72

Ryan

Total Girlfriend Material

Our practices weren't as private anymore. There'd always been a few people milling around the outside but now we had more open recruiters in the training center. It was what I'd been preparing for my entire college career, making the time to speak to them, be cordial, and knowing that everything else was placed in an entirely different level of importance.

I guess I just didn't think Kassie was one of those things.

I breathed out a sigh of relief when I saw her, hurrying down the hallway to me. I picked up the pace, beating her to the door to open it.

"Thank you ." Kassie scrunched up her nose at me. Adorable. "The guys and I got cupcakes after my shift." She held open the pink box. Only the remains of smeared frosting and half a cupcake remained. "I gave all of them out to the design department—they will like me—"

"Of course, they'll like you."

"You can't resist these, Ryan. Look inside, want to split the last half?"

"Can't eat cupcakes," I answered automatically, placing a hand on her back. There was no reason that I needed to do it. We were already inside the meeting room, lined with new cords and recording equipment for the interview, but I hadn't touched her all day. It'd been a busy day.

"You don't want to lick the frosting?"

"I do." I nodded, pulling out her chair. "But the training center's full of people right now. Seems like pretty inconvenient timing."

She gave me a confused look for a moment until a flush crept up her neck. " Behave ."

"Or what?"

"Or—shut up." She took her seat, ducking her head to hide the smile but I saw it anyway. "I'm trying out my experiment tonight, we're two for two."

I rolled my eyes. I didn't know how Kassie did it but somehow she figured out a way for me to move in my sleep and—supposedly—if she left for something, I came lumbering out of bed to grab her. Either way, sometimes I'd wake up with my face on her tits.

"Subconsciously, it's how you want to sleep." She smirked.

"I don't know how you're rolling me over—"

"Oh, please . I couldn't move your toned, clenched ass if I tried." Kassie burst into laughter. "You like being cuddled like that. You're just too much of a hardass when you're awake to admit it."

The door pushed open and we glanced up at it. A woman walked through with a professional earpiece and a pair of headphones around her neck, the podcast host. She beamed. "Oh my god, it is so great to meet you. I'm Noemí."

I stood up to shake her hand and shook her cohost's hand too when he walked in, grinning from ear to ear. The only time I was able to see Kassie so far today was one of the relationship interviews.

Beginning of the semester, I would've rolled my eyes at this, but if it was the only way I saw her before dinner time, I'd take it.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Brad," Brad introduced himself.

We slipped back into our seats and they pressed a few buttons on the table, gesturing for us to use the huge headphones. They weren't connected to anything. I picked mine up and inspected it, taking a look at the huge mess of cords on the table.

The headphones disappeared from my hands and Kassie busied herself next to me, pushing cords into place and reaching up to put them over my ears.

I grinned back at her.

"Oh, wow." Brad chortled. "Total girlfriend material."

Kassie flushed pink back at her seat. "It's not what it looks like. You don't want him touching any of this, he'll break it."

"It's true." I chuckled and reached over to pick up her hand in mine, slipping my fingers over hers. She blushed harder.

"As long as you don't press this button, we're good." Noemí laughed, pointing off towards the big red button at the middle of the table, designated with a printed warning. "Easy way to stop recording. Are we ready?"

The four of us discussed the draft—Kassie had all of her pre-written answers memorized from Cleo's careful hand—some of the games within the season, and our upcoming trip to Louisiana, UNLP for five days where we trained with the team. That only lasted for so long before they turned back to us.

"Okay, so, there's this saying going around," Noemí started, giving both of us a knowing look, "that if you see one of Kassie's posts, and Ryan hasn't liked it yet, you just need to refresh your feed."

I leaned in my chair, dipping down to Kassie. "What does that mean?"

"You like all my posts."

"Ah." I nodded. "Yeah, that's true."

"Ryan knows the schedule for everything that goes on." Kassie laughed, squeezing my hand. "And we're kind of glued to each other. Him liking everything isn't a shock."

Those were nice explanations for it but it wasn't the truth. Before we became official, I didn't happen to stumble upon her pictures with great intentions. I definitely sought them out in the couple of minutes before practice, every day. And the minutes between meetings. And at dinners with the guys. And in my dorm, with a bottle of lotion on the nightstand.

Brad shifted up in his seat. "We have a game for you."

"A game?" Kassie perked up instantly.

I grinned. "We're great at games."

"We're kicking ass—uh—opponents?" She stopped herself, trying not to curse on air.

Noemí picked up a couple of large posters from a plastic box. "So this is a game with the two of you against each other."

I shook my head. "We don't do that."

"We don't?" Kassie asked.

"Do we?"

"What are you, scared I'm going to win?"

Competitive Kassie was making an appearance and I shifted up in my chair, watching her. We were really going head to head against each other?

"What kind of game is it?" I asked and I could see Kassie grin out of the corner of my vision.

"It's a social media game."

Damn .

A low noise emitted from my throat.

"Oh, you're going down, ball dribbler." Kassie stuck her tongue out at me. "I approve the schedules, Cleo and I work on them together, I am winning ."

"We'll show you part of someone's post and you have to guess where it's from," Noemí explained.

The reluctant defeat vanished. That was an entirely different thing. I pulled up my chair next to Kassie's too, rolling back my shoulders. "Never mind. I'm winning."

"You wish," Kassie retorted.

"Accept your loss now," I told her, narrowing my eyes at the poster, covered in a thin layer of paper. "You're going down."

"Want a bet?"

Three words and my cock stirred in my pants. Another bet and I'd get to pick the position again. My grin widened. She had no idea what she was in for.

"Done. You've already lost."

Kassie scoffed while Noemí unpeeled the square piece of paper off of the posterboard, an overblown picture of one of Kassie's posts. My girlfriend was still in the middle of shit-talking me when I recognized the picture.

"Steakhouse with the guys." I tapped the table. "You wore the purple dress and it's you, drawing a picture for the kids in the next booth."

"What?" Kassie glanced between me and the poster.

Noemí blinked in surprise. "He's right."

"Wait, I didn't know we were playing yet." She gave me a dirty look. "Okay, now I'm ready."

"We're going to have to give him the point." Brad laughed.

"Whatever. He gets one point for my thirty."

The next posterboard appeared and the next square was unpeeled.

"Halloween party at Adam's dorm," I said. "I didn't wear a costume, your face is covered in paint streaks from helping out June with some Halloween posters."

Kassie did a double-take between me and the posterboard. "That's…only a shot of the floor . How did you…? What…?"

I pointed at the next board, flushed with satisfaction. "Do the next one."

Noemí flashed the next board.

"Training center, Coach Lawson's birthday. You have my jersey on."

Another board.

"Football training camp with the kids. You're wearing overalls."

"Oh my god, I forgot about that," Kassie breathed out.

"Where I made those kids cry."

She shook her head. "Hold up. Rewind the tape. They were real little and you don't work with kids a lot."

"I still made them cry."

"It was one kid and he was fine, just overwhelmed. He had a good time at the end."

"Because you drew him like a superhero."

She sighed, exasperated. "Next one, please!"

But she had no hope for the next board. Noemí barely unwrapped the paper before I knew exactly what it was.

"Swimsuit," I belted out instantly.

Noemí stopped peeling the paper and stared at me, shocked. There was a two-inch amount of light blue but I already knew I was right. Kassie turned to me with an incredulous look on her face.

"Swimsuit?" she repeated. " Swimsuit? "

I cleared my throat. "It's—uh—the campus gym renovations, they redid the pool tile. The whole team went out together for the first day."

"But you didn't say pool renovation photo."

I turned a little in the chair and looked down at my girlfriend, sheepish. Her eyes were piercing and she was doing everything to bite back a smirk but I could read the question plainly on her face.

Did you seriously jack off to my photos?

I ran a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath before I just breathed it out anyway. What the hell could I say? A lone laugh escaped me and I shrugged again. What I wanted to say couldn't be said while we were connected to recording equipment.

"Yep," I answered her unspoken question, leaning back in my chair.

"Oh my god." She put her face in her hands but I could still see the hint of the blush from her neck. "What color is the pool in that photo, Ryan?"

"Don't do this to me," I groaned.

"What color is it?"

"Blue? I don't know. I'm going to guess dark blue."

"It's…" Noemí paused. "It's brown and white."

"Goddamnit," I swore on air and Kassie giggled. "That was a guess. Do the next board."

The next board made me sit up in my chair at the small reveal. This was one Kassie could know. Without a doubt. I tapped the back of her chair and pointed. "You've got this one."

"It's just the sky, Ryan."

"Nope. You got this." I nodded at the posterboard. "It's the JBU game."

Her face lit up in recognition. "That's the first kiss."

"First kiss at all?" Brad said. I forgot he was even there. He glanced back and forth between us with his eyebrows raised. "Moving a little slow, were we?"

Kassie struggled with her response. "No, no, first—um—in front of the cameras."

"What was your first real kiss?" Noemí asked.

"Our first kiss was…um…"

Damn, that was something we hadn't narrowed down. I watched Kassie while she struggled with an answer. There were some pretty easy answers I could come up with but I shifted back in my chair, gazing at her.

"In the car, after the frat party," I answered.

Kassie glanced up at me in surprise. Our first kiss was the JBU game and I was rewriting history but the podcast host had a point - that was pretty late considering. And I could remember how badly I'd wanted to kiss her in that car when she'd talked me down a ledge.

"In the car," Kassie repeated, her voice soft.

"Yeah." I nodded. "We were talking about…" I wracked my brain, trying to think of what I could talk about on the air. "The dinner."

"The dinner," she echoed.

"And how I was a dick to you."

"Like I was just peaches and cream?" Kassie raised her eyebrows.

"See, I was jealous," I told her, in all honesty. It was something I'd never told her before and Kassie's face softened, listening. "I was supposed to meet someone who liked the Romans and here comes this knockout girl who can't stand athletes. And she wanted to see some guy . I was jealous. I acted like a dick to you. And I'm sorry."

She pressed her lips together. "I hadn't eaten all day—"

"I didn't know that," I said and stopped myself. "I mean, that's what I said."

"And I worked like seventy hours at the time and I wasn't my best self either," she continued, her voice soft. Her eyes flickered back to the recording equipment. "And I…apologized in the car too."

"And I said, you'll never have to worry about skipping a meal ever again," I told Kassie, concentrating only on her.

A grin lifted on her lips. "And then we made out? You were like—hey babe, free meals on me—and I was like, god , I need to tongue this guy."

"Well—" I burst into laughter. "It wasn't exactly like that."

"If I'd only been wearing a bikini, maybe you would've remembered better," she teased.

"Instead, you were wearing my best friend's jersey, so I had to block it from my head."