Room for More (32 page)

He played with a strand of my hair but didn’t respond.

“I wanted you here and I know you wanted to
be
here, but I’m sorry you had to hear it like that, ya know?”

“Don’t sweat it. They’re little. It’s hard to explain all of this without freaking them out and giving them way more science than they’re ready for.” He laughed. “As they get older, they’re going to ask questions, but it won’t matter. They’ll already love me way more than they love him anyway.”

I sat up and grinned at him. “Duh. How could they not?”

He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and smiled at me, showcasing those adorable dimples.

“I love you, Murphy.”

“I love you,
More.
”

Brody quickly pulled his phone out and looked at the screen. “What time is what’s-his-name coming over?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Trick-or-treating starts at four o’clock. He said he’d be here at quarter ‘til, so any minute?”

“Shit!” He jumped off the stool. “I gotta help the girls put their costumes on.” He walked over to the backpack he brought and took out two sets of black sweatpants and sweatshirts and handed them to me. “Can you take these in there and ask them to put them on? I’ll help with the rest.”

“Black sweats?” I cocked my head to the side. “You guys have me totally thrown off.”

“Good.” He handed me the sweats and smacked my ass as I headed down the hall.

The girls giggled and tortured me the whole time I got them dressed, laughing about how funny it was that I didn’t know what their costumes were. I tried asking questions and digging around for clues, but they just covered their mouths and grinned at each other.

They followed along behind me as I walked back out to the kitchen. “Okay, they have on their—” I stopped dead in my tracks with the girls bumping right into me. Zach stood on one end of the kitchen, leaning against the counter. Brody sat at the island with his hands folded in front of his mouth.

“Hi,” I said nervously.

“Hi.” Zach smiled and waved. “Brody let me in.”

“Well, the evening is starting off on the right foot already. At least he let you in the door.” I laughed, trying to ease the tension in the room.

Zach offered up a fake laugh and Brody cracked a smile.

I considered that a win.

Lucy called out, “Hi, Zach.”

“Uh, you should probably call him… What should they call you?” I stuttered.

Zach shrugged. “Whatever you guys are comfortable with. Really.”

“Brody’s our dad and we call him Brody.” Piper skipped around the island.

Holy crap, now I was worried Zach was going to be offended. Was it always going to be that way? Me freaking out and on edge that someone was going to have hurt feelings?

“So call me Zach. I’m cool with that,” he said.

“Brody, we’re ready for our costumes,” Lucy tugged on his shirt.

Brody’s face softened. “You are?” He looked down at Lucy. “Well, come on, then.” He stood up and started out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” I asked as they followed along behind him.

“I didn’t trust you not to snoop, so I left them in my truck.” He laughed on his way out the door.

Zach and I stood in the kitchen awkwardly, not making eye contact with each other.

“He really loves them,” he finally said.

“He does. A lot.”

“I can tell. They’re lucky to have him.”

I nodded in agreement. “Very lucky.”

“I’m lucky too.” He sighed.

“How so?”

“That you invited me here to be part of this tonight. I really appreciate it.”

“Don’t thank me; it was Brody’s idea.”

His eyebrows shot up. “It was?”

I nodded again. “He thinks that we need to try and move forward.”

“Wow.” He looked at the ground and shook his head slowly. “I’m impressed.”

I heard the front door swing open again and turned toward the hall, excited to see what Brody had cooked up.

“Mommy! Come here!” Lucy called from the foyer.

I looked at Zach and shrugged. “Guess it’s the moment of truth.” I walked up front with Zach following behind.

When I got to the foyer, I pulled my hands up to my mouth, trying to contain my laugh. Standing at the front door, side by side, were Lucy and Piper in the cutest Twinkie costumes I’d ever seen. “What in the world? Where did you find those?”

Brody looked down at the girls proudly. “I had them made. Aren’t they perfect?”

“We’re cute!” Lucy clapped.

“Do you want to bite us?” Piper asked, giggling.

“You guys look
SO
cute!” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and aimed it at them. “Smile! Brody, get in there with them for one.” He walked up behind them and squatted down in the middle. “Say, Happy Halloween.” They smiled and I clicked away.

“Want me to take one of the four of you?” Zach asked, holding out his hand for the phone.

“Really?” I asked. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Of course not.” He took the phone from me. “Hop in there.”

I walked up behind the girls and squatted next to Brody, who wrapped his arm around my waist. That moment was incredibly surreal to me. Overwhelming even. As my past was taking a picture of my present, a calm wrapped its arms around me and I just knew things would be okay. Brody and Zach were acting like champs around each other and the girls had handled the news perfectly. Could life get any better?

“We better get going, Twinkies,” Brody said excitedly. “There’s a lot of candy out there to claim.”

“Wait, one more pic. Zach, you wanna take one with Lucy and Piper?”

Zach nervously rolled his top lip in between his teeth. “I would love it, if you guys wouldn’t mind.” He pointed to Brody and me.

I took my phone from him and stepped around front.

“Have at it.” Brody stepped to the side.

After the picture of Zach and the girls, Lucy jumped up and down. “We need one of all of us, Mommy! One more!”

I looked up at Brody and bit my lip nervously before glancing over at Zach who had shoved his hands in his pockets and seemed beyond uncomfortable with the prospect.

“Uh…” I stalled, trying to decide how to deal with the awkward situation.

“Come on.” Brody walked over behind the girls again. “I have long arms. I’ll try and get everyone in. Let’s go.”

Zach looked at me and shrugged as a small smile cracked his lips.

Why the hell not?

I squeezed in between Zach and Brody.

We snapped a few more pictures and were out the door.

Two hours of walking door-to-door and the adults were complaining more than the kids.

“Do they always have this much energy?” Zach yawned.

“Unfortunately, yes.” I laughed. “They never stop moving.” They’re going to have enough candy to last them until next Halloween.” Zach shook his head as they ran past us to the next house.

“Not after the candy tax,” Brody joked.

Zach turned and frowned at him. “Candy tax?”

“Yeah. Once the kids go to bed, the parents get to raid the bags and pick out their favorites as a tax for walking all night.”

Zach threw his head back and laughed. “I think I’m gonna like the candy tax.”

Lucy and Piper looked up, saying something to the older man who had just dropped candy in their bags. As they waved good-bye and ran down the sidewalk toward us, I stopped them. “What were you saying to that man?”

“Oh!’ Lucy shrugged. “He asked if that was Brody Murphy on the sidewalk and we told him yes, that we have two dads and Brody is one of them.” She grinned.

“You told him that?” I blurted out.

“Yeah, lots of people asked about Brody and we told all of them that he was one of our two dads.” Piper said proudly. “Come on, Lucy!” They linked hands and sprinted off for the next house.

Brody, Zach, and I stood frozen on the sidewalk with our mouths open.

“Did she just tell people—” Zach stopped halfway through his sentence and looked at Brody and me.

“I believe she did.” Brody laughed hard. Zach and I followed suit.

“Oh my God,” I said as my laughter died down. “I’m so sorry. People are going to think you and Zach are…”

He grinned and shook his head, chuckling. “Andy’s going to have a good time explaining this one to the tabloids on Monday.”

8 months later…

Today is June 24th.

Two months ago today, my team was knocked out of the play-offs by the fucking Chicago Blackhawks, once again. Despite my rough start to the season, I ended it with more wins and more saves than any other season in my career.

Yesterday, Andy called and told me he had a contract offer for me, but he wouldn’t tell me from what team. I had no idea if I was still going to be Minnesota Wild’s goalie next year or a Florida Panther. He didn’t want to tell me over the phone, so I was going into his office to meet with him.

Today is also Kacie’s birthday. She’s turning twenty-five years old. She’s the most mature and selfless twenty-five-year-old on the planet. When I scroll through Facebook, most of the girls I went to high school with are still pretending to be drunk airheads to impress a guy or posting stupid selfies of themselves in their bathrooms. Kacie has been a single mom for years, though she doesn’t call herself that anymore. Between me and Zach, who has been spending more and more time with the girls lately, she’s anything but alone. She passed her exams with flying colors and has been working in the labor and delivery unit of Roger’s Memorial Hospital since shortly after she graduated. She works three twelve-hour shifts a week, and while that’s been a huge adjustment for us, we’ve gotten good at going with the flow.

And thank God for that because I had no idea what was going to happen at this meeting with Andy. He told me to come by at nine o’clock. I looked at my phone.

9:12 a.m.

I was stalling. I really didn’t want to hear that the Wild was letting me go, and the last thing in the whole world I wanted to do was give Kacie that news on her birthday. But we’d promised each other: no more withholding information. And we hadn’t. Not so much as a blip on the radar in the eight months since our Hell Week, as she called it.

Before I rolled out of bed and dragged myself to Andy’s office, I shot my girl a text.