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Authors: Lucy Snow

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Then the commissioner came back out. “And now it’s time to present the MVP trophy to the game’s most valuable player.”

I had no idea who it was. I was prepared for it to be Lance Parker, because winning quarterbacks almost always got it.

“And the MVP of tonight’s game is…linebacker Hudson Asher!”

The crowd went nuts, and I felt like I had had the wind knocked out of me. Amazing! They had gotten it right. Drake and Lance had played a great game, but Hud’s managing of the defense and that key play had made all the difference.

Hud was beaming from ear to ear; I had never seen him so happy. He came onto center stage and took the MVP trophy, thanking the commissioner and hugging my father.

He showed the trophy to the crowd.

“Thank you, thank you all so much! This is for New England!” He shouted, and held the trophy up high.

We all clapped, me so hard my hands started hurting. I was crying and I couldn’t stop, I was so happy.

“There’s just one more thing I gotta do, though,” Hud said.

“DISNEYLAND!” the Patriots fans assembled on the field shouted back.

“Oh yeah, Disneyland definitely. But before that.”

He turned around and handed the trophy to Lance Parker, who looked a little surprised, but took it.

Then Hudson Asher looked at me, smiled that gorgeous smile that made me melt every single time, threw his arms around my waist, and kissed me in front of the entire world.

CHAPTER 28 - HUDSON

Yeah. Fuck it. I did it. I told the world I was in love with Mackenzie Mayfield, and fuck all the haters.

Can’t blackmail anyone for shit if there’s no secret anymore.

The next few minutes didn’t make any sense. After a few seconds I let Mack out of the kiss and she smiled at me before jumping into my arms for another one.

The entire team started cheering.

I swear I heard Coach Armstrong mutter, ‘maybe this is the fucking love boat.’

After that we had to go, had to get back to the locker room and clean up, then we had post game press conferences.

I would have skipped all that, but even I, the new playoffs MVP, had obligations I needed to get to.

Everyone on the team gave me props, first on the play, then on the award ceremony. I took them all in good humor and took my shower and got dressed, sharing a long hug with Drake and Lance, congratulating them on a good win and a great year.

Then it was off to the press conference.

The room was a fucking zoo. Reporters everywhere, cameras, lights flashing, it was complete and utter mayhem.

I sauntered in and sat down at the table, adjusted the microphone, and smiled. “So…..anyone got any questions for me?”

“HUD!” “HUD!” “HUD!” the entire room chanted, everyone trying to get a question in.

“Yes, Lily,” I said after finding Lily and pointing to her.

“First off, Hud, congrats on the win, and the great season.”

I held up my hand and interrupted her. “Thank you very much, Lily. It was a team effort, we all earned this.” I pointed to the MVP trophy sitting next to me on the table. “This is not so much for me as it’s for every guy on our team and on our coaching and training staff. I don’t get this if each of them don’t do their jobs as well as they had. What was the rest of your question?”

“About that ceremony just now. Care to comment?” She left it wide open for me, and I drove a truck through it.

“I’m so glad you asked that, Lily,” I said, smiling ear to ear. “I’ve got a couple things to say. The first thing is that now that I’ve done what I wanted to do most with my football career, which was win one for New England, I have decided to retire from football.”

The cameras went nuts, and people jumped up trying to ask more questions. I waved them all down.

“And the second thing is, what you saw at the ceremony was not a stunt or anything like that. I am truly and completely in love with Mackenzie Mayfield, and…” I looked for the right words. “That just seemed like the perfect time to tell the world.”

After that there were more questions, and I was just about to start answering them, when I heard a commotion from outside of the room. I looked over and the door flew open, Lance and Drake charging through.

“You son of a bitch!” Drake shouted, a huge smile on his face, and tackled me, knocking me off the chair and onto the floor. “How come you didn’t tell us!”

The cameras went nuts, flashing non stop, as I tried to stand back up. “Come on, man, I couldn’t!” I said, smiling.

As soon as I got up, Lance sacked me, sending me back to the floor, and Drake piled back on. “All this time,” Lance said as we dusted ourselves off, still sitting on the floor. All the news outlets had their microphones in front of us, but it was like none of them were there. “We could have helped.”

“I know, man,” I said, looking at each of them in turn. “But I needed to do it myself.”

“Yeah,” both of them said, and I knew they understood. “Should we, you know, get back up and sit at the table, maybe answer these peoples’ questions?”

Both of them looked at each other, then me. “Alright,” Lance said. “If you say so,” added Drake.

So that’s what we did. We righted the chairs, sat down, and took more questions.

Lily stood off to one side, and I saw that Charlotte had joined her. They had their arms around their chests, and they were both shaking their heads at the three of us.

Big smiles all around.

And then, in the doorway, was Mack, smiling at the five of us, and things started to get good.

CHAPTER 29 - MACKENZIE

I heard about what was going on in the media room, so I ran over there right away, without even changing out of my gonzo Patriots fan gear.

Hud and Drake and Lance were sitting there, taking questions from the media, but I could tell they had just been in some kind of brawl - all their clothing looked disheveled and out of place.

I sided up to Lily and Charlotte and they gasped and smiled at me. “Mack!” they both said, trying to keep it down.

“Hey, what did I miss?”

Both Lily and Charlotte rolled their eyes. “They are the worst. Of all the times to be children.”

Charlotte looked at Lily. “Umm, hello, they play football for a living. They’re children all the time.”

“Yeah.”

My eyes welled up with tears as I watched the three brothers bask in their accomplishment.

Suddenly Charlotte and Lily were hugging me, and pulling me out of the room. “I think they’ve got this under control,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah,” Lily added as we got out into the hallway. “Plus, you’ve got some dirt to give us, Mack.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” Lily smiled a cheshire grin, and Charlotte joined in. “I want to hear every single thing that happened between you too.”

“I mean,” I faltered, “it wasn’t that big a deal.”

“That’s nonsense,” Lily shot back. “Spill it, girl. I need ideas for my next book. The first two did so well the fans are going nuts for a third.”

How could I refuse that? “We should go somewhere we can talk.”

The next couple weeks passed by quickly. Hud had the inevitable publicity tour that game from winning the title and the MVP, and got invitations to attend all manner of event.

We went to every single one we could.

Now that he was a retired man, Hud threw himself into his new work setting up a foundation to help underprivileged kids, and I had never seen him so happy. Each time I saw him the smile on his face just wouldn’t go away.

Soon after the win my father announced that I was taking over the executive role at the team, which was very flattering and a thrilling prospect for me. Fans think that football ends in February, but almost immediately afterward the front office springs back into action and tries to figure out who will come back, who we have to part ways with, and who we’re going to draft in a few months.

The cycle continued, only this time, we were the champions. That was definitely the way I preferred it.

The players hadn’t been back at the facility in days, after they had cleaned out their lockers and said their goodbyes.

Today was different, though. Today the trophy was coming to Foxboro to be installed in our trophy case.

We held a small ceremony with everyone there, then people dispersed into the cold but sunny New England spring morning.

After a while it was just Hud and I, Lance and Charlotte, and Drake and Lily. Everyone was dressed to the nines, and we stood in front of the trophy case looking at the symbol of all we had done over the last year.

Hud was holding my hand, and each time I noticed it a private little thrill coursed through my body - I was still getting used to being able to show off our relationship in public. It was all so new to me, but I had never been happier in my entire life.

Everything was comin’ up Mackenzie.

I knew that each of us had gone through some things this year, especially Drake, Lance, and Hudson - each of them dealing with things that threatened to keep them off the field. At the same time, as I looked at them, and Lily and Charlotte too, all I could see was strength and purpose.

Each of them had found a way through their challenges, and had found someone they could spend the rest of their lives with.

It was almost too perfect. But I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

After a few minutes, we turned away, talking amongst ourselves about where the six of us would eat lunch.

We picked a place, and as we were walking out into the sun, I stopped everyone. “Oh yeah, I had an idea.”

All 5 of them looked at me, questions on their faces.

“How about we all take a nice long vacation together?”

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