Replay Bonus Scene

Josh

                  “How do you know if you’re a good parent?”  I asked, before swallowing another mouthful of chicken.

                  The guys around the table in the practice arena dining area stared at me as if I wasn’t speaking English. I was, because I didn’t know any other languages. What was their problem? I replayed the question in my head, but they were all small words.

                  “Ducky, are you and Katie…” Fitch’s voice trailed off as he waved his hand. What that was supposed to mean? That we were living together?

                  “You know we are.” She’d moved into my place after Fitch bought his own condo, so he knew this.

                  He held up his hands. “I didn’t know. She never told me, and I wouldn’t have thought it.”

                  Cooper interrupted. “Let’s just be sure we’re talking about the same thing. Is Katie pregnant?”

                  I felt my eyes grow large, my stomach feeling like I’d been sucker punched. “What? Did she say something?” She’d tell me first, right?

                  Cooper shook his head. “Since you’re asking about being a good parent, we thought that maybe you were going to be one soon?”

                  I let a huge breath out, relieved. “No, I wasn’t asking because she’s pregnant. I just wanted to be prepared.”

                  I wasn’t going to tell them about the super eggs that Katie’s mom and sister had and that Katie worried she might have, resulting in unplanned pregnancies pop up at the least convenient times. But I needed to be prepared, just in case. If it happened, I wanted to make things easier for Katie.

                  Deek, my linemate, passed behind me. “Did I hear someone’s expecting?”

                  “No, Ducky just wants to be prepared if and when he and Katie are. He asked how to know if you’re going to be a good father.”

                  Deek’s smile looked a little evil. “Come take care of mine for a while. That’s a trial by fire.”

                  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not going to be your unpaid babysitter.” I’d met his kids. They were something else. Something loud and excitable and never standing still.

                  He shrugged. “If you really want to know.”

                  After he was out of earshot, Fitch said quietly “If I thought I might end up with his brood, I’d go in for a snip job now.”

                  Everyone at the table flinched. And not because of Deek’s terror children.

                  Bongo cocked his head. “Are you and Katie planning to start a family soon?”

                  I shook my head. “She’s got a lot of school left. But if I need to learn how to do this Dad thing, I could get started now. Never knew my father, so I only know what that’s like on TV and movies.”

                  I was confident I wouldn’t be a Darth Vader, but Han Solo and Leia had problems with their kid, so…

                  “Did you ever babysit?” Cooper asked.

                  I shook my head.

                  He shrugged. “Not sure that’s a good test anyway. Parenting is long term, and it’s your own kid. That’s different than taking on someone else’s who you aren’t connected to.”

                  That made sense. Probably anyone could handle a couple of hours, but days, weeks, years? That was a lot more difficult.

                  “Did you ever have a pet?” Crash had finished his meal, and had shoved it aside, leaning his forearms on the table. “That’s something long term, and it’s a caretaking role.”

                  Oppy sighed. “I had a fish. But it died.”

Barnes shook his head. “Man, if you can’t take care of a fish, do not have kids. Fish are like, drop in food and leave them alone. You have to do more than that with kids.”

“Dogs are good. But not cats. My grandmother had cats. She never did anything with them except pour out food and change the litter box.”

The team continued to discuss which pets were the best option, but I tuned them out. I’d had a pet once, Donald, the duck. When I’d got called up to the big team, I’d had to leave her to my roommate. I still got pictures of her and her ducklings, but that didn’t really prove I could do it.

But, if we got a pet, and I could be a good pet parent, then that might show I could be a good human parent. I’d never thought of getting one before because I was away so much on road games. Katie was living with me now, so the condo wasn’t empty for days at a time.

                  Yeah. A pet. That would be great.

Katie

                  “So what’s the emergency?” Jess asked.

                  The four women who made up the PAC – player adjacent club – for the Toronto Blaze had met me at our favorite diner for brunch. We did this fairly often, but I’d specifically asked them to come this morning to help me with a problem.

                  “Josh wants to get a pet.” I slumped back in my chair.

                  Jess looked at Callie, who looked at Jayna. Jayna shrugged. “Are you allergic?”

                  “No.”

                  “Do you not like dogs? Is that what he wants? Or is he a cat person.” Callie was frowning as she tried to figure it out.

                  “No, Ducky is a dog person. Definitely.” Jayna said.

                  “Just because he has those puppy dog eyes doesn’t mean he likes them.” Jess argued.

                  “He likes everything.”

                  I held up a hand. “I totally get the puppy eyes reference, but that’s not his idea of a pet. He’s only had one, and it was not a dog. Did you ever wonder where he gets his nickname?”

                  “Wait, from a literal duck? I thought it was just one of those stupid things hockey players do. No offense, Jayna.” Callie said.

                  Jayna grinned. “For the record, it’s not just hockey players. Or guys.”

                  Jess brought us back to the point. “Ducky wants a pet duck?”

                  I sighed. “Remember that TV show, Friends? And the guys had a pet duck and chicken? Josh had a roommate that loved the show, and following stupid hockey player logic, he and his roommate on the farm team in Nashville got a pet duck. Josh got called up and couldn’t bring the duck, but he kept calling about it, so his teammates called him Ducky. But guys, I’ve looked up ducks since he asked if I’d like to get a pet. And ducks…” I shook my head. “They’re noisy, and they shit everywhere.”

                  The three women brought up their phones and started looking.

                  “Some breeds are quiet.” Callie noted.

                  “But they all shit.”

                  “Josh says having a pet will be a way to prepare for having kids.” Seeing the suspicious looks, I added. “Someday. Not anytime soon. And yeah, having a pet might be nice when he’s travelling, to keep me company. But how do I tell him I don’t want a duck?”

                  “You just say I don’t want a duck.” Callie had a perplexed look on her face.

                  “And then I get the puppy dog eyes.”

                  Jess nudged me. “If you don’t have immunity to the puppy dog eyes you’re going to have problems in future.”

                  I sighed. “I know. But we’re still so new, and this is the first thing he’s wanted so badly.”

                  Jayna shoved her plate aside. “Get him a puppy instead.”

                  I shook my head. “Do you know what kind of time commitment puppies require?”

                  “I’m guessing it’s a lot?”

                  I nodded.

                  “A cat?” Jess suggested.

                  “I don’t know if he likes cats. Or if I do. We never had them when I was growing up and neither did he.”

                  “Snake? Lizard?” Jayna offered.

                  “Maybe this will work!”

                  I turned to Callie, hoping she had a brainstorm.

                  She turned her phone screen to me. While we’d been listing options, she’d been researching.

                  She’d found…cockatiels.

                  “They’re easy starter birds, and don’t live much longer than cats or small birds. They don’t talk, so they won’t swear at anyone, but can imitate noises. They’re affectionate, but they can live in a cage, so that should take care of most of the mess.”

                  I stared at the screen. “And they’re the same color as Donald. Maybe that would work.”

                  “But what about you?” Jess asked. “Do you want a bird?”

                  “Birds.” Callie said. “They recommend getting a pair.”

                  I thought about it. I didn’t need more responsibility, but since the odds were good Josh would either be playing next season, or doing something else with the team, I’d be on my own a lot. It might be nice to have some company, as long as it wasn’t too noisy or shitting everywhere.

                  “I’ll check it out. It might be nice.”

Josh

                  I thought Katie would like having a pet, but she’d been a little weird about it. She had a lot going on though, so I could wait for a bit. Even though I always liked to do stuff as soon as I thought of it. We weren’t going to have kids till one of us was more settled, so there wasn’t a rush. Unless the super eggs were a real thing and Katie had them. But so far, no.              

                  So I shelved the idea of a pet, and mostly forgot about it. Then a couple of months later, Katie asked if I’d come somewhere with her – a surprise.

                  “Where are we going?”

                  “It’s a surprise.”

                  “It’s not going to be like when you and Mom took me to that home decorating place and asked me about pillows, is it?”

                  I rated pillows based on whether they were good for napping, or under my feet on the coffee table. It seemed reasonable to test them out the way you’d use them, but no, that was frowned on at those stores.

                  “This is a good surprise.”

                  “Okay.” I was always going to go where Katie asked.

                  Since the location was a surprise, she drove the Mustang – she was a lot more comfortable taking it out in the city now. She’d had a lot of practice while I was rehabbing, since I couldn’t handle the stick shift with my knee hurt. Even though I’d lived here for a few years, I had no clue where she was going, until she pulled into the parking lot of a bird rescue.

                  “This is it?”

                  Katie turned off the car and faced me. “I can’t do a duck.”

                  It took me a minute to understand what she meant. Was a duck the name of a yoga pose or something? Something related to math? Then I realized she meant a literal duck. Why was she talking about a duck?

                  “I looked into it, and even though some don’t make a lot of noise, they shit everywhere and even if we hired someone to clean the place every day, that would still be really gross.”

                  “Well, yeah. We had Donald outside, with a heated house and a run to put her in.”

                  She blinked at me. “Oh, I didn’t know that. On the TV show they had them in their apartment.”

                  “Not everything you see on TV is real.” Come on, Katie was supposed to be the smart one.

                  She let out a breath, relaxing. She thought I was determined to get a duck? Here in a condo in the city? Was that why she was weirded out about the pet idea?

                  “I’ve done some research, and there are birds that are good as pets. And this place has a pair of cockatiels. They’re supposed to be good beginner birds, and they want this pair to be adopted together, so I thought maybe this could be a pet option?”

                  I reached over, held her chin and kissed her. “I love you.”

                  She giggled. “Is that a yes?”

                  “If you want. I only suggested getting a pet so I’d could practice to be a parent.”

                  Her jaw dropped.

                  “I never had a dad, so I wanted to make sure I could do this before we had a kid.”

                  “Are you – do you want to have a baby now?”

                  I sat back. “No – unless you do? I just wanted to be ready for when it happened. You know, because of your family’s super eggs.”

                  “Okay, that makes sense. But we’re both okay with waiting for a bit, for the baby?”

                  “We’re both super busy right now, so I didn’t think it was a good time. But a pet would be company for you when I’m travelling, and I’d be less nervous when we have a kid if I know I can take care of something alive.”

                  Katie smiled at me, and everything inside me lit up. I was crazy about this woman.

“I have no doubts you’re going to be a great dad, Josh, but I’m happy to wait for that. Should be check out these birds now?”

                  A parrot. Or, two of them. That would be cool. Maybe I could teach them to talk. Something that would drive Fitch nuts.

                  “Yeah, lets do this.” I was up for anything if Katie was doing it with me.

Later, I walked out of the place with two cockatiels, a long list of things to get, and most importantly, the woman I’d have a family with. Parrots or kids, it didn’t matter as long as I had Katie.