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Chapter Fourteen
I made itback up to the house a short while later, and was greeted by Teague.
“You okay, brother?”
I nodded, even though I wasn’t. Thankfully, my friend didn’t press.
Tonight, the house would be full. Everyone was staying over. My kids and their families occupied the bedrooms that had always been theirs growing up, with everyone else taking couches, the basement, and the spare room.
My boys would have to leave for Minnesota—a Winter Classic game—early in the morning; Jonny and Porter to play, Caleb to coach. The rest of the family would be a few hours behind them.
Once upon a time, Ryleigh made it a rule that if you weren’t on the ice and you didn’t have a game, you were going to show up to your sibling’s hockey game, so that was what we would all be doing the next day.
All day, we’d been at the lake house. I’d been up here since Christmas, and my kids and family started to filter in late last night, just in time to bring in the new year in Ryleigh fashion—with a blazing bonfire, even though there was snow on the ground. Throughout the day, there were stories and food and good memories. But the day was now coming to a close.
It was the end of day one of year one without her.
My boys could have gone straight to Minnesota. They could have stayed with the team. But my boys needed to be here as badly as I needed them here. Tomorrow, though…
Tomorrow they would play like they always did.
Hard, and with heart.
Caleb would stand behind the bench, directing a team that brought him up and made him the award-winning player he’d been. Jonny would tend a goal net that had terrified him as a kid. It wouldn’t surprise me though, if this was his last season playing.
Porter, though…
I thought my youngest had a few more years in him, barring a knee he’d injured two-and-a-half years ago. I wouldn’t put it past him to push beyond what his body would let him but thankfully, his wife wasn’t one to let him push too far.
For being such a stubborn shit, he fell into his role with the Enforcers easily, and although he’d had the opportunity to find a new team at the end of his first partial season…
He chose to stay.
Also in the house tonight was my son-in-law, Parker. I’d coached him down in Beloit a few years back, but tomorrow, he’d be suiting up on Minnesota’s bench. While he wasn’t an Enforcer, Minnesota gave him a pardon from being in town the eve of a game, so he was able to be here with his wife, my McKenna.
Thinking of my kids, I needed to be with them.
Teague and I moved through the house and into the large family room, where a large picture window faced the lake. Throughout the floor and couches, were my family.
Avery looked up from the couch and flashed me a small smile, moving over and closer to her husband, CJ, making room for me to sit.
For the next hour, we sat around the living room, until the last of my grandkids fell asleep—and surprisingly, not the oldest ones. Brandon, Caleb’s oldest, and Ella, McKenna’s oldest, were the first ones out, both sprawled out on the floor.
Kids were put into bed and for a moment, I had the crushing feeling that the night was over; that I’d have to go back to my room and face another night without Ryleigh, but soon my kids were back.
Then, we sat around a little longer.
Telling stories of my wife, the way I remembered her.
My kids telling stories about their mom, and how they remembered her.
“Remember the time…”
“What about when…”
For hours, the stories went around. Stories of Myke wearing makeup at ten, to which Ryleigh had just shook her head and told her to ask her father; of when Ryleigh and I moved our brood back to Wisconsin, and the growing pains Caleb went through that first year—growing pains that were nothing like the ones Porter eventually went through.
“My favorite time…”
