Chances Taken

“Oh my god,” Kris laughed as he watched as Emma saw me and tackled me to the ground. The guys that had followed us into the house to get food were laughing.

“How’s my girl doing?!” Emma asked as she sat on top of me.

“You guys must really like that position,” Jordan said as he appeared next to me.

“Shut up, perv,” I said as I leaned my head back on the ground and saw him, “Emma, can I get up?” I laughed.

“Yup,” she smiled and then stood up and held out her hand, which I took and stood up, “Your Uncles were keeping me company, good game by way.”

“Thanks,” I smiled and then headed for the food because I was starving, and I’m sure the others were too.

Everyone grabbed food from the catered buffet setting. There was definitely enough food for a team of hungry hockey players. I laughed when Geno was trying to balance three full plates of food. We all made our way outside to where the tables and chairs were and ended up taking up three full long tables. I figured my parents knew that we would like to eat first before we decided to socialize.

I heard my name and turned my head to see three of my little cousins running towards me. I smiled and got out of my seat in-between Sidney and Kris and bent to the ground, hugging the little eight year old triplets, “How are my girls?”

“Daddy told us to give this to you and say you rock!” they said and I laughed when they handed me a Penguins hat, their father being one of my Dad’s brothers, Uncle Ben.

“Thanks,” I smiled and then hugged them all at once, “Mikey’s over there, why don’t you go jump on him.

“Tie his shoes together like last year?” Ella, the oldest of the three said.

“Ah, my faithful pranksters,” I smiled as I patted her back and moved them along, hearing Kris, Sid, Geno and Marc chuckling. I watched as Kasey and Laura walked over towards where Mike was sitting at the other table and Ella crawled under the table towards where Mike was sitting. I sat back down and giggled, the five of us watching the girls work their magic.

“I like them,” Marc smiled and I snorted.

“You would,” I laughed knowing that he was one of the pranksters on our team. We laughed when the girls took Mike’s hat, something they always did because they knew it annoyed him. He kept asking for his hat and they shook their heads, Mike didn’t realize their sister missing.

“There she is,” Sidney said and I nodded my head, Ella crawled out from under the table and ran over towards her sister.

“Your family is known for twins?” Marc asked and I nodded my head.

“Mike and I are twins, then the girls are triplets, and then there are like five or six other sets of twins or triplets,” I said and they looked surprised.

“Come on ya brats!” Mike yelled and I laughed as the girls ran away his hat and we all laughed hard as Mike stood up to run after them, only to fall right on his face.

“Maggie, Maggie! We got him!” they yelled as they ran over towards me.

“Yes you did, I’ll take that,” I said and took Mike’s hat, “Go tell your Dad what you did.”

“He’ll be happy!” Ella said and then she and her sister ran back towards the house.

“Hey Mikey!” I yelled as he stood up looking annoyed, the guys were still laughing, “Bested by eight year olds!”

“Shut up!” he yelled and then fixed his shoes and stomped over towards me, snatching his hat up and pulling the back of my chair, making me fall back into the grass.

“Hey now!” I yelled as I rolled back and stood up, and charged at my brother. He smirked and darted when he saw me coming at him. The guys were laughing at our sibling competition.

“HEADS UP!!!” we all heard and I tackled Mike to the ground and we turned our head.

“Shit!” we both yelled and started to run.

“Stanley! Get back here!” I heard my mother yelled, but it was no use, Mike and I were tackled to the ground and attacked by my parents’ Newfoundland, Stanley. It was all a big black blur and Mike and I groaned while we were slobbered with kisses from the five year old pooch, our teammates were probably laughing so hard they couldn’t breathe, “Stanley!”

I felt the dog being pulled off of me and looked up to see Kris smirking at me, “Thanks,” I laughed and took his hand as helped me up. I looked down and patted the dirt and grass off of me and winced when I felt the slobber on my shirt, “Ew.”

“You got grass in your hair,” Kris laughed and pulled some grass out of my hair.

“Lovely,” I laughed and looked down at the dog next to Kris, “Buddy, I know ya missed me, but we talked about this!”

“Your new boyfriend, Mags?” Max yelled and I flipped him off.

“I hate that dog sometimes,” Mike grumbled and I laughed at the huge drool glob on his shirt, “I need to change.”

I only had a little drool on my shirt, it could just be washed off with a wet cloth, I had more drool on my face. My mom came and took Stanley and then walked towards the house to wash up.

-Kris-
“Mags and Mike are pretty close with their family,” Sidney said and I sat back down and nodded my head, “You gunna make it public to her family that you two are together?”

“I don’t know, it’s up to her, I don’t really care,” I said and Sidney nodded his head, “I don’t think it’ll be a big deal to her family or the public.”

“Yeah, it’s not like she’s dating me,” Sidney said and I looked at him, “That would be hell for any girl.”

“That why you don’t date?” I asked him and he looked at me.

“I don’t know, it just wouldn’t be fair to them.”

“It’s not fair for you, mon ami,” I said and then headed for the house to check up on Maggie.

I found her in the kitchen wiping her face off and then cleaning her shirt, she saw me and smiled, “Mikey had to borrow one of Nick’s shirts,” she laughed and I smirked and walked over towards her, leaning on the counter next to her, “Mom usually keeps Stanley in a different room when company, or Mikey and I are over,” Maggie giggled and I looked at her.

“He really likes you,” I said and she nodded her head, “Isn’t Mike’s dog named Stanley too?”

“Yeah, Mikey stole it, my parents had their dog before Mike got Stan,” she said and I nodded my head, “He might say he hates that dog, but he doesn’t.”

“I didn’t think so,” I chuckled and then heard screaming and turned my head to see a bunch of older women walking over towards us, their arms opened wide.

“Maggie! How is my girl?!” the first out of the four women asked as she attacked Maggie in a hug. I smiled and stepped aside and watched the family interact, I learned that the women were her Aunts.

“And who are you?” the Aunt Lisa, I think, asked, “Maggie, he’s cute.”

I blushed chuckled a little. Maggie walked over towards me and wrapped her arms around my waist, “This is Kris,” she said and the women smiled.

“And?” they asked and Maggie giggled.

“And my boyfriend,” she said and I smiled and kissed her forehead and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“Very nice,” another Aunt said and Maggie laughed, “I think your mother is rounding everyone up, they’re scattered around the house or property.”

“The boys out in the grinds?” she asked and the women nodded her head.

Maggie looked at me, “The grinds is a patch of land behind the backyard where some of my cousins take their quads out there.”

“Oh, cool,” I said and she nodded her head.

“Where’s your brother?”

“Probably changing, we were attacked by Stan,” Maggie said and her Aunts laughed.

“Well, we’ll meet you all outside,” her Aunt Lisa said and they walked away.

“First publication,” I said as I turned towards Maggie, wrapping my other arm around her neck, “Wasn’t that bad.”

“You haven’t told my Uncles, or worse, my Dad,” she giggled as she pressed herself against me and looked up at me.

“I’m not afraid,” I said and she giggled and leaned up, pressing her lips against mine.

“No need to be,” she said and then took my hand and headed back outside.