Page 92 of The Sky Between Us

“Y.”

She kissed my other cheek.

“E.”

She kissed my nose.

“S.”

And finally, she kissed my lips in a slow, passionate kiss. She took the lead and I let her set the pace for our first official kiss. The one that sealed our future.

“Yes, Aiden, I’ll move with you to Europe.”

Epilogue

FIFTEEN YEARS LATER

“There’s only one minute left of the overtime and the score remains 0-0. Barcelona is doing a great job attacking and the ball is being played back and forth between McCarthy and Hitchings, looking for a hole in defense.”

I listened to the commentator’s voice, as I sat at the edge of my seat. Watching both of my boys’ play was always a pleasure, yet nerve wrecking. Especially against Real Madrid. The crowd roared around me as I saw Aiden miss his opportunity to score. His #10 was visible from far. Despite turning 35 in a couple of months, he looked fitter than ever, but years of professional soccer were taking a toll on him and he needed to retire. Yet, he was still at his peak giving 110% out on the field.

My heart grew fuller as I watched Sky jog over to him and say a couple of words based on how quickly his lips moved. His #16 shone in the late sunshine with his messy brown hair that made him look like his father.

The crowd cheered, diverting my attention as the players moved up to the opponent’s goal and Aiden positioned himself. There were only a couple of seconds left of the extra time before they went into penalties. Aiden got the ball and he had a clear line to shoot despite the defense players caging him in. He went to kick the ball, but instead he made a swift pass to Sky, who sprinted through the players and with one smooth kick, he put the ball in the goal.

People all around me went crazy and the whistle sounded and announced that Barcelona had won the Champions League.

Again.

Jumping up from my seat I clapped and screamed together with the other friends and family members around me. We always sat together, it almost felt like one big family. Some of them congratulated me as I made my way down to see the celebrating team.

“Mom, did you see that?” Sky beamed at me, running towards me, Aiden at his heels.

I never got tired of hearing him say ‘mom’.

When he turned sixteen and an opportunity opened up that he could move out to Barcelona and train at the Academy, I had a long discussion with my parents and Aiden, who just recently signed with the team. We agreed it would be best to tell him the truth and when we went back home that Christmas, we sat him down and told him the truth. He took it better than I expected as he was always more mature than his age. It took him a while to warm up to the thought despite admitting he already suspected. It was Sky who asked if Jake was his real father as he remembered the incident from our senior year. I didn’t want any more secrets, so I told him yes.

Surprisingly, Sky never wanted to reach out to him. He said he watched enough movies when kids discover their real parents aren’t who they say they are, but he never felt neglected or lost. He always felt like he belonged, just the roles changed a bit.

Jake, on the other hand, never once reached out. Not even later when he grew up. Not even when he was playing against his son.

“Losers,” Sky muttered as the Real Madrid team left the field and I watched as Jake mumbled something to his teammates in return.

“Be the bigger man,” Aiden said to Sky as he ruffled his hair. “Good job!”

“I know,” he grinned back and clamped Aiden by the shoulder. “Time for you to hang up your jersey, old man.”

“Careful,” Aiden said, before moving to kiss me. He tasted like sweat and victory and unbothered by the fact that he just ran up and down for almost a hundred minutes I snuggled to the side. The sight of him in his soccer uniform, the messy hair from all the running and that victorious smile. I never got tired of it. And neither did my body. Still, every time I’ve seen him, I had many butterflies flap their wings in my stomach. “But I am retiring.”

“About time,” I muttered into his shoulder as he held me close. “We will soon have our hands full.”

“Finally,” Sky sighed. “I can’t wait to meet my little sister. I’m totally going to teach her soccer even if you put her into your dance school.”

When we moved to Barcelona and Sky moved with us, I opened my own dance school. It started small with just a couple of classes here and there, then I hired a few other teachers and by the time I realized I needed to make a school and name it and call it a business, I never imagined life would get me here, but it had a mysterious way of working.

As for the little sister, it took a lot of time and courage to get pregnant again, but I realized I was thirty-five and I was running out of time. We agreed once Aiden retires, we will try for a baby. In the end, it happened without trying but the timing was ideal. I needed him every step of the way on this new journey as bad memories still burned deep in my brain. The first one wasn’t easy, but at least I knew what I was getting myself into.

“Don’t you have a girlfriend to get to?” Aiden asked him with a grin and Sky matched his with a cocky one.

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