Room for More (33 page)

MORNING, JENSEN.

Diesel hopped up and curled into my side, giving me another excuse not to get out of bed yet.

K:
GOOD MORNING TO YOU, MURPHY.

LISTEN, I WAS THINKING… I’VE GOT A LOT OF ERRANDS TO RUN AROUND HERE. I’M PROBABLY GONNA COME UP TOMORROW INSTEAD OF TODAY, OKAY?

I laughed out loud in my bedroom. “Holy shit, D. She’s going to be so pissed.” A second later, my phone beeped.

K:
REALLY? TODAY? YOU HAVE TO RUN ERRANDS TODAY?

YEAH. I’D LIKE TO GET THEM OVER WITH. WHY? DID YOU HAVE SOMETHING GOING ON?

K:
UMMMM…

I couldn’t let her suffer anymore.

JUST KIDDING. I’M COMING UP. OF COURSE I WOULDN’T MISS MY GIRL’S BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY.

K:
YOU JERK! I THOUGHT YOU REALLY FORGOT!

NOT ONLY DID I NOT FORGET, I ALREADY PLANNED OUT OUR EVENING AND ASKED YOUR MOM TO BABYSIT.

I didn’t like lying to her, but I had been working too long on her surprise and I wanted her to think we were going out tonight after we all took her to dinner.

K:
YOU DID? WHERE ARE WE GOING?

CAN’T TELL YOU THAT. IT’S A SURPRISE.

K:
WHAT SHOULD I WEAR?

YOU STILL HAVE THAT BLUE DRESS THAT YOU WORE TO THE CHARITY BANQUET LAST YEAR?

K:
NO, BUT I CAN BORROW IT FROM LAUREN AGAIN. WE’RE GOING SOMEWHERE THAT FORMAL, HUH?

NOPE. WE’RE GOING SOMEWHERE TOTALLY CASUAL, YOU JUST LOOK SMOKING HOT IN THAT DRESS.

K:
YOU’RE A PAIN IN THE ASS.

THE BIGGEST. I’LL BE UP IN A FEW HOURS.

K:
OKAY. CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU. I LOVE YOU.

I LOVE YOU,
MORE
.

“Well, look who decided to show up.” Ellie smiled at me as the elevator doors opened. “And only an hour and a half late.”

“Sorry.” I grinned back. “Is he in there?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Yep. Go ahead in.”

The door to Andy’s office creaked as I opened it. He looked up from his computer and leaned back in his chair when he saw me, clamping his hands behind his head.

“I know, I know. Shut up.” I threw myself down on the leather couch across the room from him.

“I didn’t say shit.” He chuckled.

“No, but I could feel you thinking it.”

“I’m actually impressed.” He looked at his watch. “I figured I probably wouldn’t see you before noon.”

“I’m heading up to Kacie’s after this.” I picked a football up off of his coffee table and flipped onto my back, tossing it straight up in the air. “Stop fucking around. Give me the news.”

He stood up and grabbed a paper off his desk.

“Before I give this to you”—he sat down across from me—”I want you to know how proud I am of you. You ended with an amazing year, even with that rocky start. This is a fair deal that I think you should seriously consider.”

My heart started beating as fast as I could ever remember it beating in my whole life.

I’ll take less money; I don’t care about that. Please be the Wild. Please be the Wild.

He set the paper down on the table in front of me and sat back again. I grabbed it off the table, searching through the legal bullshit, looking for a city and a team name.

MINNESOTA WILD

YES!

I jumped up off the couch and fist pumped the air as every muscle in my body contracted at the same time with excitement. I vaulted over the coffee table and landed in Andy’s lap, bear hugging him.

“First of all, get off me, this is weird. Second, I’m assuming you’re happy with that offer?”

“I didn’t look at the offer.” I hugged just his head. “It’s in Minnesota, that’s enough for me.”

“You should probably look at the offer, Brody.”

I stood up and climbed back over the coffee table to my side. Picking up the offer, I squinted as I scanned it quickly, this time looking for a dollar sign and a time period.

There it is.

“What the fuck?” I dropped the paper on the table and stared at Andy incredulously.

He grinned at me and nodded. “You’re reading that right. They’re offering you seven million a year for six years. A forty-two million dollar contract. That’s a franchise record for a goalie, Brody. I think you should take it.”

“Take it?” I yelled, jumping up again. “I want to hump it.”

“Well, Ellie doesn’t want to clean anything gross out of the fax machine, so keep your dick in your pants, okay?”

“Dude.” I shoved my fingers in my hair and left them there as I paced his office. “This is fucking huge.”

“It’s beyond fucking huge. After the way you kicked all kinds of ass the second half of the season, I knew they would offer to keep you here. I didn’t expect that number, though.” He took a pen out of his pocket and tossed it on the table. “Whenever you’re ready, bro. Sign away.”

I was facing the bookshelves in the far corner of his office with my hands still locked on top of my head.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

I spun around slowly to face him. “Kacie. I can’t wait to tell her. She’s gonna fucking flip.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Dude, you’ve had it bad for that girl for a year now. You gonna marry her or what?”

Nothing short of the building falling down around us at that very moment would have stopped the grin that slid across my face. “Funny you should mention that…”

“Did you guys have fun tonight?” I ran my fingers through the tiny blonde strands of Lucy’s hair that fell across her forehead.

She beamed and nodded excitedly.

“We’ve never been to that place before. It was fun, huh?” I said to them, looking over at Brody who was sitting on a chair on the other side of their bed. They had their own beds but insisted on sleeping together still.

“It was really fun,” Lucy said. “Can we go back again?”

“Sure,” I answered.

“Tomorrow?” she asked.

“I don’t know about tomorrow.” I laughed. “But we’ll definitely have dinner there again soon, okay?”

“I liked it when they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to you and made you wear a cowboy hat.” Piper giggled.

“And then they made you ride that stick horse,” Lucy yelled, hopping out of bed and galloping around the room.

“That was my favorite part too.” Brody held his hand up and high-fived her as she skipped by him. Then he looked at me and winked. “I never wanted to be a stick horse so bad in my whole life.”

I raised my eyebrows and gave him the warning look, trying not to laugh. “Come on, Lucy, back in bed. It’s late.”

Lucy climbed back into bed and snuggled up as close as she could to Piper.

“How much do I love you guys?” I followed Brody to the door.

“More than all the stars in the sky and the waves in the sea,” they sang together.

“And how much do I love you?” Brody asked them before leaning in close to me and whispering, “Listen to this.”

“More than all the zeros in your new contract.” Piper giggled.

I smacked him on the arm. “You’re terrible.”

“I taught it to them at dinner when you were talking to your mom. Pretty awesome, huh?”

“Go.” I pushed him down the hall. “Good night, girls.”

“Night, Twinkies!” he called over me.

“Night, Mom! Night, Brody!”

“I’m exhausted,” I whined, collapsing onto the couch in the family room.

“No, no. You’re not gonna lay there and fall asleep.” Brody grabbed my hands and tried to pull me back up. “I still have to give you your present. Come on. Up.”

“Where are we going?”

“Outside.”

“Outside? Can’t you bring it here? I’m tired.” I laughed.

“Who’s the pain in the ass now?” he teased, leading me toward the front door. “Let’s go.”

We walked out the front door and he grabbed my hand, pulling me down the stairs and to the right, around the side of the house.

“Uh, last time you led me this way, I lost a tank top.” I giggled, again trying not to step on anything.

He turned back to me. “Keep walking, birthday girl.”

We got to the back of the house and started our way down the hill when a light up ahead caught my eye. I squinted through the darkness and realized it wasn’t a light, but a row of lanterns on the pier.

Our pier.

“What did you do?” I squeezed his hand and grinned at him as we got to the edge of the sand.

“You’ll see.”

We stepped onto the creaky wood and I stopped walking for a minute, taking in how amazing it was. Little silver lanterns lined both sides of the pier, lighting the whole thing up just beautifully.

“Come on.” He gently pulled on my hand again.

As we got closer to the end of the pier, I finally noticed the white box with a perfectly tied red bow sitting at the end.

“What’s that?” I cooed.

He bent over and picked it up, handing it to me. “Happy birthday, Kacie.”

I tugged on one end of the bow and it unraveled smoothly. Wrapping my hand around it so it didn’t drop in the water, I lifted the lid of the box and moved the tissue paper to the side.

Confused, I frowned up at Brody. “My View-Master?”

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “Look at it.”

I handed him the box to hold as I raised the View-Master to my eyes, aiming toward the lanterns for backlight. Blinking for a second so my eyes could adjust, the first picture I saw was of Lucy, Piper, and I in our matching Wild jerseys from his first home game.

“Oh my God!” I peeked over the top at him. “How did you do this?”

“Keep going.” He laughed.

I pulled the orange tab down. The next picture was of Brody and me walking the red carpet on our way into the Wild Kids charity event last year.

“Holy shit! This is so awesome,” I said, pulling the tab down again.

Picture number three was taken last fall, right in the exact spot we were standing in. It was one of my favorite pictures ever. The sky was painted pink and purple and the sun was setting perfectly right behind my mom and Fred as they exchanged wedding vows.

I anxiously blinked a couple times to clear the tears from my eyes so I could go to the next picture.

This one was taken at Brody’s parents’ house. It was of Brody, me, his mom and dad, Shae, and her new fiancé, Ricky. The picture was a little crooked because we had Lucy take it, but you could clearly see Shae showing off her new engagement ring. Brody’s fear had come true—his sister was going to be Shae May.

“This is just the coolest thing ever, Brody. I want to do this with all my pictures.” I sniffed, pulling the tab again.

Picture five was of Viper, Brody, and the girls from the first time they taught them how to ice skate. Not many kids could say that the first time they ice skated was on a professional hockey rink with two professional hockey players as teachers. The smiles on their faces were priceless, just like this gift.

The next one was from my graduation ceremony several months back. I was grinning at the camera and holding up my certificate while Brody kissed the side of my head. One of my proudest achievements.

I pulled the tab for the next picture and my breath caught. I remembered taking it on Christmas morning. The girls woke us up super early to open their presents. After we were done, I was making monkey bread in the kitchen while Lucy, Piper, and Brody sat on the couch watching
Charlie Brown’s Christmas
. I’d noticed it had grown pretty quiet in that room and tiptoed over to see what they were doing. Brody and the girls were lying down, sound asleep. Lucy and Piper were each tucked up under his arms with their little heads on his chest.

Picture eight was another favorite of mine, taken the weekend we spent at his house after his first game. The girls were grinning ear to ear, playing blissfully in the fort Brody had made them in his living room the night before. Diesel liked the fort too.