Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories:

F/M, M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types

Relationships:

Hayden Pike/Jackie Pike, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Jackie Pike, Hayden Pike, Shane Hollander, Montreal Voyageurs | Montreal Metros Team Ensemble (Game Changers)

Additional Tags:

WAG Brunch, Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike Friendship, wifeguy Hayden Pike, Jackie Pike is obsessed with being the first WAG to feed Shane Hollander, mainly show canon, Awkward Shane Hollander, Hayden Pike texts like a 5 year old, Answering the burning question of why Hayden thinks Jackie is desperate to feed Shane, Parenting, twin chaos, Hayden is an involved family man, he is also a complete doofus I will be taking no questions, Jackie's villain origin story, POV Jackie Pike, Hayden is so down bad for his wife and I just think that's neat

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-07-30 Completed: 2026-08-30 Words: 6,662 Chapters: 3/3

The First WAG to Feed Shane Hollander

Summary

"No, I want to watch you eat my disgusting food. Let's do it."
"Fuck yes! Oh my god Jackie's going to be so happy. She's obsessed with being the first WAG to feed you."

Jackie Pike needs one thing and one thing only - for her husband to get Montreal superstar Shane Hollander over to her house to eat her food.

Notes

Because WHAT DO YOU MEAN she's obsessed with being the first WAG to feed Shane? That random line of dialog has lived rent free in my brain for seven months. It's so weird I had to rationalize it. Thus, this silly fic was born.

Things to note: Mainly show canon, but there's a few book references thrown in. Most things are pretty canon compliant except for the liberties I took fleshing out Jackie's backstory and inventing other WAGs.

Also, I don't know dick about hockey or WAGs or what the fuck they do and don't do and I will be doing no research.

I got most of the way teaching myself how to format texting skins before I remembered I don't actually care and that's way too much work. You get what you get.

AI wishes it was as funny as me. Eat my ass, Claude.

Chapter 1: Jackie Pike's Villain Origin Story

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.

Chapter 2: The Seduction of Shane Hollander

Chapter Summary

Jackie Pike will get Shane Hollander to her dinner table first or die trying.

Chapter Notes

It wasn’t that Jackie was stalking Shane Hollander. It was definitely more that she was trying to figure out how to give Hayden some social advantages. In every aspect of life, whether that was hockey or marriage, success took teamwork. Hayden took that seriously at home and at work, and she would be remiss not to put in a hundred and ten percent in return. Sometimes, that meant rolling up her sleeves and digging deep to find her husband advantages. 

Jade was full dead weight against her chest as she sat in the nursery rocking chair with her laptop perched precariously between one knee and the arm of the chair, using one hand to type in prompts. There were plenty of interviews to peruse, but they were sparse. Shane didn’t give much away to the media, keeping all details surface level. That meant going deeper. It meant weird message boards and sketchy twitter accounts. Mainly, she ended up in the one place she usually avoided–Reddit. r/mlh and r/shanehollander were both long established and well used forums. With some curated search terms, she had plenty to sift through.

Unfortunately, they mostly regurgitated the same content over and over again. The stats were at least interesting, but nobody knew much about Hollander’s personality or social life, aside from serious, focused, and hot. And people really were looking, to a pretty creepy degree. Everyone wanted to know about his life and interests. Entire blogs were dedicated to candid snapshots taken of him “in the wild.” 

All her digging churned up little of any actual use. Despite the microscope under which he lived his life, details of actual substance were far and few between. They were going to have to do this the hard way, with actual charisma and social skills.

Across the room, Hayden was at the changing table fighting a tornado of arms and legs to wrestle a diaper onto Ruby, who was delirious with rage and in dire need of a nap. She had her back arched like she was possessed, her face beet red, but her husband was locked in and determined not to lose at parenting tonight. He had honestly never been hotter. If only he could take that attitude into luring Shane Hollander over to their house.

They were getting deeper into the season, and with each month that passed, Jackie worried that Denise would beat her to sealing the deal. They were about to break for All Stars and she was sweating under the collar. Their stalemate had to end sooner or later, and Hayden hadn’t made any progress. Or rather, he hadn’t really tried to make any progress. She had no idea how he managed to be so aggressive on the ice and so passive in the rest of his life.

“What did Hollander eat at the last team dinner?” she asked, just one in a rotation of questions she pestered him about on a regular basis.

Hayden looked up, hair flopping in his face, a panicked gleam in his eyes as Ruby kicked out at him. “Huh?”

She knew he heard her. They had become experts at conversing over the wails of children over the past year. 

“Hollander. Team dinner.” 

“I didn’t look.”

It took everything in her not to shoot him a glare. She had been asking Hayden to pay attention to Hollander’s likes and dislikes and so far he was a big zero on meals shared with the superstar center. They shared a locker room. They shared a line. They spent more time in each other’s presence than Hayden and Jackie did. She loved her husband, she did, but she really hoped the girls inherited the brains from her side of the family. 

“If Denise gets to him first, I’m going to prison, remember? I need you to get it together. Is he going to the Leukemia thing on the nineteenth?” 

“No idea.” 

“Hayden,” she groaned, digging her thumb into the corner of her eye where it started to throb. 

He managed to get Ruby, now safely diapered, propped up onto his shoulder. He swayed in the way that she liked, rubbing circles into her back. “I don’t think I’ve had a single conversation with him that wasn’t about hockey.”

She tucked her lip and widened her eyes at him. “Could you? For me?”

He pointedly avoided looking at her, the coward. “He’s not that easy to talk to.”

“You don’t have to like him, you just have to get him to my dinner table.” 

“I like him!” he protested, lowering his voice as the fight began to leave Ruby. “He’s a nice guy. He doesn’t talk much, but when he does, he’s pretty funny.” 

“Great, so laugh at his jokes and invite him to dinner.” 

“I will, I will!”

He was a liar, but she forgave him. 

She really hoped Hollander was coming to the Leukemia fundraiser. It would be another opportunity for Denise to swoop in and seduce him with her Le Cordon Bleu degree. Jackie had been opting out of a lot of WAG activities since the twins, but fully planned to dive into anything that had Hollander’s name attached. Until a WAG successfully fed him, the fight wasn’t over. 

Was Jackie getting a little unhinged with her quest? Probably. She decided not to examine that too closely.

“You can do this, Hayd. You can do anything.”

He grinned over at her with a dopey smile. “Can I do you?” 

“Once both babies are in their cribs, I’m all yours.”

The Leukemia fundraiser took place on a frigid night just before All Stars. It was organized by a former Metro who had retired due to his own battle with Leukemia and meant that most of the current team was encouraged to attend. Jackie and Hayden had missed it last year due to her being on doctor ordered bedrest so she didn’t accidentally plop the twins out before they were ready. 

Motherhood was truly glamorous.

Hayden didn’t leave her side and couldn’t stop trying to ogle down the front of her low cut periwinkle dress. He had tried to argue that they shouldn’t actually leave the house. The twins were at his parents’ for the night and the sight of her in her dress made him flop his tongue out of his mouth like a cartoon wolf. She had to swat at him to keep him off.

“No, I have a mission! This is the best chance I’ll have to corner Shane Hollander before Denise.”

Now, they were at the gala, the room glittering under soft, indirect light, a string quartet filling the space between bodies with dulcet melodies. The room oozed money, with the foundation organizers smiling broadly with hands outstretched. They started with a cocktail hour and Jackie began her hunt for Shane Hollander. Looping her arm through Hayden’s she yanked him along every time he tried to stop to make conversation.

“We are not here to gossip with your teammates,” she reminded him. 

“It’s literally a cocktail hour. What else would we be doing?”

“Well, you haven’t sealed the deal with Hollander, so we’re going to do that instead.” 

“Seal the…? Jacks. You make it sound like you want him as a third for us.” 

“If that gets him to my dinner table, I’ll consider it.” 

Hayden looked momentarily thoughtful before shaking his head. “Pretty sure there’s laws about sleeping with teammates or something.” 

She just rolled her eyes and pressed on, threading through the room. The one thing she really hated about these events was the snooze-fest that was men’s black tie fashion. They were all dressed identically, and since the room was full of current and former hockey players, they were all tall, bulky, wide-shouldered, and impossible to see around. 

“Use your height,” she hissed to Hayden. “Look around for me. Do you see him?” 

“Huh?”

She glanced over and realized that Hayden was trying to peek down the front of her dress again.

Her skin warmed considerably, but now was not the time, even if this particular banquet hall had a conveniently placed storage closet in the back hallways that she and Hayden had discovered a few years ago and made good use of. 

Hayden tore his eyes away and dutifully swiveled them outward, pausing to point. “Oh, he’s in the middle of that swarm.”

The swarm, it turned out, contained mostly men wanting to talk to Montreal’s new star. She could barely see Hollander in the middle of it all, a glass of untouched Champaign clutched in one hand, a placid smile stretched across his face as he listened and nodded and offered inaudible replies to the barrage of questions. 

There was no getting through the wall of black jackets standing between her and her quarry. “Fuck.”

“On the bright side, Denise can’t get to him either,” Hayden offered, eyes aimed below her neckline again. “Hey, remember that closet in the back?”

Jackie checked the time. “Sure, it’s not like he’s going anywhere.” 

She did one last sweep toward Hollander and even spotted Denise hovering around the fringes, but unable to penetrate the wall to get close. It served as a reminder that the competition was on.

Okay, so in retrospect, letting Hayden convince her to fool around in the storage closet hadn’t been the smartest idea. The culmination of having a night free from the twins, dressing up in their black tie finest, and then sneaking off like naughty teenagers had spiraled into getting a hotel room next door and taking full advantage of their relative freedom. 

Hayden lay facedown on the rumpled bed, perfect ass cheeks in the air, snoring blissfully while Jackie searched their piles of clothes for her phone. She finally extracted it from Hayden’s tux jacket pocket and returned to the bed to send off a frantic text. 

Jackie: Are you still at the banquet?

Monica Wilson: Yes. Where are you?

Jackie: Hotel room with Hayden

Monica Wilson: Jfc did you even make it to the dinner?

Jackie: Nope

Jackie: Is Denise still there?

Monica Wilson: Yeah, she’s talking with Hollander

Monica Wilson: He’s trying to hold a poker face but he definitely looks trapped.

Jackie swore, throwing her head against the headboard and seething. Stupid handsome fucking Hayden and his stupid ability to dickmatize her every single day. She aimed a pout over at him, studied his ass for a moment, and sighed in defeat. She couldn't even lie to herself and pretend she would have done anything differently. She loved that sweet doofus so fucking much.

Jackie: Can you get close? What are they saying?

Monica Wilson: ?????

Monica Wilson: Why? 

Jackie: Please? I need to know

Monica Wilson: Ugh. Fine.

Monica Wilson: They’re talking about performance diets.

Jackie: Nooooooo

Jackie: Interfere! Don’t let her invite him over to dinner!!!

Monica Wilson: Oh my fucking god is this about that stupid thing she’s been talking about feeding Hollander his first WAG meal and using culinary sorcery to make him into a monogamous simp?

Jackie: Yes. 

Jackie: Imagine how insufferable she’s going to be after she gets Hollander over to her house.

Monica Wilson: I thought you were better than competing with the other WAGs about stupid shit

Jackie: Turns out I’m not

Jackie: Please? 

Several minutes went by without a response. She chewed on the tip of her thumb, glaring at her phone screen and willing an update to pop through. 

Monica Wilson: You’re welcome

Jackie: What happened!?

Monica Wilson: I just went over to ask Denise about Mike’s shoulder and Hollander BOLTED

Jackie: She didn’t get a dinner invitation out?

Monica Wilson: She was getting there but I interrupted.

Jackie: I owe you

Monica Wilson: This is the stupidest stupid to ever stupid. Get a grip, Jackie

Jackie: No :)

She exhaled in relief, setting her phone aside and reaching for the bedding to straighten out. She pulled the sheet up over herself, but left Hayden uncovered so she could admire his perfect butt cheeks for a little bit longer.

Plan A was back on. 

Hayden would just have to befriend the guy.

“Hayden Pike, I need you to lock in.”

Jackie, gesturing with her spatula, had a baby balanced on one hip, a snot stain on the front of her shirt, and a grudge to settle. 

Her husband was duel-wielding the other baby and a protein shake, which he drank directly from the 60oz blender jar. They had smaller blender pieces somewhere that doubled as cups, but they were all growing colonies of mold inside Hayden’s locker at work because he couldn’t remember to bring any of them home.

Which was why she needed him to focus. She kept his life ordered, she kept it running smoothly, she kept him on track. Jackie might spend these days managing her husband's high performance diet and curating toddler meals instead of managing a platoon of back of house culinary artists, but even the best chef needed support from their staff. 

At least Denise’s husband Mike also seemed to suffer the same social incompetence. All Star weekend had come and gone and they were still in a deadlock. 

Hayden, sensing where this was going, dropped his head back with a long groan. “Is this about Hollander again?” 

“You have to get him over here.”

“It’s weird, babe. He’s a hot, single, breakout legend. What am I supposed to do, be like, ‘hey, instead of going out and banging hot chicks in all the clubs, you want to come eat pancakes with my wife and toddlers?’”

“I don’t care. If Denise freaking Berkes gets to him first, I will never hear the end of it. She is going to be insufferable.” 

“Isn’t she already insufferable?” he whined, ignoring the way Ruby was trying to squirm out of his arm. He just tucked her under it like a football and continued chugging his protein shake out of the blender jar.

Jackie deftly flipped the pancakes on the stove with a flick of her wrist. Currently it was the only food she could get Ruby and Jade to eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Today, she didn’t have the energy for a fight over diversifying their diets, so pancakes it was.

She jabbed the spatula at Hayden again. “Look, I don’t want to play the Real Housewives of the Montreal Metros with the other WAGs either, but this is the one thing I care about. What’s the harm in just asking him? There’s going to be a storm tonight, so nobody’s going out to party anyway.”

“I don’t know. He’s going to think I’m weird. I really don’t want Shane Hollander thinking I’m weird.”

“What is this goalie energy? You’re cool!” she lied. “I’m sure Hollander would love to get to know you better. Please? Just try? For me?” She batted her eyelashes at him with a sultry pout, which was kind of ruined by Jade trying to shove her entire fist into Jackie’s mouth at that exact moment. 

And despite that, Hayden’s eyes melted. She might be standing there with a toddler grabbing at her lip, boogers on her shirt, her hair piled wildly somewhere on top of her head, but her husband would still crawl on his hands and knees for her. 

She checked the clock above the stove and regretfully confirmed they did not have time to stuff the kids in their play pen and shove a tablet in front of them while the grown-ups had a quickie. 

Another time.

“Okay, I will try to find an opening to ask Shane fucking Hollander if he wants to eat pancakes with my family at some point this week,” he promised, nearly losing the fight not to drop Ruby as she squirmed. 

Jackie turned back to the stove and began shuffling perfect, golden pancakes onto the waiting plate beside it to cool. “Second thing, now that they’re talking you need to ix-nay the F-bombs.” 

“Sure, sure,” he agreed, dumping the empty blender jar in the sink and holding Ruby fully upside down now, wrinkling his nose and jerking his face away. “Jesus Christ, Rube, is that a fart or did you crap your pants again? You’ve pooped twice already this morning! Okay, I’m going to get her changed, then I have to go.” 

“Priority: Hollander,” she shouted after him. 

“Yes, chef! I promise. Dinner with Hollander.” He hauled Ruby over to one of many impromptu changing stations that were erected all over their house to deal with the diaper situation. 

“Make it happen. Or else!” 

“Or else, what?” he cried.

“I haven’t decided yet.”

Jackie Pike was going to feed Shane Hollander first or die trying.

She peered beyond the kitchen and clutter over to where Hayden was pleading with Ruby to stop death-rolling while he attempted to wrestle a clean diaper onto her. 

Jackie really needed him to pull through for her on this. 

“Fuck, she's loose! Jackie!” Hayden yelped as Ruby slipped from his grasp and fled, naked, toward the foyer with a scream of delight. 

“You got this, babe! You’re a professional athlete–you can run down a one-year-old.” She poured more batter into the frying pan and looked pointedly at Jade. “I can't solve every problem for him, you know.”

Predictably, Jade replied with one of the few words she knew. “P-cah!” which translated, understandably, to “pancake.”

Hours later, while the twins were having a dance party to the Little Mermaid soundtrack, she picked up her phone to check in on Hayden.

Jackie: Your game’s going to get cancelled. I can’t see Boston flying in today.

Hubs: no way

Jackie: Holy shit Ruby just sneeze-farted and scared Jade so bad she started crying. Motherhood is wild

Hubs: im so fucking proud of those girls

The girls managed to sort themselves out without interference. The powerful distraction of Under the Sea could not be denied.

Her phone later pinged from Hayden again. 

Hubs: fine ur rite games cancelled

She mentally catalogued what was in her pantry, since she wouldn’t be feeding Hayden a pre-game dinner. They had a little more leeway than her original plan.

Another text alert sounded.

Hubs: babe

Hubs: i did it

Hubs: i got hollander

Jackie blinked down at her phone as the series of messages cleared. Her brain took an extra second to assemble the necessary context for what he meant by he got Hollander. She then gasped so hard both girls stopped twirling to the captivating soliloquy of a Jamaican crab and looked over at her in concern.

Hayden got Hollander. 

Jackie: YES

Jackie: OH MY GOD I LOVE YOU

Jackie: WE’RE MAKING MORE BABIES ASAP

Hubs: i invited hmi 2nite

Hubs: i think he lives on seaweed strips and pistachios or something

Jackie: Wait. And this is important. What, EXACTLY, does he eat?

Hubs: i don’t no everyone is on a different diet i cant keep track

Jackie: ASK HIM THEN

Hubs: i cant he told me like 2 seconds ago but i forgot it would be weird to ask again

Jackie: Oh my god Hayden

Jackie: You cannot bring Shane Hollander to our house so I can serve him food he can’t eat

Jackie: FIND. OUT.

Hubs: microbiotic diet! there. i did it

Jackie: Thank you, baby. Text me when you’re on your way

Jackie scrambled off the couch to go through her pantry and figure out what she had that wouldn’t violate any macrobiotic rules. She knew how serious some of the athletes took their diets during the season. Hayden didn’t know it, but he took his seriously, too. She carefully tracked his protein, carbohydrate, and nutrient intake and designed every meal for optimization. Feeding Shane Hollander without notice was child's play compared to the challenge of getting Hayden to invite him.

She gave half a thought to sending Denise a gloating text, but decided to wait. Until Shane had his ass in one of her dining chairs, fork in mouth, the game wasn’t over. He could cancel. The storm could make him reconsider. He could get flattened by a snowplow on the way over. 

Speaking of dining chairs, she was pretty sure every single one of hers was currently crusted with applesauce and/or other gooey substances, and her cleaners weren’t coming until tomorrow. Better give them a quick wipe down, just in case.

Chapter End Notes

Since you're here, I need to talk about something that's extremely important to me: Jackie Pike has only had 3 pregnancies. She has 4 children, which is a lot, but not, like, a crazy amount of kids. I fully do not understand why she's treated like octomom and why Hayden catches shit for "always being on his wife" or whatever. I kept waiting for her to have more children in the books because all the fandom talks about is the insane amount of kids they have and then they just like stopped at 4. Maybe it's the autism of it all, but I don't understand the joke and I don't know why it's funny.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

Chapter 3: The First of Many Low-Key Dinner Parties

Chapter Summary

Jackie wins, and that's all that matters

Chapter Notes

Yeahhh. Sorry this ended up later than I wanted it to be. I had a chapter written, but I hated it and kept reworking it and then finally rewrote it from scratch. I'm not fussing with it any more so I can go write other things now.

"Started making it, had a breakdown, bon appetit"

Shane Hollander wasn’t anything like what Jackie expected when she opened her front door and ushered him inside out of the biting wind and mad flurry of snowflakes. He shuffled through with a smile so awkward it gave Jackie the momentary impulse to tuck him into bed next to her twins and read him a bedtime story. The bulky, muscle packed professional athlete avoided eye-contact as he stepped across the threshold and looked every bit a nineteen-year-old who had no idea what he was doing at any given moment. He seemed immediately lost in her home. It was, for lack of a better word, precious. 

“Let me take your coat,” she offered as he stuffed his toque into one of the pockets of his thick parka, his hair now sticking out in black spikes. 

He paused and raised an eyebrow at her. She held out one hand, the other occupied by a wiggling Jade. She was in a phase where she fought bedtime with every cell in her little body, so it was generally just best to keep her contained until she wore herself out, and Jackie was pretty adept at maneuvering with only one arm. 

“No, just show me where to put it.” He spoke softly, eyeing the baby with a reasonable dose of skepticism.

As much as Jackie would have loved to stash the kids out of sight for the young, single, childless man visiting her house, the kids were an extension of both her and Hayden. They would just have to find a way to deal. At least Ruby had passed out after tornadoing around the house all day.

She opened the hall closet where he neatly hung up his coat and placed his boots underneath, leaving him in thick wool socks on her hardwood floors. 

His eyes glanced between the wall and the squirming baby, but he put on a crooked smile. “Thanks for having me. I know Hayden said it wasn’t a problem, but I get the feeling he didn’t really think through the logistics when he invited me.” 

“It is no trouble,” she promised him, putting as much warmth into her voice as she could. “As long as you aren’t worried about navigating the roads in this weather.”

“Grew up in Ottawa.”

The flights might be redirecting around the storm as wind and ice ripped by overhead, but for the bulk of Montreal, business continued as usual. If the city ground to a halt for every icicle and flurry, they’d never leave their houses. 

She motioned him further into the house. “Dining room is this way. Do you want anything to drink?”

“Do you have ginger ale?” 

Jackie fully expected him to ask for a beer, having hosted plenty of Hayden’s teammates before, but was charmed by the request. “I think so. We have a bunch of stuff left over from the girls’ birthday party that didn’t get all used up. I think there’s some ginger ale. Hayden?” 

Hayden appeared from finishing setting the table and getting a headstart on cleaning the kitchen, welcoming Shane with a broad, friendly smile. “Hey, thanks for making it! You’re not gonna believe what Jackie was able to throw together last minute.

Another awkward, polite smile. “Yeah, it smells great.”

“I didn’t throw it together at the last minute. Hayden eats half the same things you do, he just has no idea. I hope you like tempeh.” 

“Yeah, love it.” A sliver of a real smile slipped through as Shane Hollander glanced toward Hayden. “You eat tempeh? I figured you didn’t touch protein that didn’t moo at one point in its life” 

“He eats whatever I put in front of him,” Jackie snorted. “Anyway, come sit down. Hayden, could you get into the leftover sodas from the birthday party and see if we have any ginger ale left?”

Hollander relaxed a fraction, his shoulders slowly descending from around his ears and his smile forming more readily. He was so much milder than she thought he would be and had to do some recalculations. No way was this awkward little bean pounding pussy across the Montreal nightlife. Who would have predicted that superstar Shane Hollander, predicted to be the best player in a generation, who dominated every bit of ice time he was given, who, in his rookie season, was outpacing senior players like Scott Hunter like it was no big deal, all while earning a paycheck that made even Jackie’s eyes bug, would be this shy.

He selected one of the seats–cleaned of all sticky and anonymous substances–at the table to sink into. Hayden managed to unearth a ginger ale from the refrigerator in the garage, pouring it in a glass, while she brought three plates to the table one-handed. Jade had nearly given up the fight, making cranky noises into her shoulder, her squirming weaker and weaker by the minute. With the grace born of waitressing through her teen years, she delivered plates to seats and took one for herself across from their guest. 

Her eyes lit up excitedly as she resettled the baby against her chest. Hollander surveyed the meal and thanked Hayden for the delivery of the ginger ale. 

“Babe, this looks amazing!”

It didn’t matter that they had been married for three years and that she was responsible for all of his meals, he always gushed about her cooking. She could probably feed him the same thing every day and he would still do it, lighting up as soon as he saw his plate and digging in with abandon. Hayden loved being fed as much as Jackie loved feeding him.

“Yeah, this looks great,” Hollander professed, drawing her attention back to the moment. He had his fork in hand, spearing a piece of broccolini. 

Jackie realized she didn’t have her phone on her, and with Jade finally giving up the fight, she couldn’t grab it to snap a picture to send Denise when she bragged about this later. 

Still, her grin widened as Hollander closed his teeth around the broccolini and started chewing, eyebrows raising and his smile widening. Jackie loved seeing people reacting to her cooking, but she could have set off fireworks with that first bite. 

Fucking suck it Denise.

“So, how are you settling in Montreal? You’re not billeting with one of the guys, are you?” she asked pleasantly.

“No, I’ve been kind of looking forward to living by myself. My apartment is great, though.”

He took another bite and she could have cheered. 

“Is it close to the nightlife?”

“Oh, god no!” He seemed to realize he said it quickly and blushed, grabbing his ginger ale and glancing aside again. “This is really more my speed. The, uh, amount of Fischer Price is a little off my usual brand, but at least the lyrics to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star are easy to remember.” 

Oh, he had jokes? Maybe there was a little more to wonder boy Shane Hollander than met the eye. Jackie already liked him better than ninety percent of Hayden’s other teammates. 

“But the food just about beats everything,” he continued, less stilted than when he arrived. “Seriously, Jackie, this is really good.” 

Oh yes, Shane Hollander was allowed in her house any time. 

Hayden jumped in, always eager to brag. “Before we had kids, Jackie was a top tier chef. She trained in France! Totally outclasses me, to be honest. Way out of my league.” As usual, he looked over at her like she hung the moon and the stars. 

She swore that got an honest-to-god grin out of Hollander. “Wow, that’s great! So what time is dinner usually? Asking for a friend.” 

“Oh, we’re practically geriatric here. Our wild party lives are pretty much over, so we love an early bird special,” Hayden joked. 

“That is such great news for me.”

Jackie picked up her glass of white wine, sitting back and letting her husband and Hollander go back and forth. She had really only meant to feed Hollander so she could shove Denise’s face in it, but Hayden, like her, had been so wrapped up with the twins over the last year and wasn’t really on the same page anymore as a lot of his old friends. Hayden could use someone who wasn’t trying to live life in fifth gear all the time. Hell, maybe she could find Hollander a nice girl to settle down with, and really get one over Denise.

She watched in smug satisfaction as Hollander scraped his plate clean between jokes with Hayden.

Then, her husband, her sweet, beautiful, brilliant, sexy husband, pulled out his phone and opened his camera app. “Let me grab a pic. First of many low-key dinner parties.” 

She was going to absolutely obliterate his brains later. 

He angled the phone to get them all in it as they leaned in and smiled, Hollander’s plate visible and empty on the table in front of him. 

Later that night, once they had seen Shane–because he was Shane now, not Hollander–out the door, she dumped Jade into Hayden’s arms and tore through the house to find her phone. 

“Did I deliver, or did I deliver?” her husband crowed. “And we had an actual conversation. He talks! Who knew! He’s actually way funnier than I realized…” 

She found her phone on her spice rack. Hayden had already texted her the picture he took at dinner. A feral grin split her face as she uploaded it to the private WAG group on Facebook. 

“You’re so hot when you get competitive.” 

She closed her phone without looking at the likes and comments that immediately began pouring in. Denise was addicted to her Facebook wall and would see it and that was all the satisfaction Jackie needed.

She pointed a finger at Hayden. “Let’s go, Mr. Pike. Better get that baby down because we have celebrating to do.” 

He scurried to get ahead of her to the nursery as she left a trail of clothes behind her.