70

Ryan

Sleep Schedule

Shower—fucked Kassie again. Brushing teeth—slipped my hand under her shirt and got to feel her up. And then, there she was, with a Romans shirt on, her dark hair in braids down her shoulders, and my hickeys on her neck.

She backed up to my bed and held her arms out before she fell back. "God, this is so comfy. I could die on this mattress and I'd be happy."

"Uh-huh." I pulled the covers over and slipped into bed too. "We're going to cuddle right."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm a big guy. We're supposed to cuddle in specific ways."

"Oh my god." I knew she was rolling her eyes without even seeing it before she perked up. "Did I tell you Henry Miller sent me an email?"

Play it cool, Cross .

I made a noise at the back of my throat. "You're not moving fast enough."

Kassie could talk to me about the email and let me hold her. I looped my arm around her waist and pulled her up with me, making quick work of her. Her head needed to be on my chest, my hand needed to be at her back, and her legs were tangled up with mine, just the way I wanted her.

I picked up her other hand and laid it across my side but it hit the bruise.

I flinched.

"You okay?" she asked.

"It's fine." She didn't need to worry about it. "What did you think about the apology?"

"It's a…weird one," Kassie said slowly. I couldn't understand what that meant. I'd read it over twice myself, it sounded fine to me. But Kassie hesitated, humming under her breath. "The email feels…HR mandated? Does that make sense? But clearly not written with HR. There's spelling mistakes all over the place. And how would they have gotten involved? I don't know. Weirdest email I've ever gotten."

Shit .

"Do you want…another one?"

Kassie laughed. "That'd be even weirder, Ryan." She dropped her voice in a mock impersonation. " Hey—sorry for being creepy—but you know what I'm sorry most about? Mistyping the word ‘assume.' "

That got me. I chuckled and Kassie smiled up at me. Goddamn, what a smile. There was a reason I had fifty sketches of it in my locker.

"Wait." Her eyebrows furrowed. "I did tell you about the email?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"But you knew it was an apology."

Fuck .

For long seconds, I was silent, trying to think of exactly what to say. That was a fumble at the end zone if I ever saw one. Clearing my throat, I tugged her closer, and pulled up the covers to her shoulders. "What else would he be emailing you about?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"You need to go to sleep," I quickly reminded her. "We've got an early morning tomorrow."

"Practice, practice, practice." She poked me in the stomach. "You need to go to sleep too. Catch up on a tiny percentage of what you've missed out on."

That got another chuckle out of me. "I'm not going to sleep."

"Why not?"

It meant a lot to me that Kassie had single-handedly maneuvered my schedule around so I could get some sleep but I had a fucked up sleep schedule for a pretty long time and I knew how it operated. I never took naps and now I had to pay the price for it. But I didn't want to open up my laptop and work on homework or try to watch the gameplay videos that Coach Lawson sent me. I just wanted to hold Kassie.

"I took a nap—I don't do that," I admitted.

"Uh-huh, I napped too. Once the defense coaches sent out the message, I slept for a couple of hours with you. I didn't just shove you over you and bolt to the door."

She waited until they canceled?

I rubbed her back, glancing down at her. "You took a nap with me?"

"Yep."

"That's interesting." I grinned. "Very interesting."

"What's interesting about it?"

"Have you ever cuddled with a guy like that before?"

There was an audible pause and one look down at her confirmed to flush to her cheeks. She gave me an exasperated look when I caught her eye. "I think you're forgetting I did all that to get your ass to go to sleep ."

"Which I'm sure you'd do for anybody."

Her eyes narrowed. "Hush."

"You didn't answer the question."

"No," she finally said reluctantly. "I wouldn't do this for anybody else."

I chuckled and made a noise at the back of my throat, pleased as hell. My girlfriend kept her reservations about people and I was the one that she went out of her comfort zone with. I couldn't hide the smirk.

"You already had pussy twice," Kassie muttered. "Put your boner away."

Even if I couldn't sleep, I was goddamn happy. With the sweet smell of her strawberry lotion and her hair in tangles over my arm, I'd trade in sleep for this. There wasn't anywhere else I wanted to be. And she'd believe that eventually.