So they wouldn’t care if we stole you for lunch for the day?”
“I doubt it, it’s not like we’re going with strangers, and Jon and Brent know both of you,”
“Ok, where should we go?”
“You guys pick,”
“You sick of the Cheesecake Factory?”
“Psh, I could never get sick of that place, what do you think, D?”
“That’s fine with me,”

Lunch with the boys was a good one, I was excited to have a Staal on the team, but was curious to know who else we added to the team and if anyone left. And with being behind on all the news, I decided to call Stan to see if he needed me, which he did, so I told him I’d be at the office the next day to help with things.

Once I had gotten home, Jon and I were laying on the couch with Easton watching TV when he had told me that Campbell got traded to Ottawa, so sad, because he was definitely a favorite, and Lauren was such a nice girl too, so it would definitely be different without them there.

The summer was coming to an end and everyone had started coming home. Marc made the move out here with his wife and their daughter, Noelle, with the help of his brothers; they bought a 3-bedroom condo in the same building as Jon and I.

Kane and Bridget had returned home as well, after spending time in Buffalo, and then Minnesota with her family. Incase I forgot to mention, Bridget is a bartender at Underground, me and her had been talking one night while she was making our drinks, and she had talked about how much she loved the guys and that Kane was her favorite player. I mentioned that we were good friends and I could talk to him. One thing led to another and after a few dates, they were official. Thanks to me ☺

There were a lot of changes over the summer, and a lot that I hadn’t noticed since Stan gave me some off time after Easton was born. I was still doing PR stuff, but I had been offered to take over Lauren’s spot as head of the Better Halves Organization, I thought Abby or someone who was there longer would have wanted it, but she turned it down, so I took it. Crawford has a few more years on his contract and Ty Conklin was picked up as the back up goalie. Kopecky and Campoli were both traded also, Kopy went to Vancouver, and Camp went to Anaheim. So there were some major changes, but we still had the core of Jon, Kaner, Sharpie, Taylor, Seabs, Hammer, Army and Greener, along with everyone else.

I was in my office for the first time the next day, and without Lauren there, it was weird being there, kind of sad too. But she gave me a picture frame with a picture of me and her with our hubby’s that I put on our desk next to the picture of Jon and I with Easton, oh yeah that was another thing we had done over the summer was take family pictures with Stephanie, who had done our engagement pictures. We spent a few hours at her studio one day just before Easton turned 2 months old; it made for a fun day.