Love of the Game - The Complete Collection (Box Set)

by Shayne McClendon

  They ran around for most of the afternoon, Kenzie calling Thad to check in every couple of hours. When they were headed back to the house, she called and he didn’t answer, which made her nervous.

  “He’s probably in the bathroom. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Walking up the apartment stairs, their arms loaded with grocery bags, they were laughing as they opened the front door.

  Almost every member of their families were standing in her living room.

  Jenna LeBlanc was holding Dalton and cooing to him as if he was a little baby. He was laughing and hugging her. “Hi, Mommy! Hi, Daddy! I missed you. Dese are my ot’er uncles and I have a grandma! Bonnie has a grandma dat picks her up sometimes, now I have a grandma! Wait ‘til I tell Bonnie!”

  Digger and Kat, Damien and Cristiana, Dean and Jackie, Justin and Jon, and Jenna all stood staring at them. Thad was leaning against the kitchen wall.

  “Hi,” was all MacKenzie could manage.

  Jenna handed Dalton to Digger with a kiss and approached MacKenzie. Looking pointedly at her other sons, they all rushed forward to grab bags of groceries and take them in the kitchen.

  “Mommy! You got me steak! You gonna make me a steak…I’m starvin’!”

  “I’ll…make you food in just a minute, baby. Give Mommy a minute.”

  Jenna smiled. “You know it only gets worse, right? He’s going to be huge.” She looped her arm through Kenzie’s and led her to her bedroom. “Let’s talk for just a minute, honey.”

  Entering the bedroom, Jenna closed the door and turned to MacKenzie. “I want to tell you I completely understand why you made the choices you did. I also want to say you are never to put Diesel’s happiness above your own again.”

  She took Kenzie’s face in her hands. “You’ve led a rough life. You deserve happiness, too. You’re part of our family now, and we’ll be here for anything you need. You’ve done a great job with him, MacKenzie. Dalton is happy and brilliant. I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

  The two women laughed and then they were crying and hugging one another.

  Diesel knocked softly on the door and they let him in. When he saw they’d both been crying, he hugged them both.

  “Kenzie agreed to marry me, Mom.” She whooped and hugged her son for a long time.

  “I’m so glad this all worked out.” She swept past them to the living room and shouted, “We have a wedding to plan!”

  Kenzie entered the living room to squeals of happiness, engulfed in hugs and kisses from her younger siblings. Each of Diesel’s brothers hugged her and welcomed her to the family.

  Hours later, they all went to dinner, thirteen people laughing and talking while the males, including Dalton, consumed more food in one sitting than the women ate in a week.

  Diesel leaned in and whispered in her ear, “We’re picking out your ring tomorrow before I head to practice. My brothers and your sisters are arguing over who gets to stay with Thad and Dalton…we have the house to ourselves.”

  She didn’t bother to hide the shiver of anticipation the news caused her. “I have plenty of suggestions to keep us busy, MacKenzie.” He caught her earlobe between his teeth and she whimpered quietly.

  “Mommy!” Dalton’s voice boomed across the table and every person went quiet. “When we live toget’er can we get me a brot’er? Uncle Digger says boys are better to have cuz dey don’t want you to play dolls or try to dress you up like Aunt Kat did to Uncle Thad. I’d like one ‘kay? A little brot’er ‘kay?”

  With a totally straight face, Diesel told him, “We’ll see what we can do, Dalton.”

  Epilogue

  Five years later…

  MacKenzie was laughing so hard she was in danger of peeing herself.

  Wait until Diesel gets a look at these pictures.

  Dalton threw his almost-nine-going-on-nineteen-year-old hands in the air, completely disgusted. “Mom, this not funny. I mean, honestly. Can you stop laughing and help me out? I have practice in like an hour. Mom! You are not taking pictures of me in my underwear. Mom, how humiliating.”

  His frustration made her laugh harder and she felt bad about that, really she did.

  The twins were wearing Dalton’s uniform…and nothing else. Deacon and Drake were refusing to give it back and barricaded themselves in the open pantry with canned goods.

  “Wanna go! You p’omised skatin’, Dalton! We go or no un’form.” Deacon was the speaker for the twins, hands on hips and little bow lips pursed. They both had black hair and blue eyes, just like the rest of the LeBlanc men.

  Dalton crouched down in front of the canned good fort in his boxers. He was already built like Diesel and looked much older.

  “I told you we’d go skating after practice, guys, remember? After practice. You can’t go with me to practice; you have your birthday party thing to go to. I need my uniform, monkeys. I’ll tell you this, you both had better be good on the potty training, or I’m not going to be happy when I finish getting dressed. There’d better not be pee on my gear.”

  Kenzie was laughing so hard no sound was coming out.

  “Drake! You’re playing with my mouth guard? That is just gross. Seriously, not sanitary, dude. Give that to me so I can clean it.” With a furious shake of his head, Drake bit down harder on the mouth guard.

  Turning to his mother, he sighed resignedly. “Mom, I know we amuse you. I do. But I need to be ready before Joey and his parents come to get me. Please…put the camera down, stop laughing, and help me wrangle the twins.”

  She walked to her oldest child and ruffled his hair. “Okay. You’re just so good with them and you all make me laugh so hard. I can’t help myself.” She wiped her eyes and got it together.

  “Deacon, Drake…uniform now. Bubba has to go.” She held out her hand Drake spit a very slobbery mouth guard into her hand. She fought the laughter as they angrily stripped to the skin and handed her his jersey and pants. She smelled them carefully. “No problems, Dalton. I’m sorry.”

  He took the clothes from his mom with a smile. “Mom, you’re so cute when you’re pregnant. You laugh even more…you’re so easy. When is grandma coming back with David? He wanted to go to practice with me.”

  The twins started throwing a fit behind him. “Guys, you have a birthday party to go to! Wouldn’t you rather go there than practice with me?”

  They were screaming loudly.

  Grandma Jenna made it a habit to take each of the older boys out alone, taking them somewhere special to eat and then a movie. She said it was important when you had twins to remember that the single births still need you.

  Dalton had gone out all day with her yesterday while David was home playing with the twins. Dalton was almost nine, David was four, and the twins were two.

  “She’ll be back soon, promise. Go get ready, Dalton and I’ll smooth things over.”

  She had a sweet but firm conversation with her twin boys and sent them to get their clothing out of the den where they’d dropped it. By the time she’d put everything back in the pantry, Jenna came in with David who came to snuggle her around the knees.

  “Hey, honey, did you have fun with Grandma?” He nodded sleepily. “Do you still want to go with Dalton to practice? You look like you need a nap.” He perked up and ran to the stairs to change.

  Of the four boys, he was the quiet one, more like his mother.

  Jenna kissed her and got an update on the goings-on. When she saw the pictures on Kenzie’s camera, she excused herself to pee. MacKenzie handed her a glass of iced tea when she came back.

  “Kenzie, you are a natural mom. You are rounding out nicely with this one. I can’t believe you get your figure back so fast after you have them.”

  “It’s the skating; I make everyone skate in shifts for hours.” Jenna was hysterical.

  “I’m going to take a quick shower before the birthday party. Hey, why don’t you let me take them? Jackie’s meeting me here with little Devon. We can handle it.”

  “You’ve t
aken the kids so much since you’ve been here. I feel like I’m taking advantage, Mom.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes. “Nonsense, I only come every six weeks. I have to soak them up while I’m here and I love every minute. You rest and I’ll take your Excursion. Round them all up and I’ll bring them back after we go eat pizza. What do you say?”

  “I say you are the mother-in-law that outshines all others. Thanks. You’re too good to me.”

  MacKenzie hugged her and Jenna dashed upstairs to freshen up.

  This baby on the way was likely their last. The ultrasounds hadn’t been conclusive about the sex yet, but she was hoping it would be a girl. She’d insisted they could not have more children than bedrooms for them to sleep in.

  Right now, she had two guest rooms left out of the original five Diesel had when he bought the house. They had to keep at least one guest room. She loved their house and living in Boston…she wasn’t changing it or moving unless Diesel changed teams.

  He would likely stay with the Bruins until his retirement. He was still a pivotal part of their offense. They’d won the Stanley Cup the year before and a huge picture of the team holding it was displayed prominently in their basement sports bar.

  Kenzie had told him to put it in any room, wherever he wanted. He’d chosen the man-cave she’d changed the finished basement into for him when they’d been married a year, his favorite room in the house. That had been when Dalton started school and she had David.

  With nothing to do, she’d organized the house. Then changed a few spaces, created a small office for herself off the kitchen, and transformed the basement for Diesel.

  He and the boys played video games down there and watched action movies together. The soundproofing she’d had installed gave her countless hours of peace and quiet when Diesel insisted it was ‘guy day’. Wearing ratty clothes and refusing to bathe, they’d play pool, drink root beer, and vegetate all day.

  She took them wings and fries, burgers, and ice cream sundaes…and soaked up her solitude.

  When she’d found out she was pregnant with the twins a year after David was born, she decided she needed something to do.

  Diesel begged her to quit the bar the day he put a huge ring on her finger. Asked her to take some time from school and decide what she really wanted, what she’d love to do more than anything else.

  So she’d written a cookbook filled with recipes for hungry hoards of men. Based on her family, making healthy selections they didn’t know were healthy and giving them big portions to keep them from ‘starving to death’.

  Her witty commentary throughout the cookbook had made them extremely popular. Her husband and kids were pictured with her throughout. When the first one was published, she’d considered it a hobby. When it shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, she passed out and Diesel brought her around with kisses.

  She’d done three more since, to Diesel’s great pride. For everything he’d done for her, she found an old ice rink that had been closed for years and gave it to him as a thank you, bought with her book proceeds. The upkeep wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it might be and gave them all a private place to skate whenever they felt like it.

  He’d been very appreciative that she’d barely been able to sit down the next morning. His thank yous tended to be very thorough.

  Kenzie was fairly certain that was the night she’d gotten pregnant again.

  As if summoned, she heard the front door open and Diesel yell, “Troops, I’m home!”

  The stampede began. Deacon and Drake charged naked from the den, wrapped themselves around their father’s legs, David charged down the stairs with his big brother and jumped from the third step into waiting arms, Dalton jumped on his back.

  MacKenzie had her camera going non-stop on silent, no flash, so she could record every minute. Her men: the best husband and four sons a woman could wish for. She focused in on Diesel’s face, the faces of the boys, all of them together as they laughed and played and wrestled in the foyer.

  Spotting MacKenzie in the kitchen entry with her camera, he looked up and she got the perfect angle of his face. Meeting his eyes, she saw her own hunger reflected. Scooping up the twins and letting Dalton and David dangle from his neck and shoulders, he came toward her.

  The boys all turned away in disgust when their parents kissed.

  “Hi, pretty princess, how was your day?”

  “Excellent, getting better all the time.” Glancing down at the twins she said, “I thought I told you to go find your clothes, boys.”

  They looked at her in confusion. “We did. Dere in de den where we taked ‘em off.”

  “Mm hmm…sweeties, go put them on. David, are you going with Dalton, or are you too tired? Grandma wants to take you for pizza after.” Turning to Dalton she added, “Your mouth guard is on the strainer in the kitchen, de-cootied. Am I forgiven for laughing?”

  Dalton jumped off Diesel’s back, gave him an extra hug, and came around to hug his mom. “Another inch or two and I’ll be taller, Mom.”

  “You are not allowed to be taller than me at ten, Dalton,” she said firmly. “You’re going to be off to college before I know it.”

  Dalton stroked her face and smiled. “I have lots of time before college. You already know I’ll be bigger and taller than you. I forgive you for laughing because it was funny but if you show anyone those pictures…you’ve already shown grandma, haven’t you? No one outside this house…fine, no one outside our family. You’re terrible, but I love you so much.”

  A horn honked out front and he looked at his little brother. “David, you going with me buddy?” David nodded and dropped from Diesel’s neck after kissing his cheek.

  “Dad, you have to be there on Friday, come straight from practice. They’re talking about new positions and you know I hate when they start jacking with what works. Right now, Mom gets that hormonal protective thing going…she’s ready to fight everyone so you have to run interference.”

  Diesel nodded and ruffled his oldest son’s hair. Both older boys gave Kenzie a big kiss, then Dalton grabbed his gear bag and they were out the door.

  The twins still clung to their father. Naked.

  Kenzie’s voice was firm. “Do you plan on going to the birthday party? You need to get dressed before grandma comes down…hurry, hurry. Naked butts need to be covered.” They jumped down and shook their behinds before running off to find their clothes.

  “Hello, sweetheart, I’ve missed you.” Diesel pulled Kenzie into a hug and dropped his mouth over hers. Slipping one hand into the hair at the base of her neck, he stroked the other over her stomach. “How are you feeling today, Kenzie?”

  “Good, better now.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed against his hard body. “You smell good…how was practice?” Touching the newest scar along his cheek then kneading his shoulders, she sighed in contentment.

  “We have a couple of new rookies who show real promise.” Diesel scooped her up and carried her to the sunroom, sitting on the couch with his wife on his lap. “The new coach they brought in is willing to ask for help and he’s a nice enough guy.”

  He stroked her belly and nuzzled her neck. “I love you, MacKenzie. Seeing you pregnant gets me every time. You’re even more beautiful.”

  “Thank you. Wait until you see the pictures of Dalton and the twins. I almost pee’d myself, Diesel. It was so wrong of me. I finished the new cookbook; I wanted it done before our newest addition comes. I have my next ultrasound tomorrow at two…I hope it’s a girl, but I’m so used to boys, I won’t mind another one.”

  She was absently stroking his chest and arms. “I love you so, so much, Diesel. I love our life and our family. Sometimes it seems like a dream.” She held out her hand to gaze at her wedding rings. Inside was engraved for me, there is only you.

  “Not a dream…our reality.” Diesel put his lips against her throat and stroked up to her ear. “I can’t believe it’s been five years and I still need you all the time.
We were just together this morning.”

  His teeth scraped lightly over her pulse and she clutched him.

  “Diesel, I can’t tell you how badly I want you,” she said quietly. “The minute you left the bed this morning, I wanted you again. I don’t think that’s normal. Even when I’m big and pregnant and don’t want to look at myself, I want you.”

  “There is nothing more beautiful on the planet than you pregnant, MacKenzie. My lord…am I to understand the house will soon be empty?” She nodded. “Mmm, I can think of lots of things for us to do.”

  “Can you two give it a rest for five minutes? Not that you can get into more trouble just yet, huh, Sissy?” Jackie was laughing in the doorway, her son Devon on her hip.

  Kenzie squealed happily and tried to scramble up awkwardly. Diesel laughed and helped her to her feet. “Kenzie honey, you’re carrying different this time…maybe it really will be a girl. You had that dream about a baby girl.”

  Kenzie lifted Devon from her sister’s arms, Diesel stood behind her to help support his weight. “Easy, LeBlanc males are all too big for pregnant women to be lifting. Speaking of which, how are you feeling, Jackie? You look great.”

  “Excellent, I felt the baby move this morning. I will never tire of that feeling. Dean is crazy, blocking me in grocery stores and stuff, like I’m going to get mowed down.”

  Tilting her head, Kenzie asked, “Have you talked to the other girls? Do you know?”

  “I heard, for both of them. We are doing the world a huge favor, populating the planet with virile LeBlanc men. Between the four of us, we should have that shortage of good men problem handled in no time.”

  The sisters laughed and Diesel scooped his nephew up to put him on his shoulders. The same age as Deacon and Drake, their nephew was more subdued like David, who was his favorite cousin to play with.

  They all headed in the direction of the den and Kenzie was glad to see her boys were dressed. Jenna came down and they all chatted as she hustled everyone out of the house.