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We spent New Year’s Eve together at my place. I had a party and we invited a few of Becca’s coworkers and her friend Angela, while some of my teammates and even coaches were there with their wives or girlfriends and kids.
It was an interesting mix. The kids were down in my mancave, where all the fun stuff was, including my gaming system, while the adults mingled upstairs, drinking, hopeful for the new year.
I bought ten bottles of Dom just in case. The Leviathans weren’t going to the Super Bowl again this year, but one day I hoped to get my ring. All that mattered, though, was that I already had my prize. I had Becca.
Our friends danced all night long and I made sure to put on some slow songs so that I could hold Becca close in my arms as we swayed back and forth. It was like our own personal Prom, since we had never been able to go to back in high school.
I was certainly making up for last time. And in that sense, it was even better than high school Prom.
Not to mention that after everyone left tonight, we would share my bed, which was something we wouldn’t have been able to do back in high school anyway, due to our rather strict parents.
I was so glad to have her in my arms and not to have wasted another opportunity to be with her. From here on out, we would never spend a night apart, unless I was at an away game that she couldn’t come with me on, due to her work schedule or Mark’s school schedule. That was my promise to her, which I intended to keep.* * *On January 2nd, my agent released a statement I had written for the press. In it, I wrote about how I had started the new year with the love of my life, Becca Bell, and her son, and we were to be married on Christmas Day, in front of family and friends, almost a year from now.
I added to the statement how my parents had met in high school and fallen in love, and ultimately built a life together with never a regret for their choice in partner. I told of falling in love with Becca, a clarinet player in the marching band while I played football, back when we were in high school, too, and how I wrote about Becca extensively in high school.
I indicated that we didn’t know yet where we would marry, but the plan was that Mark would play the clarinet at our wedding. I apologized for my past transgressions as I had never really recovered from losing Becca in high school, and I made bad choices, but there would never be another one, now that I was sharing a life with my soul mate.
I had gotten the journal from my mom, and right now Becca was reading it. It was helping to make her appreciate the depth of my feelings and I wanted her to know everything about me. And I wanted to know everything about her, too.EpilogueBecca
Christmas DayNeil and I had our wedding on Christmas Day, and Mark did play the clarinet, just as we had told the press last year. I walked down the aisle to my future: my man and my son.
Neil was patiently waiting for me as I walked. He was grinning, happier than I’d ever seen him, and Mark sat in a chair off to the right, playing the wedding march on his clarinet.
Among our friends and family who had joined us on our special day were many of Neil’s teammates, and Neil’s mom. I saw Angela, who beamed at me.
She’s probably more excited at the prospect of hanging with New York Leviathan players at the reception than about the fact that I’m getting married, I thought, but not in a bad way.
I knew I had had Angela’s full support all along in my relationship with Neil and this was just making it official, so that he could adopt Mark. I also knew how much she loved her football.
I had even invited Donna, and I saw her struggling to appear happy on my special day, but she had agreed to keep Mark while Neil and I took our 10-day honeymoon to Kauai. She and I had had a lengthy chat about six months ago about her behavior, and I stressed to her that if she wanted to continue to have a relationship with her grandson, she had better learn how to be happy for me and Neil, or at least do a good job faking it.
So far, she seemed to grasp her two choices, and decided to play nice. Time would tell if she would remain on my good side but at least she had not mistreated me for about half a year now, which was progress. Where Mark was concerned, I would always do what I must to preserve his innocence and happiness.
