Page 6 of Pucking Forbidden

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?”