Two is Better Than One

Jordan’s POV

Things between Allie and I were going smoothly. We spent all our time together and did everything together. We had a tradition now that after home games we would go out to the diner for dinner and just talk. For away games we would text during intermissions and then talk on the phone when I got back to the hotel. I was building up the courage to ask her out on a real date, but just couldn’t do it. The guys were starting to rag on me because in the two months that Alaina and Allie have been here I haven’t gone home with another girl or even partied very hard. Things were defiantly changing for me and in a good way too.

Christmas was only two weeks away and I had something special for her planned. I just needed to get a hold of her mother and lay it all down and get away from my family for a day or two. That was going to be the time when I make things official with her because I was tired of holding back when we hung out. Last night was hard, the way we were snuggled up together and I found myself rubbing her back again, and again she fell asleep on me. When she started freaking out this morning about being late, I couldn’t just sit back and let her freak, so I offered to drive her. It also gave me an excuse to be with her longer.

I shut Allie’s door and turned towards my room and ran into Kris who I didn’t know was standing there.

“Why were you in Allie’s room?” He asked

“We were watching a movie last night and I fell asleep.” I explained. “Why do I have to explain myself to you?”

“Because Allie is like my little sister and I don’t want you fucking with ‘er.”

“Kris, I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. I really like her.”

Kris shook his head and looked around, making sure Allie wasn’t hiding anywhere. “You didn’t ‘ear it from me but she really likes you too. I swear to you Jordan, you mess with ‘er, teammate/ roommate or not I’ll kick your ass.” And with that he walked into his room and slammed the door.

I shook my head at Kris’ reaction to me falling asleep with Allie and made my way to the kitchen to make the coffee that I promised her. While it was brewing I made my way to my room and got ready for practice. When I stepped out of my room, I head Allie in the kitchen getting her lunch and coffee together.

“I was thinking I’d take you out to lunch today.” I said, walking into the room. I chuckled lightly when she jumped.

“That’s sweet of you, but I won’t have much time today because that new preschooler is coming in and I’m going to be meeting with her parents and teachers all morning and afternoon.” She smiled apologetically before putting the sugar into her travel mug.

“Well how about after you shift we go out to get some coffee or something.”

She sighed. “Again, that’s sweet, but I have toddler duty this afternoon.”

Well this sucks, this was going to be the first time in a while that we didn’t hang out after practice. Maybe this was a good thing, I thought to myself as I too got my coffee ready. I could work more on her Christmas present without worrying about tipping her off. She looked at the clock and seemed to move into warp speed because she was all over the apartment grabbing things and throwing them into her bag and putting her shoes on. The drive to the ChildCare center where Allie worked was a quiet one. I pulled over to the curb to let her out, but grabbed her arm before she got out.

“What are you doing for Christmas?” I asked her. A look of shock crossed her face and I could tell she stopped breathing.

“Um, I’m going home to visit my mom. Why?’ She asked

“Just wondering.” I smiled at her and waved. “Have a nice day, I’ll see you when you get home.”

She nodded and I watched as she walked into the center before driving off. As I made my way to the practice rink, I went over my plan for Allie. I parked my car and made my way into the locker room and instantly felt eyes on me. I turned around and saw Kris glaring at me, I just ignored him and the looks and got ready.

***
When I got home after practice, Alaina was home for lunch. This was the perfect time for me to start her present.

“Hey Alaina.” I said grabbing a Gatorade out of the fridge.

“Hey Jordan, how was practice?” She asked looking up from a folder.

“Good. Listen I have a question for you.” She kept her gaze on me and nodded. I had her attention. “I was wondering if you could give me Allie’s mom’s number.”

She raised a questioning eyebrow and just looked at me. “Why do you need that?”

My throat suddenly felt very constricted. I took the seat next to her and took a deep breath. “I’m going to surprise Allie in California during our Christmas break. I’m planning on asking her to be my girlfriend and I have this whole plan in mind, I just need her mom’s help with one little thing”

Alaina smiled at me a pulled out her phone. “It ‘s about freaking time you asked her out. God, I was going to ask her out for you if you didn’t do it soon.” She laughed and wrote down the number and handed it to me. “You mess with her Jordan and I’ll make sure you never play hockey again.”

I laughed and nodded my head. Excitement filled my body as I looked at the ten digit number. Things were looking good. After Alaina left for work again I dialed the number and waited for an answer. Suddenly nervous, I shifted in my seat and took a deep breath.

“Hello?” A female’s voice answered.

“Hi, is this Shannon Summers?” I asked

“Yes this is she. Who is this?”

“My name is Jordan Staal, I know your daughter Allie.”

“Oh Jordan! It is finally nice to talk to you. Allie has talked non-stop about this boy named Jordan that she lives with. How are you dear?” I smiled upon hearing that Allie talks about me to her mother.

“I’m good thanks for asking. So the reason I am calling is to ask you a favor. I know we have never met before but I would like to change that. I’m planning on surprising Allie at home when she comes for Christmas.”

“Oh? And why are you going to be traveling thousands of miles just to visit my daughter?” I could almost hear the smirk in her voice.

“Because I am planning on asking her to be my girlfriend and I need your help with one little thing.”

Shannon laughed lightly. “Sure thing Jordan. What can I do for you?”

So with that I told Allie’s mother my plan and what I needed from her to get it to work. Once we had everything worked out, I ended the call and went to hang out with Sidney for a little while.

Allie’s POV

I walked into the apartment and you would have thought I walked into a sports bar with all the noise. There was music blaring, a hockey game on, people talking, and beer bottles everywhere. Normally this wouldn’t bother me, but after a day dealing with crying children and even a crying parent, I just wanted to relax.

“THERE SHE IS!” Max yelled when he spotted me by the door. He was clearly on his way to being wasted.

“Hey guys.” I waved to everyone and made my way to the kitchen to grab something to drink. I cringed slightly when they erupted into cheers, a headache building. I went into my room and changed out of my dress suit and put on sweat pants and my old softball shirt from high school. Before going back out to the living room I slipped into the bathroom and took some aspirin.

“Hey,” Jordan said blocking the bathroom door so I couldn’t get out. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I just had a long day and I’m hungry.” I had missed lunch to cover for a teacher at the center because her daughter got sick and had to be picked up.

“I’m sorry, listen we are about to order pizza. That sound good?”

“At the moment anything sounds good.” I cringed again when more cheers come from the living room and Jordan noticed.

“Are you sure you are okay?” He asked concerned.

“Yeah I’ve just got a headache, no big deal.”

“Okay.” Jordan kissed my forehead and went back out to the living room. I sighed and leaned against the bathroom sink. I was getting tired of waiting for him to make a move, if he doesn’t do something soon. I was going to make the first one. He was driving me crazy with the late night movies, and falling asleep together, and then little things like seeing if I was okay.

“ALLIE! GET YOU ASS OUT HERE!” Alaina yelled from her spot in the living room. I chuckled to myself and shut off the light. As soon as I walked out into the living room a beer was thrusted into my hands. It seemed that the only spot open was next to Jordan so I took that and looked around. Everyone had apparently been drinking for a while except for Alaina who was still in her work clothes and Sidney who I never saw drink more than one beer. Alaina had a smile on her face and looked at me questioningly.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked

“We should tell them.” Was all she said

“Tell us what?” Sidney asked, glancing between Alaina and I.

I stood up with my beer and lifted it into the air. “I believe this calls for a toast.” I said.

“What does?” Kris asked.

Alaina stood up and took the spot next to me and lifted her beer as well. “Allie and I got an apartment.” She beamed. All the guys but one cheered. Jordan just clapped automatically, but I could see the sadness in his eyes.

“Layn, should we tell them where it is?” I asked never losing eye contact with Jordan.

“Well duh, how else will they come and visit?”

I laughed and nodded in agreement.

“So where is the apartment?” Jordan asked

“Right here in this building.” I smiled as realization came over Jordan’s face.

“So you guys got the apartment that Jordan was telling us about?” Marc asked clearly going along with this.

“Yeah we did.”

“When?" Max asked.

“Um, yesterday.” Alaina said.

Kris was about to say something but was cut off by the buzzer going off, signaling the pizzas were here.

***

The rest of the night was spent eating pizza and messing around. Vero had showed up a little bit after the pizza did, so Alaina and I talked to her about decorating the apartment and a house warming party.

Finally around midnight Sidney took a wasted Max home and Vero drove her and Marc back to their house. Alaina and I cleaned up all the beer bottles and pizza mess while Kris and Jordan turned everything off.

“Good night Allie.” Alaina said

“Night, Layn. We going to start packing our stuff and maybe pick up out furniture from storage before the game tomorrow?”

“Yeah that sounds like a good idea. I have a half day tomorrow and your not working the toddler room right?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, so yeah tomorrow we’ll start packing and picking up the stuff.”

“I think we should pick up the stuff first, that way we actually have furniture to put our stuff on.” I chuckled. I could see us getting everything down to the apartment and not have anywhere to put it.

“Yeah I think you might be right.” She laughed. “Alright, I’m heading to bed. See you in the morning.”

“See ya, sweet dreams.”

“Thanks you too.”

Kris was next to go to bed, I wasn’t tired so I made myself some tea and went to sit out on the balcony. I took a deep breath and sat on the little bench the guys had out there and was slowly falling asleep when the sound of the glass door opening scared me. I turned to see Jordan walking out, holding a blanket.

“I thought you might want this, it’s really cold out here.” He said quietly. He draped the blanket over my shoulders and leaned against the railing. We didn’t say anything at first, just took in the sounds of the city below. “So you’re moving out?” Jordan said quietly.

“Yeah, but it’s not like we’re going far. We will be one level below you.” I said

“But still you won’t be here.” He sounded so sad.

I got up and did the most natural thing in that moment. I wrapped my arms around his waist from behind. “Jordan, we will still be able to hang out together. Hell, I doubt we will be spending tons of time at our own apartments now.”

He turned around and wrapped his arms around my waist too. Butterflies quickly invaded my stomach and my heart rate went up. Neither of us said anything, we just stood there looking at each other. I didn’t want to move from my spot, but soon the need for sleep finally caught up with me.

“I’m going to head to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I said moving out of his arms.

“Yeah. Night Allie.” He kissed my forehead

“Good night Jordan. Sweet dreams.”

“You too.”

I grabbed my tea cup and made my way inside, stopping in the kitchen to drop off the cup. Before walking down the hallway I glanced back out the glass door and saw Jordan leaning on the rail again. I sighed and went to my room. I was finally in bed when I realized