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I took a deep breath and followed him outside, the butterflies in my stomach now going into overdrive.
My new life was at the end of that plane ride and I couldn’t wait.
2
WILLIAM
I’d played in three Super Bowl games and was less nervous for those than I was right now.
In a few short minutes, I would meet my bride.
I looked down at my feet and chuckled. How my life had changed.
I used to be engaged to a supermodel with million dollar product endorsements. I had a huge house on the water and more cars than I could drive if I took a different one each day of the week.
Now I was standing in a small airport in Alaska, waiting for an eighteen year old girl to get off of the plane and marry me despite the fact that she’d only seen pictures of me and gotten one email from me.
In reality, I was fine with where I was at right now in my life. I would never have said it at the time, but that car accident that ended my career probably actually saved my life. If I had continued down the path I was on, I would be in a miserable marriage. Looking back, I realize I was becoming a major asshole.
Anger was my main emotion for a long time though. I used alcohol and pain pills to numb my feelings, becoming a recluse. My fiance broke up with me when she realized I couldn’t play ball anymore. She only liked being the arm candy of a famous football player. That only fueled my pain.
Then my friend Nate came to see me.
I’d known Nate since preschool. We played football together in high school. Nate had been my favorite receiver. With us on the field, we led our high school to two state championships. Nate and I were unstoppable.
Nate could have joined me in the draft right after high school. A few NFL teams were interested in both of us. Instead, he moved to Alaska while I went right into the draft.
He showed up at my house and chatted with me for a long time. He made me realize what I was doing to myself and that there was life after football. Nate told me about his land in Alaska and the fresh air. We had loved to fish and hunt as teenagers and listening to his stories made me realize how much I missed it.
I got myself into rehab and after I sold everything I had and moved to Alaska. I found a perfect cabin on a lake and thanks to a smart finance guy, I had more than enough money to live comfortably in Alaska the rest of my life.
Nate was about two hours away from me now but we would go on hunting and fishing trips together often. The clean air and being back in nature was good for my soul, and exactly what I needed to heal.
I enjoyed being away from the big city and all of the people I now realized were fake and only cared about me because I could earn them a big paycheck. I made some friends in Alaska, but to be honest, I was a little bit lonely.
There weren’t very many single women in Alaska, but I wanted to settle down with someone and have a family.
My friend and neighbor (if you could call him that but he was the closest person living to me at around thirty miles away), Elijah was married with a couple of kids. We were sitting around a fire one night, shooting the shit, when he confessed that his wife had been a mail order bride.
I almost spit out the water I’d been drinking at the time, but I was also intrigued. He told me there were some growing pains at first, but now he was madly in love with her and couldn’t imagine life without her.
His words stuck in my head and I went back and forth with myself about it. I couldn’t use a service like that, could I? I knew if I really wanted, I could go back to the lower forty-eight and find a bride, but the thought of it exhausted me.
So I started to do a little research on this company Elijah told me about and they seemed legit with a high success rate.
Late one night, after feeling particularly lonely and wishing I had a warm body next to me in bed, I pulled out my laptop and signed up.
They would send me some girls every few days but no one excited me.
Until Amelia.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that she was gorgeous with her long blonde hair and green eyes, but there was something about her smile. It didn’t reach her eyes and her bio was pretty bare bones. She was only eighteen, but something in me wanted to pull her curvy petite body into me and protect her from whatever pain and suffering she’d endured in her short life. Amelia was very ‘girl next door’ and I found that sexy as hell.
I waited a few days, checking my emails constantly to see if she accepted my proposal. I found myself grinning like a fool when I received word she would.
Now I was watching the plane land with my future wife and I felt like a thirteen year old kid at his first dance, gathering the courage to ask a girl to dance for the first time.
The plane came to a stop and I watched the pilot jump out. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans. It was June in Alaska and I was wearing jeans and a red plaid flannel. My hair was combed back and I’d even trimmed my beard some.
