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Well, hell. He's not wrong. I've got a little girl. My worst goddamn nightmare is considering the type of man she ends up with. If I'm lucky, he'll be like one of these assholes…someone worthy of a good woman. If I'm not…well, if I'm not, I hope medicine has advanced enough to remove a size eighteen from his ass painlessly.
"Oh my gosh," Laney says through laughter. "You can't even give him crap, Jonas. You turned white for months if anyone even mentioned the arena bathrooms to you."
"Wh are you telling?" I arch a brow at her. "They still haunt my nightmares."
Jamie cracks up beside me, her arm looped through mine.
"Gray tried to go camping again this summer," Camila blurts.
"Camila!" Gray growls, glaring daggers at his wife, who only gives him a devilish smile.
"I heard," Theo says with a straight face. "He wouldn't shut up about how nature is evil and was designed specifically to kill us."
"It was," Gray mutters defensively.
"You had sex in poison ivy, man. What did you think was going to happen?"
Everyone at the table howls with laughter as Theo busts him out. Holy shit. I've missed these guys. Jamie and I have been back in Nashville for the last four years, but Logan and his wife just moved back from Washington. He retired at the end of the season. It's nice as hell to have the whole crew back in the same place for once. It feels like it's been a lifetime since we were all together…and yet, in some ways, no time at all has passed.
Everyone is older but definitely not wiser. They're the same idiots I played with so long ago.
"Since you're all here," I say when everyone settles down, looking at my wife. She beams at me, nodding subtly. "I have an announcement to make."
"Jesus Christ, Jonas," Wes says. "Did you knock her up again?"
"I'm not pregnant," Jamie says with a smile.
I'm trying like hell to change that, though. What? She's the center of my world. I fucking love everything about her. And I love it even more when she's carrying my kids. There's just something beautiful about my wife when she's pregnant. She's a goddess, capable of anything. She teaches me every single day what it is to move mountains. She does it without even trying, pouring her heart and soul into everything.
If I'm a better man, it's because Kelsey taught me responsibility, and my wife gave me something worth fighting for. I'll protect her, our babies, and our life together at all costs. They come first in all things. That's what matters in my life now. That's my joy. I don't miss hockey much since retiring. My life is too fucking full to miss it.
"We're going back to the Playoffs."
"Uh, no, we aren't," Logan says. "I just retired. My ass is taking a vacation."
"You can take a vacation after the Playoffs."
"None of us play anymore, Jonas."
"No shit, Sherlock." I shake my head at Wes.
"Then why the fuck are we going to the Playoffs?"
"They're giving Coach MacAthie a Lifetime Achievement Award," Kelsey says quietly. "It's being presented before the first game of the playoffs. And they've asked for all of you to be there when they present it."
"Holy shit," Gray whispers, eyes wide. "They never give out the Lifetime Achievement Award."
"He's earned it," Jamie says softly, earning somber nods from everyone at the table. MacAthie has always been a hell of a coach. He certainly was for all of us. With him steering the ship, we weren't just a team but a family. We're still a family. He didn't simply lead us to victory. He led us in every way that mattered. He knew all of our shit and carried it, from Kelsey's diagnosis to every dumb thing we ever did. And he helped ensure we were capable of carrying it, too.
"I'll be there," Theo says.
"Me too," Wes chimes in.
"Same," Kellan adds.
Logan nods.
"I wouldn't miss it," Gray agrees.
