Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

“Uncle Rob!” I flung myself at him for a hug, laughing along with him.

“I didn’t know you were coming! When did you get here? When do you have to go back?” I asked, and he looked a little sheepish.

“Your mom told me tonight was your first game back, and my boss has been telling me I’m in need of a bit of a break, so I figured what better time to come and watch you play? I got in this morning and I leave tomorrow night; big meeting Thursday,” he explained, and I couldn’t do anything but hug him again.

“This is so cool! You have to meet everyone,” I insisted, knowing that in a few minutes the guys would all be out of the locker room and into the player’s lounge to see their friends and families. Uncle Rob’s eyes lit up, whether it was from the opportunity to meet my teammates or from the fact that I seemed to fit right in with them I wasn’t sure.

“Hey, y’all decent?” I hollered into the room, and heard a cacophony of ‘yes’ coming from the room, so gestured for my uncle and Becka to go inside.

“Hey guys, I’ve got someone I’d like you all to meet; this is my Uncle Rob, he came out from Providence to see the game tonight,” I announced, and soon everybody was introducing themselves to him, shaking his hand and striking up some small-talk. He looked like he was on Cloud 9, and smiled proudly at me as we all joked around and talked.

“So how long are you in Pittsburgh for?” Steve asked. As soon as he’d introduced himself recognition had lit up in Uncle Rob’s eyes, and I knew that he’d remembered Steve from the first time he’d been here, and knew he was the one who’d been helping me out and who knew about me being a girl.

“Just until tomorrow; I have to be back to work Thursday or I’d stay a few extra days,” he said.

“Well, you guys should come over to our place for dinner tomorrow; Shelley would love to have you over, and the kids love Cam to death. Becka you should come too,” he immediately offered.

“We don’t want to intrude,” Uncle Rob argued, to which Steve shook his head.

“Never; Cam’s family around our place; just like another one of my kids,” he assured him, and Rob’s eyes softened.

“Well then that’d be lovely,” he nodded, and I smiled at the way they seemed to hit it off. Next thing I knew someone had wrapped their arm around my shoulders and given me a hug, but I wasn’t sure who it was.

“Great game there Cam,” I laughed and turned slightly, recognizing Jordan’s deep voice. He was ecstatic after the game, and I didn’t blame him for it. I was still a little angry for his apparent need to step in and ‘finish’ my fight for me, but I pushed that to the back of my mind. I wasn’t going to let something like that ruin a great night; I’m sure he didn’t mean to, he was just trying to be helpful and look out for me. No harm done; I’d just let him know it didn’t sit well with me and that’d be the end of it.

“Uncle Rob, this is Jordan Staal. Jordan, this is my Uncle,” I introduced them, and Jordan stuck his hand out, looking a little nervous. I then realized that this was the closest he’d get to the whole ‘meeting my dad’ thing, and groaned internally for being so damn casual about it and not thinking it through.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” he said, standing up a little straighter and his voice immediately took on that slightly deeper tone that usually only appeared in TV and radio interviews.

“Nice to meet you too; great game tonight,” my uncle was completely oblivious to the change in Jordan’s behaviour, and I let out a sigh, realizing this wasn’t as good of an idea as I had thought.

“Thank you sir, glad you could come and see Cam play such a great game,” he replied, and while Uncle Rob seemed a little surprised by Jordan’s choice of words he didn’t think anything of it. Steve raised an eyebrow at me and I rolled my eyes back at him; when he began to chuckle I knew he’d understood.

“Well Jordan you may as well come over for dinner tomorrow too, that way you won’t die of attempting to cook before our next game,” Steve joked, and while Jordan looked a little hurt he agreed.

“I’m not that bad of a cook,” he weakly argued, although we all knew that it was a fib. Jordan could hardly make Kraft Dinner.

“Sure, sure you aren’t. Well I’ll just grab my stuff real quick and we can head back to our place,” I told Becka and Uncle Rob, leaving them with Steve and Jordan for a moment while I grabbed my jacket, tie and pulled my toque onto my head.

“All right, ready to go?” Uncle Rob asked, and I nodded as I zipped up my coat.

“See you guys tomorrow night,” I waved, getting some half-assed answers and some complaints about not going out to celebrate from the guys.

“I have family here; and how many times do you guys need to be reminded I’m not old enough?” I asked, rolling my eyes as the guys all laughed. Jordan followed us outside, and once we were away from everybody else and out by my car he gave me a hug.

“Great game, I’ll uh… talk to you later, all right?” he said, and I nodded, not knowing what was appropriate right now. My Uncle and Becka were getting into the car and god only knew what kind of paparazzi were out and about.

“Yeah, sounds good. Great game Gronk,” I smiled, and his eyes softened to a beautiful soft baby-blue color when he gave me a soft smile back.

“You too babe,” he whispered, before turning and making his way over to my vehicle. I got into the driver’s seat, and I’m sure my face was burning red as I started the car and tried to avoid Becka’s knowing gaze.