Trying

“Happy New YEARS!” the party erupted into cheers for the New Year. I was stuck on the farm celebrating with my family, but I was lucky enough to have my supportive hockey playing boyfriend there with me to endure the pain as well.
“Happy New Year, Mark,” I planted a kiss on his lips which he graciously returned. We said our sayings to the rest of the party goers before disappearing to the milking barn. The barn was where Mark and I were staying since all of our relatives were in town and my old bedroom was taken over.
“We might move,” he suddenly stated.
“What are you talking about?”
“The team, we might move from Atlanta to somewhere in Canada. The owners want to sell us out.”
“Are you kidding? I can finally get out of Atlanta to be with you? Maybe even a foreign country?” I was fairly excited. My parents owned the farm not that far out of the city limits, so they came to visit Mark and me in his apartment quite often.
“It’s looking that way, yes.”
“I’m so excited, Mark, baby. I can’t wait to get out of this state and away from my parents. They are too close.”
“And when we move, you’ll want them to be closer.”
“No, never, I want it to be just you and I. I want us to make a family together, Mark. That’s what I really want. And we can’t do that with my parents always coming in and out of our apartment.”
“I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you call it our apartment. It’s always my apartment, never yours or ours.”
“Well, the sooner we get out of here, the more I can say our apartment. My parents seem to think I spend all day there, but all night at my ‘apartment’. Even though you and I both know that I gave up the lease on it months ago. I just want to start our family in a new place, away from prying families.”
“We can start a family anywhere, Renee Anne.”
“And that’s why I love you, Mark Stuart, you always know the right thing to say,” we kissed before cuddling up on the old air mattress that Mark set up this afternoon after our arrival. He covered us with a light blanket before we drifted to sleep.

September
“Welcome to the first regular season game of the Winnipeg Jets, folks. We are please to introduce the team for the very first time in this stadium, and here they come, the WINNIPEG JETS!” as the team was announced, I rubbed my belly. I knew tonight was the night to tell Mark we were expecting. After trying since January to start our own family, we finally did it. We were starting a family in a new environment where we only had the team as backup, which was how I wanted it. Of course, our parents insisted on coming up every once in a while, but it was less than when we lived in Atlanta. For that, I was very grateful.
The game of the year was played by the Jets; they had a lot to prove. And prove is what they did. They ended up winning five to zero. Mark had two of the goals and an assist. And that was when I couldn’t wait any longer to tell him. I met him in the locker room, took him by the hand and led him away from his fellow teammates. I kissed him softly before looking into his bright eyes.
“Congratulations, baby.”
“Thank you, hun.”
“Guess what?”
“Hmmh?” he asked nuzzling my neck.
“We are pregnant.” He looked down at me from his vantage point on his skates and than grinned bigger than ever before. He than got down on one knee. He proposed right than and there with no ring but the biggest commitment I had ever seen. We not only were having a child, but we were engaged to be married. There was no other way of explaining my happiness other than tears, so I cried. I cried as he picked me up and held me against him. When he finally released me, he drew me in for a soft and sweet kiss that I knew tasted like my tears. “I love you so much.”
“I love you more.”