Page 128 of Meant for Mayhem

I grinned. “Or something.”

“Unbelievable.”

We all laughed, and Leena giggled with us, looking up at me for approval. I squeezed her closer, leaning down to plant a kiss on her head.

A nurse came in shortly after for Walt’s medications and to bring him lunch. Mikko and Leena followed Walt’s sons out the door, but I lingered for another moment.

“Merry Christmas, Walt.”

His gaze drifted toward the doorway where Mikko was crouched beside Leena, helping her zip her coat while she tried to help. Walt watched them for a long moment before looking back at me.

“You have a beautiful family, Shannon.” He gave my hand a squeeze, his own trembling beneath mine, then let go. “Hold on to them, kid. Time passes too fast.”

I smiled until the door clicked shut behind me. But the moment I followed Mikko and Leena down the hall toward the exit, it disappeared.

You have a beautiful family.

The words were like a blow, a reminder that my family looked nothing like this.

Mine was full of alcoholics and abusers, of slammed doors and broken promises, of learning far too young that loving someone didn't mean they loved you back.

The family Walt saw didn’t belong to me. Not really.

But somewhere between bedtime stories, pizza nights, and early morning practices, I'd stopped treating this marriage like the temporary arrangement it was supposed to be. The whole reason I'd uprooted my life was because Mikko needed someone until the hockey season ended, and I needed financial help to finish my clinical fellowship.

Except Christmas meant we were practically halfway there.

Halfway through the season.

Halfway through my fellowship.

Halfway to packing my things and going back to the life I'd had before him.

And, stupid me, I’d stopped counting down.

Watching Parkinson's steal another piece of Walt in a single week was a brutal reminder that time didn’t care whether you were ready for it to pass. One day he was grumbling through crossword clues and rolling his eyes every time I made him practice smiling, and the next he could barely lift his hand off his lap.

Maybe that was the real danger of letting yourself get comfortable—you started believing there would always be another week. Another Christmas. Another morning to be with the people you loved.

Until there wasn't.

“I have one more surprise before we head up the mountain,” Mikko said once we were back inside the car.

Snow had fallen while we were inside, thick flakes drifting through the gray afternoon before melting against the windshield. Mikko brushed them away with the wipers as he backed out of the parking lot, there and gone like they’d never been.

Leena barely made it a few minutes before her chatter dissolved into silence from the backseat, telling me she was dozing like she so often did in the car.

I glanced out the window, watching as familiar streets gave way to a neighborhood I didn’t recognize.

“Where are we going?”

Mikko grinned, eyes on the road. “You’ll see.”

I tried to find it in me to share in his excitement, but all I could feel was that I was hurtling toward a cliff at a speed I couldn’t check.

Twenty minutes later, he turned into a quiet neighborhood tucked against the foothills. Every roof was dusted white, Christmas lights glowing warmly beneath the steady snowfall. At the end of the block, he turned into the driveway of a two-story home with a wide front porch that looked brand new, no lights hung on the roofline like the ones around it.

I looked from the house to him. “Whose house is this?”