Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

Jordan stopped by and picked me up on the way to our team meeting, because it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for both of us to drive and waste twice as much gas. It also gave us about ten minutes to talk and be ourselves, and for Jordan to make me blush as he held my hand while he drove.

“So what did you do to bribe my mother into liking you so much?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“My incredible charm and rugged good looks?” he suggested with a smirk, making me laugh.

“Serious though, she thinks you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread,” I insisted, and he smiled.

“That’s cool; I was a little worried about that, I mean, I’m not really the kind of guy parents love,” he admitted.

“Maybe you weren’t, but there’s no reason for my mom to not like you,” I assured him, and he shrugged.

“I wasn’t a really good person Cam. Don’t argue, because you know it’s true. I partied a lot, did a lot of stupid shit… if I was any of my ex’s parents I wouldn’t have wanted them dating me either,” he chuckled as we pulled into the player’s lot.

“Good thing, because otherwise you might’ve stayed with one of them and I’d be shit out of luck,” I decided, and he laughed out loud.

“Yeah, probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” he agreed, and with that we walked into CONSOL together. The room was fairly quiet, as most of us were heading back home in the next week or so and might not see each other for the remainder of the summer. Dan didn’t have a whole lot to tell us; just kind of the usual. Partway through the meeting my cellphone went off, and I was a little embarrassed that I’d forgotten to turn it off or on silent, but everybody waved it off. Once the meeting was over I checked my messages, and it had been from Jarrett. I had to smile when I read it; apparently the Penguins had wanted to meet with me about a contract. I quickly replied that I was free whenever, and he told me that he was in Pittsburgh, so if I could stay at CONSOL for about an hour or so we would do a preliminary meeting just to see what they were offering. So Jordan and I chilled in the locker room and talked, until he got there.

“All right, ready to go?” he asked, straightening his tie as he took a second to compose himself. I nodded and followed him to Shero’s office. Ray and Dan were both there, looking excited.

“How are you Cam?”

“I’m all right; I’d be better if we were playing in Boston tonight though,” I replied, and everybody nodded knowingly. We sat down, and Ray and Dan shifted to business mode.

“So Cam, we really like what you’ve done here this year. Hands down you’re the front-runner for the Calder, you’ve done amazing things for a rookie,” Dan started, and Ray nodded before taking over.

“Bottom line is we want you here next season, and for sure the next three after that too,” he said, and I couldn’t help but grin.

“That sounds like good news to me,” I told them, and they both seemed relieved.

“We’re looking at a four year, twelve million dollar contract; two million the first two seasons, then four million for the last two seasons,” Ray continued on, and Jarrett nodded, taking notes.

“We know you might not want to sign right away, we more than understand that. But we do want you back in Pittsburgh, and unfortunately that’s as high as we’re willing to bargain,” he finished, and I nodded.

“I don’t really want to sign anything right now; I want to take a few weeks to just detox from hockey a tiny bit before I start thinking contracts. But I have every intention of returning to Pittsburgh if you’ll have me,” I told them, and saw the pleased expressions on their faces.

“We just wanted to talk to you as soon as we could find the time to; you’re probably going to get a lot of offers from a lot of other teams. We didn’t want to be the last in line and have you think we threw in an offer because we felt we had to; we honestly want you back here,” Dan explained, and I nodded.

“I definitely understand, and I’m honored that you guys want me back here. I love the Penguins and Pittsburgh,”

“All right; well, I hope you have a good couple of weeks and please call us or have Jarrett call us as soon as you’re ready to start talking contracts,” Ray told me as he stood up. We all followed suit, and I shook both of their hands before we all exited the office.

“That sounds pretty good to me,” I told Jarrett once we were down the hallway. He nodded, and pulled a couple of pages out of his briefcase.

“These are some of the other offers that have been coming in; my phone’s been going crazy the last couple of weeks. I didn’t want to bother you with contract stuff during playoffs though so I didn’t bring it up,” he explained, and my eyes widened at all of them.

“Jesus Murphy, did every team in the league put an offer in?” I asked, and he smirked.

“All of them except Dallas,” he told me, completely surprising me. I mean, I’d had a really good season, but I was shocked that so many teams wanted me to sign with them. And not just one-year tryout contracts either, anywhere from three to six year, big money contracts.

“Wow, this is… holy shit,” I couldn’t even put it into words as Jarrett laughed.

“I know, it’s a lot to take in. Just relax; put these away somewhere and take your vacation. Then take a look at them, and I’ll email you any updates after… May twenty-fourth? Is that long enough for you to be hockey-free?”

“Yeah, sure; that sounds good to me,” I agreed, and he made a note in his BlackBerry.
“Okay; don’t stress about any of that; if you’re serious about re-signing to Pittsburgh then none of that even matters; that’s just if something comes up and you want to sign elsewhere, or if things fall through here. I highly doubt they will, but just in case then you’ll have an idea of where you might want to go,” he insisted, and again I nodded, not sure what else to do.

“Thanks for coming out here; you know how clueless I am at all of this stuff,” I told him, and he laughed.

“It’s all right; this is your first year even needing an agent, so you’re doing pretty well. You’ve got all of the media stuff handled pretty well, you act pretty professional for being a rookie. This stuff is just part of the territory; and if all goes well you won’t have to worry about it for another couple of years,” he reminded me.

“Hopefully, yeah. Well, I hope your meetings go well; Gronk gave me a ride to the rink, he’s probably waiting for me,” we said our goodbyes and I headed back toward the locker room. Sure enough Jordan was there, and it looked like he was taking a nap.

“Jord?” I gently shook his shoulder and he jumped awake.

“Oh, hey, you ready to go?” he asked. I nodded, and he stood up, stretching his long arms and yawning.

“So, what’d they want to talk about?”

“Contracts,” I replied, showing him the pages of offers I had. Jordan’s eyes widened and he took the pile of papers from me to shuffle through them.

“Jesus, every team in the league?” he asked, and I chuckled.

“All except Dallas I guess,” we got into his Escalade and still he was staring at them.

“Wow…”

“I’m not even going to look at them; I want a couple of hockey-free weeks to just chill out and get my head on straight,” I told him, and he folded them in half before handing them to me.

“Sounds like a plan. You wouldn’t happen to want to come spend some of that time with me in Ontario, would you?” he asked, and I felt my heart do a couple gymnastics.

“I’d love to,” his smile lit up his entire face and he took my hand as he pulled out of the player’s lot.

“That’s awesome. I was hoping you could, but I wasn’t sure if I should just ask you or…” he trailed off, and I laughed at his uncertainty.

“Of course I’d love to Jordan; your family’s awesome, and why wouldn’t I want to spend more time with you? I don’t want to go all summer and not see you,”

“Good, because otherwise I’d probably show up at your doorstep randomly and that might have weirded you out,” he teased me. He pulled up to my building and parked in the spare spot before following me up.

“Hey mom, we’re back,” I called, and both her and Becka came to meet us at the door.

“So… how’d the meeting go?” she asked, and I shrugged.

“It was a meeting. They wanted to talk contracts afterward, but I don’t want to think about that for a while,” I told her, and they both looked at me like I’d grown another head.

“Why not? Don’t you want some job security? Are you crazy girl?” Becka demanded, and Jordan started to laugh.

“Job security is the last thing she has to worry about; almost every team in the league is trying to sign her to a contract. She has nothing to worry about except which team she wants to be on next year,” he told them, and Becka squealed before launching herself at me in a hug.

“OH MY GOD THAT’S FANTASTIC! Congratulations!”

“Wait… you are going to sign with Pittsburgh, right?” she asked as an afterthought.

“Of course; if they still want me on the team after…” I took a deep breath and ran a hand through my hair. Both Becka and my mom’s eyes widened in shock, while Jordan put a hand on my shoulder.

“You’re sure you want to tell them sweetheart? Do you want to sign a contract first?” mom asked cautiously.

“It’s not fair to them to sign and then dump the news on them. So hopefully they’ll still want me on the team after I tell them,” I sighed, and they both nodded.

“Well, I made cheesecake; we should celebrate a good season and this whole contract news thing,” mom decided, ushering us into the kitchen and pulling it out.

“Oh my God, this is so good,” Jordan announced as he took a bite. My few hockey-less weeks were going to be the ones he let himself eat all of his favorites, before we had to start worrying about training again.

“Super good mom,” I seconded, my mouth full of strawberry-rhubarb cheesecake. We ate in silence, and then afterward moved to the living room to watch TV. Mom and Becka started talking while I cuddled up with Jordan, and spent the afternoon dozing off and on.

“So… how long are you going home for?” Becka asked, surprising me out of my sleep.

“Uh… probably most of the summer, why?” I asked, and she sighed.

“Because I only have two weeks of vacation before summer term starts and I have to be back, and this term doesn’t end for another two weeks,” she answered.

“That sucks, I’d forgot about that,” she nodded and sighed.

“Well, why don’t we go back to Downsden for the two weeks, and then I think I’m going to go to Ontario with Jordy for a bit… maybe then I can come back here early?” I suggested, and both Becka and my mom looked surprised at my announcement.

“When did you decide to go to Ontario?” Mom asked, and my cheeks heated up a little. Jordan had a similar expression on his face, and then cleared his throat to speak.

“I just asked her on the way back here… I’d kind of hoped that she would but hadn’t gotten around to asking her,” he admitted, and my mom gushed at his awkwardness.

“Oh that’s so sweet! That sounds like so much fun!” she told us, bringing a smile to Jordan’s face and allowing relief to wash through me. I was worried about what she would think – if that was moving too fast or something like that. Becka just grinned at me before raising an eyebrow suggestively. I shook my head, feeling my face heat up.

“Yeah, I think it will be,” Jordan agreed, and I felt his hand search for mine, and he laced our fingers together when I fit my small hand into his large one.

“I know it will be,” mom told us, and we continued to visit until we all went to bed.