Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

“Morning sleepy,” I managed to crack an eye open, not sure where I was. There was somebody sleeping beside me, a somebody I knew for sure wasn’t Jordan, and something curled into my side. I looked to my right and saw Jordan laying on his side, facing me from his bed.

“Morning?”

“You sleep all right?” he asked, and I nodded, letting out a yawn, and then looking to see Parker curled up in a ball at my side; his head against my stomach, his little stuffed Charlotte Checkers bear – ‘Cubby’ he’d told me – under his arm and he was holding onto my sweater with his other hand. In my sleep we must’ve moved, and my arm was around him on top of the sheet.

“Yeah; god I didn’t roll over on him did I?” I asked, and Jordan shook his head.

“No, he woke up hungry, so I went and got him a muffin from Eric and Tanya’s room, and when we came back you’d rolled onto your side. I was gonna have him crawl in with me but he nearly threw a fit, and instead crawled right up beside you, tucked himself in and was lights out in a few seconds,” Jordan explained, a soft smile on his face that I’d never seen before.

“Aw,” I couldn’t help but grin down at the little boy who looked so much like his father and uncles. He was adorable, and I’d been shocked at how well he’d seemed to like me.

“You two are something else to watch,” Jordan whispered, and I looked at him in confusion. He got out of bed, and after looking at Parker once more leaned in and kissed me.

“What do you mean, something else to watch?” I asked, my lips brushing against his before we kissed once more.

“Exactly what I meant, that’s all,” he said, his voice breathy as he stroked my cheek with his thumb.

“I’m sorry I ended up springing the whole family thing on you last night Cam; I know you weren’t exactly pleased with it,” he apologized, but I shook my head.

“It’s fine Jordy; don’t worry about it,” I insisted, and then looked down at the beautiful baby boy who was still fast asleep. “It was a lot of fun, and I think we may just have to steal Parker back to Pittsburgh with us,”

“Don’t say that too loud; Parker might like that idea, and Eric and Tanya wouldn’t know what to do without him,” he chuckled, his hand soft on his nephews head as he combed the nearly white-blonde hair out of Parker’s face. Jordan was so soft and gentle with his nephews; it was hard to compare the way he acted around them with the hard-hitting hockey player he was to the rest of the world.

“Oh dear,” I giggled, and kissed the corner of his lips before I felt Parker shift.

“Morning bud,” I said. He yawned, rubbing his eyes with his tiny fists before smiling up at me.

“Mowning Unca Cam,” he said, before trying to crawl up on top of me. I carefully rolled onto my back and scooted myself up into an almost sitting position, wrapping my arms around his tiny little body.

“Did you have a good sleep?” I asked, and he nodded as Jordan sat on the edge of the bed beside me.

“Yup. Unca Cam nice and wawm,” he said with a smile as he nuzzled his face against my neck.

“Good; my little Park’s nice and warm too,” I teased, and he giggled.

“What time is it?” I asked Jordy, and he let out a groan when he saw.

“It’s only eight o’clock,” he complained, while I laughed. Parker and Jordan had made the whole morning thing pretty decent.

“Should we get some breakfast?” I asked, and Parker nodded.

“Yeah! Me hungy,” he told us, and Jordan took him as I stretched my arms and yawned. Becka let out an unimpressed, sleepy sound beside me, before cracking an eye open.

“You can sleep if you want,” I told her, and she nodded, rolling back over and pulling the sheet over her head. Parker began to giggle, obviously thinking this was hilarious before I crawled out of bed.

“I’m gonna shower real quick, okay? Then we can go get some breakfast,” I said, and the two of them nodded; Parker in nearly the same position with Jordan as he’d just been with me. I took my bag into the bathroom and got ready as soon as I could, surprised that when I opened the door Parker was sitting there.

“Have to go potty,” he announced, and Jordan made his way to the bathroom, taking Parker’s hand and going into the bathroom with him; probably as ‘just in case’ the little guy needed any help.

“There we go; we ready?” Jordan asked, and Parker grinned in response, holding his arms out for me to carry him.

“Okay; you have the room key?” I asked, and Jordan nodded, pulling it out of his pocket for me to see.

“And I’ve got my wallet, so let’s go,”

Parker chatted away at us the whole way to the lobby, and to our surprise Sid and Neal were down for breakfast too.

“Hey, who’s this little guy?” Sid asked.

“Me Pawker!” was the eager reply as we sat down with them.

“My nephew hasn’t left Cam’s side since we all went out for supper,” Jordan explained, much to the amusement of our teammates.

“Is Cam your favorite hockey player?” James asked, and Parker eagerly nodded.
“Unca Cam the best!” he chirped, making James laugh.

“Uncle Cam eh?”

“Unca Cam!” Parker confirmed as the waitress came and asked us what we wanted to drink.

“Do you want some chocolate milk? Or some juice?” I asked, and Parker had to think on it for a moment.

“Chocwate miwk,” he answered, and so I ordered a small one for him and a large one for myself.

“I’ll have a large orange juice and a coffee please,” Jordan told her. It didn’t take long for her to return and take our orders, or for our food to arrive.

“So, did Becka go with you guys last night?” Sidney asked, just as I’d known he would.

“Yeah, she did; she didn’t want to wake up yet though,” I told him, and he nodded, absentmindedly stirring his coffee.

“So, uh, you guys have any plans for today?” he asked, and the three of us tried not to laugh.

“Dude, just go ask her to hang out or something,” I told him, and his eyes widened before he was stammering and stuttering trying to come up with something to say.

“She’ll probably just want to spend time with you,” he finally mumbled.

“Sid you like her, right?” I asked, needing to get to the bottom of this and help it along so they’d both stop moping.

“Well… yeah, what’s not to like?” he asked, his cheeks a little pink.

“Good; because she likes you too. Now I’ll text her to invite her down for lunch, tell her to tell me when she’s ready, and then you march your butt up there and ask her if she wants to hang out. Even though I already know she’ll say yes,” I told him, and he looked surprised before elated.

“Really? She’d want to hang out with me?”

“Duh, are you blind Crosby?” I asked, taking a drink of my chocolate milk and keeping a watchful eye on the little blonde sitting on my lap as he did the same.

“Um, excuse me, could we get a straw please?” I asked the waitress when she came to top up the guys coffee’s.

“I don’ need one!” Parker complained.

“Maybe I want one,” I said, and that changed his tune immediately.

“Me too?” he asked quietly, and the waitress just smiled at us when I asked for two straws. Just like last night Parker was trying to eat off of my plate; obviously my pancakes and sausage looked better to him than his Mickey Mouse pancakes did.

“Hey little man! You’re gonna eat all of Cam’s food,” Jordan warned him.

“You can eat mine if I can eat yours,” I told him, and Parker giggled, quickly digging into his own pancakes. He kept all of us entertained with his quirky little comments and antics.

‘Okay, okay, I’m up? Where the hell are you two?’ I got a text from Becka, and eyed Sid, who immediately became nervous again.

‘[i[Just about back to the room; wait for us there?’ I asked, and she replied with a yes.

“All right; get outta here Sid. And remember; you break her heart I break you,” I told him, and with a nod he got up and started to leave, before coming back to the table and ruffling my hair.

“I owe you one man,” he grinned, before hurrying off.

“So… you got any other hot friends you could hook a guy up with?” James asked, making us laugh.

“I dunno… I’ll work on it,” I told him, and he shrugged.

“Sounds good to me,” he nodded. We finished eating our breakfast, and then Jordan’s phone began going off.

“Hello?... Yeah, we just went for breakfast… he’s fine; he slept basically all night, he just needed a snack once… yeah… uh-huh… will do… bye,” James and I sat there quietly entertaining Parker while Jordan talked on the phone. When he was finished he grinned at his nephew, who looked up at him expectantly.

“We better go bud; mommy and daddy are missing you,” he said, and Parker sighed.

“Fine,” we all laughed, and I couldn’t believe how much he sounded like Jordan when he said that.

“You guys should text me later; we can go hit up the rink or something,” James said, and we nodded before we all went up to our rooms. Sid and Becka were gone, and about two seconds after we were in the door Eric and Tanya came in, Levi in tow.