Take My Hand, Take My Whole Life Too {Jamie Benn Romance}

4.

Great people do things before they're ready - Amy Poehler

I was sitting by myself on the Dallas Stars bus. Literally. None of the guys were there yet. Tom Holy wasn't. Even Coach wasn't there yet. I sighed and looked at my phone in the darkness, seeing that it was only 6:39am and that no one needed to be here until 7:15am.

I don't know why I had gotten there so early. I would literally always rather be early than late...but this was just fucking stupid.

I unlocked my phone and began scrolling through my Facebook and Instagram again, but nothing had been updated because no one was up and doing things worth documenting at this time.

I went to my messages and pulled up my texts with Jamie. We had been talking almost non-stop since the previous Friday when him and Tyler showed up at my apartment. So it had been 4 days of constant messaging basically.

I went to his information, where I saw a funny photo of him that I had taken during one of the practices the week before. I couldn't help the small smile on my face when I saw it. My finger hovered over the phone icon that would dial his number. I bit the inside of my cheek and pressed the icon, his number was being dialed a second later.

I held my phone up to my ear and stared outside.

He answered after a couple rings, "Hey," he said, and I could tell he was smiling.

I smiled, "Hey, Jamie!"

"What's up? Do you need a ride to the stadium?" he asked me.

I laughed and shook my head, "No, no. I'm actually already here. I was just...wondering when you were gonna be here."

"You're already there?" he asked, surprised, "It's only like, 6:40!"

I sighed, "I know! I just thought...maybe you guys would be here early so I figured it would be fine."

Jamie chuckled on the other end, "If someone tells the guys not to be there until a certain time, they're not gonna be there."

"Well I know that now!" I laughed, "Come on! Come here and entertain me!"

He was laughing on the other end of the phone, "So you want me to give up my quiet time to go and hang out with you? The girl that showed up almost thirty minutes early for the first away-game bus trip to the airport?"

I was silent, but he was still chuckling on the other end. Having him say it actually did make me sound like an idiot. I closed my eyes and shook my head, thinking about how much of an idiot I was.

"I'll be there in five minutes," he told me.

"What?" I asked.

"I'll be there in five Val!" he said, "Save me a seat, eh?" he said sarcastically.

"Jamie," I said quietly, "You don't have to do that. Honestly. I was just kidding."

"Hey," he sighed, "I wanna hang out with you for a couple extra minutes before the other goofs come along and steal your attention. I'll be there soon, okay?"

I smiled and leaned further back into the chair, "Okay," I whispered, then we disconnected.

I brought my phone back down to my lap and smiled again. My heartbeat quickened at the thought of spending some alone time with Jamie, even if it was only for a few minutes. Jamie had been incredibly sweet to me, just like he was with everyone else of course. But he was so nice to me, and he was actually hilarious. And obviously he was super talented.

My thoughts cleared back up when I saw the background photo on my phone of me and Joey when I checked the time. I pushed myself farther into the cushioned seat and shook my head.

Stop mooning over Jamie. What you have with Joey is awesome. And plus, you've known Jamie for one week. It's a silly little crush; it's only natural that it happens. But it needs to be nipped. Now. No casual flirting. No texting him while you're talking to Joey. No nothing. Just friends. And plus, you fucking work the guy in the same organization. Like, relax, Valentina.

I heard the under carriage of the bus being opened and I figured that was Jamie putting his luggage under there while the bus driver opened it for him.

And then there he was, lit up by the lights outside of the stadium, he looked for a second then saw me. He smiled and walked down the aisle of the bus to me, where I was a few rows from the back.

"Well if it isn't the fucking early bird," he said with a grin, sitting next to me.

I laughed and nudged him, "Shut up, Benn! Now look, you're here too!"

He laughed and shook his head, "Because you called and wanted me to entertain you."

I sighed and shrugged, looking up at him, "You could have said no. I'm not the boss of you."

He leaned his head on the headrest and looked at me, "I couldn't have said no to you."

I looked away from him as my face started to heat up, "Shut up," I said, nudging his knee with mine.

"Hey," he said, then gently brushed his fingertips over my thigh, my stomach dropped at that moment and I looked back up at him, "I wouldn't have said no to you."

"Hey...for the record," I started, still looking up at him, he was looking down at me with a small smile, "the other goofs on the team can't take my attention from you," I said softly.

The way Jamie's eyes lit up was nothing short of...well, magical. His eyes were almost holding me in a trance of sorts. I just gave myself a mental pep talk about why I shouldn't get a ridiculous crush on him and all of that seemed to get thrown out the window.

"Well, if it isn't the two donuts that were stupidly early today!" Tyler called from the front.

I snapped my head away from Jamie quickly, looking to the front where Tyler was standing smiling at us, "Hey, Ty," I said.

Jamie didn't seem fazed at all; I still could see him looking at me out of the corner of my eye. Tyler started walking towards us, with his smile growing with each passing step it seemed. Once he was next to us I saw his eyes drop to my lap and he grinned even bigger if that was possible.

I glanced down and saw that Jamie's hand was resting on the arm rest between us and his fingers were hovering above my thigh. I shifted my leg away from him and stood up quickly.

"You can sit here, Tyler," I told him, grabbing my purse from the floor.

"No no," Tyler said shaking his head, "You can sit there, it's all good!"

I shook my head forcefully, "Ty, sit here. I'm sure you guys have your routine and superstitions."

"We haven't even had a game yet, Val," Jamie said, reaching up to grab my wrist.

I slipped my hand away from him as I passed him to get to the aisle, "Might as well not mess it up from last season then," I said slipping into the seats next to Jamie and Tyler, sitting at the window.

"Val, it's really okay," Tyler told me.

I kept my eyes on the window as I saw other people's car's slowly start to filter in, "its fine, Ty. Sit there."

He sighed heavily and I could hear him shuffle into the seat next to Jamie.

Some of the guys slowly started climbing up the steps to get into the bus, all semi-groggy from the early morning start. Cody was maybe the fifth person on, he looked around and spotted me, I smiled and waved him over. He walked over to me and plunked down into the seat next to mine.

"What's up?" he asked, then yawned loudly.

"Nothing," I told him simply, happy that I had him in between me and Jamie now.

He adjusted and got more comfortable, "I thought you woulda sat with Chubbs over there."

I looked at him wide eyed, "Why would you say that?"

He shrugged, "You guys are close, it's not hard to notice," he said casually.

"Oh," was all I managed to say as I sank further into the seat.

"It's not a bad thing," Cody told me, "He's a good guy. You two have...an energy."

I didn't respond, all I could do was look away from him back to the window. After a moment Cody started moving around quickly.

"Shit," he muttered.

I looked over at him, "You okay?"

He was patting the pockets of his pants and then he stood up, "Fuck," he breathed, stepping into the aisle, "Left my phone in the car, I'll be right back, Val," he said before walking quickly away from me.

I sighed and instinctively looked to my left where Jamie was sitting in his aisle seat, looking over at me. He wasn't even trying to hide it. He was blatantly staring at me while the others around him all talked to each other. Tyler was talking animatedly to Sharpy and Spezza that were sitting in front of him and Jamie, all three of them laughing loudly. But Jamie was watching me.

I kept eye contact with him for just a few seconds before looking away. Watching as Cody opened his car door and grabbed something from inside, his phone obviously, before closing the door and locking it back up again. He jogged towards the bus.

"Val," Jamie called to me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them and looked over at him. Nothing was said. He just looked at me with his lips parted open, looking like he was trying to think of something to say. I licked my lips and opened my mouth.

"Back," Cody said, plopping down next to me again, blocking my view of Jamie.

Cody was holding out his phone to show me, "Good thing you realized," I said quickly.

"I know, right! I woulda been so pissed," he laughed.

I smiled and silently thanked God that Cody came back when he did. Interrupting who knows what with Jamie. I was thinking that I needed to maybe put some distance between us for a bit during this road trip. Get myself over this little 10 year old girl crush I had on the guy. Get myself back to normal.

Good luck, Val.

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