Page 255 of Call the Shots
“Thanks—I’m trying to propose here, AJ.” Bear cupped my face, his warm brown eyes on me. “Will you marry me, baby?”
I threw my arms over his neck. “I—yes!”
His family hugged us too until the kids were jumping on the couch, chanting, “OKAPI, OKAPI, OKAPI!”
“Your parents gave their blessing if I propose again at their Christmas party,” he whispered, kissing my shoulder. “So, this is part one of the proposal.”
“I love you,” I managed, sniffling. I dropped my voice. “Oh, you’re so getting laid tonight. I don’t care how squeaky that bed is.”
Bear laughed, breaking away to kiss me.
CHAPTER 94
BEAR
EPILOGUE: VEGAS, BABY
Xavier triedto leak King’s information a few years later and the NDA blowback was hilarious. Not only were there financial repercussions but June threw her own legal fees into the mix too, using the law firm she worked for to take on her own case. He must’ve been addicted to digging a bigger hole for himself because when it came out that he’d hired a private investigator to trail her—add stalking to the mix, and the judge wasn’t happy.
Two years in a state prison was the verdict. Xavier ended up serving eight months with good behavior and finally learned to leave June alone. With the restraining order, he didn’t have a choice.
I hadn’t talked to my dad in a long time, but he contacted me to say if I ever wanted to set foot into his house again, it’d have to be without June. That was probably the funniest part of it all, the idea that I’d go there without my wife.
I cut out my family and made new ones.
There were the Gladiators, who’d always be my family, the Boston Bulldogs, who I captained my last four years with them, the community that June and I built in Boston, and then what we created ourselves. We didn’t get pregnant until I retired andthen there was this tiny thing that came screaming out of my wife. He had a shock of blond hair, which the nurse assured us would darken. It didn’t.
June picked the name—Leo, because he’d been basically planned since our first summer together, and because it only felt right to name him after the stars. Our summer star baby, who wiggled out of every outfit I put him in, and I loved him so much, it scared me.
King taught me this trick to use whenever I was overwhelmed. It was simple—count from five.
Sometimes, when June and I took Leo to the park or the grocery store, it’d hit me. How much I loved them, how scared I was of something happening to them, and I’d have to take a moment to count Leo’s chubby fingers, reminding myself that we were in this moment together.
There were so many things about Leo that reminded me of June, it was like having a living memory to love. When he took his first steps, I cheered him on, and he gave me this uncannily exasperated-June look. The two of them spent hours digging through the garden together, and the way he carefully patted down the soil—thatwas June. When I took Leo to the ice for the first time, he twisted his face in that determined look June had and pushed my hands away when I tried to help.
You think you can love with all your heart and then your heart gets bigger for someone new.
King and Willow stayed over for the weekend and that meant I put my classwork aside for a couple of days. I decided to go back to school for video game design, which worked out perfect for Leo’s baby years and being a chauffeur for a frozen yogurt stop for my kid and my godkids.
I pulled my car into our driveway and my godkids, Flint, Amber, and Emmy, raced out. I opened the back door to see my son.
Leo squirmed in his car seat. “Papa, Papa?—”
“I know, I’m helping you, buddy.” I chuckled, unbuckling his car seat. “They left you behind, what’s up with that?”
I picked him up to place him on the ground, but he thumped my chest with his fists. “Bear cub, bear cub?—”
I mock-growled. “Are you my bear cub?”
He growled back, hands up like bear paws, and I tickled his stomach. I couldn’t remember exactly how it stuck but we watched the documentary my mom was in, and Leo seemed to realize his dad’s name was an animal. Suddenly we had to have bear-themed everything in the house.
With a chuckle, I grabbed the frozen yogurt out of the cupholder, ready to put Leo down, but he pressed his face to my neck and hugged me. Those always took me off-guard, those insistent hugs when he’d hold tight.
“I love you, bear cub,” I whispered. “More than you know.”
“Papa, down—down—” he struggled until I set him on the ground and then he was off, waddling in his star-print overalls. He stumbled and shoved himself back up again. “Mama!MAMA!”
Emmy opened the door, and I followed after them with the frozen yogurt. Immediately, I was accosted by our dogs, the ugliest dogs at the pound because my wife was persuaded to get the ones that’d been there the longest.
