By the time the pregnancy-test snatcher appeared on my screen in front of a sea of press snapping picture after picture, all of them eager to ask the first question before he’d made any sort of statement, I had chewed off every single one of my fingernails.
I grabbed my phone.
Lake:TELL ME, DAMMIT!
He adjusted the microphone, tipping his chin down to the podium. A smirk spread across his face. He saw it. He saw mytext.
“Thank you for coming today…” He took his sweet time thanking every coach, player, and doctor for their support since the accident. Then he proceeded to thank his fans, family, and friends including Flint. Next he discussed his love for the game and what a dream it was to be drafted by Minnesota and lead his team to their first ever Super Bowl Trophy. “I’m young and my doctors feel if I opt for surgery, I have a good chance of getting back on the field with a promising career ahead of me.”
I gulped again and again. It was coming…
“However, I’m in a much different place now than what I was two years ago. Life isn’t anything if not unpredictable. So as much as I’d like to say this has been an agonizing decision for me, I can’t. It’s been the easiest decision of my life. Thank you for the ride. While short, it’s been everything I could have ever imagined, but I’m announcing my retirement from the NFL.”
There was an audible gasp in the crowd. Me? I wasn’t breathing.
“As most of you know my beautiful Lake has agreed to marry me…”
Holy shit …
He held up a stick. MY. STICK!
“Oh…” he grinned from ear to ear, dimples on full display “…and I’m going to be a dad.”
Tears. So many tears. Cameras flashed like crazy. Questions were hurled at him from every direction, but all I could do was drown in my own tears as my hand pressed to my stomach.
I did it. I got the guy.
Ben died, but Ilived.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
OUR EPILOGUE
CAGE
“Ugliest dress ever.”I stared at our wedding photo on the wall in our bedroom.
“But the shoes …”
“Yeah, yeah, kick-ass heels, baby.”
Lake and her eight-month baby belly stood in front of me, adjusting my tie. “Are you nervous?”
“Terrified.”
“You realize at least one will wet their pants, another will vomit and totally miss the trash, at least two will be sent to the office when you notice they have head lice, there will be name calling, crying because it’s their first full day away from their mommies, but…” she grinned as I grimaced “…one… one little girl, the quiet one with pigtails and maybe freckles too, she will fall in love with you and declare you as her future husband. That will be the highlight of your day.”
I rested my hands on the sides of her belly and bent down to nuzzle my nose in her neck. “You’re the highlight of my day. Every day.”
I loved my life. We wereliving, we were falling, we were our own unexplainable phenomena, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Even our “village,” as Lake liked to call them,seemed to move on to better things as well. Minnesota renewed Banks’ contract, so he and Shayna moved into a house, a house whose previous owner happened to be Minnesota’s recently-retired quarterback. He also found a girlfriend: Shayna’s dance teacher. Lake said she didn’t havethatmuch to hold on to—whatever that meant.
The nanny ‘Jamie’ continued to work for Banks, contingent on him never looking at Banks’ girlfriend. I felt his pain. Flint went back to school to complete his law degree so he could fight to get his son back since he was taken from him after the accident. As for Penny and Rupert… they stayed in their Minneapolis apartment. Lake still met her for girl-talk, and Penny still violated me with her eyes every time I saw her.
“Your lunch is on the kitchen counter.”
I stood up straight, taking a deep breath. “Okay. I have my first practice tonight too.”
When we sold the house and moved into something smaller and closer to the private elementary school where I got a job teaching first grade, I decided to embrace my new, low-profile life by joining one of the Park and Rec’s flag football teams.
