CHAPTER 23

“Are you sure you should be back so soon?” DJ asked before Aspen even got out of the car.

“Um… Hi to you, too, DJ,” Aspen replied and climbed out. “Also, it’s been two weeks. The doctor said I was good to go. Everything’s fine. And I feel good. He said he wouldn’t have even called it a sprain.”

“Then, why did it swell so much?” DJ asked.

“Because Aspen reaggravated it,” Kendra replied for her.

DJ looked across the car in the beach parking lot and saw Kendra there. She returned her attention to Aspen.

“Kendra’s here?”

“Hi, DJ,” Kendra said. “I’ll get the balls out of the trunk.”

“Kendra’s here, and she’s getting the balls out of your trunk?” DJ asked.

“She’s been gone for over a week on some big-time basketball and soccer trip and just got back last night. She came over, and we hung out, but I told her today was my first day back, and I asked if she wanted to come play with us,” Aspen replied in a near-whisper so Kendra wouldn’t hear.

“We have to focus, Aspen. We missed the last tournament and the one this weekend, too. We have to get back in it.”

“I know. She doesn’t have to play. I just…”

“You missed her,” DJ finished for her, leaning in.

“Yeah… And she knows just about everything about the game. You saw how her strategy helped us win against Sweden.”

“I know. And it did.”

“Got ‘em,” Kendra said, walking around the car. “And if you’re worried about me getting in the way, DJ, I won’t. I can just watch or even go home, if Aspen lets me drive her car. I can get a ride if–”

“Kendra?” Aspen spoke.

“Yeah?”

“It’s fine,” she told her with a smile. “DJ just wasn’t expecting you to be here because I didn’t tell her in advance, but we’re good. Right, DJ?”

“Right. I’m glad you’re here, actually. You can help keep this one in line.” She pointed at Aspen.

“What? Why do I need to be kept in line?”

“Because you need to take it easy today. It’s your first day back,” Kendra replied. “And you act like she listens to me.” She looked at DJ.

“She does. If you hadn’t insisted that she not even move until the doctor officially cleared her yesterday, she would’ve been up and around her house, if not warming up in the backyard.”

“Hey, I’m right here,” Aspen said. “And no, I wouldn’t have. I behaved.”

“You did mention being a little stir-crazy and that you thought about going outside to just toss the ball around a little,” Kendra pointed out.

“Aspen!” DJ scolded.

“What? I didn’t do it,” she said with a little laugh as Kendra leaned into her side.

“Because she told you not to,” DJ argued and pointed at Kendra. “Can we get started now? I think we should go slow, get you back into it, and if you’re hurting at all, we stop.”

“Okay. Fine. I’m in agreement,” Aspen said and went to take the bag of balls from Kendra.

“No, I’ve got these.” DJ took them instead.

“And I’ve got your bag.” Kendra nodded toward the back seat where Aspen had tossed her beach bag.

“Well, I should be glad at this treatment, but I think it’s because both of you are ganging up on me, so I’m going to be mildly annoyed about it.”

“Let’s go,” Kendra replied.

Aspen watched her open the back door and pull out Aspen’s bag. Aspen locked the car, and the three of them walked to the sand.

“Stretches first,” DJ said. “Pay attention to your calf, Aspen. I want your whole leg super limber today to support your foot.”

“Limber…”

Aspen looked over at Kendra, who had just dropped the bag down onto the sand. She appeared to be thinking about something and was zoned out. Aspen waved her hand in front of Kendra’s face.

“You all right there?” she asked with a smile.

“Huh? Yes. What?”

Aspen laughed, knowing where Kendra’s mind had just gone.

“Want to help me stretch out?” she asked, deciding to amp things up a bit.

They’d talked every day since Aspen came back and every day while she’d been in Italy, and if she really thought about it, every day before that, too – at least in texts, if not a call. They’d been in different countries or states for over three weeks now, with only a few days where they’d been able to see one another, so Aspen hadn’t been sure how to proceed with the obvious thing building between them. Last night, she’d planned to cook them dinner, and she’d bought everything online, had the grocery store deliver it, and was getting ready to start prepping, when Kendra texted that her flight had been delayed and she’d be later than expected.

Aspen hadn’t cooked after all, but she’d still wanted to see Kendra, so she’d invited her over to hang out. They’d talked for a bit, but Kendra had been exhausted and decided to go home. Aspen had almost asked her to stay the night, but knowing that she’d want to hold Kendra in bed, she wanted them to have a conversation first when Kendra was less tired, because it would’ve been awkward if they woke up that way without either of them talking about what was actually going on between them prior to that.

“Stretch you out?” Kendra asked.

“Yeah, so that I can play. You and DJ both seem pretty concerned about me being fully stretched.”

“DJ is worried–” Kendra stopped. “Oh.”

Aspen leaned in and whispered, “I can just lie on my towel, and you can stretch my legs out for me so that I don’t pull anything. You’d hate for me to pull something today, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” Kendra said softly.

“Hi! I’m here, too. Who’s going to stretch me out?” DJ half-yelled.

“Chase!” Kendra and Aspen both yelled at the same time.

◆◆◆

“What do you think?” DJ asked Kendra.

Aspen smiled because that was the first time DJ had asked Kendra directly what she thought they should do. Aspen had asked her something at least three times during their practice so far.

“If we play Steph and Becky,” DJ added.

“We will. You know they’ll beat the qualifier,” Aspen said.

“Steph and Becky are great,” Kendra began as they all sat in the sand. “But Becky isn’t as fast as she was last year. She put on a lot of muscle, which is great, but it’s also a problem for her when her main strength was the fact that she was the fastest one on basically any court she was on. And Steph has been struggling with her passing. I was at the tournament last weekend and the one this weekend. It was weird without you two there, honestly. Like, there was this void that everyone could feel. Anyway, Steph and Becky went out early both weekends. Steph had at least nine or maybe more passing errors, and that screwed up Becky’s set, so they had a higher hitting error percentage, too. I’d say… Pass Steph, make her prove that she can handle it, and prepare to block her because she’s the tallest woman on the tour at 6’4” and can really jump.”

Aspen smiled with pride at the woman she wanted to kiss.

“Her kills could actually kill someone,” DJ offered.

“She’s got one hell of a right arm, but if you can get her scared up at the net with a strong block or two, she starts to lack confidence and second-guesses her spots.”

“That’s a good tip,” DJ said. “Thanks. Becky’s really slower?”

“Yes. She’s focused on her upper body strength, which I get because she was weaker last year, but they don’t have a coach or a regular trainer, so I think she’s put a little too much emphasis on that and not enough on balance, so she’s lost a step or two. If you run her back and forth, she won’t be able to get to the ball how she could last year. You two haven’t played them this season, so you probably haven’t noticed, but it’s my job to notice.”

“You’re really good at your job, you know?” Aspen complimented.

Kendra looked up at her in surprise and said, “Thank you.”

“Yeah, this is really helpful,” DJ added. “Want to run a few plays, Aspen? Work on our spots?”

“Sure,” she agreed. “Do you want to watch and give us some tips?” she asked Kendra.

“I thought I’d shag balls or something,” Kendra said.

“You can do both. I believe in you.” Aspen winked at her and stood up.

“Hey, how is–”

“My ankle is fine,” Aspen finished where she knew Kendra was going with her question. “I promise. I’ll still ice it when I get home, though, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Hey, are you two going to join me anytime soon, or am I supposed to pass to myself?” DJ asked.

It was only then that Aspen noticed that DJ was already standing up on the court. She got up and held out both of her hands to Kendra, who took them and used them to help herself up. Aspen and DJ were both in their suits, but Kendra had worn a pair of jean shorts and a blue T-shirt, and when she stood, Aspen pulled up on the scoop neck because it had lowered a little, revealing the tip of the scar.

“Thank you,” Kendra said, realizing what Aspen had done.

“No problem. You know I’d never push you on this, but…” Aspen pressed her hand over the shirt between Kendra’s breasts. “You’re beautiful. All of you.”

Kendra seemed taken aback but didn’t say anything, so Aspen dropped her hand and turned toward DJ, who was watching them.

“Okay. Let’s get back to work,” she said and turned to see Kendra still standing there, looking a little dazed.

Then, Kendra shook her head and walked to the other side of the net. Aspen picked up a ball and tossed it toward her.

“Can you fake-serve, DJ?”

“Sure,” Kendra agreed.

They ran several drills, focusing on their speed and accuracy, and then switched to serving. Becky played on the left side, so they practiced hitting their spots there before Kendra suggested they go in the middle a few times in order to create confusion between the two partners who had been struggling this season. Having worked on that as well and hitting several of their spots properly, Aspen was tired and ready to go home. She’d get back to her usual workout and practice routine tomorrow. Today, she needed to eat and rest.

“Do you two want to grab lunch?” DJ asked when they were packing up their things. “I was thinking about going to the smoothie place down the street and getting a bowl or something.”

Aspen glanced at Kendra, who seemed to be waiting for her to respond on their behalf.

“I’m kind of spent, DJ. I think I’d rather just get home and chill.”

“Okay. You’re going to ice–”

“Yes, Mom,” Aspen interjected.

“I’ll make sure she does,” Kendra offered.

“Good.” DJ nodded. “I’ll run to the smoothie place then and walk back for my cooldown. I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, Kendra, will you be here?”

“No, I’ve got work tomorrow. I’m covering the MLS game here. After that, I’m off for a full week, which is nice. I took it off a while ago to make sure I had time to work on the house.”

Aspen winked at her again because she knew it would make Kendra smile, which it did.

“Then, it’s the next tournament for you two,” Kendra added. “And I’ll be covering that.”

“Cool. Well, I guess I’ll see you this weekend. Aspen, tomorrow?”

“I’ll be here,” Aspen replied.

DJ put her headphones in, and with her phone in hand and her bag already in her car, she took off to get her lunch.

“So, you’ll be home for a whole week, huh?” Aspen asked Kendra as she walked around to the driver’s side of her car.

“I’ve got some stuff to do in the backyard, and I’m going furniture-shopping, but other than that, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I thought about painting, but I don’t know. We’ll see. I still have to pick out the color, and that’ll probably take me the whole week to do.”

They got in the car, and Aspen turned it on, letting the much-needed air-conditioning hit her face.

“I can help with that, if you want. What color are you thinking?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem.” Kendra chuckled as she buckled her seat belt.

“Which room?”

“Living room and dining room. It’s one space.”

“You could still paint it different colors. There’s that little break up in the wall that could divide the colors.”

“You’re an interior decorator now?” Kendra teased.

“No, but I could still help. Out of the main colors, give me what you don’t want.”

“You mean, go through ROYGBIV with you?”

“Look at you; someone paid attention in school.” Aspen laughed and pulled the car out of the lot.

“I don’t want a red living or dining room,” Kendra shared.

“Okay.”

“No orange or yellow, either. I guess I could do green, or blue again, and I have no idea what the difference is between indigo and violet.”

“What about two different shades of one color? You could have a darker green in one room and a lighter in the other.”

“I could go with dark-green on one wall and a neutral shade on the other,” Kendra suggested. “Maybe, like, an eggshell white or something. That might be nice.”

“Yeah, it could be.” Aspen looked over at her and smiled. “So, want to eat lunch together and look at some paint swatches?”

“I thought you wanted to go home and chill.”

“I thought you were going to make sure I put ice on my ankle,” she fired back.

Kendra laughed and said, “Stop by the taco place on the way home, then. I’m getting tacos. If you want healthy, you can get the pulled chicken ones.”

“Yea, Ma’am,” Aspen replied with a little laugh. “And paint swatches?”

“We can eat at my place. I’ll wrap your ankle in ice, and we can look.”

“Deal,” Aspen told her.

“But you’re helping me paint next week if I get something picked out.”

“Deal again,” she said.

Aspen knew they needed to talk, but this part – this trying to figure out if they were more or if they ever would be – was filled with so much excitement and anticipation, that she almost didn’t want to ruin it by speaking her feelings out loud. Only almost, though, because not talking about it meant she couldn’t yet kiss Kendra or do something more, and she really wanted to do the something more.