I Woke up Next to Lukas Podolski and Holy Crap We're Married

~25 Years Later~
*Lukas POV*
“Lukas the turkey!” screamed Reyna making me drop my papers and jump to my feet like I had been caught stealing. My wife of just over twenty-five years mumbled under her breath about the uselessness of husbands and rushed into the kitchen.
“If it’s burnt I’ll kill you,” she vowed as I watched her bend over and reach in the oven. I couldn’t help from examining her perfectly shaped ass. “Lukas don’t you dare look at my butt.”
I gave her a cheekily wink when she placed the cooked bird on the stove, “You might as well tell me not to breath. I love every part of you and when one is on display I have to look.”
“My butt no longer looks like it use to. I am forty-seven and I gave birth to three children,” she told me walking from one side of the kitchen to the other, grabbing ingredients and slaving over the dinner. I left my work at the table and caught her arm and pulled her around to face me.
“You will always be beautiful to me.” I told her honestly, running my hands through her brown hair which had a few strands turning white. Her face had permanent laughing lines and a few wrinkles but she was gorgeous to me because each of those marked the fulfilling life that we had had together and that I had been there for every minute of those changes. I did not fear the years that were making us older because I had done the one thing worth doing on this earth, finding true love.
“You always were a charmer.” Reyna laid her hand against my cheek and I stared into those violet eyes I loved so much.
I still remember the days after I had followed her to Chicago. We had spent two weeks visiting the sites and I had met her brother John who I had like immediately. We had then packed Reyna’s belongings and she had moved permanently to Germany with me. We had never addressed the rumors that had surfaced around the time of our split to the press and no one but the closest of friends and family knew the truth about the beginning of Reyna and I’s relationship. Even our two boys and girl didn’t now that we had had a drunken marriage, not wanting to lead to a bad example but we would tell them one day when they were ready. Reyna had followed and cheered for me throughout my long career as a footballer as well as being a screenwriter for Jack for many years, producing Oscar award winning films. I had retired from football years ago and taken a position as a coach for a smaller club. Throughout all this we had raised our children all of whom were now out in the real world. With time on our hands Reyna had finished writing a novel that was in the process of being publish and I had accepted a coaching job for the German National team. Despite all our work, Reyna and I still had late nights of playing board games and watching movies to keep the spark in our relationship alive.
“Will you kiss me my dear wife?” I asked Reyna with a grin.
“Always my dear husband.” Her kisses still had my heart racing and lust boiling in my blood. As her lips moved on mine in a timeless joining I knew there was no one else I could have spent my life with and thanked god everyday for having let me realized the truth and chased her.
“That’s just gross,” stated a voice from the doorway.
“Bastian.” I really should have known since he always popped up whenever I was kissing Reyna.
“Don’t use that annoyed tone!” He hit me on the back in greeting before he gave Reyna a peck on the cheek. “Hello Reyna.”
“Hello Bastian,” Reyna smiled and hugged Sarah who had followed behind.
“I am here to help you with this strange holiday,” Sarah exclaimed.
“It’s Thanksgiving,” Reyna said and proceeded to explain it to Sarah like she did every year. Even thought it wasn’t a holiday in Germany, Reyna insisted that the family get together around this time to celebrate. I didn’t mind since it was a part of her culture and it gave us the perfect time to get the family under one roof.
“I’m here,” called my mother from the hallway and we yelled her over to the kitchen. I hugged her, noticing that she was looking better than the last time I had seen her. The death of my father a year earlier had hit the family hard but none more so than my mother. I had made sure she was well cared for and checked up on her everyday. My oldest son Daniel arrived with his wife Jennifer and my first grandchild, Bruno a minute later. All the women cooed and fussed over the sleeping newborn while I motioned to the guys to come play poker.
“So how is parenthood?” I asked my son as I dealt the cards.
“He doesn’t want to sleep,” Daniel yawned. “Plus I’ve been on call for surgeries at the hospital for the last week and I haven’t gotten much shut eye.”
I chuckled, “Now you know how hard it was to get you to sleep. You were a pain.”
“He still is Daddy,” came a female voice. I looked over to find Angelina, the baby of the family and our only girl walking out of the kitchen. Unlike Daniel who looked like me, Angelina was the mirror image of her mother. However, she had a boldness to her that was more reminiscent of my spirit but her artistic eye was her mother’s. She had recently had her own showcase of the sculptures she made and it had been a hit.
“And you’re an angel?” Daniel snorted as he gave her a brotherly grin.
“Hello sweetheart.” I was the last to kiss her around the table and she sat on the arm of my chair.
“Who is winning?” Angelina asked looking at my cards.
“That would be your future father in law,” Bastian bragged.
“As if Bastian,” I snorted. I still couldn’t believe Bastian and Sarah were legally going to be a part of my family. Their son Mark was best friends with Daniel and growing up together, Angelina and him had always hated each other. It had been a shock to all when they had announced their engagement a month ago before Mark had left for his job as a doctor in Brazil. I wasn’t too happy about that fact that my baby girl was moving so far away to be with Mark but wouldn’t stand in her way because I knew she was in love with him.
We were in the middle of a second round when John walked in with his French wife Marie and his twin teenage daughters Natalie and Margaret. I was glad for Reyna’s sake that she still had a part of her family. She had never been reconciled with her parents and I knew it pained her. John had followed in Reyna’s footsteps when he had turned eighteen and had come to France for schooling which was where he had met his wife and settled down.
“So are me that last ones here,” John asked loudly over the laughter and talking from people in the kitchen and living room.
“You should know the answer to that Uncle,” Angelina said as she passed him and went to talk to her cousins about girl things.
“Well Karl better get here soon because I am starving!” John sniffed the air and gave an appreciative sigh at the delicious aromas coming from the kitchen.
Karl was the middle child and had always been the wild one. Always getting in trouble and rebelling, he was the only one that had chosen the crazy lifestyle of a professional football player. Loving the fast and glamorous life of a Barcelona striker he was in no mood to slow down: partying, drinking, and dating were his favorite activities. Despite Reyna’s tries to get him to settle down he was a self proclaimed bachelor. Karl caused us no end of headaches and worry that I knew was not going to change anytime soon.
“Lukas! Can you put your papers away so that I can set the table?” called Reyna.
“Coming.” I gave my spot to John and strolled into the kitchen to clean my notes up. I was putting the important strategies into a folder when I heard the front door opening. I gazed up and saw Karl walk in but what surprised me more than him actually being on time was the fact that behind him was a pretty brunette.
*Reyna POV*
Karl never brought a woman home to meet us. He was a womanizer, never wanting to stay with just one so who was the shy woman behind him? Lukas was clearly too surprised by the appearance of a woman with Karl to say anything so I took the reins.
“Karl! You haven’t called in ages!” I enveloped him into a hug and he gave me the same devilish smirk that his father used to give me when I let him go.
“Good to see you mom.”
I glanced over his shoulder at the pretty woman behind my son as Lukas came to stand beside me, “Are you going to introduce us?”
“What? Oh yeah.” Karl ran a hand through his brown hair and sheepishly took the woman’s hand and brought her next to him. “This is Rae…my umm…wife.”
“Wife?!” Lukas’s mouth dropped and I quickly closed it, giving Rae a reassuring smile. The poor child looked the way I must have the first time I had met Lukas’s parents.
Karl gave a confident shrug, “Rae these are my parents.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Rae responded. She was quite lovely with straight brown hair cut in a bob and green eyes that spoke of strength and intelligence. This was not the kind of girl my son dated and I knew because I saw the magazines that documented his life in Spain.
“It’s nice to meet you dear.” I ignored her outstretched hand and hugged her as well. She was trembling a little and I knew there was something to the story that they weren’t saying. My Karl was not the marrying type and certainly not without telling us. “Why don’t you take your wife to meet the family?”
“Right.” Karl wrapped an arm around the woman’s waist and I didn’t miss the way she seemed to snuggle closer.
“What the hell was that about?” Lukas whispered to me.
I tapped his chest reassuringly, “We’ll find out.”
“I better because something screams strange about all this.” I handed Lukas plates and he followed me to the table were I took them from his arms.
“Karl’s married,” Angelina told us.
“We know,” Lukas replied.
“I just wanted to see the look in your eyes when I said it.” Angelina’s eyes tinkled with mischief.
“You are never too old to get a spanking,” Lukas threatened but our daughter only chuckled and walked back into the living room.
“Why don’t you get them so we can have a private talk before dinner?” I suggested.
“Meet you upstairs in the den.” Lukas didn’t need me to say it twice. I left Sarah in charge and made my way to the second floor. I didn’t have to wait long before he walked in with two nervous looking people behind him. Rae was trying to give off the air that everything was normal and if I wasn’t Karl’s mother I would have thought he was relaxed by the ease of his walk.
“You wanted to see us?” Karl asked once we were all seated.
“We want the truth and don’t try lying,” Lukas cut to the chase. Rae’s shoulders sagged a little and I reached out to give her hand a comforting squeeze.
“We both got drunk a few days ago in Spain and woke up to find that we are married,” Karl explained and went on without noticing the glance Lukas and I exchanged. “I can’t get a divorce now with my career on the line so we are pretending to be married for a few months and then we are going our separate ways.”
“Good luck with that,” Lukas whispered sarcastically as I elbowed him in the ribs.
“What?” Karl thankfully hadn’t caught the comment.
“I said it’s good to hear the truth out of you.”
“You aren’t mad?” Karl frowned.
“N-no.” I responded awkwardly. How could we be when we had done the same thing? What could we say? We were saved from answering when Jennifer poked her head in the room and announced dinner was served.
“We aren’t finished with his discussion,” Lukas warned as we filed out of the room. All through dinner I studied the interaction of my son and his accidental wife discreetly and knew Lukas was doing the same. I could see that there was something between them. The kept glancing at one another with looks of longing and if they touched there was a sexual tension around them. Lukas bumped my knee confidentially when Rae jumped unexpectedly and I saw that Karl’s hand wasn’t on the table and it reminded me of the charity dinner when I had been teasingly cruel to Lukas by placing my hand on his upper leg. I laughed at the irony of it all but turned it into a cough when a few heads turned my way.
With conversation buzzing around us Lukas leaned over to whisper, “Were we this ridiculously obvious in our attractions and oblivious of the other’s feeling?”
“I think so,” I said back. “They are so in love. I hope they have a smoother road to finding that out than we did.”
“Well, this is something I never thought would happen.” Lukas shook his head in amusement. “Must be something in our DNA to have two drunken marriages in one family.”
“Do you think we should tell them about how we met?” I asked. Lukas took my hand in his and captured my gaze with his breathtaking blue eyes that could still make me forget my own name even after twenty-five years.
“We will but I think we should let them figure out how their troubles is a blessing in disguise,” Lukas raised my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles.
“I think you’re right.” I glanced over at the young and confused couple and silently wished them luck in the adventure before them. Looking around the table I felt my heart sing at the love and family ties there after having started my life with none of it. I turned my head to watch Lukas and thanked the higher power out there for bringing me this amazing man. I had woken up next to Lukas all those years ago, hangover and confused.
I now woke up to next to him everyday, happy and full of love.