Page 96 of Pipe Dreams
Elsa groaned, because the idea of bleeding in front of your classmates was universally acknowledged to be a fate worse than death.
“We’ll buy some pads in the hotel gift shop on our way to the game, all right? I’ll stash them in my purse.”
Elsa risked a glance in Lauren’s direction. “Thank you,” she said gruffly.
“It’s nothing, honey. I know it seems like a huge deal today. But you get really good at handling the details, and life goes on. You can ask me for anything, okay? One of these days you’ll be ready to handle tampons, which makes life even easier. But today is probably not that day.”
“Ew, no,” Elsa said, and Lauren had to bite back her smile.
There was a crash in the other room, and Lauren jumped. A split second later, Mike appeared in the doorway between the two hotel rooms, his face red, his eyes wild. “What happened?” he panted.
For a second, Lauren just blinked. “You’re supposed to be at the rink!”
“No kidding! But I got a call from you on my phone that there’s some kind of crisis. I texted you back a hundred times with no answer.”
“Omigod,” Lauren said, sitting up straighter. “The message I left! I’msosorry. We’re fine.”
“Looks that way.” He bent over and grabbed his knees. “Jesus. Ran all the way here.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Elsa said quickly. “You’d better get back. Like, yesterday.”
He stood up and leaned on the doorjamb. “You two sure you’re okay? Want to tell me what happened?”
“Later,” Lauren said.
His eyes shifted to Elsa. “Young lady, were you causing drama?”
Lauren tried to meet his gaze and tell him to drop it, but his eyes had a laserlike focus on his daughter.
Elsa swallowed. “I wouldn’t come out of the bathroom because I got, uh, my period.”
His expression went from angry to shocked to completely uncomfortable in about two seconds. “Oh,” he said slowly. “Uh, okay. And...” He scratched his chin. “Is that, uh, working out all right?”
“Yup,” Elsa said quickly. “You can go back to guarding the net now.”
“Right,” he said.
“Right,” Lauren repeated.
“So... I’m just going to...” He pointed over his shoulder.
“Stop ’em all,” Elsa encouraged.
“Stay sharp,” Lauren added.
He gave them both one more appraising look. Then he turned around and disappeared. The next sound was the hotel room door shutting again.
“Whoops,” Lauren said into the silence.
“Yeah,” Elsa whispered. “Did you...” A hysterical giggle bubbled out of her chest. “...see the look on his face?”
“I did.” Lauren kept it together for about two seconds before bursting out in laughter.
“He was like,oh, omigod,” Elsa giggled.
“Any topic but that,” Lauren added, her stomach contracting with more laughter. It was a few minutes before they could calm down. “We should go or we’ll miss the beginning.”
“Okay.” Elsa got off the bed carefully. She looked a little freaked out again.
