Page 84 of Press Your Luck

He stopped for a moment. “Porter is part of the package. I want him to stay with me and—”

“And I love Porter too.”

His smile was so sweet. “You’re amazing.”

“You’re the one with the super sperm.”

His smile turned wicked. “Thinking of which ...” He moved, and words were lost as our bodies took over, expressing love and awe and passion. Together, we rose to the peak. I flew over first, overcome with joy and pleasure. Pierce thrust again and joined me. Finally, we were together, and whatever life brought, I knew I’d be stronger by having him with me.

37

Pierce

Reed and Bo were right. Life could be fucking fantastic if you were willing to risk your heart. There had always been a draw to Naomi, and I had wanted to see where it could take us, but I hadn't ever imagined it would be as wonderful as it was turning out to be. From the moment we shared our feelings in her living room several months ago, I vowed that I would love her forever. Almost immediately, I set out to make that happen by asking her to move in with me and then buying the perfect house outside of Henderson that had a pool and a yard for Porter and the kids, five bedrooms for our growing brood, and of course, close to work and the doctor for Naomi. The drive to Las Vegas wasn’t so far, and I didn’t mind the commute.

It meant Porter had to change schools, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed to use it as a chance to start over. Not that he didn’t have moments of obstinance. Not long after Naomi and I moved in together, Jeannie called to check in with Porter. He'd always been angry with her, but it hadn't stopped him from asking her when he might be able to go home. But this time, he didn't ask. And in fact, in the conversation, he referred to his place with me ashome. Between that and his starting to call me Dad, it made me feel like I had hit the jackpot family-wise.

It occurred to me that while I had given Porter the words that I was committed to being his father, I needed to make a symbolic gesture. So when he got off the phone with Jeannie, I let her know what I planned to do, curious whether she would fight me on it or not. She grumbled a little bit, but I didn't buy it. I believed she loved Porter, but I didn’t think she wanted him to live with her full-time. Well, good, because I planned to keep him with me.

The following week, I sat him down and handed him his birth certificate that I had ordered.

"What is this?" he asked, his eyes looking up at me with concern.

"That’s your birth certificate. But it's missing something."

I pointed to the part where it saidFather. My name had been listed, but under his name, he had Jeannie's last name. "Your name is Porter Brown. Maybe I'm being old-fashioned, perhaps even sexist, but you're my son and I want you to have my name."

He looked up at me, his eyes rounding in surprise. "Really?"

I nodded. "Absolutely. You should be Porter Jackson. Or Porter Brown Jackson. I'm sorry I didn't think of it sooner, but I didn't want to change your name without your input. How do you feel about this idea?"

His head bobbed up and down. "Does that mean I can stay?"

My heart ached that he was worried that I was going to send him back to his mother's.

"Whether you want to change your last name or not, you're staying here with me. Of course, anytime you want to visit your mom, we can make arrangements. The other thing I wanted to talk to you about is making your living with me a legal situation. What would you say to my getting full custody of you?"

Emotion swept over his face, but he worked very hard to keep me from seeing it. Someday, I hoped that he would feel safe and comfortable enough to let me see how he truly felt. He nodded in response.

"Good. Get your coat, and we’ll head down to the courthouse and file the papers."

Now, several months later, everything in my life was settling into place. There was just one more thing left to do before I could call my life complete. At the moment, though, I couldn't deal with it as I watched the Buckaroos skate against Naomi's Silver Nuggets in the championship game of the league. I watched her on the other side of the rink, partly in awe and partly out of concern. She had grown so large carrying three babies, and I was worried sick about her, although she hated it when I fussed over her. In a crazy turn, though, her biggest protector on her team was Big Ed. In fact, the guy almost landed in jail when he knocked a photographer down who he felt had gotten too close to Naomi.

It wasn't that I didn't want my team to win, because of course I did, but I knew if they didn't, if Naomi won, I was going to be more than all right with that too. It was one of the reasons that I stepped back and let Bo take the lead on coaching the team for the last several months. When the news broke about me and Naomi, Buckaroo fans weren't too happy about it. By stepping back, Bo became the face of the coaching staff, and it settled fans’ concerns about whether or not I was letting my dick dictate my coaching.

On Naomi's side, the fans reacted as well, but they felt she was using her wiles on me to beat us so it wasn’t negative. Sure, I was easily distracted by her, but that wasn’t why she'd been able to beat our team and all the other teams to get into the championship. Saying she was distracting me took away from the fact that Naomi was a gifted coach.

The second period ended, and the teams headed off to their respective locker rooms. I went up to the control booth to check in with the person managing the technical aspects of the arena. She let me know that everything was a go, and I headed back down to the rink.

When the teams returned to the ice to play the third period, the lights dimmed and a spotlight shone in the middle of the rink. The players who were about to go on the ice to warm up again stopped. Instead, I hopped the wall, having put on skates, and started toward Naomi’s side while carrying a wireless microphone. While there were a few cheers, there were several boos, and I suspected many of them came from my own fans. But I didn't care. My eyes were on Naomi, and she watched me, intrigued, her head tilted to the side. She came out of the box and stood by the gate onto the ice. Big Ed came to stand next to her, his arms folded across his chest and a scowl on his face.

"What are you doing?" Naomi asked with humor in her voice. I had played this scenario out so many ways, but as I watched her with happiness gleaming in her eyes, her hands rubbing her humongous belly where our three children grew, I tossed all the plans and just went with my heart.

I brought the mic up to my mouth. "I've come to ask you a question, Coach Withers."

A gasp rang out through the arena, followed by ahs. Naomi bit her lower lip.

When I finally reached her, I opened the gate and then knelt down on one knee on the ice in front of her. Again, the arena erupted with cheers. I took a box out of my pocket and flipped it open to expose the diamond ring that I had bought her.

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