Page 22 of A Stag Family Christmas

All I can do is nod at him, but I’m seized by a strong emotion looking up at the mistletoe and I grab his arm. “Will you stand up here? With me and Ty and Tim?”

His mouth works up and down like he’s searching for words, and he nods, standing behind me, but not too close to the precarious archway. It feels right to have him there, like this new chapter of all of our lives, all these changes, circle back to include him, too. Family looks and feels so different than I ever thought, and today it all feels welcome for the first time I can remember.

Amy and Doug, holding up a set of speakers from inside, start playing some music from Doug’s phone and everyone quiets down. This is what I’ve been waiting for—my chance to seal my commitment to Emma. Toourfamily.

Juniper walks out the back door toward the arch, wearing a flowing black robe and carrying a few sheets of paper. “Where did you get a judge robe?” I ask her, wide-eyed.

Tim and Ty take their place beside me and Tim winks. “It’s my graduation gown from law school,” he says. “Close enough.”

I don’t hear anything else, then, because I look up and Emma is walking toward me, her arm linked with her father’s. Nicole has her phone out, taking a thousand pictures as my Emma glides through the yard. I think about how different I am from when I met her a few years ago. How much I work to be a better person, to be honest with my family, and make myself vulnerable to Emma.

“All rise for the honorable Judge Juniper Jones,” Ty shouts, crushing the mood.

“Knock it off, Tyrion,” Tim says in his sternest dad-voice.

Juniper clears her throat and says, “Well, thank you all for hanging out back here with us in the snow and freezing cold. I’ve never actually performed a wedding yet, so this is exciting for me.” She flashes a huge smile at me as Emma shivers a bit from where she’s facing me. Juniper looks at Ed and says, “I think you can hand her off to Thatcher now, Senator,” and she gives him a wink that makes him laugh. He pats Emma on the hand and steps back with her mom and sister.

I reach for Emma and see she’s carrying a bouquet of poinsettias she must have gotten from in the house somewhere. I love how the red petals play off the red and gold highlights in her hair, the green of her dress. It’s all I can do not to run off and immortalize this moment in my glass studio. But I need to focus, to be here. Present with my family this Christmas Eve, where I’m receiving so much more than I could ever wish for.

Juniper keeps talking, saying, “The bride and groom were pretty clear that they don’t want a drawn-out ceremony. Their engagement lasted long enough. So anyway, really the only required parts are that you each agree to marry one another and then I can do some declaring…but do you want to say anything? Vows off the cuff?”

Emma nods. She’s a writer. I should have expected that she’d have something magnificent to say, but I’m unprepared to hear her start telling me, “Thatcher Stag, you started out as such a cad. But I then saw through the chinks in your inked-up armor, and boy. Do I like what I found in there.” She dabs at her eyes. “When you open your heart up to me, when you tell me all the things that frighten and inspire you, all the things that bring you joy…I want to be with you. I want to be the arms that hug you, the whispering voice of reassurance, the nagging wife who begs you to get your hair cut so I can see your beautiful grey eyes.” She reaches out and strokes my cheek gently. “I know I’m not very good at staying calm or dealing with my fear when I don’t feel in control, especially about my health. But I know that you’re here for me, to keep me safe and to make sure I get all the help I need from the people who know how to give it. I’m so excited to make a life with you, Thatcher, as your friend and your partner and your wife.”

I lean in to kiss her but she tilts her head back. Juniper whispers that I’m not supposed to do that until I’ve at least verbally agreed to marry Emma. “Well,” I say, “It’s really hard to follow that. All I know is that you’re brilliant, Emma. I mean that in every sense of the word. There is a brilliance that shines from you and it inspires me. I told you, you’re my muse. I want to live up to your light so I don’t seem dim beside you. You make me better, stronger, and a more complete person. I was wading around in a sea of bad choices before I met you, and you reached down and pulled me into this lifeboat. You’ll make me the luckiest man around if you let me be your husband, Emma Cheswick. I love you with every cell of my body, and I love even more that you’re so bravely growing this new life for us.” I have to stop then because I’m about to cry and I feel a knot in my throat that chokes me. I let the tears flow, because fuck it. If a man can’t cry at his own wedding, well…fuck it. “I just love you, Emma. And I know I mess up a lot, but as soon as I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, I wanted that to get started. Right away. You’re the best gift I ever got, and I’m so excited to get out of the snow and take you home as my wife this Christmas.”

And then I don’t wait for Juniper, but I lean in and kiss my girl. I pull her close against me, letting my lips meld with hers, until we feel like one being. Emma pulls back with a slight gasp and drops her hands to her belly. “Mr. Stag,” she says, beaming, “I just felt Prince Duke kick!”

“My kid has much better timing than me,” I say, dropping a hand to her belly, wanting him to know I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere.

Juniper declares us husband and wife and my family erupts into cheers. I lean in again and kiss the hell out of Emma until Ty rips down the mistletoe and starts shaking it in my face. Emma laughs and shakes her shoulders. Her teeth start to chatter and I kiss her once more. “Come on,” I tell her, yanking her toward the house. “Let’s go inside, Mrs. Stag. Alice made cake.”

Epilogue

Six Months Later

TY

Someone throws me a water bottle after the final buzzer sounds. Game seven of the Cup final, here in Pittsburgh, and we won 2-0. I know I’ve won a cup before, and I’ve played thousands of hockey games in my career, but knowing this is the last one, I’m real worked up. Everything seems to slow down as I look around the arena. I hear the roar of the crowd, see my teammates clapping each other on the back. My coach comes out and pulls me in for a hug, saying, “I’m really gonna miss you around here, Stag.”

“Thanks for giving me a chance, Coach,” I say, clapping him on the back.

“Sure you won’t change your mind about this?” I shake my head, then, and he sighs, walking away to the crowd of ecstatic fans.

I know I should take off my helmet and talk to the press, but I want to keep it on for just one more minute, savor these last seconds as a pro hockey player. The guys in suits come out on the ice, rolling out the little carpet they put down so nobody drops the Cup. There’s a squad of guys wearing special white gloves and they present the cup to our captain, who immediately skates over and hands it to me. Me!

I’m the first one to get to do my victory lap hoisting up the Cup. I toss off my helmet then and make my way around the rink. I pause beneath the box, where my family is pressed against the glass, going wild. Thatcher is up front, holding their tiny baby, Wesley. He came a little earlier than they were expecting, but Wes and Emma are both doing great. Well enough to come to a night time hockey game, anyway. I shake the cup in their direction, and see Tim gesturing for Juniper to come down.

He sure as hell better help her get down here. At 38 weeks pregnant, she’s still rowing every day on the rowing machine, so she’s no slouch. Even if I do have to hand her the handles, since she can’t reach around that Stag-baby belly. But I can’t have my pregnant wife slipping on the ice. Then I remember that Alice is pregnant, and Tim probably won’t want to leave her alone up there. He gets extra nuts about safety when Alice is pregnant. We’ve been teasing the hell out of him, getting all anxious again right after he started to calm down. I frown, wondering who is going to give JJ a hand, and then I see my father helping my wife down the stairs. That makes me smile. I’m glad he’s here with us this time to see me win the Cup. Mom would like that. Ted should be around for all these moments. Hugging all these Little Stags.

I finish out my lap and hand the cup off to the next guy, staring around the arena at all the fans, who are waving flags and pumping their fists as they shake their Fury jerseys, many of them with my name on the back. I never thought anything would top this feeling—being part of the best team in the entire pro hockey league. But this doesn’t even compare to how I feel when I see my pregnant wife smiling at me from the entrance to the ice.

I know the team is going to ask me to say something about my retirement, and I make my way over to help her out to the podium before they hand me the microphone and ask me to comment about my choice to quit hockey at 29 when I’ve never even had a major injury.

I pull my wife in closer and she doesn’t even wince at the smell of me in my gear or my sweaty jersey. The reporter makes his way over to us, asks rapid-fire questions, and hands me the mic. “Look,” I say. “Hockey has given me so much. When I was a young kid in trouble, hockey gave me an outlet for my anger and my grief. Hockey brought me home to my family and let me experience teamwork.” I give JJ a squeeze. “But this woman right here? She’s growing myson. And this is my whole world right now. There’s nothing more important to me than being here for them.” I drop a kiss on Juniper’s cheek, thinking about how proud I felt when she won Olympic gold, but how hard it was for me to get away to be there for her when she hit that milestone. I don’t want to repeat the mistakes of our father; I don’t want to miss one difficult or one joyful moment of this family life. “I want to make Team Stag my priority, and I truly hope my fans can appreciate how much that means to me.”

Juniper starts to shuffle off the ice with me, but I’m still in my skates, so I bend down and scoop her up to thunderous applause from the crowd. She nuzzles her nose into my neck and says, “I thought you were going to talk about your long-term plans to coach at-risk kids?”

I shrug, setting her down on safe, dry ground. “There’s time for that later,” I tell her.

I look ahead down the hall and see security escorting my family down to greet me. My entire family—my father, my grandmother. Both my brothers. Their babies. Everyone in the world who matters to me is right here, together. I pull everyone in for a group hug, and smile. The Stag Family is cranky and loud and up in each other’s business, and every bit of it feels perfect. Together, we have come so far. And right now? The Stag Family is exactly where we need to be.

THE END