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“And she just had a diaper blowout.”
He looked at his wife, who passed him the diaper bag. “I’m sure it’s a perfect little explosion meant just for her dad.”
Grady shook his head and looked at me. “Will you help? It takes me like thirty-five wipes to change a poopy diaper.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Really? You’re afraid of a tiny little baby’s poop?”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it fear. Better get to it, sometimes it leaks through their diapers and then you have a much worse mess on your hands.”
“I’m just gonna go hold her under a cool shower.”
I shook my head. “Not happening. That’s a health hazard.”
“Ryan Grady, go change your daughter’s diaper,” Avon said.
He put the strap of the diaper bag over his shoulder and walked away with a reluctant expression.
“I bet he’s going to go call Mom,” Shea quipped. “For real. And she’d come running.”
Avon laughed. “It’s true. Did I tell you she cried the first time she fed Georgie? She is so in love with that little girl.”
“You’ll never be without a babysitter,” Shea said. “If you call her at two a.m., she’ll be there.”
Shea’s parents treated Spencer and Marley like grandchildren already. My kids had lost people from their lives, but they’d gained more. They’d spent two weeks with their mom over the summer, and I’d worried every minute of it that she’d try to leave the country with them.
No one but Shea would ever know that I’d told Andrea I’d pay her twenty thousand dollars when I picked the kids up from her. It was my insurance that they’d be there, and I planned to pay it every summer.
“Hey, I have to go warm up the peewee team,” I said to Shea. “I’ll be out of here by five.”
“Okay, I’m going home to let Muffin out and then I’ll be back. You still good grilling for dinner?”
“Yep. I’ve got dinner covered, babe.”
I kissed her and took Spencer with me to be a water boy for the next game. Marley was hanging out with some of her teammates, their game already over, and I knew she’d want to go with Shea to let our eight-month-old golden retriever out.
His name was Blueberry Muffin Sellers—Muffin for short. The four of us had all put a name on a piece of paper and Marley’s had been the one drawn.
But even with a male dog named Muffin, life was just about perfect. My life had been leveled by my divorce, but I’d rebuilt it with care, and it showed.
I thought I had it all when I was a pro hockey player, but I’d been so wrong. This was the first time in my life I had everything that mattered, and I cherished it every single day.
