Epilogue
brOOKS
“ A nd that does it, folks, Bay Jacobs has officially taken the gold, a first for the oldest member of Team USA ? —”
A chorus of screaming and ecstatic laughter drowns the rest of the announcer’s words out, and I turn to watch my wife and brother-in-law jump up and down, waving their little flags and screaming their support of their older brother.
In my arms, my son covers his ears, wrinkling his nose at the enthusiastic display from his mother and uncle.
At just over four years old, Harbor Jacobs-Harrison is already proving to have inherited much more of Delta than me.
Our son is cheeky and determined, with the same bright gray eyes and pouty lips as his mother.
Our daughter, Spring, who is sound asleep in a sling on Delta’s chest, completely unaffected by the commotion, clearly takes after me.
“Mama!” Harbor squawks his protest, looking at me with his little eyebrows raised in alarm .
“Mama is excited.” I laugh, pulling him close and kissing his dark curls. “Uncle Bay is the winner!”
“Uncle Bay?” Harbor frowns, looking around the crowded section where the friends and family members of team members are gathered, scanning the crowd for his favorite uncle.
Conspicuously absent from our group is River. His relationship with my wife and her brothers hasn’t improved over the years.
All three of them have their own resentments and trauma from their years as River’s trophy children, and he’s too wrapped up in his shit to put much effort into repairing the damage. None of them are holding their breath waiting for it.
A few months after Delta and I got married, a national magazine published a very well-read exposé about corruption in the USSA, using River as a case study for everything wrong with the system.
The article was littered with stories of promising athletes who trained too hard, pushed through pain they should have been treating, and lost everything.
Notably among them was his own daughter.
Delta declined to comment. She was pregnant by then and working on publishing her first cookbook, too content in her life out of the spotlight to even consider stepping back into it.
Bay had no such qualms, and six months after the accident that ended his sister’s career, he gave a sit-down interview that sent waves through the professional snowboarding community.
If I’d known half of what he told the world when my wife was still training, I would have fought a hell of a lot harder to get her out, a hell of a lot sooner .
At the thought, I reach over and wrap an arm around Delta’s shoulders, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. Even through several puffy winter jackets and a baby sling, the feeling of her beautiful curves is enough to send heat through my body.
“Have something on your mind, Doctor Harrison?” Delta asks, looking cute as hell as she smirks up at me.
A figure breaks away from the crowd of athletes a hundred yards away and jogs right for us, his smile visible even from here.
“Uncle Bay!” Harbor squeals, spotting him and stretching his arms over the metal partition as Bay approaches to take him from me.
“Congratulations!” I laugh, gripping his shoulder as Delta and Lake engulf Bay in a hug, Harbor’s face sticking out of the mess of jacketed arms. I can see media cameras zooming in on the scene, eager for a clip of the legendary Jacobs siblings celebrating Bay’s triumph.
“Can you believe it?” Delta cries, wiping her eyes when Bay hands back our son and heads off to the podium for his big moment.
She got back on a snowboard for the first time, since she retired, only a few months ago. Lake and Bay were over at our house, showing the kids a video of their mama’s gold medal event and Harbor had excitedly asked Delta if he could do that too.
It was a tense moment, and Delta’s eyes had flown to mine, glimmering with a hint of the old pain I once saw in them far too often.
The next day, when I got home from work, I found Lake standing on the deck with Spring in his arms, looking down at two figures wearing snowboards on the snow-covered back hill.
I stood with them for a long time, my heart in my throat as Delta taught our son to snowboard.
They were out there for over an hour, and when Harbor started sniffing that he’d had enough, Delta picked him up and headed right back to the house. No questions asked.
Whenever I’ve thought I couldn’t possibly love her more, my wife finds a way to prove me wrong.
“What?” Delta elbows me, wiping her eyes again, “Don’t laugh. I know I’m a sap, I’m just so proud of him.”
I shake my head, chuckling. “I love you, that’s all.
” She sighs, leaning her head against my shoulder as we watch Bay step up on the podium to accept his medal, the crowd roaring around us.
It’s a big moment for any athlete, but it might be especially big for my brother-in-law and I’m fucking proud of him too.
“You know, you were pregnant the last time you cried this much,” I muse, leaning down so only Delta can hear. Her head whips back around to look at me, eyes huge. “Oh no. No way. Spring isn’t even one!”
I chuckle. “Just pointing it out.” But I can tell she’s thinking over the last few weeks, trying to remember when her period is due.
Four days ago, but I’m going to let her realize that on her own.
It’s been a chaotic week, traveling overseas with the kids to see Bay compete, and her being late could be put down to stress.
It isn’t, though. It’s down to the first weekend we spent away from the kids, locked in a hotel room to celebrate our anniversary.
Delta shakes her head in disbelief, but her eyes are sparkling and she’s fighting a smile.
“We’re insane. I can’t believe this.” I pull her close again, wishing there were words strong enough to tell her what she means to me, or how grateful I am for her.
I was alone once, and there are days when I can’t fight off the nagging worry that I will be again, that all the love and joy in my life will all turn out to be a dream.
It isn’t though, this is my life, my family, and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to be worthy of every gift Delta has given me.
“We are insane.” I’m beaming, unable to wipe the grin off my face for even a second as I hold my family close. “There are only so many bodies of water that make appropriate baby names.”