I'll Be Right Beside You

Jordan

“So, let me get this straight? You two are dating?” Brooks asked, and I nodded, fiddling with the strap of my helmet. Sidney and I had been talking and I’d kind of said something that Craig had heard and now I was explaining to the whole locker room about it, without even getting to talk to Cam about it first.

“Yeah… I found out a long time ago, and it was just something neither of us could ignore, you know?” I mumbled, knowing that my friends who knew would be supportive regardless of any other views in the locker room.

“That’s why you were acting so different?” Paul asked, and I nodded.

“Well, congratulations Gronk,” my head snapped up when I heard James’ voice. He was one of the last people I would have expected to congratulate me on this, because he’d taken the news about Cam the hardest. He’d considered her a friend, and he wasn’t the most trusting of guys, so that made it hurt all the more for him.

“Thanks,” I managed a smile, and soon the entire team had congratulated me in some way or another.

“So bud, how long have you been keeping this under wraps?” Matt asked, and I chuckled a little, thinking of the plans I’d made for tonight for our anniversary.

“One year today – I’m taking her out tonight actually,” I replied, and laughed at the hoots and hollers from my team. They all knew how I was with relationships, so this was probably a surprise for them as well as just being good news.

“A whole year… didn’t know you had it in you Gronk,” Craig admitted with a chuckle, and I just shrugged.

“I love her, that’s all there is to say,” I answered, and the smiles grew wider and the voices louder at my admission. TK just grinned, egging me on to tell them the rest of my news. I shook my head, but the look he gave me made me groan internally, having a bad feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to keep it to myself.

“That’s not the only news he’s got,” he announced, and everybody waited expectantly for me to tell them. I sighed, wishing my friend had kept his mouth shut, but knowing I was hooped into telling them now. I just hoped Cam wouldn’t be upset with the whole team knowing, especially when we hadn’t really talked any further about telling the guys about our relationship. It was one of those things where the unfortunate stereotype was there, and while all of the guys knew it didn’t, she didn’t want any of them to think that her being with me affected her contract, and I sure as hell didn’t want anybody accusing her of that either.

“We’re getting a place together,” I reluctantly told them, and their excitement increased, if possible. I couldn’t believe how happy they were about this, but it was really exciting, having their support.

“I’m so happy for you Jordan – she’s good for you,” Brooks told me, and I smiled my thanks. I was a little overwhelmed, truth be told, and this made the upcoming game even more exciting. I looked over to Cam’s empty stall, and wished she was sitting there, visiting with Flower and telling jokes; that was the only way to make the locker room feel right.

“I know – we miss her too,” Sid offered me a knowing smile, and I nodded, continuing to pull on my equipment.

“Cam back soon?” Geno asked, and all I could do was shrug. I had no idea if she’d be back soon or not – I mean, the counseling seemed to be going well, she was putting on some weight again and eating normally. Mike said she was really coming along with the training, and he said even her attitude was improving. But none of that definitively meant she’d be back right away.

“I don’t know Geno. Hopefully after Christmas,” I answered, knocking on the wood of the seat, hoping nobody saw. The idea of Christmas was doing things to my nerves, because I wanted nothing more than for her to come home to Thunder Bay with me for the holiday – or to Raleigh or New York if that’s where my family decided to congregate because of the kids. I’d fly her mom out too, so Lauren wasn’t alone for the holidays. The thing taking an even bigger toll on my nerves was the fact that Christmas was only like six days away and I hadn’t even asked Cam about it yet.

“Gronk? You all right?” James asked, and I nodded, trying to cover up for my off-topic thoughts.

“Yeah, fine,”

“Come on, what is it?” he pushed, and I sighed, feeling nervous because Steve didn’t know about my hopes for Christmas.

“I’m just… I want to ask Cam to come with me and spend Christmas with my family… I’m just nervous about it I guess,” I explained, and he chuckled, patting my shoulder.

“Just do it Gronk – she wouldn’t have put up with you for a whole year if she didn’t love you,” he answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It was like he lifted a weight off of my shoulders, and I shot him a quick grin.

“Thanks James, I needed that,” I told him, and he just shrugged.

“It’s what I do,” he teased, and we both laughed before Dan came in to talk to us.

“All right, so we all know the Flyers well enough to have a heads up on how they play. We gotta play hard right out of the gate; get an edge up and then we can fight to keep it – we all know that’s easier than fighting to catch up,” we all nodded in agreement, our eyes on our coach.

He described a new formation idea he wanted us to try out on the back check, making sure we all understood how it worked before detailing where we needed to work on our fore check. Mainly all things we knew – be more aggressive, work your way to the middle of the ice, etceteras.

“All right! So we’re starting with fourteen,” everybody let out a cheer. “Eighty-seven,” another, this one louder than the last. “Nine. Forty four and two, and Flower in the cage,” We all made as much noise as possible as Dan left the locker room, allowing us to finish getting ready.