The Presidents Daughter

Crazy

Patrick

This is it. This is potentially the biggest day of my entire life. Not only could I win my third Stanley cup in six seasons in front of the home crowd thus cementing my name in history in this city, in this sport and I'm this world, but if I do I'm also supposed to propose to the girl of my dreams. So a pretty big day if you ask me.

"Do you know what you're going to say" Jessica asks as we sit out on the back porch. Everyone else was inside enjoying breakfast and I came out here to try and clear my head. But my sisters make sure I'm never alone, one of them is always checking up on me.

"Absolutely not. What is there to say when the one person in this world that you love more than anything decides if they want to spend the rest of their life with you or not" I ask.

"I don't know. I never understood why she liked you" she teases and I nudge her shoulder. "But in all seriousness, I think you're going to be fine. I think you could honestly just get down on one knee and she'll say yes."

"I sure hope so because I don't think I'll have a lot of words out there" I insist.

"That's a first" she smirks.

We finish up breakfast and head to the UC early. There was a lot of preparations being taken in case we win tonight. So I get ready and do my usual pre game routine. I make sure everything is in order and I have what I needed. I see the ring sitting in my locker and let out a long sigh. How is it I'm more nervous for that than winning this thing?

"You gonna let that ring scare you like that" Jonny says and I laugh.

"Have you met me before? If I told you the last time we won this thing that by the next time we would win it all I was going down on one knee would you have believed me" I ask as he laughs.

"No chance in hell" he admits.

"Right. And there's a reason for that. What if she says no" I ask.

"That's so ridiculous. The amount of things that woman has done for you out of pure love is insane. She dropped everything to be with you when your grandfather died and you guys weren't even together yet. She brought you to Hawaii and shared all the special things in her life with you. She left the White House just to be closer to you for fucks sake. The woman loves you whether you want to see it for that or not" he argues.

"God, I can't fuck this up" I insist.

"Just listen to your heart and not your stupid brain" he accuses.

"Wow... so much faith" I mumble.

"I love you dude, I do. But I've seen you mess up a lot of good things. This just so happens to be the best thing that has happened to you" he shrugs.

"For a NHL captain you sure are doing pretty awful with this whole pep talk thing" I accuse.

"Gotta keep the good stuff for later on" he claims.

"Oh... thanks" I laugh.

He moves on to making someone else's life miserable and I go to be stretched out and eat and drink a little before the game.

Eventually it's go time and like the whole series has been the scoring was tight. No team has taken control one way or another, we were pretty evenly matched and it was hard to tell which team would come out on top on any given night. But tonight there was no denying us. Duncan has been a war horse this whole post season and he opened the scoring with three minutes left in the second period. I join in on the fun with a goal of my own and that proved to be enough. Even though Corey was pulled a few times in the Nashville series he proved that he was one of the elite goaltenders with his performance tonight. We end up winning game six in a shut out and we did it in front of our amazing fans.

We actually did it.

After all the craziness and getting hurt we actually won. So we throw our sticks and gloves and helmets to the ice. We jump the boards and pile on top of Corey as we celebrate what was seemingly a nearly impossible win. What was once a fantasy to us is a legacy as six of us win our third Stanley cup championship together, but for the first time we did it at home.

Once we calm down we do the handshake lines and trophy presentation. Our team Lion wins conn Smythe because he played 100 minutes a night and scored like every game. Then Jonny gets the Stanley cup and hands it off to Kimmo Timonen who just so happens to be the guy I scored the 2010 cup winning goal against. Once everyone gets their turn with the cup they let friends and family down and I knew it was time.

One of the equipment managers hands me the ring and I go in search of Aaliyah. My family already knew what was going on so they new to let me do this first before I dropped the ring on the ice and someone steps on it.

Luckily it doesn't take too much to find Aaliyah because she always stood out. Like the first time I saw her in that room we end up finding each other and she slides right into my arms.

"Oh my god that was INSANE" she cheers and I laugh.

"That was pretty great" I admit.

"I can't wait to put Bella in the cup. I just changed her diaper and everything" she claims making me smile.

"We can do that in a second. But I have something I need to do first" I insist.

"Oh, alright. What do you have to do" she wonders.

I grab her left hand with my right hand and hold the ring in my other one. I slowly get down on one knee and make sure I don't fall over, I'll never hear the end of it if I do. I pull the ring out and immediately her eyes get glassy. She covers her mouth with her free hand but I can still see her smile.

"Aaliyah Michelle Obama, you make me the happiest man in the world. Everything I do, I do it for you and I want to do it with you for the rest of my life. I know for a fact that there isn't a love out there like ours, and though it hasn't always been easy you have always been the one for me. You've been my best friend for as long as I can remember and I can't imagine my life without you in it making me eat healthy food and being with a million animals.

So it would be a honor if you said yes and agreed to marry me" I finally say.

"Yes" she says a little bit about the whisper. I thought I was going to throw up when she said that.

I slip the ring on her finger and I hear a bunch of cheers. She reaches down and pulls me into a long kiss and I couldn't help but smile.

"You're crazy, you know that" she whispers on my lips.

"Crazy for you" I insist making her giggle.

"You make me so happy" she promises me.

"The feeling is mutual."