Chapter 2 #2
“I hope Junior sticks with it,” Lee said of his own son. “Definitely prefer this to watching basketball.”
I chuckled, holding out my fist for a bump. “That we can agree on.”
A whistle blew, and their coach rounded them up at center ice, taking a knee to get down to their level to speak with them. They came in for a brief huddle before he let them go.
Lee and I headed around to the other side where they’d come off the ice, joining the rest of the parents waiting for their kids. Soon the line of them was clomping down the rubber mats and throwing themselves at their moms and dads.
I crouched when Noah appeared, and he ran right for me.
“Dad!” he shouted happily when I scooped him off his feet.
“Hey, bud. How was practice?”
“Sooooo good,” he said excitedly. “I scored two goals on Coach.”
“Two? Okay, Gretzky, I see you.”
He cocked his head to the side and regarded me thoughtfully. “Who’s that?”
I groaned. “If you’re going to play hockey, we gotta teach you about the greats, kiddo. Maybe we’ll go to the library next week and see what we can find for books to improve your knowledge.”
Noah fist pumped. “Heck yeah!”
Grinning, I returned him to his feet, then led him into the locker room. He dropped onto a bench next to his equipment bag, bent over, and started unlacing his skates like a seasoned pro.
We got him into skating lessons when he was only four as a way to stay active in the winter. Lily was in dance, and we wanted Noah to have something of his own.
Of course, he’d taken to it like a fish to water, and the rest was history.
I took his skate guards out of his bag and put them over the blades while he slipped off his pads and handed them to me to put away. He slipped some sweats on over his base layer, shrugged into his coat, and we were off.
“It’s Friday, right?” he asked.
“Sure is,” I said with a grin.
“Yes!” he shouted. “I can’t wait to see Grammy.”
I chuckled. Mama had taken to being a grandma exactly as she had to being a mom, though her grandkids were far more spoiled than we’d ever been. Lily and Noah routinely had sleepovers at the ranch with all of their cousins.
Secretly, my brothers, our spouses, and I agreed they liked her more than they liked their parents.
Heading out of town, I bypassed the road that led to our house and traveled deeper into the valley until the entrance to the ranch appeared.
A few years ago, the weathered wooden sign had been replaced by a custom metal one, and it creaked on its hinges as it swung in the gentle breeze, illuminated by my headlights as we swung down the drive.
Noah was damn near vibrating in his seat by the time we pulled to a stop out front. He unbuckled and threw the door open before I even shut the truck off, taking off across the yard, up the steps, and disappearing inside.
When I didn’t find Sutton’s SUV among the other vehicles parked around my truck, I got out slower, clicking into the Find My Friends app on my phone to see where Sutton and Lily were.
Before her location had a chance to load, a set of headlights appeared down the lane and approached, and my wife parked a moment later.
Walking over, I opened the back door for Lily, who launched herself at me. I swung my girl around in a circle, peppering her freckled cheeks with kisses.
“Daddyyyyyyy,” she protested though she was giggling.
“I haven’t seen you all day,” I said, putting her back on her feet. “I missed you.”
“I missed you.”
“How was dance?” I asked, taking her hand and pulling her around the front to greet Sutton, who took my other hand. Then I walked my girls up to the house.
“Amazing,” she gushed. “I almost nailed my aerial.”
“Lils!” I exclaimed. “That’s amazing, baby girl.”
“She’ll get it next class for sure,” Sutton said, grinning down at our daughter.
“Get what next class?” Mama asked when we stepped inside, approaching us, though she bypassed me and Sutton for Lily.
“My aerial!” Lily told her grandma excitedly.
“Oh, I can’t wait to see!” Mama replied with equal enthusiasm as she pulled Lily deeper into the house.
As the family had grown, Mama decided to expand the informal dining room, creating room for not one but two tables—one for the adults and one for the kids—with plenty of space to move around and a large fridge she kept stocked with drinks and leftovers.
The room was already chaotic when we walked in.
Noah sat at the kids’ table, head bent over a LEGO set he and a few of his cousins had been working on the last few times we’d come over.
Mama let Lily go, and she bounded over to sit between a few of my nieces, immediately launching into conversation about this book series they were reading together.
Kids content, I turned my attention to the adult table, where Crew and Aspen, and Finn and Reagan sat.
“Where are the other two?” I asked, referencing my missing siblings.
Well, the ones that lived here anyway. Owen, of course, was still in Michigan with Delia and their four kids, and Aria and her husband had their home base in Tennessee—though they traveled a lot and were rarely there.
Mama shrugged. “On their way, I’m assuming. Help me start bringing stuff in.”
The six of us obliged, carrying in platters of food—doubles of everything, half to one table, half to the other—and setting them down the centers.
Trey and West soon arrived with their wives and kids, and we dug in. After we finished, the kids headed outside to play what was sure to be an elaborate and competitive game of flashlight tag, and us adults settled in the den with a nightcap.
As the conversation flowed around me, I tugged Sutton deeper into my side, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
She shifted to look up at me. “You’re quiet tonight.”
“Just taking it all in.”
Her eyes glinted as she smiled. “You happy, Chief?”
“Very. I’m the luckiest man in the world, sunny.”