by Teague, AS
The boys released me, and Landon said, “Is that sausage balls I smell?”
Sandy poked her head out from the kitchen and grinned. “You know it is. But if you boys want any, you better get over here and give me a Christmas hug and kiss.”
Hunter raced off, eager to squeeze the woman who was like a grandmother to him, and the other two followed suit.
“Sausage balls?” Mel asked, her brow arched.
I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her to the end of the couch closest to the tree. “It’s tradition. Sausage balls and fresh pineapple for Christmas breakfast.”
“It’s almost five p.m.,” she said as she settled in next to me.
“Had to wait on the boys. Speaking of…” I leaned around her and shouted for the kids, and they came racing back in, Sandy behind them with a tray of food and three steaming mugs of coffee.
Hunter, Landon, and Owen all gathered around the tree on their knees, their eyes dancing as they took in all the gifts that were under it.
“Alright, boys,” I said as I clapped my hands together. “You know the rules. One at a time. Youngest goes first.”
They groaned but began sorting the presents, and soon the living room was filled with shredded wrapping paper and shouts of glee with every newly opened gift.
Sandy always gave the kids a new hat and book, and once they opened her gift, they stopped what they were doing to give her a big hug and thank her for their gifts. It made my heart full to see how appreciative they were for everything and how they always made sure to show the woman who had helped me raise them so much love. I made it a point to not go overboard with them, knowing that some of my teammates spent thousands upon thousands on their kids at Christmas time. My boys never seemed to complain when some of their friends at school came back after the holidays boasting about how much they got from their parents and Santa.
Sandy got up to leave, and I put a hand on her arm. “Where ya goin’?”
She bent at the waist and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Just going to get a head start on the kitchen.”
“You don’t want to stay and watch the boys open the rest of their gifts?” Mel asked, a crease between her brow.
She patted Mel’s cheek. “No, dear. You two enjoy this time with them.”
With that last remark, she turned and made her way through the Christmas carnage and busied herself with something in the kitchen.
When all of the gifts were unwrapped, Mel excused herself for a moment and returned with an armful of gifts. She handed a box to each one of the kids and then one to me and settled back on the couch beside me.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Don’t get too excited,” she said. “It’s just a little something.”
The boys each opened their gifts, and I watched in awe as their eyes lit up. She’d gotten Hunter an art kit, Owen a fossil digging kit that was sure to leave sand all over my house, and for Landon a Ninja Warrior Competition kit complete with agility rings and everything needed to transform my house into an obstacle course.
Landon and Owen looked at their gifts and then to Mel, their mouths both set in a frown.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Mel’s cheeks were red as she said, “If you boys don’t like it, my feelings will not be hurt.”
Landon shook his head. “No way! It’s awesome.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t get you anything,” Owen finished.
Realization dawned on her face, and she waved a hand at them. “You aren’t supposed to get me anything!”
“I guess,” Landon said, his head still hung low.
Mel got down on the floor and squeezed between them before she wrapped an arm around Landon and Owen’s shoulders. “I mean it, boys. I know how much you love Ninja Warrior and how much you love dinosaurs. I just wanted to get all three of you something.”
Hunter had been busy checking out the tip on each of the markers that were in the kit, but he pushed it aside and launched himself into Mel’s lap, “This is the best Christmas ever!”
The twins looped their arms around her waist, and it was everything I could do to keep from openly weeping at the sight in front of me. I scrubbed a hand over my face and cleared my throat. “Mel, I’ve got something for you.”
She grinned. “Open mine first.”
She maintained her position on the floor in front of me, amidst the discarded paper and my kids, and I grabbed the box that she’d handed me.
“Careful, it’s fragile.” Her face had been set in a perma-grin for the last hour, and that smile only grew wider while I peeled the paper from the box and dug through the tissue. Inside was a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon and a rocks glass that was etched with the phrase “Father of Wildlings” and each of the three boys’ names on it.
I looked up to Mel, my mouth hanging open. “Please, God, tell me you didn’t pay two grand for this bourbon.”
She shook her head, and her eyes sparkled. “Nah. I got it at retail.”
“How?” I breathed. This was my favorite type of bourbon, but they made such limited batches of it that they actually held a lottery to decide who could buy a bottle. I’d never been able to get a bottle at retail price, which was significantly lower than the resale price I usually paid.
“I know a guy.” She winked. “You like it?”
“I freaking love it. And this glass is perfect.” I looked at my kids around her and said, “You guys are total wildlings, and I wouldn’t trade a single one of you.”
“What’s a wildling?” Hunter asked.
“It’s from that show they watch. The one where everyone dies,” Owen told him.
He frowned. “Doesn’t sound like a very good show to me.”
“It’s great,” Mel said as she ruffled Hunter’s dark hair. “But sad too.”
“I’ll be having some of this after the boys go to bed tonight,” I told Mel matter-of-factly and then jerked my chin at Landon, giving him the signal. He jumped to his feet and raced down the hall before slowly walking back with a wrapped box with holes in the top of it.
“Here’s your gift.” I tried to hide the excitement in my voice, but I couldn’t, and she raised a brow as Landon handed her the present.
“Why are there holes in the box?” she asked skeptically before shaking it.
“Don’t!” I shouted in unison with my kids. “Don’t shake it. Just open it.”
She set the package in front of her, lifted the lid, and peered inside before freezing. Her gaze snapped to me, her eyes filling with tears. “Oh my God!”
She reached inside and scooped out the ugliest cat I’d ever laid eyes on, and I grinned.
“It’s Smelly Cat!” she said, pressing her wet face into his black, scraggly fur and squeezing. He meowed and wriggled in her arms but didn’t try to escape, and she sat there a while longer, holding on to her cat and crying.
I gave her a minute and then slowly slid onto the floor next to her. “Now the family is all here,” I murmured into her ear and pulled her into my side. She rested her head on my shoulder, her hand smoothing and stroking the cat’s unruly fur, and sniffed.
“How did you get him here?” she asked.
“Brooke and Griff brought him when they came for the Christmas party. Sandy’s been keeping him at her house. Turns out that cat doesn’t like her. I think the feeling may be mutual.” I chuckled and then reached out and rubbed the white spot between his eyes. His lids closed, and he nuzzled his head into my hand before purring contentedly.
“Oh my God,” she gasped and looked back at me. “He likes you!”
I nodded. “Remember the morning of the party when I went out to run some errands? I stopped by Sandy’s and got to know him. Turns out we both love the same woman, so we have a mutual respect for one another.” On cue, he hopped out of Mel’s lap and climbed into mine, circling twice before settling down and almost immediately resuming his nap.
The boys had stopped paying attention to us o
nce Mel had opened the box and had gotten busy with the gifts that she’d given them.
“Dad!” Landon shouted. “Can I set up the obstacle course in the loft?”
I nodded. “Sure, bud.” And he leapt to his feet before taking the stairs two at a time. Owen and Hunter wandered off to the kitchen with their gifts, Hunter proclaiming he was going to draw a spaceship and Owen insisting he was going to find a T-Rex tooth before leaving us alone.
Mel was still tucked into my side and stroking Smelly’s coarse fur. I cleared my throat and whispered, “You love my boys.”
Her hand stopped mid-air. “What?”
“You didn’t need to get them anything at all, and yet you picked out the perfect gifts for each of them.”
I couldn’t have told her gifts that they would have liked more if I had tried, and yet Mel had nailed every one of them without going overboard.
“I’m dating a man with kids. It’s Christmas. You really think I’m going to spend the day here without anything to give them?”
“You love my boys,” I said again, this time with more conviction.
“I love you. Your kids are a part of you. So, yeah. I guess I do.” My chest swelled, and I pressed my lips to her temple.
“I love you,” I told her, my voice raw. I looked around the once pristine living room that was now filled with toys and torn Christmas gift wrap and tissue paper. There was one sausage ball left on the platter and no more pineapple, and our coffee mugs had long since been drained. There was Christmas music wafting through the speakers softly, and I could hear Owen and Hunter chattering at the table. Every now and again, I would hear a thump from upstairs that I assumed was Landon running his obstacle course that wasn’t meant to be set up indoors.
My knee was stretched out in front of me amidst the clutter. It ached here and there, but the intense pain, both physically and mentally, was gone. “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”
She pressed her lips to my shoulder and then rested her head there and nodded. “Me too.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Aiden
Four days after Christmas, on December twenty-ninth, I held a press conference inside the stadium practice facilities and announced my retirement from the NFL.
My knee would never be good enough to play competitively again, and there was no reason to try to force a square peg into a round hole.
I’d insisted that Mel be with me when I told the reporters that the eight years I’d spent in the league were some of the best of my life, but that I was ready to see what life held for me outside of the sport. I’d be lying if I said that the words had not been hard to speak. They’d threatened to stick in my throat like ashes on a hot summer day, and I’d had to pause several times during my speech to swallow hard and get my emotions in check.
In the end though, they were the right words and it was, in fact, time for me to move on.
And despite the pure rage I’d felt a few months ago after my injury, I was no longer bitter that my career was over.
I’d broken records.
I’d been named to the Pro-Bowl six times.
I’d won two Super Bowls.
I was retiring a Packer and would one day be in the Hall of Fame.
I’d accomplished what so many kids around the world could only dream about. I’d finally come to realize there was no reason to be angry anymore.
My exit from the league may not have been my ideal scenario—I would have much rather played for a few more years and then gone out on my own terms—but that wasn’t the hand I was dealt, and I had come to accept that.
And when I finished my speech and answered all of the many questions that the reporters had, I stepped away from that podium with my head high and a smile on my face.
Because, at the bottom of the steps, waiting for me with a dazzling smile on her face, was the woman who I was ready to start the second part of my life with. I wasn’t sure what that held, but I know that with Mel by my side, there was nothing that I couldn’t face. She’d proven that to me all those months ago when she’d shown up in that hospital room and refused to leave, and I knew that I was one lucky man to have someone as fierce as Melanie Holstein on my team.
* * *
“You shocked the hell out of us all earlier today with that press conference,” Shane said, his voice echoing.
“Dude, are you in the bathroom right now?” I groaned as I poured some of the bourbon I’d gotten for Christmas into my new favorite rocks glass.
Trav laughed. “You know he is. That’s his favorite spot for team calls. On the shitter.”
“Speaking of that, I guess this will be my last one.” I took a swig of my drink and settled into the couch.
“Fuck you, man,” Quinn barked. “Just cause you went and retired today doesn’t mean you get out of listening to these assholes ramble on about their games.”
“No shit,” Griff agreed. “If we gotta listen to Shane shit or Trav’s latest conquest in the sack, and not of a quarterback on the field, so do you.”
I’d wondered if the guys would still include me on their weekly calls once I’d no longer be playing in the league and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a surge of emotion when they’d staunchly protested my departure from our tradition.
I cleared my throat though, because I had a reputation to uphold and changed the subject. “So, Quinn, you meet up with the doc’s sister after my Christmas party?”
“Yeah, man, give us the details. Don’t leave anything out.” Trav was the biggest man whore that I knew, it only made sense that he’d want the details.
But that wasn’t Quinn’s style. “Fuck off. I’m not discussing my dates with any of you sons of bitches.”
I chuckled again and listened as Quinn and the brothers went back and forth, the feeling of normalcy washing through me.
My phone beeped with an incoming call and when I saw Shay’s name flash across the screen, I groaned. “Guys, Shay’s callin’.”
“Man, don’t answer,” Shane said, his voice still echoing.
“Trust me, I don’t want to. Although, talking to her isn’t much worse than listening to you on the crapper.”
They all howled with laughter and I said a quick goodbye before pushing to my feet and connecting the call with the boys’ mother.
“Hello?” I answered.
“You loser!” she hissed. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Well, not exactly the greeting I was expecting from you. Why would I do what exactly?” I pressed the heel of my hand into my eyes and then scrubbed it over my face. I was not in the mood to argue with her right now.
“Don’t give me that shit. You know what I’m talking about. You fucking retired?”
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to silently count to five before I responded. “My career was over, Shay. I can’t play anymore.”
“So, you get one little injury, and you just quit?” Her voice was shrill, and I could picture her in the house I’d purchased for her and my kids, pacing, her dark hair swooshing back and forth as she shook her head.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” I told her evenly. “As a matter of fact, I don’t need to explain anything to you.”
“Oh, so now that you’ve got some slut warming your bed at night, you think you––”
I gripped the phone so tightly that I swear I could hear it crying at the pressure. “Watch your mouth.”
She laughed. “You think you can tell me what to do?”
I knew I couldn’t tell her anything. I never had been able to. Shay Malcolm had always done exactly what she wanted to do, and for years, I’d been stupid enough to let her. I’d taken every ounce of shit she’d shoveled my way because I thought it was my duty to put up with her for my kids’ sake.
But I was officially done with her bullshit. “I’m not having this conversation with you any longer. The only reason I even answered your call was because I wanted to make sure that you remembered that
the boys are supposed to be here with me for New Year’s Eve.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, about that. I think I’m going to take the kids to see my parents. Don’t know if we will be back in time for your stupid thing.”
I’d managed to keep my anger in check up until this point, but something about the way she flippantly disregarded what I’d just said set my blood to boiling. “No, the fuck you won’t!” I roared. “Our custody agreement states that I have the boys every New Year’s.”
“Well, I think it’s about time we revise that agreement anyway. I’m getting pretty tired of you getting what you want all the time,” she sneered.
It was my turn to laugh, though there was nothing funny about this conversation. “Getting what I want all the time? You’re joking, right? I’ve never gotten what I wanted, not when it came to you.”
I’d been pacing, the best I could with my knee still sore, but I paused and looked over to where Mel was watching me. Her eyes were hard, her mouth set in a scowl. She was just as angry as I was.
“You go see your parents. But you have my boys back to me by five on New Year’s, or I swear to God, Shay, I’ll make you regret underestimating me.”
“Are you threatening me?” she screeched.
I shook my head. “You take that however you want to. Just have my boys here on time.”
“Ya know, Aiden. In high school, I ignored what everyone said about you. I told them all they were wrong, that you were just as good as your big brother. I followed you to college, stood by your side while you had mediocre games. I gave you children, spent years defending you to anyone who dared say you weren’t the best. I devoted my life to you, and what do I get in return? Threats and the prospect of having to change my lifestyle because you found a new pussy you liked and gave up your career.”