by Mignon Mykel
I reached in front of me, my hand resting on his pillow. It was still indented but the clock beyond his pillow showed the time being ten.
In front of his clock, was a framed picture. I stretched my body long, reaching for the small three-by-three square all-glass frame. I rolled to my back and lifted the picture in front of my face to see it.
It was a picture of the two of us, but I was sleeping against his chest. It was a picture I didn’t recognize, but could tell it was from a few years ago, as Porter’s plugs were still in his earlobes. I ran my finger down the glass, over his face, smiling lightly at his choice of a picture to put out. How did I not know about this picture?
I returned the frame to its spot before sitting up, turning to reach for my phone. I checked for text messages; one, from Porter.
Morning, beautiful. I’ll be home around noon. Be ready. Love you.
I lifted my brows. What did he have planned for today?
Shaking my head, I put my phone down and climbed out of bed. I walked naked—after clothes were shed and connection was made last night, there was no energy to find a sleep shirt—to the bathroom, grabbing a quick shower.
Clean and clothed, I made the bed and grabbed for my phone again.
I opened up the new Facebook app. Carter wouldn’t let me leave her place until I downloaded some type of social media. I now joined the rest of the world, by having a Facebook account and an Instagram account.
I didn’t know the first thing about them, but one thing I did know was that I didn’t necessarily want random people finding me.
Or people from my past.
A person from your past.
Porter had showed me how to make everything as private as possible, telling Carter it was because of his family, but I knew he did it just as much for me, as he did for him.
There were a bunch of notifications saying people accepted my friend request—Porter’s doing. But I also had notifications from Carter and…Avery?
I grinned as I opened Avery’s, first.
It was just a note on my page—wall—that said she missed me. I clicked on her profile picture and thumbed through her photos as I went into the kitchen to put together a bowl of cereal.
I somehow ended up on Instagram, where I moved through Porter’s page. Most of his shots were of hockey, or random pictures from the lake house of a bonfire or the beach. There were a few pictures of his family, but every picture that had me in it, was cropped so you couldn’t really tell it was me, but all surprisingly artistic in the crop.
A picture of me laughing, that was cut off over my smile.
The picture he had on his nightstand, but a different shot where my hair covered my face.
I was reminded of Avery’s words a few months ago, about how Porter tried to protect me from social media. I chuckled lightly to myself at this man who chose to love me.
There were a few comments on this sleeping picture and, curiously, I scrolled through them.
Mostly family.
McKenna’s response was “OMG!!!!!!!! <3” and I don’t know why, but that made me smile wider.
Mykaela’s was, “Knew it.”
Even Sydney had joined in, posting, “She’s too good for you ;)”
God, I loved his family.
There was a more recent comment from a naysayer, and as I thumbed through Porter’s pictures, I saw this girl posted on most of his pictures. She even added a link to one of them.
It took me a minute, but I figured out that I couldn’t highlight the text but, because I was curious, I copied each letter in the link, into the address bar.
The address pulled up that WAGs site. It had been a long time since I’d been on it.
The picture the page opened to, was from the previous weekend—yesterday, in fact—in North Carolina. It was Porter hugging me, my head buried in his chest.
He and I stopped at the shoreline just after leaving Carter’s, on our way back home. Porter had just told me he wanted to add a yellow ribbon to his XI, for Bri. And that he wanted to tattoo his bracelet, because he was afraid of it fraying off.
I was crying into his chest, at the absolute sweetness of it all.
I clenched my jaw together, hating that someone saw that moment. It wasn’t meant for anyone else.
The comments below weren’t very nice, either. There were a few that were against the haters, but it was a bunch of negative fuckers who got high on bringing others down.
I quickly swiped the browser closed, not wanting to read any more.
Before I could put my phone down though, it was ringing.
Porter.
I glanced at the time as I swiped the call open, bringing it to my ear. “Aren’t you supposed to be practicing?”
His chuckle through the line brought me more comfort than he’d realize.
The picture didn’t matter.
“Between lifting and ice. Wanted to be sure you got my text.”
“I did. I just woke up.”
“Lucky.”
I smiled, moving around the kitchen with my phone to my ear. “Sometimes.”
“Make sure you’re ready. I have a surprise for you.” He sounded excited. In the background, I could hear Nico harping on Porter, and it made me miss the guy.
“Tell Nico to stop by for dinner. We can grill out or something.”
“’Kay. Oh. Call that tattoo place and schedule something for me, please?”
“I suppose I have nothing better to do.”
“Smartass.”
“Love you.”
His chuckle made my grin wider. “Love you too, beautiful. See you soon.”
“Stay out here,” I said, opening the back door from the garage to the back yard. “I’ll get Ash.”
Nico chuckled. “Sure thing. Anything else, Portsy? Maybe you should put me to work. Start the grill or something.”
“Don’t be a wise ass. Just stay out here a moment.”
Nico did as I asked, laughing and shaking his head as he stepped past me.
When he was out, I quickly jogged to the door that would bring me inside. “Hey, Ash?” I called out. I dropped my hockey bag in the mudroom and walked in.
“Living room!” she yelled back. “Sorry, I’m just finishing…”
I was in the living room and looking over her shoulder before she could finish her sentence. On her lap was her sketchpad.
I knew she drew, but she didn’t do it often. She said she preferred the camera to her pencils these days.
On her sketchpad was a sketched back, female, but only half. And on that half, was a beautiful design made up of four simple scrolls with similar Maori designs that could be found in my sleeve. Down the spine, was a series of diamonds, filled with the Maori design. The entire design took up only the left side of the sketched back, and was simple in the way that the small scrolls only graced under the shoulder, and over the hip, leaving plenty of skin bare from ink.
“That’s beautiful, Ash.”
She didn’t look up from her pad, finishing up the last of the scrolls. “I scheduled it with yours.”
“Awesome. When?” I leaned down to rest my forearms on the back of the couch, watching as her pencil moved over the paper.
“Thursday. I’m going to drop off this design, and one for your bracelet, tomorrow.” She stopped moving her pencil and held up the pad in front of her face, tilting her head as she studied it.
Content, she leaned forward, uncrossing her legs, and placed the pad on the coffee table. “Sorry, I meant to be ready.”
She stood and turned toward me, the couch between us. She was in one of my shirts again—not one that she already claimed—and her legs were seemingly bare.
Damn bike shorts she liked.
My eyes fell to her chest, certain that, at the very least, she wasn’t wearing a bra.
“Nico’s here,” I finally said, bringing my eyes back to hers. I couldn’t help but grin cockily as a blu
sh filled her cheeks.
“Shit,” she mumbled, crossing her arms and making for the bedroom. I chuckled, following her.
I stood in the doorway, watching as she went into her closet. Out, her other clothes were tossed, and eventually she came out too, this time in leggings and an oversized, off-the-shoulder t-shirt.
Really, she didn’t look much more made up than she had in her other outfit, but what did I know?
“You should have told me he was coming with. I said tonight, for dinner,” she said pointedly. When she stepped close, I reached out to pull her in the rest of the way.
“I have a surprise for you,” I answered her instead. I brought my lips to hers for a brief kiss, but ‘brief’ never was in the cards for us.
Her hands splayed over my chest and I moved my lean-to into my full height, bending toward her as I pressed my hands to her lower back. Her tongue was the first to make contact, but my mouth quickly opened and allowed her access. It wasn’t long before there was some tent-action going on down below, and I knew, as badly as I didn’t want to, this had to stop.
For now.
We could revisit this later.
Shit, we had the rest of our lives to revisit this kiss, again and again.
I sucked on her lower lip before pulling away. “Surprise,” I reminded her. I let my hands dip down first, though, grabbing a handful of her ass and loving the slight shriek she gave.
Asher reached for my hands, pulling them from her, but folding her hand into mine instead. “Show me.”
I took her back into the living room, to the sliding glass door that brought us to the backyard. “Close your eyes.”
She lifted a brow at me but did as I asked.
I pulled the door open and found Nico. I pursed my lips out in a “shh” and he nodded. The surprise was, thankfully, quiet.
Helping Asher out of the house and down the back porch, I kept my hand on her back. “I know we didn’t really talk about it. Hell, we didn’t talk about it, but…” I motioned for Nico, who walked over quietly.
“Alright, Ash. Hands out,” Nico said, causing her to jump.
“Keep your eyes shut,” I told her, not wanting to ruin the surprise.
“I forgot he was out here,” Asher mumbled, but held her hands out all the same.
Nico transferred the surprise from his hands to Asher’s…
And her eyes flew open.
“Oh, my God,” she said quietly, her arms moving so she could hold the large puppy better. “Look at its paws!”
“He’s a Leonberger,” I told her, grinning. The furry golden dog with a dark facial mask, was going to be a monster when he was done growing, but Leonbergers were known for their affection. Maybe not the best dog to get for first-time dog owners, but I was excited as fuck anyway.
“They’re like little lions,” Nico said, pulling out his phone and showing Asher a picture of the pup’s parents.
Her eyes became wide as she looked over at me. “He’s going to be huge!”
“What do you want to name him?” I asked, reaching out to scratch behind the pup’s ear.
“We’re keeping him?”
“Of course, we’re keeping him.” I was a little offended that she would think otherwise.
“Well,” she said, lifting the pup up under his arms, looking him in the eye. “We need a name fit for a king.” The pup wiggled in Asher’s hands and licked her nose, causing her to laugh. “Okay, okay, we’ll think about it.”
I cuddled into Porter’s side, listening as the puppy—who was much larger than any puppy I had ever seen before—snored in his crate near our bedroom door.
“Leo,” Porter said and I shook my head.
“Not original.”
“George.”
My brows dropped even though I grinned. I pushed up against his chest so I could look down at him. “George?”
“It’s kingly.”
I shook my head. “No. No George.” I settled back into him.
“Alright, she who has said no to everything I offered. You have better ideas yet?”
Throughout the afternoon and early evening, the two of us, with Nico’s help, had been bouncing around names for the pup, but nothing fit.
“He needs a good name,” I said.
“I’ve been trying,” Porter grumbled. I smiled and pressed my lips to his bare chest.
Guy went to bed every night hoping to get lucky.
And usually, at some point in the night, he did.
“Caine,” I offered.
Porter was silent for a long moment. I lifted my head to look down at him. “Yeah?” I asked.
Finally, he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I think Caine works.” His grin was wide. “Hey, we came up with our first name. And it wasn’t entirely painful.”
Our first name.
Which meant…
He foresaw us naming more…things…in the future.
And after the briefest moment of panic, I realized…
I wasn’t completely terrified of the future.
This was the first Christmas that was being spent in Beloit in years, or so I was told. I only ever knew Christmases to be spent in San Diego with this family.
The Enforcers had a four-day break around Christmas this year and, being their first Christmas without Brielle, Caleb and his family needed to be away.
So Christmas in the snow, it was.
Caleb and Sydney told everyone they were expecting again, in late October. I hadn’t even spoken the words to Porter. It wasn’t my place to share that news. They also told everyone at that time that they were expecting a little girl.
I couldn’t help but secretly hope the baby would be a brunette. The three boys all had dark hair, and red was for Bri.
I couldn’t imagine being Caleb and Sydney, seeing their baby girl with red hair.
Maybe that was selfish of me. Maybe they wanted another little red-head running around.
Porter brought his Bri bear with him everywhere—every overnight trip, that bear was packed in his bag. We talked about him bringing it with us to Wisconsin, and in the end, Porter left it back home.
We did, however, bring Caine.
At just shy of five months old, Caine was the size of a golden retriever.
I don’t know what Porter was thinking, choosing a Leonberger.
“Go wake him up,” I said to Caine. He and I left a sleeping Porter so Caine could do his business in the snow.
Which turned into a play-fest, because low and behold, the dog loved snow.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t been dressed for the romp and now my sweatpants were soaked to the knees.
While back in Beloit, Porter and I were staying in the guest house. I tried telling Ryleigh that we could stay in the main house, and give the guest house to someone else, but I was quickly shut down.
In all honesty, coming back to this small house was like our home away from home. It had been my place of landing, the place where I found myself again.
Or really, learned who I could be.
“C’mon, Caine. Let’s go wake up daddy,” I said, with added excitement in my voice. The slight extra had Caine jumping, his still giant paws crashing into the floor. I laughed lightly, knowing that this was payback for the fact Porter taught Caine how to talk with him.
Meaning, Porter said Caine’s name in a quick, baby voice, and Caine howled. Or, Porter howled, and Caine sang with him.
It was a lot of fun…
I pretended to jog toward the bedroom, pushing the door open as Caine bounded in, leaping for the bed…
And damn near missing it.
I laughed out loud as Caine shot me a tongue-lolling look over his massive shoulder. I helped lift his rump up, and soon he was walking all over Porter’s prone body, licking in his ears and crying happily.
Porter groaned, his hands coming up to cover his head. “Caine,” he managed.
Grinning, I jumped into bed beside the
m, reaching for the dog. Caine, who thought he was a lapdog, happily came to sit between my crossed legs.
“Morning,” I said cheerfully.
“Morning.” His reply wasn’t quite as cheerful, and I couldn’t help but smile wider.
“Late night?” He and Logan met up for drinks last night, and he didn’t get back until close to midnight.
I knew, because he woke me up.
Can’t say I was disappointed with being woken, though.
“Wouldn’t have been so late if I didn’t have a sexy fiancée in my bed,” he mumbled into his pillow.
“She’s real sexy today, with her snow-drenched sweatpants. You should check her out.”
Porter cracked open an eye. “Caine pull you in?”
“No, I decided that playing in the snow, while not wearing appropriate clothing, was the thing to do.”
“Smartass,” he answered with a grin, closing his eye again.
“I’m showering.” I didn’t move.
Five, four, three…
“Want company?”
I grinned again. “You’re so predictable.”
Avery and Ash left for Target a little while back, grabbing the last of the gifts. Asher and I decided to just buy our gifts here, rather than fly with them.
My artsy fiancée was an expert gift-wrapper, and if the presents were ruined in flight?
Yeah, it probably wouldn’t be good.
All the Prescott boys were down at the manmade pond Dad built when we were kids. Caleb and his two oldest boys, Jonny, and even Parker and CJ.
Brandon almost seemed to be back to his old self, but he definitely took the loss of Brielle hard. Brody…I think he understood the loss of Brielle, but only in a way that a five-year-old could. That she was gone.
Caleb though…
If I thought Jonny was a different guy when he was married to Jenna, Caleb without Brielle was a complete stranger.
He was good with Sydney and the boys, but here, out on the ice while Brandon and Brody played at the banks, and it was just us brothers? I could see it all over his face.
Losing Bri was like having my heart ripped out of my chest, and she was only my niece.
