Page 55 of The Quit List
One thing at a time.
Either way, I’m feeling positive one bright Thursday afternoon as my brother-in-law Sebastian, his teammate Aaron and I finish building a large deck around the premises while Rick the dog naps under a towering Georgia pine. The sun is shining, my shirt’s off, and I’m covered in sweat, muscles pleasantly sore from the hard work.
“This is looking amazing,” I say as we put the final touches on the railings. “Thanks again, guys.”
“It’s nothin’,” Aaron says before taking a swig of blue Gatorade. “Honestly, building decks would have been my chosen career if hockey hadn’t worked out.”
“No way would hockey have not worked out for you.” I laugh. Aaron Marino is a stellar NHL right winger—has been for years. “But lucky for me, you have the carpentry skills, too.”
“Well, that’s just genetics,” he says with a one-shoulder shrug.
I’m pretty handy, and I’ve handled a lot of the renovations myself, but building a huge deck is not the easiest to do alone. So, I asked Seb if he could help me on a couple of his days off. You know, trying to get better at asking for help and all that.
Luckily for me, he readily agreed (and lucky for Dante, who I also considered asking, but then I figured he’d freak out if he broke a nail… or a sweat). Seb then went on to enlist Aaron, whose family literally owns a company specializing in decks.
Turns out the guy is a freaking deck connoisseur, and the results of his vision—and all of our gruntwork—are way better than I could have imagined.
I can already picture people sitting out here on Adirondack chairs at dusk or sipping beer under the sparkling fairy lights after a long day spent hiking. I could install a little bar out here, get a few big barbecues set up for cookouts. Add a firepit.
“Genetics or not, this was a huge help,” I say as I look out towards the expansive view
“What can I say? I’m good with my hands.” Aaron smirks.
“Would Tessa agree?” Seb asks with a snort.
“Unequivocally.”
Seb laughs and looks over at me, putting on a dumb hockey announcer’s voice. “In his spare time, Aaron Marino likes hot redheads, building decks, crocheting, and… Scrabble!”
“Words with Friends,” Aaron corrects, not looking in the least bit bashful about it, either.
“Wish I was good with words,” I say. “Maybe I should try it. Pad out my vocabulary.”
“What, find a word to use other than ‘no’ every once in a while?” Seb ribs me.
“Hey, I said yes to being your kid’s godfather, didn’t I?” I shoot back. The pregnancy isn’t public knowledge yet, but Seb has filled his teammates in.
“Grudgingly as all hell.” My brother-in-law laughs good-naturedly. But I shoot him a thankful smile for being so understanding about my initial reaction to the news.
The morning after the full-day excursion of shopping, hiking, and sister-visiting with Holly (crazy that we ended up spending the whole day and evening together without meaning to), I turned up at Seb and Maddie’s apartment wearing a t-shirt with a quote from The Godfather movie. I went on to hold out the huge bag of baby gear I purchased the day before, along with a heartfelt apology and a picture of me holding baby Sage to illustrate the fact that I was, in fact, capable of being cool with a baby.
They laughed in my face. Mostly because they knew that I wasn’t trying to be rude or seem unsupportive the day they told me, but that I needed time to process and get my head around the new, unexpected—but very welcome—responsibility.
Honestly, Maddie was much, much more interested in who-the-hell’s baby I was holding in the picture and I ended up having to answer about a billion and one questions about Holly.
Nosy as can be, my sister.
“So he’s the one who beat me out for the title,” Aaron says cheekily, elbowing Seb in the ribs.
“Listen,” he argues back, sounding all reasonable and father-like already. “If I’d made you godfather, I also would’ve had to ask Mal, and Colton, and Dallas, and Jake, and Triple freaking J.” He winces. “Jeez, imagine that moron wielding a baby…”
The two of them break into laughter at the mental image of a team of hockey players vying for pole position as godfather, but it gives me pause for thought. Maddie and Seb did have a lot of options for the title—Seb has two brothers as well. And yet, they chose me.
I’m determined not to fail them. Or the baby.
I’m going to have a successful business. One to be proud of. I’ll take the little nugget hiking and camping, teach him or her to fish and tie knots and realize that they can be anyone they want to be. Do anything they put their mind to.
The morning of my Godfather apology, I asked Maddie and Seb whether they still wanted me to be the godparent of their child given that I intend to live in the middle of nowhere and therefore might have to raise the kid in the wilderness. Both Maddie and Seb laughed and said that, if it ever came to that, they might like the idea of their child growing up like Tarzan. At which point the conversation totally got away from me as Maddie went on to swoon over Brendan Fraser in the live-action movie.