Chapter 21
Epilogue
6 months later
Ali’s POV:
“Babe, are you sure you’re okay to go?” Ashlyn asked me.
“Yeah. I’m okay to go. I mean, I want to go. I’m okay to go. Whatever – let’s go”, I said. I looked at Ashlyn and smiled to let her know I was okay, and then leaned in and gave her a kiss. “Before I change my mind”, I said, a little bit seriously but mostly in jest. My stud smiled at me and then ushered me out the door.
********
“Hey guys!” Ashley skated over to us. We had just finished watching one of her roller derby bouts. Ashlyn and Ashley had started talking a bit after Ashlyn and I had returned home from our honeymoon in Hawaii. Ashley had initiated their correspondence by sending Ashlyn a text congratulating her on our marriage. Ashley had heard about it through some media outlet, maybe TMZ. Since having our post-World Cup win kiss captured on the front page of the Vancouver Sun and then shared all over the internet, Ashlyn and I have been in the press quite a bit, and multiple media outlets had reported when we had gotten married. When Ashlyn had received the text from Ashley, she had showed it to me, partly because it was a nice text, and partly because she had wanted to ask me if it was okay if she responded back to thank Ashley. I was a bit conflicted, but in the end I realized that, even though they were together for a bit, I was the one who ended up with my stud, and Ashley seemed like a nice person. If Ashlyn wanted to respond back, and even if they ended up becoming friends, I should be okay with that. So Ashlyn responded back, and then the two of them started to correspond on a somewhat infrequent basis. Two weeks ago, Ashley had asked Ashlyn if she and I wanted to come to one of her roller derby bouts. Again, I had been conflicted about going, but again, I ended up realizing that it should be fine.
“Hey Ashley”, Ashlyn said. “Great game…uh, match…uh…bout. Bout, right?”
Ashley laughed. “Yes, Ashlyn, it’s called a bout.” We all laughed.
“Ashley – this is Ali. Ali, this is Ashley”, Ashlyn said, making the introductions. Ashley knew who I was, and I knew who she was, but we had never met before.
“Nice to meet you, Ali”, Ashley said cheerfully and stuck out her hand. “Thanks so much for coming.”
“Nice to meet you too, Ashley”, I said as I shook her hand. “It was fun”, I said. “And pretty physical.” I had never seen roller derby before. It was much more physical than I thought. These women were in pretty good shape. And tough as well. I saw a couple of them get checked into the fence that surrounds the rink, and one woman had been checked into the announcer table. Even though she had been wearing a helmet, her head had hit the corner of the table very hard. That had to have hurt. I winced when I saw that as I thought back to my own head injury.
“Hey you!” I heard a voice and looked over. A pretty young woman with short-ish light brown hair skated over to Ashley.
“Hey hon”, Ashley said back. She held out her arm, and the woman skated right up to her. Ashley wrapped her in a one-arm embrace and then gave the woman a gentle kiss on the lips. “Ashlyn, Ali – this is Tara. Tara is on the Demoncats with me", Ashley said.
“Hi guys”, Tara said in a cheerful voice. She shook both of our hands and then said, “Thanks for coming.”
“Yeah, it was great”, Ashlyn said, and I nodded my head in agreement.
“Demoncats!” the voice came. We all looked over and saw a large woman calling out to the auditorium.
“Well, we gotta go”, Ashley said. “Time for the post-bout talk in the locker room.”
I laughed understandingly. “Yeah, we know that drill”. I said, looking at Ashlyn.
“Well, thank you guys again for coming”, Tara said.
“Yeah, it was nice to see you again”, Ashley addressed Ashlyn. “And it was really nice to meet you”, Ashley addressed me. “And congratulations on getting married.”
“Thank you”, I said. “It was nice to meet you too.”
“Alright guys, take care”, Ashlyn said.
“Hey”, Tara said, as we started to turn and head for the doors, “we should do lunch or something.” Ashlyn looked at her and then looked at Ashley and then looked at me.
I looked at Ashlyn and then at Ashley and Tara. “Yeah, that would be great”, I said. And I meant it.
“Demoncats! Let’s go!”
“Uh, okay, we’d really better go, or Val Capone will kill us”, Ashley said, and we all laughed. She looked at Ashlyn and said, “I’ll call you.”
“Sounds good”, Ashlyn said.
“See you guys,” I said, as we turned around to leave. We started walking towards the door to leave the auditorium, and Ashlyn took my hand. I looked at her and smiled, and she smiled back and then leaned in to kiss me.
“Did you have fun?” she asked me.
“I did”, I said smiling. It had been fun. “And, they seem really cool”, I said. And I meant it.
“You’d really be okay with having lunch with them?” Ashlyn asked me.
Yeah. I would be”, I said. They seemed like good people. “As long as you’re cool with it, stud”, I said. I looked at Ashlyn coyly as I jested.
Ashlyn smiled and then kissed me again. We walked for a bit and then she asked me, “Did you ever hear again from Kate?” Kate had texted me when we had won the World Cup to say congratulations. I had shown the text to Ashlyn, and I had asked her if I could text back. Ashlyn, being the most awesome person in the world, had said yes, so I texted Kate back and thanked her, and I asked how she was doing. I never heard back, but the fact that she had texted me to congratulate me had lifted a weight off of me.
“No, I never heard back”, I said. “I’ll be honest - I was hoping to hear back from her, and maybe even start up a dialog again, like you have with Ashley, but, well, you know…I mean, we were together for a pretty long time, so…”
“Yeah, I know”, Ashlyn said understandingly. We walked for a few more seconds and then she said, “Alright – enough about other people for tonight”, she said, and then touched my nose with her finger. I giggled, and she pulled me tight and kissed me while we walked, her arm around my shoulder and my arm around her waist. I looked into her eyes and smiled, and then she said, “Alright, princess, let’s get you home”, then winked at me flirtatiously. I laughed and gave her a squeeze, and we walked out of the auditorium.
********
8 years later
Ashlyn’s POV:
“Go, Maddie, go!!!” I yelled.
Ali and I were at a park near our house. We were watching Madison Krieger-Harris, our five-year old daughter, play in her first year of youth soccer, organized through the local park district. It was a gorgeous spring morning in D.C., and Ali and I were standing on the sidelines with two dozen other parents, drinking coffee and cheering on our little ones. Maddie had the ball and was dribbling near midfield.
“Maddie, pass the ball!” Ali yelled. Maddie tried to pass the ball but ended up kicking it past her teammate, who stood there, watching the ball roll by her.
“Maddie, go after it!” I yelled, and started to trot down the field to follow the play.
“Ash!” Ali said loudly.
“Maddie, chase-“ I started again.
“Babe!” Ali yelled.
”What?!” I yelled back, not angry but excited. Ali looked at me, her eyes wide. She raised her eyebrows and then looked down. “Oh, shi-shnit!” I kind of swore. I looked down and then remembered I was holding our three month old daughter, Kelly Krieger-Harris. I looked down at Kelly. She was snoozing in my arms. Apparently my yelling and starting to run had no effect on her ability to sleep. I gazed at Kelly for a moment and then touched her nose with my finger, and then I looked at Ali sheepishly. “Sorry, baby”, I said. Ali looked at me with that lightly chiding look that she gives me so often, like whenever I forget to pick up formula for Kelly when I'm grocery shopping or leave the coffee pot on when we rush out the door to take Maddie to school. Then she broke into a smile to let me know that I hadn’t done anything too egregious. “I got, like, really into the game.“ Ali and I retired a few years ago from playing professionally, so nowadays I guess I live vicariously through Maddie.
“Yeah, I know”, Ali said and smiled at me. “Here, stud”, she said, and she held out her arms to take Kelly. Almost nine years together, and she still calls me stud. It's awesome. I handed Kelly to her and then stared lovingly at them as Ali cradled our little one in her arms. Ali is an absolutely wonderful mother. She cooed at Kelly for a moment and then looked at me. “Okay – now you can go run off”, she said with a smile.
I smiled back, still a little sheepish that I might have actually run at least a few steps down the sideline before I remembered that I was carrying our younger daughter. Then I squared my shoulders and said, “Alright, let’s do this!” and ran down the sideline to follow the play. I took a few steps and then looked back, and I saw Ali looking at me. She was kind of laughing and kind of shaking her head. I love that woman. And, for some reason, despite my sometimes dumbass-ness, she loves me back. The princess and the stud. And their two kids. What a family. I thought about that for a moment as I looked at Ali cradling Kelly, and then I turned my attention back to the game. Maddie was running after the ball again. “Go Maddie, go!” I yelled like an exuberant parent, and ran down the sidelines to follow the play.