Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87174 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
They are the last ones out on the ice.
“Cooper, Cooper, you won the silver cup,” Allison says, so happy.
“Stanley Cup, Allison,” Matthew corrects her.
“Hey, babe, get your ass over here and kiss me.”
I look over at her as she walks slowly to me, trying hard not to fall on her ass.
“I’m so very proud of you.” She kisses me on my lips. “And what I’m most proud of is this beard leaving,” she says quietly.
I lean into her ear and whisper, “That’s not what you said last night when said beard was eating your sweet pussy.” I wonder how she’ll like that look. Maybe I’ll shave the head but make it grow back. She does like pulling the shit out of it.
She slaps me right in the chest, trying to push me away.
“Are you really going to retire?” Matthew asks when they both make it to us.
I lean over to pick up Allison in my arms, kissing her neck. She is like her mother and hates this beard. So she tilts her head to cover her neck.
“Yup, I really am. I have won the Stanley Cup four times. I’ve done more than I thought would ever happen. I just want to stay home and be there all the time. Besides, now I can possibly work for my wife, if she hires me.”
She squeezes me. “You wish! I can’t hire you. Then how am I supposed to meet all the hot new men who come in?”
Before she can continue, I smash my lips onto hers.
I’ve got everything a person can possible ask for. If someone had told me this time last year that I would be standing on the ice raising the cup with a fiancée and two step-kids, I would have told them to fuck off.
It’s so much better than what they write about in these fairy tales.
Epilogue
Four years later...
“Daddy, Daddy, watch me, watch me.” My three-year-old beautiful blue-eyed little girl Zara says while she swings to try to hit the golf ball off the tee. Nothing happens. She takes a second to right her tiara before trying again. Still nothing.
“I can do better,” says my green-eyed little girl Zoe. She tries to hit the ball, but instead she falls off her fake plastic high heels that they found in Allison’s princess closet.
My two twin girls came screaming into the world exactly nine months after I stood on that beach and made promises to their mother.
We had both decided that we wanted a small wedding. Just us and no hell or high water would stop Meghan from joining us. We went back to the house we rented for her birthday. Tom rented the house next door, but next door was still a five-minute ride away.
So, I stood on the beach wearing my beige linen pants and white linen shirt, watching Matthew walk her down to me.
She looked like an angel in her dress, which was white and flowing. It was like she was walking on clouds. But when she made it to me and Matthew placed her hand into mine, he slapped me on the back and made his way beside me as my best man.
I stood there underneath the setting sun and made vows to all three of them. I vowed to be there in good times and in bad. I vowed to never make them lack anything. I vowed to protect them and always put them and their needs before me. I promised to never make their mother cry, unless it was tears of joy. And most of all I promised them that I would love all three of them to the end of the earth.
She shocked the shit out of me when she stood there, vowing to always be there for me even when I wouldn’t bring coffee to her in the morning. She vowed to never let me lose my eight pack, because that’s what she loved most about me. Then the three of them got together and all vowed to love me forever.
And with that ring, I was legally wedded. To all three of them.
We stayed and celebrated for a whole week. Heck, I was retired, but I had nothing else to do.
When Parker found out she was pregnant, she was so happy till the doctor confirmed that she was a little big for her date. Well, the ultrasound showed that she was indeed carrying twins. I was over the moon excited, till they told me the twins were girls.
The day we came home and told the kids we were having a baby was the excitement of the year, till we said we were having girls. Matthew groaned, rolling his eyes. But Allison, she got really quiet and said she wanted to go to her room.
Parker just looked at me while I watched her walk out of the room. I waited a full three minutes before I made my way to her room.