Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

I woke up to my alarm going off quietly on the nightstand – I’d set the alarm for seven a.m., and while I didn’t like getting up that early I could probably sleep a little bit on the plane if all else failed. It took a few minutes to extricate myself from Jordan’s arms without waking him up, but I managed to do so successfully before I went and took a quick shower and changed into a nice t-shirt and a pair of jeans. When I came out of the bathroom he was still fast asleep, the soft almost snoring noise coming from him as he exhaled. It was a reassuring sound; it wasn’t loud enough to wake you or keep you awake, but it was loud enough to be comforting if you woke for any reason and were having trouble going back to sleep. I couldn’t help a smile as I watched him sleep for a few moments, he looked so peaceful, relaxed, and downright adorable. I looked over at the clock and saw it was nearly seven thirty, so I knew I had to wake him up.

“Jordy, time to get up,” I whispered in his ear as I gently shook him. He scrunched up his nose and buried his face into his pillow, making a disgruntled noise at the interference.

“Jordan, come on,” I insisted, and this time he let out a whine.

“Five more minutes?” was the hardly decipherable reply this time, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Waking Jordan up now was probably no different than waking him up as a young child.

“Come on Jordy, we have a flight to catch remember?” he groaned at this and reluctantly sat up. He blinked sleepily a few times, and was probably glad I’d left the lights off in the room; there was only the light from the bathroom illuminating our hotel room, which would be easy on the eyes. He looked over at me, and attempted to give me a glare for about two seconds before extending his arms towards me. I gladly leaned in and wrapped my arms around him, burying my face against his neck.

“I didn’t want to get up either you know,” I told him, and he chuckled, his voice hoarse with sleep.

“I don’t doubt that one bit,” he said, before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“All right; I’m getting up and going to take a shower… then breakfast?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, unless you want to eat plane food for breakfast,” I said, and laughed at the face he made before he got up and went to shower. I laid on the bed, and hadn’t realized that I had dozed off until Jordan was standing in front of me.

“Oops,” I knew my grin was a little sheepish as I stood up and followed him out of the room. We met up with Eric, Tanya and the boys and went down to the restaurant for their breakfast buffet. It was quite the deal to get Parker settled into a chair; he was a little cranky at being awoken so early and then they didn’t have the cereal he liked, so he was in a poor mood already.

“Mommy? Me sit wif Unca Cam?” he asked, and I moved over so he could sit between me and Eric, who I knew wanted to spend as much time as possible with him.

“Sure you can sweetheart,” Tanya told him, and he walked over to me, and held up his arms so I would lift him into his chair. I ruffled his hair as he sat down, and managed to get a small smile from him.

“What dat?” he asked, pointing to my waffles.

“Waffles; do you want to try some?” I asked, and he nodded. I cut one quarter of it and put it on his plate, cutting it up before spooning some whipped cream and some strawberries onto it as well.

He hesitantly took a bite, and then began to chew excitedly when he enjoyed the taste.

“Yummy?” Jordan asked, and Parker nodded, already putting another bite in his mouth. Breakfast was fairly quiet after that; Tanya got up to get Parker a waffle of his own, as he’d completely abandoned his cereal in favour of my breakfast choice. When she returned Parker was silent again, too busy filling his belly to do much talking. We were all fairly tired; it had been too short of a night in terms of sleeping.

“All right, so we’ll meet you guys in your room in about fifteen?” Eric asked, and Jordan nodded. We had all of our stuff packed up, so we had fifteen minutes to just relax. We flopped onto the bed and I curled up against his body, with my head on his chest. I let out a long breath, and felt Jordan relax just the same.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door, and I opened it to see Marc and Lindsay standing in the hall.

“Hey Cam; we just wanted to come and actually get to say goodbye,” Marc explained, and I nodded, letting them in immediately. Lindsay wrapped me up in a hug, and I couldn’t resist asking if things were all right.

“Is he okay?”

“Yeah, I just don’t think he’d thought of it and when he did it hit him like a ton of bricks. He’ll be fine, and he’s going to talk to Eric before they leave,” she whispered, and I nodded.

“Okay, just wanted to make sure,” I told her, and she nodded, giving me a reassuring smile as we walked into the hotel room. Marc had sat down beside Jordan, and they were talking a little bit, about what I wasn’t sure.

“So, is the deal still on for next week?” Marc asked me, and I had to think for a moment about what he was saying. Finally I remembered I was going to teach him how to cook, and nodded.

“Yeah, of course,” I agreed, and Lindsay looked between the two of us, suspicion in her gaze.

“What deal is this?” she asked, and we both just shrugged.

“Nothing really,” we both answered, and she rolled her eyes while Jordan tried to hide a grin.

“Don’t worry Lindsay, it’s nothing,” Jordan reassured her, which I’m sure didn’t help to convince her at all, because it was Jordan after all. He was more than notorious for getting into trouble.

“Really?” she asked dubiously, and we both nodded.

“Honest,” I insisted, and she seemed to let it go as she sat down beside Marc. Immediately his arm went around her waist and his hand rested on her baby bump. I couldn’t help a smile at how cute they were, at how in-sync and perfect they were for each other. Or how badly I wanted that someday. Not so much a near-future someday – I wanted a decent length of a hockey career before stopping to have kids – but before I was thirty five.

“Oh, you guys have to go right away,” Marc said as he’d caught a glimpse of the clock. Jordan and I shared a look before standing up, which Marc and Lindsay did too. Lindsay and Jordan hugged, and after an awkward second Marc grinned at me.

“Oh come here,” he rolled his eyes and we hugged as well, laughing at it. The usual were exchanged; good luck in the next game, don’t forget to call with news about the baby, make sure to be careful about getting hit, etcetera. When Marc and Lindsay headed down the hall to Henry and Linda’s room we both grabbed our bags and checked the room one last time just in case we missed anything. Jordan had nearly forgot his toothbrush, so by the time he’d dug out the carrying case, put it in and repacked it Eric, Tanya and the boys were in our room.

“All right, and remember, do whatever Uncle Jordan, Uncle Jared or Uncle Cam tell you okay? And be good for them, remember to brush your teeth…” Eric worried over his three year old while Tanya let me hold Levi as the three of us talked.

“I still can’t believe Eric actually agreed; I mean, he was so torn up about it,” Tanya admitted, and I nodded, before making another silly face at Levi and making him giggle.

“I know, but Parker is going to be fine; I mean, there’s three of us, plus Becka, you know the guys would be more than happy to help out if we needed it,” Jordan told her, shooting his brother a look. Eric was still talking to Parker, who was looking bored if nothing else. I smiled at him, before Levi grabbed my earlobe and gave it a little tug. It didn’t hurt, but it surprised me.

“What are you doing?” I asked him, before blowing a raspberry on his cheek and getting a happy shriek from the infant. Tanya just smiled as she watched me with her son, keeping up a conversation with her brother-in-law who was watching his nephew and brother. Finally Eric stood up, and I looked over to see Parker in his arms, looking happy as he had earlier, while Eric looked a little melancholy.

“Okay, ready to go?” he asked, and I pressed a quick kiss to Levi’s forehead before handing him over to Tanya.

“I guess so; where’s Jared?” I asked, and they both shrugged.

“I swear if that kid’s still sleeping…” Jordan grumbled, but I chuckled. If Jared was still sleeping he was going to be in for a rude awakening from his brother and nephew.

“Oh get off it; you weren’t exactly a ball of sunshine this morning either,” I reminded him, and Tanya laughed while Eric’s expression remained the same.

“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes, but there was a hint of a smile in them anyway. I gave Tanya a hug goodbye, and gave Eric a quick hug as well while Jordan said goodbye to Tanya, and then she went to say goodbye to her son. She got a little choked up, which Parker found worrisome as he asked his mother why she was crying and clumsily wiped the tears off of her cheeks. She replied that she was just being silly, because her baby boy was growing up so fast. Parker giggled at that, and then gave her a kiss before asking his uncle to pick him up.

The young parents slowly left the room then, and I think it hit Tanya as they went to leave that Parker wasn’t going with them. He waved goodbye excitedly the whole time, and then decided we needed to go find Jared.