27. What The Future Held

27

WHAT THE FUTURE HELD

S aturday, three weeks later, Jamie opened his front door to Laken and Aileen Carlisle.

“It’s so nice to meet you in person,” Aileen said. “I hate when West sends his jet for me, but Abby asked me to come up and talk wedding plans with her so we’ve been walking around West’s house in the Hamptons and figuring things out. It was perfect timing.”

“I’m glad you could come. All of you when they get here. Penelope is excited.”

His daughter’s second birthday was four days ago and he’d had a little cake and her favorite dinner with him, Janelle, and Laken. Just the four of them.

But he wanted Penelope to have a party and Laken had mentioned her family. This was a way for him to meet some of the significant others.

He’d be meeting Abby for the first time and Lily. Braylon had gotten engaged on Valentine’s Day. Laken also told him that Lily was going to be working with her soon. As the assistant that Laken needed desperately in her life so that she could have time outside of work to spend with him and Penelope. When she’d told him that, he realized that if you work hard enough and wait long enough, dreams can come true.

With the football season over, he was looking forward to seeing what the future held.

Scared too, knowing that people would find out about Penelope soon, but he was as prepared as could be.

“I can’t wait,” Aileen said. “Two weddings coming up and hopefully some grandbabies to follow.”

“It’s not like you live close enough to babysit, Mom,” Laken said.

“I can come here to watch them when needed. Maybe Talia won’t be around as much by then and I’ll be lonely.”

He’d heard about Laken’s youngest sister who still lived at home and was trying to figure her life out and what she wanted.

Must be nice to be twenty-two and not have a lot of worries.

At twenty-two he was sweating to see how early he’d be drafted and for how much.

His parents weren’t even with him when he walked on stage to get his jersey. His father said there was too much going on, and his mother would never leave his father.

Deanna was there because it would have looked horrible to not have one family member.

You’d think his parents would have done that for the image alone.

At some point he was going to have to let this all go.

“One can hope she has it figured out,” Laken said.

He heard little feet come running. “Laken,” Penelope said. “You came.”

“I did,” Laken said, lifting his daughter. His daughter had a red T-shirt on with a pink heart in the center that said Birthday Girl in white. Penelope’s pink tutu skirt got bunched up in his girlfriend’s arms, but she had white leggings on under it and red socks with hearts on them. Penelope’s glasses were red today. Not her normal flexible ones but a thicker plastic pair that didn’t always stay on her face and were sliding down now, but Laken pushed them up.

“I’ve got hearts,” Penelope said.

“I see that,” she said. “I like hearts. Penelope, this is my mother, Aileen.”

“Hi,” Penelope said, putting her head on Laken’s shoulder.

It wasn’t like his daughter to be shy and he wondered if this was a mistake to have so many people here for a party that his daughter was meeting for the first time.

“Laken used to wear skirts just like that when she was a kid.”

“She did?” Penelope asked.

“Yes,” Aileen said. “She’d end up taking them off because it got in the way when she wanted to play with her brothers.”

Jamie laughed. “Sounds like she always wanted to keep up,” he said.

“Always,” Laken said. “Did you get a heart cake for your birthday too?”

“I did,” Penelope said. “Janelle picked it up this morning.”

“Janelle is in the kitchen getting snacks out,” Jamie said. He’d taken the gifts out of Laken’s hand. “I’ll bring these in the back.”

The doorbell rang though and he didn’t get a chance. “We’ll go in the back while you let my brothers in,” Laken said.

He opened the door and West and Braylon were there together with Abby and Lily.

“Come in,” he said. “Thanks for coming. I know you’re all busy.”

“Nonsense,” Braylon said. “Our mother is in town. She was going to make us all get together anyway. This is better as she’ll be more occupied with your daughter than us.”

“Anything I can do to help you out,” Jamie said.

Laken’s brothers followed him to the back of the house after he had all the jackets hung up. He was glad there was no snow and nothing to stop the party from happening today. Not when Penelope was so excited over it all.

He made the introductions to Janelle and Penelope. His daughter jumped around in excitement.

“Can the party start now?” Penelope asked. “You said you had a surprise.”

“It can start now,” he said.

“I want to see what’s under that,” Penelope said, pointing to the ceiling.

He had a pinata hanging but put a sheet over it, as it was a surprise.

“I think there might be candy in there,” Janelle said.

“Yay,” Penelope said, jumping up and down. Figures his daughter would be excited over that. A treat she didn’t get a lot of.

“I hope it’s not that much candy,” he said, squinting one eye at Janelle. “Or she only eats it when she’s with you.”

“She only eats that when she’s with me anyway,” Janelle said. “But I know enough to mix it in with other things.”

He pulled a chair over and lowered the pinata down so that it’d be Penelope’s height and then took the sheet off.

“It’s a pig!” Penelope yelled. “It’s pink like my skirt.”

His daughter loved farm animals. Any animal.

He was glad she liked them more than cartoon characters. It made it easier for him to find things.

He’d even put a little pair of paper glasses on the pig to make Penelope giggle.

It was one thing he’d always done so she’d see her glasses weren’t a big deal.

“It is,” Laken said. “And you get to hit it with a stick to break it up.”

“No,” Penelope said, frowning. “That’s mean.”

Jamie turned when there was laughter in the room. He hadn’t planned that well.

“That’s what you do with a pinata,” he said.

“No,” Penelope said. “You can’t hurt it.”

“That just put a wrinkle in my plans.” He looked at his daughter. “But there is something inside for you and you can only get it by breaking it open.”

“I’ll get it when it poops,” Penelope said. “Like when I get things out of me.”

He almost spit when she said that. Laken was roaring with laughter. Even West was grinning.

“You know what?” Aileen said. “Maybe the pig needs to go to the bathroom now.”

“We can bring it to my bathroom upstairs,” Penelope said. “You can’t poop on the floor. I peed on the floor once and got in trouble.”

He rolled his eyes. “This was a bust,” he said. “I never saw this coming.”

“I’ve got a nephew about your age,” Lily said. “He loves pinatas. His older sister got one for her birthday. Do you want to see a video of what they did and how much fun it was? It’s not real. It’s just a toy.”

“Please,” he said to Lily.

She pulled her phone out and brought it over to his daughter and saw her giggling over the stick swinging and hitting and then the candy spilling out.

“I want to do that,” Penelope said. “It won’t hurt the pig?”

“No,” he said. “It won’t.”

“You trust Daddy, don’t you?” Janelle asked.

“Yes. Daddy’s the best,” Penelope said.

He couldn’t even describe how it felt to hear those words being said.

He’d never blindfold his daughter. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. She was too young anyway.

Everyone stood around while Penelope took swings at the pig and was batting it around.

After ten whacks, it split in the back and candy started to come out.

“It’s pooping,” Penelope said.

Laken moved over and nudged his arm. “Admit it, it’s funny.”

“It is. She’s having a great time and it just started. I can’t thank you enough for this.”

“I didn’t do anything,” she said. “Not yet.”

“You did. You suggested your family come and I know they are all busy.”

“It’s family,” she said. “They wouldn’t miss it. And Braylon was right. My mother would have wanted us all together anyway. This way it’s at your house and in the comfort of your home for your daughter.”

He wasn’t sure he would have traveled too far to be with their family and risk being seen in one of the condos. Not yet. But it’d be soon.

This party was just the start of his daughter getting some attention. And maybe he needed that moral support that Laken had said so many times she’d received.

It was foreign to him.

He should be happy that his mother at least called and talked to Penelope on her birthday a few days ago. He’d wanted to tell his mother about Laken, but something came up and the call ended quicker than he hoped.

He’d call them next week to let them know everything that was happening. They knew about the business, but they didn’t know he’d be going on a morning show to talk about it.

The least he could do was prepare them because it’d bring attention on them. Which was probably going to drive a bigger wedge in their relationship, but he had someone else to think about in his life.

Someone who loved him unconditionally.

As much as being a parent was stressful, it was a wonderful feeling to know how loved he was.

Then his eyes locked on Laken’s and he realized he was getting it from two people in this room.

After lunch was served—pizza because it was what Penelope wanted—he told his daughter she could open her gifts.

He didn’t want anyone to bring anything, but he knew telling them no would fall on deaf ears.

“This is from Nelson,” Laken said. “He wishes he could come but won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“It’s fine,” Jamie said. He gave the bag to his daughter and she opened it to see lots of activity books and crayons, coloring books and stickers.

“I love stickers,” Penelope said.

“He went nuts,” he said. “It will take a while for Penelope to get through them.”

“He said he had fun buying it all,” Laken said.

Penelope opened up more books and toys and finally got to Laken’s gift last.

The first one was big, like a picture, he was guessing.

Penelope pulled the paper off and started to squeal.

He moved over to look at it and saw the six Penelope Plush Soap sponges finalized in a piece of art and framed. Actually there were seven, not six.

“That’s wonderful,” he said.

“It’s a monkey with glasses,” Penelope yelled.

His daughter hadn’t wanted to stop at six and debated over the monkey before it didn’t make the cut.

“Open the other one,” Laken said.

Penelope opened it and pulled out the same monkey with little plastic flexible glasses on it. “How did you manage that?”

“My surprise,” she said. “I thought it’d be a nice touch. I bet it’s a big seller too.”

“I think you might be right,” he said.

“Laken is the best too,” Penelope said, running to his girlfriend and hugging her.

Laken lifted his daughter and placed a kiss on her nose. “I am pretty good.”

“She’s cocky too,” Aileen said.

“Like a few other people in this room,” Abby said, winking.

But the wink was sent to him.

Jamie realized that as scared as he was for the next few weeks to come, he was going to get through it with the people in this room.