Chapter 13

Parker

4 Months Later

We wanted to spend Thanksgiving with Cassie's family, but she also wanted to meet my parents, so the week before the holiday, we flew to California. To say the flight was interesting would have been an understatement. I guess we should have expected that, flying with six kids and all, but we didn't. I flew all the time with the team, so to me it was nothing. Add in six kids, one of which was four months old, and I wasn't sure I'd ever want to fly again. They weren't bad, it wasn't that at all. It was just a long flight, and asking them to sit still the entire time wasn't fair to any of them. We had ways for them to watch movies and listen to music, and we also had snacks and books. The flight attendants said the kids were really well behaved, but Cassie said they were just saying it because of who I was. My woman looked so damn sexy when she was jealous.

As soon as the plane landed, Cassie took the head of the line and I stayed in the back to make sure we had everyone and everything. My family was so damn adorable walking single file off the plane, a backpack hanging from each of our shoulders. A few guys even gave me the old fist bump on the way out. I had to laugh. We were hilarious. I could even admit that.

There was one thing weighing heavy on my mind the entire flight. It was something I'd just found out the night before. There was a huge possibility I was being traded. It was all I could think about, but there was no way I was telling Cassie. I couldn't do it. It wasn't being publicized, so I'd be able to keep it to myself for the duration of the trip and hopefully even longer. I had a lot to think about, and I wanted the chance to do that before Cassie found out. Things were different than the time before. I had more options, but they weren't simple ones. If my team traded me, I had two choices. I could go, or I could opt out all together. Yes, I could quit. Did I want to do that? Hell no. Would I? That was the thinking I had to do. Would I be willing to move my family away from everyone that loved them? Would my wife be willing to go? How long would we be there? Would we just have to move again? How many times would I be willing to put my family through all that just for my career? Did I love the game? Of course. I loved every bit of it, but I loved my family more. The twins were with us permanently, and we had four other children. Wherever I went, Cassie would be alone with them all, and I wasn't sure she was willing to do that. I also wasn't sure I was willing to ask that of her. I was gone enough as it was, and there was so much I was already missing. It was time for me to decide just how much I was willing to miss.

“Wannabe,” Cassie snapped out, pulling me from my thoughts.

I'd stopped walking and hadn't even realized it.

“Snap out of it, Parker,” I whispered to myself. “Enjoy your family.”

I got moving and quickly caught up with the group.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Perfect,” I said, as I leaned down and planted a kiss on her lips.

“I lost you for a second,” she said. “Was the flight that bad? You want to rent a car to drive home?”

“Are you kidding?” I asked, with a smile on my face. “That is not happening. I'll take hours on a plane over days in a car.”

She burst into laughter before getting the kids moving again.

“Let's go,” she said. “We're almost there.”

I watched my family walking in front of me, and I knew I would do whatever it took to keep them safe and happy. With them in my life, nothing else mattered. They were my everything.

My parents were thrilled to see us. We stayed at a hotel, and they joined us. It wasn't them. They offered for us to stay at their house, but I said no. There was no way we were staying at their two bedroom home with six kids. Being at the hotel, they were able to visit with us without having to work for it by cooking and entertaining eight of us. They swam with the kids, and my mom held the baby every chance she got. They even went with us to Disney, and that was a blast. We had princesses and pirates running around everywhere. The best part of it all was watching them treat Cassie's three little ones just like they did their biological grandchildren. That meant more to me than anything, and I knew Cassie felt the same way.

The flight home wasn't nearly as bad as the one on the way there. I was pretty sure it was because every single one of us was exhausted. As soon as we got home, we put the kids to bed. Then Cassie headed for our room while I locked up the house. Once I was done, I headed to the bedroom to show my wife just how damn much I'd missed having her beneath me that entire week. When I walked into the room and looked at the view in front of me, I knew I would never tire from seeing my woman, on the bed, with her hair fanned out around her. Only one thing would have been better, if she'd actually been looking back at me instead of snoring. That would have been perfect.