The Long Game

While driving to her new assignment, Adalyn calls her best friend, Matthew, asking him to research a team called the Green Warriors in Green Oak, North Carolina but Matthew’s search yields no information. When Matthew says her father is overreacting, Adalyn defends Andrew, insisting she made and mistake and must redeem herself, but avoids Matthew’s questions about what prompted her outburst. When she arrives at her destination, she’s surprised to find it’s a remote cabin in the woods. As the GPS announces her arrival, she becomes distracted, hits a chicken with her car, and then panics. Reversing the car, she collides with something large that growls. Mistaking it for a bear, she accidentally floors the accelerator and crashes into a tree.

The narrative shifts to the perspective of Cameron, the man Adalyn mistook for a bear and hit with her car. Cameron inspects Adalyn’s car and finds her unconscious. He pulls her from the vehicle and sees a large bump forming on her forehead. When Adalyn awakens, she is disoriented and hostile, threatening him with self-defense maneuvers and accusing him of nefarious intentions. Cameron explains that he lives in the main cabin and that she is on his property. He tries to convince her to go to a hospital, but she physically resists. Frustrated by her belligerence and impractical city attire, Cameron tells her the nearest hospital is 30 miles east, orders her to take her car off his property, and walks back to his cabin.

After texting Matthew that she is safe, Adalyn confronts Cameron at his cabin door with her booking confirmation for the Lazy Elk Lodge. He points out that her reservation is for the Sweet Heaven Cottage, which she discovers is a dilapidated shed nearby. Mortified but too proud to admit defeat, Adalyn declares the shed perfect and tells Cameron they are now neighbors. As he closes the door, she notices a signet ring with the letter “C” on his pinky finger and recognizes him as Cameron Caldani, a famous retired soccer goalkeeper. Later, she sees Cameron outside calling for a pet by a name that sounds like “Cruiser” or “Booster,” and finds feathers on the ground, suspecting with guilt that it may be the chicken she hit earlier.

At a local soccer field, Cameron reluctantly coaches a chaotic practice for the Green Warriors, a team of girls under age 10. The players, including the outspoken María and a girl in a tutu named Chelsea, ignore his instructions and pester him with personal questions. Overwhelmed and needing coffee, Cameron puts a quiet player named Juniper in charge and jogs off to find Josie Moore, the town mayor and local coffee provider. He accidentally collides with Adalyn, and Josie introduces them, cheerfully announcing that they are neighbors who will be working together on the team.

After Josie confirms Cameron is the Green Warriors’ coach, a flustered Adalyn declares that as the new general manager, she is firing him. Josie explains that she recruited Cameron to volunteer. She also reveals the team’s history as a U10 team competing in the Six Hills Little League, having qualified as the best U10 team in the county. The group of young girls surrounds them, and Adalyn realizes with despair that her path to redemption involves managing a children’s team. Adalyn stares at Cameron and begins to say, “You’re Cameron C—,” but Josie panics and cuts her off, whispering that no one in town knows who he is and asking Adalyn to keep it a secret. As Cameron storms off, one of the girls, María, finds Adalyn’s viral “Sparklesgate” video on her phone and shows it to the rest of the team.

The next morning, Cameron finds Adalyn asleep in her car, having fled the shed after seeing feline-like eyes in the dark and feeling something move beneath her in the bed. He confronts her, and they argue until he tells her to give up and go back to Miami. Adalyn furiously retorts that she was banished and has no other choice, shouting that she would not be sleeping in her car if the shed wasn’t infested. She storms inside, and a moment later, one of her stiletto heels flies out the door. Cameron follows her in and offers a truce, seeing that a bedpost is broken and deducing she damaged it with her shoe out of frustration. Acknowledging the shed is uninhabitable, he has her save her number in his phone, promising to text her the Lazy Elk Lodge’s contact information later so she can call on his behalf to expedite repairs.

During practice, Adalyn discovers her access to the Miami Flames’ work portal has been revoked. A player, María, tells Adalyn that while the other girls are scared of her because of the viral video, she thinks Adalyn should be their new coach. Adalyn receives a call from her mother, who has learned of her exile from Matthew. Adalyn’s father gets on the phone, deflects her complaint about the revoked access by telling her to contact David for urgent matters, and dismisses her concerns about the poor accommodations and the children’s team, accusing her of giving up easily. Stung, Adalyn vows to succeed. After the call, she finds the girls have disappeared. She discovers them in the supply shed, which they have completely wrecked. As she tries to sort out the chaos, Cameron appears, and in a moment of desperation, she greets him as “Coach.”

Cameron immediately resists Adalyn’s attempts to rope him back in to the team but helps Adalyn by easily freeing María from a traffic cone she had gotten stuck on her head. As he and Adalyn bicker in front of the team, Josie arrives in a panic, announcing a “code yellow.” She explains that the team’s parents have seen the viral video of Adalyn and are on their way to interrupt practice. Josie hands Adalyn a coffee cup—a “Josephino”—that she’s made especially for her and urges her to prepare for the angry parents.