Playing House

On my way to my room I peeked into Beau and Maddie’s room, where my parents were playing with them.

“Hey,” I announced. The twins continued playing as my parents looked up at me with smiles. “Has Ben told you guys what’s going on tonight?”

“No,” my dad shook his head and began to rise. “Should we be getting ready for something?”

“No, no,” I told him, motioning for him to sit back on the ground. “It’s a surprise, kind of. Ben orchestrated it for you guys. Just, wait in here with the twins until I come and get you, okay?”

They both nodded and I looked at the baby monitor in my mom’s hands. She followed my gaze before looking back up at me.

“I just wanted to make sure I heard them if they started getting fussy,” she smiled. I smiled back at her and nodded.

“I’m going to shower and get changed. I’ll see you guys in a bit.” They nodded and continued playing with Beau and Maddie as I retreated and shut the door.

After I had quickly showered and dried my hair, I got dressed and did my makeup. Just as I made it back downstairs the doorbell rang, so I headed towards the front door.

“ ‘Sup hot momma?” Adam Burish greeted me with a hug. I laughed and breathed out a ‘hey’ back before being engulfed by the four other men that had arrived at the same time as Adam. Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Colin Fraser, and of course, Patrick Sharp.

“Dinner should be ready soon,” I told them, heading into the kitchen.

“Amalia,” Patrick called out, halting my footsteps. I turned and looked at him, noticing we were alone in the hallway.

“Yeah?” I asked as he approached me. He stopped right in front of me and opened his mouth before closing it a moment later. He ran a hand through his hair nervously, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

“I was wondering…”

“Yes…?” I prompted.

“Does Leah…is she uh, is she seeing anybody?”

“Like, romantically?” I grinned.

“Er, yeah. Does she have a boyfriend?”

“Not that I know of,” I told him, playing dumb. “She’s here tonight, you know. Maybe you can approach her or something.”

“She is?” He asked, looking around to make sure she wasn’t near.

“Don’t worry, she’s in the kitchen with Ben, so she’s probably busy cleaning up whatever disaster he caused,” I waved off. As if on cue, Ben crashed through the door in the hall that led into the kitchen. He stumbled but soon righted himself, finally seeing Patrick and me.

“Oh hey Sharpie, Amalia,” he coughed. He looked at both of us for a moment, his face confused. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, Ben. What did you do in there?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Oh…uh…” he trailed off, glancing warily at the kitchen. “Nothing.”

I rolled my eyes and brushed past him, pushing him towards Patrick and telling them to both go into the living room. I entered the kitchen and saw Leah picking up a few pieces of broken glass.

“What happened?” I asked, bending down to help her.

“Ben broke a bowl,” she laughed. “Nothing major. It luckily split cleanly into four pieces, so it’s nothing to worry about.”

“He’s kind of a bulldozer,” I remarked. “I should have told you not to let him hold breakable objects.”

“Oh stop it,” she scolded with a laugh.

As Leah and I continued putting the food on the serving dishes, Ben came into the kitchen with three men I hadn’t formally met in person.

“Mal,” Ben called out, causing me to stop. “These are my newest teammates. Marian Hossa, Tomas Kopecky, and John Madden. Guys, this is my girlfriend, Amalia.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said to each man, shaking each of their hands. During the Eleanor drama, the Blackhawks had made a lot of changes. Nikolai Khabibulin was now on the Edmonton Oilers, but I had already met Antti Niemi, his ‘replacement’ so to speak, since he was used last season a bit. Matt Walker was also gone, as was Sammy Pahlsson and even Aaron Johnson too. But the one that upset me the most, obviously, was Marty Havlat. He now played in Minnesota with the Wild, and even though he happened to be in town when I went into labor he had left a few days ago.

John was from New Jersey, whereas Marian and Tomas were both acquired from Detroit, a team any Chicagoan is programmed to hate. But it’s hard to hate two guys who didn’t even know Ben that well and still accompanied him into the delivery room when I was in labor.

“It smells really good in here,” Marian noted.

“Thanks. It should be ready soon, so go make yourselves comfortable and we’ll bring it out in a minute.”

The three men nodded and exited the kitchen, but Ben stayed back.

“So, Hossa is the one who’s here for twelve years and is basically the reason we couldn’t have Marty too, right?” Leah asked. I glared at her, and she shut her mouth quickly. “Guess I was right…”

“He’s really excited to be here,” Ben informed us. “All three of them are.”

I nodded and he kissed me on the cheek before the doorbell rang once more.

“That should be Seabs, Erin, Duncs and Lyss,” Ben said. “They’re the last ones.” He left to go answer the door and about fifteen seconds later Lyss burst through the kitchen door.

“What is Marian Hossa doing here?” She whispered. I looked over at her bewildered, wondering why it mattered.

“It’s a team dinner. He’s part of the team. Is there a problem?” I asked her.

“Psh, there is definitely not any problem with sex on skates out there,” she remarked, craning her neck to see out into the living room.

“It’s not like he hasn’t been in Chicago for a while now, Lyss,” I pointed out.

“I know, but besides practices and games I don’t see him. I’ve never been within touching distance,” she said offhand.

“I think I should go get Duncan,” I said, starting to walk out of the kitchen. Lyss swiftly grabbed my wrist and pulled me back in.

“Bitch,” she nudged me as I laughed at her. “I’m not going to do anything. I just like to look. Nothing wrong with that.”

“You are unbelievable,” I laughed.

Erin came in a few moments later and offered to help us serve the food. I told them to go back out into the living room while I went and got my parents, and then once everyone was settled we could serve dinner. After they walked out, I exited the kitchen and went to the bottom of the stairs.

“Maria, Joseph!” I called up. The twins’ bedroom door cracked open and my mom stuck her head out. “Grab the twins and come on down.”

“What about the triplets?” My mom asked.

“Ben and I will grab them in a minute, after we eat real quick. Just bring the monitor down,” I told her. I waited a few moments and soon enough they came downstairs with Beau and Maddie. I led them into the living room, where Ben’s teammates were just lounging around and goofing off.

“Holy shit,” my dad muttered on impulse. I turned around and glared at him, but Beau was already handling it.

“Oooh,” my son exclaimed. “You said a bad woooooord.” My dad looked up sheepishly, offering his sincerest apologies to Beau. He and Maddie began squirming out of my parents arms, each finding a different Blackhawk. Maddie hopped into Dustin Byfuglien’s arms while Beau went towards the three new men. “Who are you?” He asked John Madden.

“My name’s John, little man. What’s your name?”

“Beau,” he stated simply before moving on to the man sitting next to him. “Who are you?”

“Tomas. I’m a teammate of your-”

“Who are you?” Beau said, having already moved on.

“I’m Marian.”

Beau had begun to turn away, but he turned back after a moment.

“What’s your name?” He asked again.

“Marian,” he repeated.

“But tha’sa girl’s name,” Beau told him.

“Well in my country-”

“Mommy he has a girl’s name,” Beau whirled around to face me, utterly confused. He swiftly turned back towards Marian. “Why would your mommy and daddy do that? They didn’t know you was a boy?”

Adam Burish suddenly couldn’t hold back any more, and he burst into laughter.

“Sweetheart, Marian is one of those names that can be used for a boy or girl,” I told my son. He made a face like he didn’t believe me, but he didn’t argue. He just continued to stare at Marian appraisingly. My parents began to mingle with a few players, and soon the room was buzzing with different conversations. I was talking to Erin and Lyss about Leah and Patrick, while Leah just continued to ‘sh!’ at us and glance at Sharpie worriedly.

“He can’t hear us, believe me,” Erin said as we all glanced over to the men. Patrick happened to be deep in conversation with Brent, Duncan, and Ben, and by their goofy laughs you could tell it wasn’t about anything intelligent.

As the girls and I continued talking, I glanced around the room on instinct just to make sure my children were present and not getting into trouble. Maddie was still hanging on Dustin, and just as I turned to look at Beau I saw him punch Marian in the crotch.

“Beau Zachary Williams!” I scolded immediately, breaking away from my group and walking over to where Marian was adjusting himself.

“I was just checkin’,” Beau shrugged as I grabbed his arm and pulled him toward me.

“Eager,” Ben suddenly stated. Everyone looked over at him, and he looked back at the group with a scowl. “His last name is Eager,” Ben continued. While what he said was true (and heart warming due to the fact I was still afraid Ben didn’t consider them his), Beau needed to be reprimanded.

“Apologize right now,” I ordered firmly, turning back to Beau.

“Sorry,” Beau and Ben said at the same time. I rolled my eyes at Ben who still had no idea I had been talking to Beau. Marian smiled down at the young boy, ruffling his hair.

“It’s alright. I wish I would have known Ben taught him a thing or two,” Marian chuckled.

“I haven’t, actually,” Ben called out, looking at me with his arms up so he wouldn’t get in trouble.

“Yes you have,” I countered. “He watches you on TV all the time, so he definitely learned it from you.”

“He’s got a head start in hockey lessons then,” Ben pointed out. I just chuckled softly before telling everyone to get ready for dinner. Erin, Lyss and Leah all helped me serve, and it didn’t surprise me when Lyss served Marian his plate. I shook my head in amusement, taking a plate over to Ben who had found the last empty spot on the couch. I was ready to go back into the kitchen and grab my plate and just find a place to stand, but Ben had already grabbed me and pulled me down onto his lap.

One arm wrapped around my waist as he kissed my shoulder, the other arm pulling the TV tray with his food on it closer.

“I didn’t get to get my plate yet,” I said as I watched him pick up some mashed potatoes with his fork. “I wanted to finish eating right away so I could go get the triplets.”

“We’ll share,” he said, bringing the fork to my lips. I contemplated just getting up at getting my own plate, but I was enjoying this much more. My children were either sleeping or occupied, my parents seemed to be having a good time, I was in the arms of the man I loved and he was feeding me mashed potatoes.

Um, hello? Who would get up from that?

As Ben and I ate, I kept watching Leah and Sharpie steal glances at one another while the other wasn’t looking. Finally, Patrick caught my eye and I grinned at him. He chuckled at himself and looked away, trying to pay attention to something Brian Campbell was telling him.

“Alright, I’ve had it. I need to talk to you,” Ben growled, pushing the tray away and standing up swiftly. I almost fell over but Ben had already grabbed me and was pulling me toward the stairs. “We’ll be right back,” he called out over his shoulder to the crowd. “We’re going to get the triplets.”

I was confused as to why he was so angry about getting the triplets, but I suddenly realized it had nothing to do with them when he pulled me past the triplets' basinets and into the master bathroom. I leaned against the counter and he shut the door softly behind him before turning back around to face me.

“What’s going on with you and Sharpie?” He asked, the end of his question coming out weaker than he had planned.

“What?”

“I wasn’t going to say anything, because I thought I was just imagining things, especially after my dream. But it does seem like you two have some kind of connection. Then, you were in the hall being all secretive with him, and then you were making eyes at each other during dinner. I don’t know, it just seems like you guys…” Ben trailed off, and I just looked at him to continue. I didn’t know what to say, so I waited for him to collect his thoughts. “If you want to…you know, be with him, I won’t stop you if it’s going to make you happy.”

Silence consumed the room as Ben then trudged a few steps next to me, sitting on the closed toilet seat with his elbows on his knees and his hands running over the top of his head.

“Ben,” I said softly, walking over to him. “Ben,” I repeated, pulling his hands away from his head and making them drop to my waist. I placed my own hands under his jaw and tilted his face up. “You make me happy.”

His hands wove their way from my hips around my waist completely, encircling me in a hug. He placed his forehead on my abdomen as I ran my fingers along his shaved head.

“I’m trying to hook Sharpie and Leah up,” I told him. He rose his head and looked into my eyes, and I could see he felt like an idiot. Before he could say anything I stopped him, telling him not to worry about it. “I guess you’re just as insecure as me, huh?” I whispered. Ben stood up, his arms never leaving my waist, and he made his forehead touch mine.

“I’m stupid,” he muttered.

“Only a little,” I answered with a smile. He smiled back and pressed his lips to mine, squeezing me tighter.

“I love you,” he said, pulling away. Before I could respond, he continued. “Amalia, I love you so much. I know I say and do stupid things a lot, but you’ve got to know I’m just being an idiot. I’m like, programmed to be the baiter and get a reaction. It’s hockey instinct. The things I said about the triplets and being a dad and all that, I didn’t mean it. I wasn’t thinking; I was just going off of goon instinct, and that’s where I tend to get in trouble.”

I nodded and he kissed my temple, causing me to sigh contentedly.

"I thought it was sweet the way you corrected me about Beau's last name," I told him. "I know I didn't say anything at the time, but-"

"I know," he interrupted. "It's okay. Honestly I had just kind of realized it then anyways. I never really had any reason to think about it before."

"I also wanted to tell you that if you said anything to Patrick about him and me, you need to apologize. He's your teammate and one of your best friends, Ben, and for you to think-"

"And you're my girlfriend, and one of the most important people in my life, and I still thought it, and I'm sorry. I know I was acting like a moron. And I haven't said anything to him about it, actually." I nodded and Ben and I stayed in the bathroom a few moments longer before he grabbed my hand and pulled me back into the bedroom and toward the basinets. He picked up Benjamin and Mason, and I picked up Emma and we headed downstairs.

As we descended the steps, I couldn’t help but feel excited for the years to come. These triplets, along with Beau and Maddie were going to have some of the most well-rounded lives anyone could imagine. Their dad was an NHL player, and they had his teammates as family as well. I had a notion they wouldn’t be missing out on anything, and for a mother that’s a very comforting feeling.