Tripping

Epilogue: Nathan's POV

Nathan

5 years later

"4...3...2...1...ready or not here I come!" I yell loudly so everyone can hear.

If you asked me 10 years ago where I thought I would be today. I would have told you I would be exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Playing hide and seek with my family on a Saturday afternoon.

First I head down the stairs to look for my girls. Which shouldn't be too hard. Our baby girl Eva is only just learning to walk, she just turned one last month and I'm sure Mia is hiding with her somewhere around here. When Mia told me she wanted to name our girl after my mom I cried for a whole damn day. What's even more fitting is how much Eva looks like my mom. Her light brown hair and long lashes. She's the funniest and coolest little girl, and definitely a Daddy's girl. Which is good because Eliot, our four and a half year old, is a pure Mommy's boy.

I head downstairs and go through the dining room where I see the curtains shift a bit. I look down and see Mia's feet sticking out. I shift my eyes up a bit and catch two more tiny feet sticking out from behind the curtain.

See told you, wouldn't be hard at all.

I slowly approach them and without moving the curtain aside I tickle Eva's feet that are sticking out. I hear her let out a full muffled belly laugh that makes my heart beat so much faster. Hearing and seeing my family smile and laugh makes me the happiest man alive. I move the curtain away to reveal Mia covering Eva's mouth with her hand to stop me from hearing her. Too slow, baby.

"Gotcha," I say, grabbing Eva from Mia's hands and tossing her in the air hearing her laugh loudly all over again.

"Let's go find your brother, where could he be?" I wrap my free arm around Mia as we walk into the family room.

And right in the corner of the family room behind the clean and shiny Stanley Cup I see two more little feet sticking out. He's small just like Mia and probably thought he could be completely hidden behind the cup in the corner. Smart kid.

We walk over to the cup that I just brought home a couple nights ago.

We did it. We fucking won the cup. After Toronto's Stanley Cup drought of over fifty years. Our group of boys did it.

The whole night felt like a damn dream. After we won and Mia came down on the ice with the kids everything felt so surreal. Nothing compared to having everyone I love around me while accomplishing one of my biggest goals in life.

"Well Eva, I guess Eliot wins because we can't find him. Let's go change and go swimming," I say in a loud enough voice so Eliot can hear me as Eva wraps her arms around my neck and lays her head on my shoulder.

"Wait Daddy. Here, I'm here!" Eliot jumps out from behind the cup running into my legs making sure we don't go swimming without him.

"Wow Eliot you're getting too good buddy, we can never find you," I hear him giggling as Mia takes Eva from me to go get changed into their bathing suits.

The whole team and their families are coming over today for a BBQ.

I pick up Eliot and go to head upstairs so we can get changed into our swim shorts while the girls change.

"What swim shorts are we wearing today bub? The turtles or the sharks?" I ask him as we enter his room.

"Habs!" He shouts.

This kid will be the death of me. Leave it up to my kid to like our biggest rival team.

He's only four and a half but ever since he started learning his colours he loved the colour red. So naturally when I started showing him Leaf themed hockey stuff the red Habs logo caught his attention. And now? He wants all Habs gear.