AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I made a practice of avoiding her because I didn't want to get all deep and end up having to explain my feelings, but she finally trapped me one night with her baby.
She rounded the living room corner in a pair of Griff’s old sweatpants. Her short blonde hair was completely messy, and she had about three spit-up stains on her shirt. Her eyes had dark circles under them, and I immediately felt bad for not helping out more. Beau was trailing after her. It seemed he had a new favorite in the family because he followed around anyone who held Indie.
“Wanna hold the baby? You’ve barely spent any time with her and she’s your goddaughter you know,” she said pointedly.
I looked at her incredulously. “That’s how you tell me?!”
She smiled sweetly then kissed Indie’s squishy, happy face. “Yes. What do you say, up for being godfather times two?” I was already Godfather to her son, Johnny.
I crutched over to Sav and gave her a quick side hug. “I’m honored, Sis.” I lingered near her for a sec and tried to smooth down her hair that was sticking up.
She shot me a glare and shooed me towards the couch. As soon as I sat down, she placed the lil squish on me. Indie blinked a couple times, but the blinks were pretty slow, and she was soon snoozing in my arms. Beau came closer to me and laid by the foot of the couch. I reached down and lazily scratched between his ears while keeping my eyes on the baby.
“Damn. She’s a gorgeous little thing. Looks like she might be a lil red head.” I inspected her baby hairs closer.
Sav slowly sat down on the recliner closest to us. “Yeah, we think it might be from Griff’s side of the family. He doesn’t really want to ask though.” She shrugged.
Griff hadn’t talked to his father in years, and his mother left when he was just a kid.
“She looks like a little porcelain doll with these super long eyelashes,” I said. I still couldn’t believe my sister made her. Like this pretty little squishy thing was a combination of my two favorite people, and now she was just here, snoozing away, completely ignorant of the fact that she was a little miracle. “Sometimes it blows my mind that she came out of you,” I told her.
Sav smiled. “Yupp, made her from scratch, all the way down to the teeny tiny toesies.”
“You guys think you’ll have more?” I asked.
She sighed and looked at Indie adoringly in my arms. “It’s going to be pretty tough during the season.”
I nodded at that. Griff and I were on the road a lot during the regular season, which lasted from October through April, and that was never really the end of it either. The travel actually kicked up a notch from April to June because of playoffs. I think sometimes Sav wished we played for a different organization so we’d finish up earlier. The Crewman had made the playoffs for the last 25 consecutive years, and there’s no way we were about to let that streak die anytime soon.
“I think maybe we’ll try for more after Griff slows down,” she added.
“Oh, so not for a while then,” I joked.
A hesitant expression overtook her face and my stomach dropped. She tucked her short hair behind her ears and bit her lip nervously.
“He’s not retiring. He’s not allowed,” I demanded.
She rolled her eyes playfully. “Yeah, yeah. Well, there will come a day when he does, Duke. I think you forget that he’s a lot older than you.”
“He’s notthatoldthough,” I deadpanned. He was still in his early-thirties. Plenty of guys skated at least til their mid-thirties, some even pushed forty.
She arched an eyebrow at me. “You call him ‘old man.’”
“That’s a joke!” Indie flinched on my chest, and I immediately felt bad for the loud outburst and slowed my breathing. “That’s a joke,” I repeated quietly to Sav.
“I know.” She nodded. “But I think Griff also feels like he’s missing out on watching Johnny’s games now.” She scrunched her nose. “I think he gets envious when Johnny starts talking about what his coaches said.”
“Oh… Shoot.” I could understand that.
Griff had always planned on taking up a coaching position when he was done skating himself… but I thought he meant NHL coaching, not youth hockey coaching. I selfishly wanted him to be on the bench with me through my entire career… which thinking about it now, I guess wouldn’t necessarily be fair to Johnny. Griff was Johnny’s dad… and I knew it would be selfish to counter that with saying ‘well, he’s my brother!’ even though I kinda wanted to.
“Don’t worry though. He’s definitely going to be playing another season. He wants another Stanley Cup. Just…”
“Huh?”
“Maybe try to be quick about getting another one,” she said with a smile.
“Got it. Secure the cup this season.” I winked at her.
