Back to You // Bradley Bradshaw

Chapter Thirty-Two

"How are you feeling, sis?" Jake asked with humor in his tone of voice. Haley knew he was probably well aware of how she felt since he had predicted the evening.

"I'm good, in fact I'm very good." Haley answered with a shrug. She was mimicking what he typically said to people. She sat down at the bar as Sabrina passed her a mug of coffee. Jake didn't look convinced by her answer. "And ready to go."

"At least eat first." Sabrina told her and had already fixed Haley a plate. Haley had always said Sabrina was the mom friend of the group and she was doing that today. She had missed having her around after their week of not talking, it was little things like this.

"What are you two so chummy about? It's weird." Haley inquired, eying her brother and Rooster. She did comply with Sabrina's request and began to eat. She wasn't exactly hungry but knew she needed to.

"Dear Rooster here was telling me about the P-51 he's been working on with Maverick." Jake answered.

"Why do you call each other by your callsigns even outside of work?" Sabrina asked, "Except neither of you call Haley hers. Is it a female thing?" She sounded defensive of Haley.

Haley shook her head. "No. I don't call Jake his because it's weird. I obviously knew him before callsigns. He's just Jake," She saw her brother nod in agreement. That was the same reason he did not call her Hurricane, except when they were flying. "And Bradley, I do use his sometimes since we met with that, but again, it's a different relationship. Everyone else I do use theirs I suppose," She explained. Haley would call Rooster both by his name and callsign but tended to mostly just use his name. He had told her once that he liked that she used his actual name.

"We pretty much meet with our callsigns. No one hardly uses first names, so it sticks." Rooster added, referring to his reason for calling Jake by his all the time. "Some people prefer it, I guess, or it just becomes a thing. My mom always called my dad and Maverick by theirs." He shrugged. "And yeah, it's different with Haley for me."

"And that's a layer of intimacy I'm not going into with Rooster." Jake said, "No offense."

"Like I'd be intimate with a Cowboys fan." Rooster shot back with an eye roll.

Haley knew Jake was joking but it did feel that way. The handful of times she had used another pilots first name it did feel weird, and almost intimate. Like it was something you shouldn't be doing. You just got used to the callsigns.

Sabrina was listening as she was cleaning up. She shrugged, seeming to understand the reasoning they had all listed off. "That's fair." She said. When she passed by Jake, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into his lap. This was the type of thing Haley wasn't quite used to. They hadn't done a lot of PDA, but it was still strange to see. Though she could see the way they looked at one another.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road." Haley announced as soon as she had finished.

It took Haley a little bit to reintroduce herself to snowboarding and skiing. She hadn't been in a few years, so it was hard getting back into it at first. She was surprised Jake and Sabrina stuck with her and Rooster. She guessed Jake had been serious about trying to make things work. He and Rooster still verbally sparred with one another, but she doubted that would ever change. They both seemed to thrive on it at this point. Haley almost thought they liked each other a little more than they had.

They were about to go snow tubing. They had hung up skiing for the day. Haley didn't say it out loud, she didn't want to jinx anything, but she had been worried about getting injured and not finishing the program. She didn't think they'd admit it either but she had a suspicion it had probably crossed her brother and Rooster's minds too. Tubing felt like a safer option to still have fun and finish up the day. The course they were about to go down was lit up with neon lights around it and it was the evening. Haley thought it was really pretty.