Chapter Text
Jackie Pike thought she missed brunch with the girls. It had been a while, and with the season getting into full swing, the FOMO was killing her. She wanted to catch up with the other Montreal Metro WAGs and size up the changes that had happened over the last year while she was buried under diapers and breast pumps and a never ending mountain of laundry. She thrived in chaos and loved everything the twins had brought into her life, but she still craved the occasional mimosa and gossip without little hands grabbing at her.
She had been too busy tackling motherhood to keep up with the ever-shifting landscape of WAGs. There were a few permanent fixtures, wives like herself who had healthy relationships with top players. The others were subject to breakups and trades, fading in and out so fast that Jackie could hardly keep up.
“Wait, who is that?” she asked Monica Wilson, whose husband had been part of the Metros as long as Hayden, nodding across the room to an overdressed teenager with blonde extensions that made up half her body weight.
They were seated at one of the better brunch places in Montreal, having rented out the whole dining room for this get-together. Women clustered around circular standing tables with their drinks as restaurant staff offered sample-sized bites of their usual menu. Snow wafted down on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Monica visibly rolled her eyes. “The newest love of Drapeau’s life.”
“She looks like she’s in high school.”
“She’s nineteen, but she’s probably four times as smart as him. Too smart for him. Cutthroat, territorial, the usual flavor he brings in.”
It took a while for Jackie to warm to the rotating door of fame-seeking puckbunnies who would do anything to weasel close to the other players, but they were always exponentially savvier than their meathead partners. As long as they kept their drama to a minimum, she didn’t mind the shared proximity. Once you chipped through their high walls of foundation, contouring, and insecurities, they were usually pretty sharp.
“What about Shane Hollander? I feel like I would have heard if he had a girlfriend, but honestly, I’ve been so out of it with the twins, they could probably sell Canada to Iceland and I’d be the last to hear about it.”
Even uttering his name brought the attention of every Gucci-clad shark in the vicinity. Heads tilted and ears perked from the surrounding tables, as if uttering his name was some sort of sacrilege. Jackie had been trying to keep up when she could, but Hayden always just shrugged when she asked him questions about Montreal’s new wonder boy.
“No. I asked Brent about it and he says Hollander is focusing on the season, that the guy’s like a laser beam.”
Jackie took a sip of her mimosa with a little snort. “The highest paid laser beam in Montreal. He’s probably running through a sample platter every night.”
From across the room, she tracked one of the WAGs breaking free of her table and crossing over to where she and Monica chatted. Denise Berkes was one of the senior wives and thought of herself as the de facto leader. Jackie personally thought she was three Prada purses in a trenchcoat masquerading as a human.
“Are we talking about Mr. Hollander?” Denise purred. “We’ve been talking about finding him a nice girl. Handsome man like that should have someone supporting him.”
Unable to school her face after eleven months of her twin-fueled tornado, Jackie scoffed openly. “He’s a twenty-year-old multimillionaire sports superstar who looks like that. He’s probably got an endless parade of pussy marching through his house right now and does not need our help finding a girlfriend.”
Denise screwed her face, just shy of clutching her pearls, and Monica nearly spit her mimosa. There were other reactions from the nearest tables, heads swinging toward her and shoulders shaking in silent laughter.
“Am I wrong?” Jackie added.
Recovering, nose scrunched, Denise took a sip of her over-decorated bloody mary before declaring, “Well, he probably just doesn’t know what he really wants. I’ve been begging Mike to get him over to our house for dinner. I’ll be his first and best WAG-made meal and he’ll be desperate to settle down with one of his own in six months.”
A muscle in Jackie’s face twitched. “I’m sorry, his what?”
“You know how life-changing the right meal can be, Jackie. You used to cook.”
Used.
To.
Cook.
It took every effort not to physically take a swing at Denise. A lot of people had a lot of opinions about Jackie’s choice to stay at home with the twins instead of going back to the restaurant scene. She had committed her life to fine dining before committing her life to Hayden. She would go back eventually, but she liked being a mother. She liked the life she was building with Hayden. Cooking would always be there, maybe when they were done having kids and those kids were a little older, but for now, she didn’t want to offload those responsibilities onto nannies when she was having so much fun doing it herself.
She dredged up a smile from the depths of her willpower. “Yeah, but who cares who cooks for him first?”
“Because firsts make an impression. Wouldn’t you want to be the first to show Shane Hollander the life he could have with the best meal of his life? I know I don’t use my skills from Le Cordon Bleu every day, but I plan on making Mr. Hollander the best meal of his life.”
Denise could stuff her training into literally any conversation. She never stopped talking about her “days at Le Cordon Bleu.” And despite all that bragging, Jackie had never seen a single thing she cooked. Denise never stepped foot into a real kitchen. She had her fancy degree to decorate her wall and had the audacity to feign shock that Jackie planned on giving up her own career for motherhood.
Something snapped in Jackie.
Fuck Denise. Fuck her hypocritical bullshit. Fuck her arbitrary, nonsensical competition to feed Shane Hollander first.
The smile came easier this time, Jackie’s lips peeling off her teeth without meeting her eyes. “And I bet he’s going to love it. You’ll have to tell us how it goes.”
“If only Mike would stop moaning that Hollander is going to force him into an early retirement and try to make friends with him!”
“Well, Mike’s speed has been declining the last few seasons…” Monica remarked. “If not for Hayden, nobody on the ice would even be keeping up with him.”
Heat flushed high in Denise’s cheeks. “Mike’s game is as good as ever. He’s always been stronger than fast.”
They very politely did not mention stats about this season's ice time or line positioning.
The conversation went on from there and Jackie slowly backed out until she could fish her phone from her purse. Nobody appeared to notice her twitching eye or steaming ears.
Hubs: have fun at brunch!!!
Hubs: twins r down just told them a bedtime story about demolishing boston
Hubs: fucking acing fatherhood
Jackie: You will NOT believe what fucking Denise just said to me
Hubs: she ate a carb
Jackie: Ha!
Jackie: No
Jackie: That she’s going to feed Shane Hollander his “first and best” WAG meal
Hubs: thats so fucking weird
Hubs: also ur a way better cook
Hubs: is this like a new wag competition?
Hubs: do i even want 2 no
Jackie: Hayden. Baby. I can’t turn the other cheek this time
Hubs: hell yeah gloves off!!!
Hubs: fuck her up baby i believe in you
Hubs: we can use the twins college fund for bail
Jackie: Does that make us bad parents?
Jackie: How about this? Get Shane Hollander to our house so I don’t murder her
Jackie: You can’t raise Jade and Ruby alone
Jackie: Do you want them to have to visit me in prison?
Hubs: heh conjoogle visits ;)
Hubs: i barley know hollander he doesnt ever talk
Jackie: If you really loved me you’d help me beat Denise
Hubs: hes gonna think im weird
Jackie: You are weird, baby. That’s why I love you
Hubs: stop buttering me up
Hubs: cuz its working
Jackie tucked her phone back into her purse and sipped her mimosa with eyes narrowed over its rim, tracking as Denise flitted between tables. Her friends kept telling her that she needed a hobby other than being a mom, so she didn’t see why she couldn’t try stomping on another person’s ego. It was for a good cause, and if WAGs loved anything, it was a good cause.
In her head, she began designing meals. Honestly, she wasn’t all that worried about it being the “best” meal. Anything Jackie cooked was well received by the people who ate it. Really, the challenge would be getting him into her house. She loved Hayden, but he often got left behind by his teammates. Every second he didn’t spend on his career, he spent at home with her and the twins. He got along with everyone, because he was Hayden–affable, goofy, laid back Hayden–but he didn’t do much socializing with Montreal beyond what was expected from him.
It was fine. She could coach him on how to be cool. Hayden could fake it long enough to get the hottest, most popular hockey player in the entire league over to his diaper strewn house for a single meal, couldn’t he?
Jackie decided to start planning some plan B’s, just in case.