Chapter Two Wild Cards
HADLEY
Later that evening, when I see the incoming FaceTime from Grace, I don’t even hesitate before answering.
The screen fills instantly with noise.
“I’m telling you, if Owen buys one more baby gadget…” Stacey declares.
“I would die for one of those!” Rylee exclaims. “I’m dropping it into Zander’s cart right fucking now!”
“Hi! Hi!” Grace, as type A as ever, is trying to wrangle everyone together, her blue eyes bright and her dark brown hair swept up into a loose bun on top of her head. “Wait, can you hear us?”
Five faces crowd the screen in a chaotic blur.
Grace, Skyler, Rylee, Stacey, and Sutton are all trying to talk at once, the camera shifting as someone readjusts their grip.
They’re all together, which makes my chest ache a little bit with longing.
It’s become a little ritual for them all to get together once or twice a week for brunch, then they call me for a big virtual group hang.
This fierce, tight-knit group of women, all married or engaged to the team's top players, had completely wrapped their arms around me, pulling me into a sisterhood I never knew I needed.
I can’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, I can hear you,” I say, tucking my legs under me on the bed. “Barely. I’ve told you all before, you need to stop mumbling.”
I’ve only recently felt comfortable enough to really tease them, but they’re all good sports about it.
“RUDE,” Skyler shoots back immediately, pointing at the screen with one hand as she pushes her glasses up her nose with the other. Her brown eyes are shimmering, and her dirty-blonde hair falls around her face in soft waves. She’s wearing a T-shirt with the yellow Batman logo on it.
“You just made her point,” Sutton chuckles. She’s rocking a new haircut, layers falling past her shoulders with streaks of purple among the brown locks.
Rylee leans closer, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, Ciara’s tiny coo echoing faintly somewhere off-screen. “Hi, babe! We miss you.”
“I miss you guys too,” I admit softly, and I do.
More than I expected.
“Okay, wait, hold on,” Grace cuts in. “One at a time. We need structure.”
“Since when do we do structure?” Skyler fires back.
“Since Rylee started wailing about a wipes warmer like it’s a life-or-death situation,” Sutton says.
“It is life or death,” Rylee insists. “Can you imagine what cold wipes must feel like at three in the morning?”
“I can imagine,” Stacey cuts in dryly, bouncing slightly where she’s sitting, her red curls moving with her. “And yet somehow, my children have all survived frigid wipings.”
Rylee groans, shifting Ciara against her shoulder. “Don’t care. I still want one.”
I shake my head, smiling, just listening as they go back and forth. It’s so easy with them. The teasing, the talking over each other, the way no one takes anything too seriously.
Grace finally manages to pull everyone’s focus back to our call. “Okay, seriously! Updates. Wedding plans are underway for Skyler and Stacey, even while Skyler keeps dodging her planner’s calls.”
“I do not…” Skyler begins to object.
“You absolutely do,” Sutton cuts in.
“Well…she stresses me out!” Skyler exclaims.
“She’s just doing her job,” Stacey shrugs.
Skyler groans. “You guys are the worst.”
“The best,” Sutton corrects.
I laugh again. Skyler leans closer to the camera, squinting at me.
“Okay, everyone pay attention to Hadley now!” she insists. “How are you? How’s school? Year off to a good start?”
I hesitate just for a second, but after being honest with Julian earlier, I don’t want to pretend with these guys either.
“I hate it,” I grumble.
They go quiet, and I can tell they’re really locking in on me now.
“How so?” Grace asks.
I shrug. “I don’t like my major. No part of me actually wants to be doing it. It’s just…” I exhale. “Pressure. All the time. Like if I mess up, everything falls apart, and I’ll disappoint my dad. He just wants me to have a stable future, but this isn’t at all what I want.”
Sutton’s honey-brown eyes soften with sympathy. Rylee goes quiet, her hand absently rubbing Ciara’s back.
“What do you want?” Stacey asks.
I hesitate a moment before softly admitting, “I want to teach.”
I’ve always wanted to work with kids. To help them learn and grow and become their own people.
Stacey smiles. “Hadley, you’d be incredible at that!”
“Thanks,” I sigh, a small, sad smile flickering across my face. “But try telling my dad that. In his head, ‘teacher’ equals ‘struggling.’ He thinks if I’m not in a high-power firm, I’m failing. If I even brought up switching majors, he’d have a heart attack before I finished the sentence.”
Grace leans forward, her brow furrowed in thought. “If you can’t switch right now because of the tuition or the fallout, could you pick up an Education minor? It’s not the whole dream, but it’s a start.”
“He checks my transcripts,” I murmur, twisting a loose thread on my sleeve. “He’d see the minor. He already got on my case about a single education class I signed up for. A minor would make him lose his mind.”
“So we play it smart,” Skyler interjects, her eyes gleaming with that classic devil’s advocate spark.
“You don't tell him you’re switching to teach. You tell him you’re taking child psychology or organizational leadership credits to ‘better understand the client base’ or ‘develop management skills.’ It’s all in the branding.
You use the system to get the credits you actually want. ”
Rylee looks up from Ciara, her expression serious. “But for how long? You can’t brand your way through a forty-year career you hate, Skyler. Your ideas might get her through next semester, but it’s just a band-aid solution.”
“Exactly,” Sutton nods. “Your dad loves you, Hads, but he’s looking at a spreadsheet. You’re the one who has to actually wake up and live the life. A stable future isn’t worth much if you’re miserable every single day of it.”
I look down at my hands, the familiar weight of guilt still heavy in my gut.
“I just don’t want to let him down,” I whisper.
Skyler studies me for a second, then asks, “What are your grades?”
I blink. “What?”
“Your grades,” she repeats. “What are they?”
Confused, I answer, “I mean, the term just started, but I’ve always had straight A’s…”
Skyler groans dramatically, dropping her head back.
“God, damn it,” she mutters. “There goes that plan.”
I frown. “What plan?”
She leans forward again and sighs.
“The one where you accidentally-on-purpose flunk out so your dad has to actually listen to you.”
There’s a beat of silence, then Grace snorts, and Sutton laughs outright. Stacey lets out a chuckle, shaking her head, and Rylee rolls her eyes, but she’s grinning.
I laugh too, because it’s ridiculous.
“Yeah, that would go over so well,” I say. “He’d love that.”
“I’m just saying,” Skyler raises her hands in an exaggerated shrug. “Desperate times.”
“Extremely desperate,” Sutton adds.
“Borderline chaotic,” Grace says.
“Nuclear,” Stacey murmurs.
“Yeah,” Rylee nods. “That’s some burn-everything-to-the-ground and salt the earth shit.”
I shake my head, grinning. “Well, I’m not quite to that level of self-destruction yet, so that’s gonna be a no.”
“Yeah,” Skyler sighs, drawing the word out. “I suppose that’d be a little…drastic. There are probably a few options between where you are now and dropping a bomb on your life.”
“Yeah,” I agree with another burst of laughter. “I think so too.”
I laugh again, the sound coming easier this time. I push the thought aside quickly, but even as I nod along, that idea lingers quietly in the back of my mind.