Page 132 of Ask Your Mom If I'm Real

Nineteen

It’s okay to be a disgrace.

—Jeremiah to Bryson

JEREMIAH

The last game of the season was over.

We’d won.

I now could say that I’d won the Stanley Cup.

And I was retiring.

The look on my teammates’ faces would’ve hurt had I not had who I did at home waiting for me.

“It’ll be okay,” I said. “I might consider a coaching position if I can stay at home to do it.”

Bryson clapped me on the back and said, “Take it easy.”

I left feeling lighter than I had in months.

That lightheartedness went to euphoria when I drove past the candy shop that the asshole owned and saw a “foreclosed” sign on the door.

When I let myself into the apartment, I smiled when I saw all the kids run toward me.

“Uncle Dix!” Cammie called. “Look!”

I grinned. “You ready for school to be over, Cammie?”

“No.” She wrinkled her nose.

I laughed.

Cammie had to be the only one that loved it.

The rest of the world hated it.

I grinned when Anleigh came up to me and held up her hands. “Up.”

I picked her up, loving the yell that had just sounded.

Over the months, Anleigh had grown into herself.

Her voice had gone from a whisper to a normal volume to yelling.

I fucking loved it.

I loved the woman walking toward me with Rosa in her arms even more.

“Hey, handsome,” Merriam said. “How’d it go?”

“Lots of crying, complaining, and curses. But in the end, they were happy for me to retire,” I answered.

“Oh, yeah?” she asked. “Does that mean I get your help full-time?”

“Nope.” Chris came in from the hallway that led to his place. He walked right to his baby and picked her up, snuggling her close. “He’s going to help me.”

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