Hadley Grace
“Babe?” Julie looked up from her book, expecting her wife to be back by her side.
Christen had gone upstairs to put their daughter to bed almost thirty minutes ago. Typically their kid dozed off after downing a bottle and clutching her precious blankey to her face. She was a pretty routinized girl, that Hadley Grace.
JJ took one last sip of her wine, set her book on the couch and quietly headed upstairs in search of her best friend.
Of course, Christen was right where she predicted.
Through the cracked door, the former defender studied her wife. Christen was leaning against the dark oak wood crib, humming an unidentifiable tune. One hand was in the crib, no doubt stroking the bridge of the toddler’s nose. That was one of Hadley’s weird quirks. She never fully succumbed to sleep until one of her mom’s stroked her nose.
Not able to stand being left out of the Hadley love fest, Julie pushed the door open and padded over to her wife.
“If you stare at her any longer you’re going to burn a hole in her face” Julie murmured, wrapping her hands around Christen’s waist and kissing the back of her neck.
Press let out a soft chuckle before turning around in her wife’s grip so that they were hugging. They stood there for a moment, letting the warm glow of a night light cascade around them, watching their small human in a crib.
Hadley Press-Johnston, with her almost white blonde hair and smattering of freckles across her nose, snored lightly in her bed with a bright yellow blanket tightly grasped in her fist.
“I can’t believe we caved and let Kelley buy her that ridiculous onesie” Julie whispered, brushing a strand of her daughter’s hair away from her face.
Kelley had a Christmas tradition of buying each one of her unofficial nieces and nephews’ onesies with her face on it saying “I get my awesomeness from my Auntie Kelley.” As they got older onesies turned into t-shirts and every time a new baby was born into the 15er family, a group shot of all the kids wearing their Auntie Kelley apparel was taken. It was equal parts ridiculous and adorable.
“I just can’t believe she’s not coming,” Christen choked back tears “it’s our first trip away from her.”
JJ pressed a kiss to her wife’s forehead. They were still hesitant about going on the annual vacation with the team. Hadley was barely two and it still felt like she was going to grow up without them. Having Hadley away at daycare while her moms were coaching or writing for magazines at the office, made Christen and Julie slightly depressed.
“I know babe, but she’ll be with my parents. She’ll be fine. We’ll skype with them every day and then we’ll be back before you know it.”
The brunette nodded, Jules was right. It was only for two weeks. Maybe this trip would do them well, a few days without having to change a diaper or wait through a screaming meltdown would be amazing. Perhaps Chris and Jules would actually go out on a date instead of another Netflix marathon where they ended up falling asleep by eight.
It was weird, how their lives had changed so drastically in the course of two years. Before Hadley, Saturday nights were filled with staying out until the early hours of the morning with Meghan and Morgan. Sundays were for nursing hangovers caused by two am karaoke and bottomless whiskey gingers.
Now Saturdays were spent at the park and staying up past nine pm was rare. Sundays started at six in the morning by a little girl in Chicago Cubs pajamas babbling to herself through a baby monitor.
With one last kiss and a murmured “we love you,” Christen and Julie quietly walked out of their daughter’s room and shut the door behind them.
Sure, they weren’t wild soccer stars anymore but Christen and Julie didn’t mind. They were the exhausted mamas of the cutest girl in the world and that was enough.