“I want to stand with you on a mountain. I want to bathe with you in the sea. I want to lay like this forever until the sky falls down on me…”


Permanent was a relative term. In this respect, permanent did not mean forever. Permanent did not mean secure. Permanent meant that for the time being, Colorado would be home. Permanent meant that the day after Christmas, Marco and Marie would load up in separate cars and make the twelve-hour drive from St. Paul to Denver. Permanent meant leaving the place she’d called home for two years.

Marco had called the night he was traded. He had spoken to the GM and owner of the franchise and had left the meeting feeling like they weren’t planning on getting rid of him anytime soon. The men were fathers themselves, and were sympathetic to the fact that having to relocate a family of three, and soon to be four, was taxing. They reassured him that they had big plans for him in their franchise. And so he called Marie and told her pack up their things; he’d be putting the condo on the market.

But between then and the day after Christmas, Jess and Robert were still coming out. They were expecting to find a flourishing family in a cute little condo. But instead they’d find a fussy toddler, an exhausted husband, and a worn out wife in a mostly unfurnished collection of walls.

Marco would also be in Colorado until the 23rd. That would give him a couple days to look for a house to rent. Apparently that was the thing to do according to some of his new teammates. They told him that renting was the more economical option unless they were the face of the franchise, like Gabriel Landeskog. For Marco, he didn’t care if he was renting or buying, he just wanted somewhere to put his family by the time they came out on the 26th.

Back in Minnesota, Marie was almost asleep by the time Jess was knocking on her front door. She hadn’t gotten much sleep since the trade nearly a week ago. And now that Sofia was down for a nap, she thought she had a moment to rest. But Jess’ timing proved to be impeccable.

“I brought nutrients!” Jess smiled and held up a paper tray of coffee from Scandy’s. Beside her, Robert held up a bag of pastries. Marie stepped to the side and invited them in. “Did you get robbed?”

When Marie turned back around from locking the door, Jess was meandering through the condo that looked smaller than ever now. Without all the furnishings, the place looked tiny.

“Marco got traded to Colorado. We won’t be able to see a game,”

“What?!” Jess shrieked and ran to Marie, setting her hands on her shoulders. “You have to move?”

Marie nodded and waved her hand over to the kitchen table, one of the last remaining pieces of furniture. “I’m so disoriented by this. I was just beginning to love everything about Minnesota, and now we have to leave. Just like that. Marco walked in, said he had to leave, and was on a flight three hours later.”

“Will he be there long?” Rob asked, sliding over a napkin topped with a cannoli.

“Hopefully the rest of his career. I can’t keep moving around like this; by the seat of my pants. We have children now, I can’t just whisk them out of school and abandon everything they know once they’re older. I had to do that, it’s traumatizing.”

“Marie, I’m sure Colorado is great…”

“Yeah I’m sure it is,” she interrupted. “But I don’t want to have to move every two years. We’re not even buying a place, we’re renting… Which doesn’t make me feel confident that Marco will be there for an extended period of time.”

Jess reached out for Marie’s hand. “I can appreciate that it isn’t the ideal time for this to happen, but it could be a lot worse. You could be going to Edmonton. Or worse, New York, where you’re dad’s just a few blocks away.”

“I know, I’m just… Exhausted,”

“How about this? Let me take a quick shower, and when I get out, Rob and I will entertain Sof, and you catch can up on your sleep.” Jess hopped out of her chair and rummaged through the large suitcase still perched by the front door. Within minutes, she was in the bathroom, running the shower.

Rob took a sip of coffee. Although he and Marie had already met, it was still a little awkward to be left alone together. “So Marco will be here…?”

“The night of the 23rd,” she answered, finally taking a bite of the cannoli.

“Short trip,”

Marie nodded and licked her lip to get the cream off of it, “yeah. It’s like this for eight or nine months, then I’ll get him all day everyday for three or four months, and then it’s right back to this.”

“That’s rough…”

She chuckled as though she couldn’t even believe she put up with it. “It wasn’t so bad in the beginning. I was busy with school so his time away gave me a chance to do my work. But now we have Sofia and a boy on the way. And now every time he leaves, it’s the hardest thing in the world.”

“Congratulations on a son,”

Marie grinned set her hands on her stomach.

“Any thoughts on a name yet?”

She shook her head, “for now I’m just trying to keep Marco away from super Italian names. With Sofia, I felt obligated to make his family happy, and I love that name don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t the name I grew up imagining for my daughter.”

For whatever reason, it was at that point that Marie decided she wasn’t going to allow herself to be bitter about the trade anymore. Being upset about it would never change the reality, it would just make her reality less pleasurable. Just as Minnesota had managed to become home, she figured Colorado would do that same. After all, that was where their second child would be born.

---

Christmas Eve, two in the morning, Marco came through the front door to find three adults sitting on the floor with tea in their hands. He had a bouquet of roses in his hand, smiling as Jess and Rob stood up to greet him. Marie too, made the same effort.

“No, no. Stay sitting, I’ll come to you,” he murmured, wrapping his free hand around Jess’ back to hug her.

Rob offered his hand, “Rob. I’ve heard quite a bit about you these past few days,”

Marco grinned, “oh I bet. I’m the monster moving this lady to the suburbs of Denver.” He chuckled and walked over to Marie, handing her the roses. They kissed briefly, “how’re you feeling?”

“Achy,” she grimaced, adjusting her sitting position. “I already packed the vases,”

He shrugged and sat down next to her, noting that Jess and Rob had already taken their seats back on the floor. “Let ‘em die. Driving thirteen hours with a vase full of water probably isn’t the smartest thing anyways,”

“Marie told us you’ve been looking for places to settle,” Rob mentioned as Jess scooted between his legs and leaned back against his chest.

Marco broke into a coughing fit and did his best to nod, but didn’t make any further comment on it, and that worried Marie. In just a few days, they’d be trekking to an entirely new city and state, and they’d need a place to rest their heads.

“Rob, what do you do out in Boston?” Marco asked, quick to change the subject. Needless to say, everyone picked up on it.

Caught off guard, Rob moved his hand through his hair, “I’m a finance guy for a company that owns minor league baseball teams. We own five right now, but we’re looking to expand.”

“That’s awesome. Sounds glamorous,”

“I’m afraid that’s all it is. Mostly it’s looking at spreadsheets and yelling at people for spending money we don’t have,”

“Now that sounds like my agent’s job.”

“No, he just sends you away,” Marie mentioned offhand. It subdued everyone, and they all just looked at each other, unsure of who was going to break the silence.

Eventually it was Jess who bit the bullet. She and Rob retreated to their hotel for the night on the premise that it was so late. And it was, but that wasn’t the reason they made such a hasty exit. Going to sleep that night, Marie curled up into Marco’s side. He had been away for a week and a half and had still not mentioned even one house that he liked in Colorado. Marie could choose to be happy about the trade, but she couldn’t pretend like not having a place to live didn’t bother her. It did. Tremendously.

It snowed all day on Christmas. Instead of being cooped up in the condo which was now completely boxes, they spent the day at the hotel Jess and Rob were staying at. The condo didn’t even have a tree, and at least the hotel had a towering one right in the middle of the lobby. They exchanged gifts in the parlor, most of which went to Sofia. She was fonder of the wrapping paper itself than the actual toys on the inside. And after she was done tearing through it, the couples exchanged their gifts to each other.

Marie gave Marco a pair of pure silver cufflinks, one that was the Italian flag, and one that was the Canadian flag. He had seen them in Italy, mentioning how he’d want each one to be different, symbolizing the two countries he felt were his homeland. When he had ventured to find a table at a café down the street, Marie dropped a few extra Euros to get the set customized to fit his wants.

He thanked her profusely, finding comfort in the fact that she had been paying so close attention and managed to complete the deed so secretly. Then, Marco handed her a plain white envelope.

She looked at it, and flipped it over, sliding her finger behind the sealed edge. “I feel like you’re always giving me envelopes for Christmas,” she remembered back to their first Christmas together, when he had given her the envelope of the business account he’d set up for her. Marco blushed and laughed, because even he couldn’t deny that. Finally she got the envelope open, and she pulled out the only content in it: a picture.

Marie shot her eyes to Marco, who was intently staring at her as he bounced Sofia in his lap. She looked back down at the picture, noting it was of a house, doused with a thick layer of snow. “You got me a picture of a log cabin… Did Abraham Lincoln live here?”

Marco rolled his eyes at her snarky comment, but expected nothing less. “No, but you will be.”

Jess shrieked and put her hands over her mouth.

Marco giggled and continued, “Its in Lakeside, Colorado; five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, and twenty minutes from Denver. It’s private, it’s in the suburbs, and it’s going to be a great place to raise our kids.”

Marie leaned over and cupped Marco’s face, planting a long kiss on his lips. “You always manage to pack so much value into a flimsy little envelope.”

“Is it alright? I’ve started taping signs to the rooms so we know what’s what. And I’ve already gotten in some of the new furniture for the nursery.”

“You’re taking the reins on this one?”

“Well we agreed green, right? And I thought since it’s a boy, and the Wild jersey is green… I’m taking some liberties.”

“Some hockey liberties?”

“You’re going to love it,”

“I’m sure I will,” she kissed him again and then looked down at the picture of their new house. “Thank you for getting this together so quickly… and for having good taste.”

In the next forty-eight hours, life would cease to exist the way it did now. Rob would be on a plane back to Boston. Marco would be in his Alpha, chock full of as many boxes as he could stuff in it. And Marie, Jess, and Sofia, would be in the Range Rover with the rest of the stuff they planned on bringing to Colorado.

Jess had volunteered her help because she didn’t want Marie driving thirteen miles by herself with a baby in the back seat. It was safer this way, and Marie was happy to have the company, let alone an extra set of hands to unpack and set up all the new furniture that would be delivered within the next week.

When those thirteen hours were up, Marie would look at her new house for the first time. It was beautiful, no doubt, but it wasn’t yet a home, and she hoped that it wouldn’t take two years for it to become that. Just as Marco promised, the new nursery was outfitted for their son, and it looked much more Christmas-y than Marie ever could’ve expected. Between the green that came from the Minnesota jersey and that part of life, and the burgundy that was the Colorado jersey and the new part of life. Both jerseys hung framed, side-by-side, with Scandella written across the shoulders. All the furniture was white, making these two powerful colors come to life.

And that’s when Marie knew she could be happy here.

Notes

"Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden.

Does anyone else remember this song? Just me? Alright, well here's another chapter. Just three more left!