Page 224 of Staying Selfless

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first full season in the NHL, playing for Minnesota. It allowed me to stay in town with Logan, I learned a lot from my extremely talented teammates, and I improved every game. I firmly cemented my spot as the center of their third line, which is great considering I was undrafted, and this year was technically my rookie season. But my team has so much talent that there’s not much room to move up on the roster. They’d be good with or without me, and I miss playing for an underdog. I want to play for a team where I’ll make a difference. When we win the cup, I want it to be because I was a significant part of it.

“Have you figured out your plans for next year yet?” I ask my red-haired friend.

“Yeah, I finally got placed with a school, so I start student-teaching in the fall. Hopefully, I’ll get a little traveling in this summer before I start working. Are you guys traveling again this off-season?”

“Not sure yet,” I tell him, knowing the answer is no or maybe just a short trip somewhere. We need to pack up our little house and find a new place to live for next season, but Logan doesn’t know that yet, so I can’t tell Cam before I tell her.

Besides, Logan is taking a year off before she starts working for my dad’s firm so she can travel and explore with me while I’m on the road for hockey.

Not to mention, it’d be pretty hard to beat last summer. Once we bought the house in Minneapolis and moved everything in, Logan and I flew to southern California and rented a car. We spent two and a half weeks taking our sweet time driving up the Pacific Coast Highway. We explored Los Angeles, which I hated, then headed up to the central coast, which I fucking loved. We took two days to take in as much of San Francisco as possible before going an hour north to Logan’s hometown. We spent a good four days there, and she showed me everything, from her elementary school to her childhood home. She took me to her favorite restaurants that she used to eat at with her parents, and she even showed me her dad’s old wine shop. She wasn’t sad once, she was just excited to show me every part of her past, and I loved getting to see it.

But mostly, I loved that for the first time since her parents died, she had a smile on her face while she was in her hometown.

“Welcome, everyone,” the announcer booms, front and center of the stage, kicking off the graduation ceremony.

From the program, I can tell that this ceremony will be a lot shorter than mine was last year, seeing as there are way fewer students in the master’s program than the undergrad portion of the university.

The speeches don’t drag on nearly as long as the ones at my graduation did. Maybe they just seem shorter because last year I was waiting to see my girl, who I hadn’t seen in six weeks, so every second that dragged on felt like an hour. But this year, we live together, and I get to wake up with her every morning unless I’m traveling for work, so today, I’m just excited to celebrate her no matter how long it takes.

Logan ended up finishing pretty high up in the program. After her rocky first semester, she absolutely killed the last three. She’s too fucking smart, that girl. But more than anything, I’m proud of her for setting out and achieving the first thing she wanted to do for herself after her parents died.

“Alison Bertoli,” the master-of-ceremonies announces as my most miniature friend walks across the stage in her maroon cap and gown.

“Let’s go, Bertoli!” I cup my hands around my mouth to project the sound.

My eyes dart to her family in the next section over where they are all clapping for her. Her youngest sister, Annie, is cheering loudly, but the other one, Amanda, could not be less thrilled to be here. Not sure what that’s about, but from the interactions I saw this morning at brunch, Amanda kind of seems like a bitch. And Marc bringing her home last night is just going to make everything worse.

The announcer continues to rattle off names as I gear up for my brother’s turn. He and Logan are in for some real payback after the season of hockey I just endured. Most family members like to have a box seat to mingle and eat, watching the game if they feel like it. Marc and Logan, on the other hand? They sat three rows back at every home game this season, screaming at the refs, cheering for me, and overall, just being loud as fuck.

Payback is going to be a real bitch.

I know I said I wouldn’t draw attention to myself today, but this will be worth it.

“Marcus Jones,” his name is announced.

My dad and stepmom clap and cheer, but me? I stand up, making a fool out of myself and being as loud as possible.

“That’s my brother!” I scream, pointing to the stage. “Let’s go, Marky Marc!” I clap my hands together, making as much noise as I can.

I can see the amused smile on my brother’s face from here as he tries to ignore me, shaking his head as he crosses the stage and switches his tassel over from one side of his cap to the other.

“Attaboy!” I yell.

I take a seat for the next couple of names between my brother’s and my girl’s.

“Logan Leo.”

“Hell yeah!” I stand and shout. “Let’s go, baby! Let’s go thirteen!” I clap and cheer, trying to embarrass the shit out of her.

“She’s going to kill you,” my dad laughs as he cheers with me.

“That’s my girlfriend!” I point as she walks across the stage, covering her face in embarrassment. “Way to go, babe! Get that degree!”

She looks up at me, her golden skin turning pink as she tries to hold back her smile, but I can see her dimples from here.

I almost made a sign, but I also really want to have sex again in my lifetime, so I decided against it.

“I hate you” is the first thing that Logan says to me after the ceremony as I wrap her up in a hug.

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