I'll Be Right Beside You

The first practice back after having told everyone was chaotic, for lack of a better word. There were swarms of reporters outside CONSOL, which was why I’d opted to drive myself rather than carpool with Jordan, and security had to come and move them aside so I could get into the player’s lot. Thankfully from there to the locker room was fairly calm, and when I went into the room, as I’d expected, the conversation died down slightly.

“Hey Cam!” Geno waved, a bright smile on his face as he greeted me. I waved back, and soon most of the other guys on the team said hello in some form. I went to my stall and stripped off my bunny hug and sweats, having already dressed in my Under Armor, as I usually did. Soon it seemed like most of the guys either forgot about things being any different – enjoying the sense of pattern and familiarity of being in the locker room again, or they were doing a damn good job of pretending. Jordan shot me an encouraging smile from his stall, and I couldn’t help but return it. This felt good, and it felt normal.

“All right guys! Er…” Dan looked to me, and I rolled my eyes.

“Guys… as you were saying?” Steve smirked slightly at my comment, and Dan just continued on.

“Ready to sweat?” everybody groaned, while Dan just shrugged.

“Well, if you guys are all in game shape it’ll be all right. Out on the ice in twenty,” he said, and then left the room. We all got our gear on before heading out, and just as Dan had said it was a tough cardio practice. We did a lot of laps, a lot of lines, and scrimmaged, anything to get us back into the swing of playing the game at the level we needed to be at.

“That was a practice and a half Dan,” I told him as everybody filed off of the ice to hit the showers.

“I gave you guys fair warning,” he reminded me, making me laugh.

“True. Look, I um, just wanted to say, don’t change how you do anything because of me. It all worked fine before, and obviously I’m not going to get offended if you refer to a room that’s completely dominated by men as ‘guys’. Stuff like that doesn’t bother me, and I don’t want you to be going out of your way for me. I’m still the kid you brought up from Wilkes Barre last season,” I said, and he nodded, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“I’m sorry about that, and while it’s so easy to just forget that and slip into old habits it’s hard to at the same time, you know? I don’t want to be out of line with you, or make you feel out of place. But the locker room thing might need to be addressed; some of the guys’ wives have made a bit of a fuss about it,” he admitted, and my face turned red.

“There’s a reason why I always stay out on the ice late after practice,” I mentioned, and he nodded with a sigh.

“I know Cam, but you can understand where they’re coming from, right? I mean, you’re an attractive young woman who obviously shares a lot of similar interests, some of them may feel a little intimidated by the thought of you possibly seeing their husbands less than fully dressed, and vice versa,” Dan’s face turned a bright shade of red then, undoubtedly matching mine.

“Yeah, I understand. Whatever works for you will work for me,” I nodded, and he gave me a smile.

“Atta girl. Now, I’ll leave you to whatever you stay late to do, and I’ll come give you a heads up when the locker room’s cleared out,” he offered, making my smile grow as I skated across the ice to get a few pucks out. My shot hadn’t gotten as much attention over the summer as it should have, and so that’s what I decided to spend an extra half hour doing.

“Cam?” I expected to see Dan, but instead was met with Jordan’s baby blue gaze. He was watching from behind the bench, casually leaning against the glass while his eyes seemed to follow my every move. I collected the pucks and returned them to the pail before skating over to him. He wrapped his arms around me, and discreetly pecked my cheek.

“Everyone’s out of the locker room – Dan was on his way to come tell you but I volunteered, he’s trying to work out this sudden locker room issue,” he explained.

“Yeah, but I get where the girls are coming from,” I shrugged, and he huffed.

“It’s stupid – we’re always dressed when you get there and you’re always out doing this while we’re changing or showering,” he rolled his eyes, his arm across my shoulders as we walked down the tunnel towards the locker room together.

“So was that just your normal or was it a really good plan to avoid the media circus we had today?” he asked a moment later. I hadn’t even thought about media, it was more just not seeing anything of anybody.

“Nope, hadn’t planned it, but lucky me anyway. I don’t really like having a camera shoved in my face,” I replied, making him chuckle. Jordan knew how I felt about all of the media attention I’d received during the season last year, as well as with telling everybody I was actually a girl.

“I know Cam, I know,” he assured me as we walked out to the player’s lot. He pressed a chaste kiss to my cheek before opening the driver’s door for me.

“Do you want me to come over, or did you want to come to my place or…?” he asked, and I shrugged.

“Do you want me to go over to your place?”

“Of course,” he responded, and kissed me once more before I got in, then gently shut the car door for me. I waited until he got into his car, and then followed him back to his place. Once we were in the door I quickly took a shower, and dressed in a pair of Jordan’s shorts and one of his old T-shirts and hoodie, before flopping down onto his lap on the couch and wrapping my arms around him. He let out a surprised sound as I landed on his lap, before he wrapped his arms around me and pressed a long kiss to my lips. I responded, and felt his sigh as he relaxed totally, his tongue tracing along my lip.

The doorbell rang, making both of us jump, and when neither of us said anything right away there was banging at the door. Jordan looked to me before lifting me off of his lap and putting me down next to him before getting up to answer the door.

“I KNOW SHE IS ‘ERE! I NEED TO SPEAK WIT’ ‘ER!” I heard Vero’s voice as she all but pushed past Jordan and into the kitchen. I slowly stood up, feeling my knees shaking. I hoped she’d understood why I’d had to lie to everyone, because Vero was one of the girl’s that I’d gotten along the best with. However I also knew she could have a mean right hook if you pissed her off – I’d heard a few stories from Marc.

“Y-yeah?” I asked, and she came right at me. I hardly managed to keep myself standing, afraid she was going to attack me or something. Obviously the same though crossed Jordan’s mind at the look on his face.

“’Ow could you not tell me! You know I would ‘ave never told a soul!” she demanded, pulling me into a hug. Not what I expected, that’s for sure.

“I-I didn’t know… I mean,” I stuttered, but she shushed me.

“I know, I know, mon ami, I just wish I could ‘ave ‘elped you, you know?” she cooed, sitting me down on the couch and pushing stray hairs out of my face. Jordan looked shocked where he stood frozen in the kitchen, and all I could do was wrap my arms around her and hug her tight.

“I’m so sorry Vero – I would have liked to have told you; I don’t usually get along with girls all that well but we got along so well and…” I started, but she soon quieted me again, pulling me in and softly rubbing my back.

“Shh, it’s okay Cam, it’s okay. I understand, and I am ‘ere for you. Shelley and I ‘ave talked to a lot of t’e other girls, to try and ‘elp t’em understand too. T’ey want to meet you as you, so t’ey can talk to you,” she told me, and I looked up at her in alarm.

“Not right away! Relax, fille, it will be all right. And as far as I can tell, if you weren’t playing you would be in t’e box with us, non?” she gave Jordan a pointed look, his cheeks turning a bright shade of pink as he finally moved from his spot and sat down on the couch on my other side.

“We’re keeping that one on the down-low for right now Vero. With everything else we figured we’d better not totally bombard everybody,” he explained, and she nodded.

“Just tell me ‘ow long you ‘ave been together?”

“Since December,” he replied, and her jaw dropped.

“You ‘ave been together for seven months and ‘ave not said a word?” she exclaimed, making us laugh a little.

“Our families know Vero,” I chuckled, and she calmed down a little bit. “It’ll be eight months next week, actually,” the realization was a bit of a surprise to me.

“Wow, t’at is a long time,” she allowed, and Jordan nodded, a soft smile on his face.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t feel like it at the same time,” he told her, and her expression softened a lot.

“Aw, now t’at sounds like true love,” she gushed, making both of us blush.

“I think it is,” Jordan whispered, making tears well up in my eyes at his admission.

“Me too,” I managed a smile for him, the tears threatening to come loose, but Vero quickly changed the subject, making both of us laugh.

We continued talking, and I found that Vero and I could really be best friends, as girls. The only female best friend that I had ever had was Becka, because I’d never really got along all that great with girls, but Vero and the Staal girls seemed to be the exceptions. Or maybe I’d just grown up that much more, I don’t know.

When Vero left about two hours later Jordan and I cuddled up together again, and he put on a movie, after hesitating to even turn the television on.

“You can turn it on Jordy, I’ll be okay,” I assured him, but he shook his head. I shrugged, burying my face against his chest and closing my eyes.