She looks up at me sadly. Unlike her, I was not jinxed in the height department. With a twin as huge as my uncle, you would think my mom would be tall too, but she isn’t. I take after my uncle—and my dad, both very tall men. But I look just like my mom, black as night hair and the brightest blue eyes that she says can stop a man straight in his tracks. Just like they did with my father. Given how hard the last three years have been, I know she’s aged, but my mom is by far the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Grabbing my beard, she tugs it softly so it doesn’t yank off. “You’re twenty years old, Ryan, almost twenty-one. You’re about to go off and do big things. You’ll probably be drinking soon—”
“I already do that.”
“Legally,” she goes on without missing a beat. “You’ll be getting married sooner rather than later, and then—”
“That’s all beyond my thinking right now. NHL first, Mom. And eventually, you’ll have a new set of kids to dress up.”
Her lips quirk, even while the thought of a wife and kids gives me the heebie-jeebies. I’m a kid; I mean I’m dressed as Gandalf, for fuck’s sake. I’m too focused on getting into the NHL. Girls aren’t on my radar right now. She knows this—hell, everyone knows.
“Yeah, but nonetheless, this would have been your dad’s favorite year.”
I look down at the picture on her phone that she’s still looking at. We look amazing, all seven of us, and I know she’s right. My dad would have loved this. Lord of the Rings was his jam, the reason all of us love it. Like her, I wish we had dressed this way sooner.
Before we lost him.
Squeezing my mom once more, I kiss her forehead. “He sees us.”
She beams up at me, her eyes a bit watery as she nods. “Yeah, he does.”
“You guys okay?”
Glancing to my uncle, I smile. My mom waves him off as she wipes her face. “We’re fine.”
He doesn’t look convinced, but that’s my uncle for you. He and Mom share some weird twin thing, which used to annoy my dad and Elli. But I think, over time, they got used to it. What my dad never got over was the fact that Shea Adler has always been my hero. I feel bad for that now, but it wasn’t like I didn’t love my dad. He was my hero too, but in a different way. He raised me to be kind and compassionate, while Shea raised me to be fierce and strong. Shea never let me give up on my dream of going into the NHL, while my dad was fine with me going into real estate like he had.
They were night and day, and I love them both so much.
But now, all I have is Shea.
And I wish like hell I had my dad back.
“Yeah, we’re good. We’re heading out. You sure you don’t want to come wrangle your kids?”
Shea laughs. “A night with my wife without my hellions, or go with the hellions… I pick my wife,” he says as if we didn’t already know the answer.
“Whatever,” I groan playfully, which he laughs at as I head for my truck. When I call for the girls, they all protest, but they come anyway since they see my mom is, and I’m thankful for that. I don’t want to argue with them. Though, I know the night is young, and I probably will anyway.
But then, that is my family.