22. Letter
Letter
Splash,
I had a very high-stakes, incredibly intense meeting today. I was entirely at the mercy of a six-year-old.
My teammate, Logan, do you remember me mentioning him, the defenseman who basically lives on protein shakes, asked me to babysit his daughter, Willow, for a few hours.
Splash, this kid completely rules my life, and she knows it.
She has these giant bright eyes, she’s currently missing her two front teeth, and she adores me for reasons I will never understand.
Personally, I think it’s because I let her paint my fingernails neon pink last summer.
Anyway, I told her we could do whatever she wanted, so naturally, she demanded ice cream.
We walked down to this little parlor near the rink.
Picture this: I am six-foot-two, weighing over two hundred pounds, wearing a leather jacket, and I am being forcefully dragged down the sidewalk by a tiny girl in a sparkly unicorn tutu and light-up sneakers.
She ordered a waffle cone with three massive scoops of bubblegum ice cream covered in rainbow sprinkles, hot fudge, and gummy bears. It looked like an absolute crime scene. I tried to tell her that the whole thing was going to collapse, but she was having absolutely none of it!
We sat outside on a bench in the sun, and she spent an hour telling me all about her kindergarten class and how a boy named Leo stole her green crayon, so she told him he was officially banned from her birthday party.
She is fiercely protective of her crayons, Splash.
I told her I highly respected her boundaries.
By the time Logan came to pick her up, she was completely covered in blue sticky syrup, I had a giant smear of chocolate on my favorite shirt, and she fell asleep right against my shoulder while we waited.
Holding her like that, my chest just felt so full.
It made me realize how much I want a family of my own someday. A real, quiet life away from the noise.
I found myself wishing you were sitting on that bench with us. I think Willow would love you. I told her about my soldier pen pal who draws ducks, and she wants me to ask you if ducks like bubblegum ice cream. Please say no, because I don’t want to have to buy a duck a waffle cone.
I hope this brings a little sunshine your way today. I sent a box of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies this morning. Let me know if they survive Brody.
Jackson