Epilogue
The Beginning
“For the first pick of the 2014 NFL draft the Cleveland Browns select Michael Lachey quarterback from Ole Miss” The man standing behind the podium on stage said.
The eight people who were sitting around Mike erupted in cheers, as did the slew of Browns fans in the audience. Jen was standing before Mike could make it to his feet and wrapped her arms around him. “You did it babe.” She whispered in his ear.
Mike gave her a kiss then had to peel him away as he began to shake the numerous amounts of hands that were currently outstretched to him.
Mr. and Mrs. Lachey were standing just next to Jen waiting their turns for hugs and to give congratulations.
“We are so proud of you Mal.” Mr. Lachey said as he gave Mike a hug.
Mrs. Lachey was too busy crying to force out any words as she too hugged him.
Mike gave her a kiss on the check and began to move towards the stage. “Thank you… Thank you...” He repeated as the congratulations came pouring in with the handshakes.
When Mike finally made it to the stage another round of applause broke out as he held the brown jersey with the bright number one on it.
“Congratulations son.” The man at the podium said as he shook Mike’s hand and posed for pictures with him. “I look forward to seeing you play.”
“Thank you Sir. I look forward to playing.” Mike gave him a smile and turned to wave at the crowd as he began to walk down the steps and off the stage. Even though all he wanted to do was get back to his family and Jen he was stopped time and time again by this reporter or that reporter wanting interviews.
They all asked the same questions over and over again. “How does it feel to be drafted number one?” and “How do you think you’ll be able to adjust to the NFL?” or “What are your plans now?”
It was nearly an hour before he made it back to his table. “That was brutal.” He said as he handed his brown jersey with the large white number one on it to Jen.
She held the jersey up and spread it out. “We are going to frame this.” She passed it along to Mr. and Mrs. Lachey. “This has been so exciting I have to say.” She reached out and took Mike’s hand. “So looks like we are moving to Cleveland.”
Mike smiled. “Yes it does.” There were the few stragglers who would come up and shake his hand but most everyone else was now focused back on the stage as the rest of the year’s draft picks were called.
He looked up in the audience and saw a cluster of people all adorned in Browns jerseys. They caught his eye and began to wave and cheer. He saw a young boy who was sitting on the end of the isle. He was waving at Mike as he held a football in is other hand. “Be right back babe.” He gave Jen a kiss on the check then made his way through the crowd of people on the main floor and walked up the stairs and into the stands. He climbed the steps all the way to the top and scooted to the other side so he could come down the stairs on the side with the Browns fans. He walked down and sat on the end of the row behind the young boy. He pressed his finger against his mouth to the man he sat next to telling him not to mention he was here. “What do you guys think about the draft so far?” He asked.
“I’m liking it; think it’ll be a good season.” The man who was sitting next to the young boy said.
“Yeah I am seeing a good season too.” Mike said smiling as the guy in front of him was unaware of whom he was talking to. The guy who was sitting next to Mike began to laugh.
The guy in front of him must have been curious as to why the fan behind him was laughing because he finally turned around. “Oh.” Was all he let out. He tapped on the boys shoulder and signaled for him to look behind him. The little boys face lit up as he saw who was there.
“You must be one big Cleveland fan to sit through the draft. I certainly couldn’t have done it when I was your age.” Mike gave the kid a big smile. “Between us I can barely do it now.”
The little kid let out a laugh. “I was hoping to get some autographs.” He said as he held up his football and his marker.
“Well I’ll start it for you if you want.”
“Yes please!” The little kid handed Mike his ball and marker.
“What’s your name?” He asked as he took off the cap to the marker
“Alex.”
Mike signed the ball and handed it back to him. “There you go. So you play ball?”
The kid nodded his head.
“What position?”
“Wide receiver.” The boy said.
“Well if everything goes right I could be throwing you the ball in about ten years.” Mike smiled.
He remained in the stands talking with the group of people for about thirty minutes when his phone rang. “Uh oh.” He said as he answered. “Yeah be right there.” He hung his phone up and slid it back in his pocket. “Well that was the better half and I am needed. It has been fun and can’t wait to see you at the games.” He shook their hands and then made his way back down to his table.
“Where did you go?” Jen asked as he took his seat next to her.
“Talked to them.” He pointed up into the stands.
She turned and saw a large group of people waving in their direction. She smiled and waved back. “Well did you have fun?”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “It’s amazing how honest fans are sometimes.”
The rest of the night Mike sat at his table talking to everyone there about how he thought he was going to fit in with his new team and how he was going to like living in Cleveland. When the Browns made their second pick he had gotten up to go briefly talk to the guy but when he was done he came and sat back down at his table.
He had been looking forward to this night just about his entire life and now that it was here he couldn’t wait for it to be over. When they finally called the last player to be picked for the day and he was done with his interviews the building began to slowly empty. Mike and his crew were some of the first ones out. The outside of the building was crawling with more reporters and people taking pictures. He stopped and did a couple of quick interviews and to take the occasional picture but did his best to go unnoticed. When they all made it to the lot where they parked they all climbed into his car and began the drive to the airport so they could catch a plane to take them back home.
Luckily there were a lot of the players from the day at the airport so he wasn’t the only one there people would focus on. He managed to miss a lot of the people and made it relatively unbothered to the ticket counter where he picked up the tickets for Jen and him to get back home.
“You sure you want to leave so soon?” Mr. Lachey asked as Mike handed him the keys to the car. “I mean still a lot to do.”
“Yeah just want to get back home for some peace and quiet for a while.”
“Ok then suit yourself.”
They all gave their farewell hugs then Mike and Jen boarded the plan. Being on the plan was a nice relief from crowd after crowd he had been going through since he started the day. No one on the plane seemed to care that he was there which was just fine by him. In college he had gotten his fair share of fans that would come up to him but now he was on a whole new level and he wasn’t used to it yet.
“Six hours and it’ll be back to normal for a while.” Jen said as she buckled herself into her seat. “It is going to be so nice to relax.”
“I know what you mean.” Mike took her hand in his and brought it up to his lips to kissed it. “It’s been crazy.”
After the plane was in the air and after a couple glasses of the complimentary champagne they dozed off and didn’t wake up till the stewardess began her pre landing speech.
Once the plane landed they made their way through the airport which was way less crowded than the one in New York. They made their way to the baggage claim grabbed their bag and made it out to their car without a single person stopping them.
“You want to call everyone and tell them that we landed and everything is going ok?” Mike asked as he started the car and
pulled out of the parking lot.
“I’ll just text.” Jen said as she pulled her phone out of her purse. “I really don’t feel like calling.”
“Either way babe.”
She began to send out text after text letting everyone know that they were off the plane and everything was going well, then sent out another round after she received her responses. Once she was done she placed her phone back into her purse and slid as close to Mike as she could. She laid her head on his shoulder and within minutes she was asleep.
The nap on the plan was enough for him and with a few presses of the buttons on the steering wheel music began to softly play. He didn’t really think about much on the drive which was nice considering the busy few months he has had since the end of his college football career. Before he knew it the ride was over and he was pulling into the driveway of Wes and Emily’s house. This is the first time he had been back since the night that He, Jen, Grant, and Tracy had fought and gotten rid of the evil spirit of Warren Montgomery and the demon that was attached to him. If I told anyone about that night I’d get committed. He thought to himself as he shut the car engine off.
The house’s windows were lit from the lights that were on inside. “Wake up babe we’re here.” He gently kissed Jen’s forehead waking her up. Jen groggily woke and they climbed out of the car.
Before they could even close the car doors the porch light came on and the front door of the house opened. Out walked Tracy and Grant to greet them at the porch steps.
“Hey guys.” Tracy said as she gave Jen a big hug. “How was the trip?”
“Crazy.” Jen said as she was now hugging Grant. “Crazy and busy but fun.”
“Nice to be back here that’s for sure.” Mike said as he gave Tracy a hug. “Can’t wait to get out of this suit and relax.
“I bet.” Grant took the bag from Mike and they made their way inside the house.
“Oh wow.” Jen said as they entered the large great room. “It actually looks like people live here now.” She smiled.
“We just added a few things here and there that’s all” Tracy said returning her smile.
“Yeah homey stuff though, like pictures.” Jen pointed at some of pictures that now hung on the walls. “How are you two settling in here?”
“What the hell?” Mike interrupted as he pointed to a small black box on the mantle. “Is that THE box?”
“Yeah.” Grant said. “Only safe place for it really. Can’t take the chance of it being opened.”
“I guess but still.” Mike shook his head as he turned away from it.
“As I was saying…” Jen said with a smile. “How are you two settling in here?”
“Oh it’s amazing.” Tracy answered. “We have so much room here, way more than we’d ever have in some cruddy apartment and to top it all off we have more than enough room to run our business from here after we graduate.”
“So you two are actually going to start it? Even after what we went through to get rid of the evil here? You’re going to go do it around the world?
“Where ever anyone needs help. We think it’s our calling and now living here we will be able to invest our money in starting everything up.” Grant sat Mike’s bag down next to the double doors. “We can’t thank you guys enough.”
“Don’t have to thank us.” Mike said as he began looking at some of the photos that hung on the wall. “They wanted you to stay here and now I don’t have to worry about the house falling apart while we’re in Cleveland.”
“Speaking of them where are they?” Jen asked.
“Upstairs they have been waiting for you to get back.” Tracy answered. “I told them you would be here soon so I’d imagine they’ll be down.”
“I hope so. I want to change.” Mike said as he moved on to another photo. “I like this one.” In the photo stood two faint figures hand in hand, they were easily recognizable.
“It’s our favorite too.” A male voice said from the direction of the double doors leading to the front room.
“There you two are.” Jen said as she looked around to see Emily and Wes standing in the doorway.
“How was the trip?” Emily asked in her almost musical voice. “Did everything go well?”
“Yeah it did.” Mike said as he turned around. “Went very well. Have to say I’m glad it’s all over though.”
“We saw it on the TV. So you’ll be moving to Cleveland?” Wes asked. “They have snow there you know.”
“Yeah.” Jen could see a ting of sadness on Emily’s face. “We will have time to come back during the off season though we’ve already planned it out.” She smiled hoping it would cheer her up some.
“Yeah I have to go out in a couple weeks and then I’m going to fly back and get Jen after her graduation.” Mike was now standing behind Jen. “Plus I was hoping we could have the wedding here.”
Jen scrunched her eyes in confusion. “What are you talking about?” She turned to see Mike down on one knee, his hand out in front of him with the diamond ring his father had given him between his fingers.
“Jennifer Hale.” He said with a smile across his face. “I knew when I met you that you were going to be someone special in my life.”
Jen’s hands shot up to her mouth as a few tears began to roll down her cheeks.
“There is no one I’d rather spend the rest of my life with than you. Will you do me the great honor of being my wife?”
Everyone stood in silence waiting for the answer.
“Of course.” She reached down exposing her fingers. “Yes of course I will.”
Mike slid the ring onto her finger then sprang up to his feet and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you Jennifer.” He leaned down and kissed her on the lips.
The sound of a champagne bottle popping open came from the direction of Grant. Jen looked over. “You all knew?”
“Of course not.” Tracy said as she was holding the champagne glasses as Grant began to fill them. “Well maybe a little.” She smiled. “Congratulations you two.”
Everyone else in the room voiced their congratulations.
“Thanks.” Jen said as she took two glasses from Tracy and handed one to Mike. Jen and the girls migrated to an area of the room discussing the ring and the proposal. Jen already making plans for the wedding.
This left the three guys near the fireplace. “Wes.” Mike turned and faced him. “In your journals, knowing what you knew why in the hell would write about sleeping with her.” He lifted his hand that held the glass of champagne and pointed at Emily.
“He what?” Emily blurted out in surprise from half way across the room.
Wes smiled. “I didn’t put in all the details.”
Emily began to shake her head. Her checks began to darken. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Mike was being an asshole.”
“So you did it for payback?” Mike looked at Wes with half a smile. “That is wrong man.”
“Well I guess we’re even.” Wes said with a smile.
“Oh but we’re not.” Emily gave him a heated glare still standing with the girls across the room.
Everyone else in the room couldn’t help but smile and eventually even Emily let out a laugh.
The rest of the night was spent laughing into the late hours of the night. Mike, who had lost so much without even knowing it, had found everything he lost and so much more.
###
Thank you for reading my very first novel. I am glad you made it all the way through. If you truly enjoyed it, here are some sites that you can find a bit more about me, contact me, and even see info on the new novels I will be working on. Once again Thank You!
https://www.jasonagrimm.com
https://www.twitter.com/jasonagrimm
https://www.facebook.com/jasonagrimmofficial
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Unliving Love Page 48