Mary’s off to the side waving with one mitten covered hand and holding the camera with the other. I can’t wait to see the pictures and to embarrass the kids when they start dating in ten years…or thirty.
It’s not that I don’t want them to grow up and find true love of their own, it’s just that I want them to be around forever.
Mikey and Maureen bring us so much joy as do Michelle and Mark. The five M’s, including Mary, and then me.
I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect family and it all starts with the perfect wife. Her.
And a huge added bonus has been her ability to help not only with the family, but in the business world as well. My clients love her and she’s really taken to portfolio management and the strategies used to maximize everything available. I don’t think that it hurts one bit that she’s a woman and is always thinking about her family. It gives her an interesting perspective on estate planning that I think men wouldn’t naturally gravitate toward or consider.
But it doesn’t surprise me that she’s always coming up with new ways to surprise me. Whether it’s little notes she puts in my suit pocket telling me how much she loves me, or always remembering the kids favorite things to pack in their lunchboxes she’s always giving us little gifts and things that we “accidentally” stumble upon. But there is no accident. None at all.
She’s always thinking a step ahead, even me. And a great example of that was when she suggest we use the upstairs bedroom as an at home office.
I had always preferred separating business and family life, but then again I never really had a family life…and maybe that’s the reason why. Sure the number one reason why was because I hadn't met her yet, but also I was just to focused on making another billion dollars. I mean once you have two billion do you really need three?
What’s the point after all? The point of all that money is to improve your loved ones lives and futures and then if there’s anything left over to improve your own. Well, we had plenty to go around and being around my family taught me to take a deep breath and stop trying to stack my money to the sky.
I’d already found heaven when I found them. There’s nowhere higher to go.
And that’s exactly how I felt, especially in moments like these.
“You got it, guys!”
Mikey catches up to Maureen and carefully puts his hand on her shoulder. I’m surprised he’s able to guide his board so well and also not to knock her over, but somehow they work together. They’re just like their mother and I…a perfect team.
But then the best moment of all.
Mikey carefully removes his hand making sure not to disturb her balance and offers it to Maureen. She takes it and they slowly slide down the last twenty yards of the run together.
I look for Mary to see if she got it but she’s already gone. She was a step ahead of me again. She raced out in front of the kids and knowing her she’s switched from photo mode to video mode. Like I always say…a step ahead of me.
But fortunately for both of us everything we do since that day at the airport when I proposed we’ve done side-by-side. We have common interests and the most common and important of goals…our kids.
When we met I was thirty-seven and she was twenty-two. Now I’m forty-four and she’s twenty-nine.
Next year will be a milestone birthday for her and even though I know how much women want to stay twenty-nine forever, I have to do something super special. So far I’m thinking about taking her on an island holiday and then surprising her at the end and telling her the island is actually hers. Yes, a lot of countries allow you to buy islands actually, and if you buy it you can call it whatever you want, right?
And knowing her it would go into the kids estate so one day that island will be theirs. A place special to our family that may have never even been walked on by anyone outside our very own family. Just a small place to get away from it all and reconnect with what’s most important in this world…each other.
That’s the way it is and that’s the way it always will be.
I take off running down the hill and see a snowball coming my way. I could block it, but I don’t. I let it hit me right in the chest and do my best cowboy western fake dying routine.
My kids are laughing so hard they lose their balance and fall on their butts.
And that’s what life’s all about. Enjoying these moments with my kids, even at my own expense. And when it’s all over remind them that no matter how many times we fall down, we always get up.
And we help each other up when we do. One for all and all for one.
That’s how us Guy’s do it. Forever.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
Mary
Twenty years later
“Come on, Maureen. Come on!”
I look over at Cash who looks as cool as a cucumber, but I know he’s anything but.
I raise my hands to my face and stare at the finish line.
It may be freezing temperatures out here and I barely have a jacket on but I’m on fire. I’m burning up actually.
Watching my baby girl compete for a gold medal against the Russian snowboarder is too much to take.
I look up at the jumbotron big screen and see that they’ve made the final turn and are headed for the checkered flag.
It’s neck-and-neck, just like the first time my baby ever got on a snowboard.
My mind flashes back to me backpedaling down the hill back home in Aspen as I filmed Maureen and Mikey finishing their first run while they held hands.
And right on cue I feel Michael’s hand take mine.
“She’s got this, mom. I know it.”
If anybody knows his baby sister it’s Michael. They’ve been inseparable since Maureen was born.
And how amazing that we’ve come full circle. It was Michael who first took Maureen’s hand to steady her and support her that first time they ever rode together, and now he takes my hand to steady and support me.
And I feel Cash take my other.
I’ve got my men on both sides of me and Mark and Michelle right behind me.
I look up and see them come into view.
“It’s America versus Russia just like old times,” the announcer says. “Guy versus Putin.”
“Now this is a real cold war,” Mark says behind us. He’s the joker in our family, but the double entendre, even though humorous, is not about to get a laugh out of me.
They race towards us both leaning for the checkered flag.
“It’s a photo finish!” the announcer says.
Immediately the jumbotron replays the last few yards of their run. Again I can’t help but remember filming my little baby for the first time twenty years ago and now here she is on film for the entire world to see, but this time with an Olympic Gold Medal on the line.
The crowd oohs. I can barely watch.
The video freezes right at the line and the camera zooms in.
I see it instantly. It’s the technique Cash has been working on with her for years for situations just like this. Her special lean where she gets her entire body weight forward to a level that’s literally impossible for other riders…but not her. She’s been perfecting this with her daddy for years.
And today she needed it more than anything.
“The gold goes to Guy!” the announcer shouts.
The crowd in this beautiful country that is Chile cheers.
“Guy! Guy! Guy!” they scream.
“Woo-hoo!” Mikey yells and jumps so high in the air he almost lets go of my hand. But he doesn’t, just like he didn’t that day twenty years ago with Maureen.
“She won, mom. She really won!” Michelle says.
“Cold war victory,” Mark says.
And then I turn to Cash.
“You see what you’re little girl just did out there with the whole world watching.” he says.
I throw myself into his arms and try to stop crying, but it’s a losing fight. The tears are flowing and I don’t care anymore.
�
�Our girl,” I say, removing my head from his chest. I feel his skin against my face as he wipes the tears away. It’s as warm as mine.
And then suddenly I feel a spray of snow only to turn and see Maureen has given us a fishtail maneuver spraying us all with snow as she stopped abruptly just in front of us.
“We won, everybody!”
She throws herself forward into the snow and we all dive on top of her.
She rolls over and looks up towards the sky, but there’s no sky to be found. Only the faces of her family there to smile back at her.
“This is the best day of my life!” she says. “Thank you so much you guys. I love you.”
“We love you!” her dad says.
And we dive right back on top of her all over again. There’s no way she’s getting up anytime soon.
She’s got ten arms wrapped around her body hugging her, loving her, and remind her of our family motto.
“One for all and all for one.”
And today all of us took home the gold.
Together.
A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS
Book 1: Baby Lust
Book 2: Veteran
Book 3: Built
Book 4: Bambino
Book 5: Rescued
Book 6: Leader
Book 7: Professor
Book 8: Burned
Book 9: Worldly
Book 10: Pistol
Book 11: Policed
Book 12: Driven
Book 13: Lucky 13
Book 14: Lumberjacked
Book 15: Protector
Book 16: Carpenter
Book 17: Italian Stallion
Book 18: Gardener
Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin
Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 21: Cocky CFO
Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th
Book 23: Mechanic
Book 24: SEAL’s Secret
Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch
Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée
Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina
Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter
Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy
Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol
Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess
Book 32: Statham
Book 33: Bodyguard
Book 34: Greek God
Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter
Book 36: Mountain Man
Book 37: SEAL’s Justice
Book 38: Royal Romance
Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery
Book 40: Crocodile Dan D
Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby
Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby
Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter
Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door
Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace
Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée
Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny
Billionaire's Nanny: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 47) Page 7
