Traveling on Christmas week is rough enough as it is, but enduring this weather, and the traffic difficulties it inspires makes things even worse. Mike sighs and buries himself under as many blankets and sheets as he can manage before grabbing his phone and calling AJ. "Hey, sweetheart," he says once she answers. "Good to see your face."
"Hey, Mike," she says tenderly. "Heard weather was kind of impossible this weekend, huh?"
"You have no idea," he sighs, closing his eyes. "Remind me to leave even earlier for tours in December, please."
She smiles. "I will make sure to do that," she tells him. "So you're safely at the hotel at least?"
"Yeah. It took forever, but here I am." He runs the phone around the ring, letting her look it over. "How are the kids doing?"
"Good," she says. "They loved their gifts, and they enjoyed spending the day with uncles John and Heath and Aunts Taya and Maryse. I could barely get them to sleep tonight though, they look forward to the voice chat in the morning with you."
Mike smiles. "I look forward to it too, sweetheart. But it sounds like we both had long days, so I'm going to let you go so we can get some sleep."
"You just want to cocoon your hands up in all of your blankets, don't you?" she asks with a soft laugh.
"... You know me too well," he says, grimacing. "This weather is why I left Ohio and never really looked back."
"I know it is," she chuckles. "I'll talk to you in the morning."
He smiles. "Looking forward to it. Stay warm and sleep well, I'll talk to you then."
She blows a kiss at him before the screen darkens and Mike drops back against the pillows, rolling around until he's covered head to toe in nice, thick blankets, eager to sleep through the worst of the cold. "Hopefully it warms up before we have to leave for the show," he mumbles, eyes drifting shut.