Epilogue
“Tessa,”I call through the house.
It isn’t as easy to find her as it was when we had our one-bedroom apartment in Seattle. When I signed with the Portland Wolves I went a little overboard and bought Tessa the kind of house she grew up in.
“That’s a lot of house for just the two of us,” she said.
It took me a little over a year to convince her, but after she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in journalism, we began trying for a baby.
A streak of dark hair and naked flesh zips past me, and I reach out and scoop up Ben. Tessa comes around the corner, panting and soaking wet.
“He fighting you on bath time again?” I ask.
“Whoever said the twos were terrible forgot to mention the terrifying threes.” She rubs her swollen belly. “If you hadn’t already knocked me up with this one, I swear Ben would be an only child.”
“Why are you giving your momma such a hard time?” I ask my son.
“Because I a mud monster,” Ben declares with as much authority as he can muster with his adorable toddler voice.
“You certainly are,” I agree.
“We were outside playing on the swing, but it started to rain. Bennie decided to stomp through all the mud puddles on the way back to the house. I’ve been chasing him to get him in the bath for half an hour. I almost had him, but I got more of myself in than him.”
He’s a little hell-raiser, and probably exactly how I’d have been if I were raised in a loving home. I love his curiosity, but Tessa needs some help now. I wish I could be the one here with her all day long as she finishes baking our little girl, but we do spend every free moment I have together.
“When is your mom coming?” I ask her.
“Tomorrow, and she’ll be here until this one comes.” She presses against her stomach. “Good timing too, because this one is kicking the hell out of my ribs.”
With our son held under my arm, I rub the spot I can see my daughter kicking. “You two are way too rough on your mom.”
Tessa sighs in relief, then shakes her head. “Of course, she already listens to you. You do have a way with women.”
“Just Shaw women. I don’t need anyone else.”
That means Tessa and my little angel on the way. I lost touch with my mother shortly after Wendell’s funeral. The one we didn’t attend. The fact she mourned the man who hurt my wife and tried to ruin my life more than once was the final insult to our relationship. I wish her well, as long as that’s away from me.
The season is starting again in a couple of months, and I’m already at practice for hours on end. Tessa wants to travel with me, but that’s getting harder and harder as our family grows. She doesn’t know this yet, but I’m not renegotiating my contract after this year. People are going to think I’m crazy, but everything I want is right here in front of me. Money is nothing more than a tool to provide what you need in life. My family has more than enough, but what I haven’t had enough of is time to spend with them.
“What are you thinking about?” she asks me.
“How lucky I am that you gave me another chance. I once promised myself I’d move on from you. I’ve never been so happy to break a promise.”
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