CHAPTER 24

“How’s the ankle?” Kendra asked.

“Fine, like I told you yesterday, too,” Aspen replied, sounding slightly irritated.

“You know people only ask because they care about you,” Kendra said. “And DJ, obviously.”

Aspen laughed a little and said, “I know. And I’m glad people care about me. I just had my mom and dad over for dinner last night, and I was planning on cooking for them, but my mom literally brought dinner with her. My dad had a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine, and my mom made a salad and her veggie lasagna, and she also brought dessert, which was a store-bought cherry pie, which she told me she felt bad that she had to buy because she only had time to make the lasagna.” Aspen shook her head. “She told me she didn’t want me up cooking. I reminded her that I was fine. Plus, DJ keeps asking, and I understand why – it’s her career, too. Then, I’ve got trainers and people asking me on social media. I also had a meeting yesterday with one of my sponsors, and their first question wasn’t about how I was doing in general. There was a handshake, and then they flat-out asked how my ankle was; because if I don’t make the Olympic Team, they can’t air all the commercials they want me to shoot for them. I mean, I get it; I do. It’s just also exhausting to have to answer the same question over and over again.”

“Can I be honest with you?” Kendra asked as she set a bottle of sparkling water, that she’d bought specifically because she knew Aspen liked the brand, down on the kitchen counter.

“Yes, please do.” Aspen slid the bottle over toward herself but didn’t pick it up.

“I want you back on the court as much as the next person because I love watching you play – you work hard, and you also have a natural gift that most athletes would kill for – but it’s more than that for me. I know playing makes you happy. It’s part of you, like the beach is. I know how it feels to grow up in the sand and only want to do that one thing for as long as you can, and I know that’s in you, too. So, I want you to be okay because I know how happy volleyball makes you, not because I’m your partner on the beach and need you to help me win or because I’m trying to make money off of you. I see you smile when you’re out there, even at practice or when you’re in your backyard and you think no one’s around and you’re trying to hit spots on some board. You love this more than anything else, and I want you to have your dreams come true, Aspen. When I ask how your ankle is, it’s because of that.”

Aspen nodded and gave Kendra a small smile.

“That means a lot to me,” she said after a moment. “Did you buy this just for me? I don’t remember you having this the last time I was here.” Aspen held up the bottle.

“I might have gone shopping knowing that you’d be helping me paint this week, and I wanted you to have something to drink that you liked.”

“You didn’t have to do that. I’m not too good for tap water.”

“Consider it part of your payment for the help, then,” she suggested.

“Part of?” Aspen asked, sounding kind of hopeful.

Kendra almost told her that she could have payment in other ways, but in that moment, looking at Aspen, making a joke like that didn’t feel quite right. If and when they finally acknowledged this, it wouldn’t be a joke to her, and likely, not to Aspen.

“I’m cooking you dinner tonight, too. I’ve got steaks, and I bought a few different side options because I didn’t know what you’d want. I can make a salad, but I also have asparagus that I can grill, potatoes that I can bake, and I was going to make this bourbon sauce for the steak that my dad made for me a few times. It’s really good. Interested?”

“Very,” Aspen replied. “Now, what colors did you end up choosing after we narrowed it down?”

“You really shouldn’t have let me go to the hardware store alone…” Kendra told her with a little laugh and then moved into the living room, where she pointed.

Aspen followed and said, “What the…”

“I couldn’t decide, so I just bought all of them.”

“There are, like, fifteen gallons of paint here, Kendra.”

“Yeah, but I have more rooms to paint in this house, so they’ll all get used, at least. I got two gallons of a dark-green because I wanted to paint the long wall in that, and it might take two coats. I also got that off-white, eggshell color for the other wall, but I couldn’t decide at first, so I asked them to just give me everything I liked.”

“Holy shit.” Aspen laughed. “Well, I guess we have a lot of work to do.”

“I probably wouldn’t have spent so much money on paint had you been there with me. You can just decide like that.” Kendra snapped her fingers to demonstrate her point. “And I just start thinking about the fact that once I paint it, it’s on the wall, and I have to live with it.”

“Or, you just repaint it,” Aspen suggested. “If you don’t end up liking it, you just pick a new color and paint over it, Kendra. It doesn’t have to be that big of a deal. Where is that blue color going?”

“It’s some version of indigo, actually. Intense Indigo is the name. I mainly got it as a joke. It’s pretty dark. I don’t even know where I’d put it.”

“It would look really good in my room, actually.”

“Huh?” Kendra looked over at her.

“I’ve wanted to paint a dark accent wall behind my bed for a while. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I thought I would when the season was over last year, but then I didn’t.”

“Do you want it? You can have it,” Kendra offered.

“Why don’t we do something first?”

“What?”

Aspen turned and took her by the shoulders, turning Kendra to face her.

“Close your eyes.”

“What?” Kendra chuckled.

“Close your eyes. Trust me.”

Kendra did trust her, but she didn’t like not knowing what was about to happen next. She swallowed as she stared into Aspen’s hazel eyes. Then, she closed her own and took a deep breath, trying to prepare for anything.

“Dark-green in the dining room, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Eggshell for the living room?”

“Yes.”

“Kitchen?”

“I’d have to change the backsplash, but I really like that pale-purple for the kitchen.”

“Your bedroom?”

“The soft green, with maybe the same dark-green from out here as an accent or for the molding, at least.”

“Your bathroom.”

“I–” Kendra opened her eyes. “I got a different blue for that.” She pointed down at the can she hadn’t realized that she’d picked for that bathroom.

“Do I need to go on, or did you just decide where all the paint goes?”

Kendra laughed a little, and her head, on instinct, went to Aspen’s chest. Aspen’s arms wrapped around her, and Kendra stood there, not wanting to move, as Aspen held her.

“It’s really not that hard. The decision is usually buried in there somewhere. You just have to pull it out. Like, if you weren’t sure what you wanted to have for dinner tonight, and you told me to pick between those steaks you still got to cook for us or ordering in Italian or something, the moment I said steaks, you’d either be happy about that, or you’d be sad or upset that I didn’t pick Italian. Then, you’d know what you wanted all along.”

Kendra looked up at her. They were so close to each other. Thinking back, this might be the closest she’d ever been to Aspen. Maybe that time when she brushed hair out of Aspen’s face and called her ‘babe’ while Aspen slept, but no, her lips weren’t as close to Aspen’s as they were now. She could lean in, kiss her sweetly, and let Aspen decide if she wanted to continue it. Aspen looked down at the paint cans, though, which pulled Kendra out of the moment.

“Do you want to start in the dining room or the living room?” Aspen asked.

“Wherever,” she said.

“No, you decide.” Aspen tickled her sides.

Kendra laughed and pulled away.

“Fine. Dining room.”

“Good. Is the tarp and stuff still in the garage?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll get it.”

When Aspen left, Kendra tried not to think about what had just happened because she’d been so close to making a quick decision, which she rarely did. She also thought Aspen was on the same page, but the woman had tickled Kendra instead, which, under different circumstances, would’ve been amazing, but when Kendra was about to finally show Aspen how she felt, it wasn’t great.

◆◆◆

“I have practice tomorrow morning, but I can come over after, and we can finish the living room,” Aspen told her as she helped Kendra set the table outside.

“Are you sure? You’ve got a tourney this weekend, Aspen. Maybe you should take it easy. Painting involves a lot of standing.”

“I took breaks today, so I’m fine, but I’ll put ice on my whole body when I get home, if it makes you feel better.”

“Your–” Kendra stopped herself at the image of a very naked Aspen lying in bed, with ice covering some parts but leaving others very much visible. “Maybe just your ankle.”

“I will do that,” Aspen replied and looked over at the grill. “Are they done? Need me to get a plate?”

“Yeah, sure. They’re in the–”

“Top cabinet by the stove; I know.” Aspen winked at her and walked back inside the house.

Kendra turned to the grill and pulled open the lid.

“She knows where everything is in your house, but you’re not dating. Just talk to her, idiot,” she muttered to herself. “Hi, Aspen. I feel a thing. Do you feel a thing? Can we maybe feel each other? There could be a wall, a floor, a bed, literally anywhere.”

“Here you go,” Aspen said.

Kendra turned around quickly and probably looked like she’d just been caught.

“What?” Aspen asked, laughing a little at Kendra’s shocked expression.

“You just… startled me.”

“You didn’t know I was coming right back out here?”

Kendra cleared her throat and said, “Um… Can you get me a glass of wine? And maybe one for yourself, too, if you’re drinking tonight?”

“I’ll have a glass with you tonight,” Aspen said. “Be right back. So, don’t get startled again, okay?”

Kendra took the plate for the steaks and watched Aspen head back inside the house. She put the steaks on the plate to rest and went to deal with the corn Aspen had chosen as a side dish, which made Kendra happy because she loved grilled corn. This would be the first meal she’d share with someone on her back patio in her new home, and there was something fitting about it being one she’d share with Aspen, who had spent the entirety of her one day off helping Kendra paint her dining room and living room.

They’d gotten one coat down in each room and had then gone around and painted small sections of the walls in other rooms with the different colors to let them dry. That would allow Kendra to double-check her color choices, but Aspen had also suggested she do that because it would force her to finish painting the house, or she’d be stuck staring at random circles of different colors on her walls. Then, Aspen had offered to help Kendra paint everything whenever she could.

Kendra hadn’t used Intense Indigo anywhere in her house. She planned to give that one to Aspen, and she’d offer to help paint that wall in Aspen’s bedroom with her. When Aspen had mentioned wanting to use indigo as a base color and maybe stencil on some beach mural, Kendra had thought that it would look amazing, so she’d asked Aspen why she hadn’t done it yet.

“Well, I was hoping to have someone share that room with me at some point, even if we don’t live there forever, and I was worried that someone else might not like it. Is it cheesy to be an adult with a mural in your bedroom? Of the beach, no less, when the beach is kind of right outside our doors?” she’d offered.

“No, not if it’s what you want in your own bedroom. And if you have someone there who doesn’t like that, and you move in together one day, you just compromise then, maybe. But until then, it’s your room, your choice. I bet it’ll look great, though,” she’d replied in support.

Aspen carried their wine and a few more things out of the house, and it was finally time to eat their well-earned dinner.

“To you,” Aspen said, holding up her wineglass in a toast.

“Me? Why?”

“Because you’re making this place your own, you’re making decisions, and maybe, probably, an amazing dinner on top of all of that.”

Kendra smiled and replied, “You helped, so maybe we should toast to you, too, then.”

“We could just toast to us. Simpler that way,” Aspen suggested.

“Okay.” Kendra held up her glass. “To us, then.”

“Yeah,” Aspen let out, and there was something on her face that told Kendra that she didn’t need to worry about the almost kiss earlier.

This was a moment she’d probably remember forever: when they clinked glasses and weren’t calling tonight a date, but in every other way, it was one. That would be okay for now because Kendra hadn’t ever thought this was possible months ago, and now, it felt inevitable that they’d do this and call it a date one day soon.

“So, want to come to practice tomorrow?” Aspen said after she took a sip of her wine and set down her glass.

“Shouldn’t you and DJ be focusing and not having distractions?”

“You’re not a distraction; you’re very helpful. Well, I… I mean, you are distracting, at times, but… I don’t mean…” Aspen shook her head at herself. “I just meant that you are, but, like, in a good way.”

“I’m distracting in a good way?” Kendra teased the newly nervous Aspen Ashley sitting in front of her.

“Well, there are always distractions in a match that we have to avoid, right? So, like that. It’s good to have some in practice, too.”

“Oh, that’s how?” Kendra teased again. “How’s your steak, Aspen?”

“My what?” Aspen looked down at the food she hadn’t yet touched. “Oh, I haven’t had any of it yet.”

Aspen was incredibly adorable when she was nervous, and Kendra wanted to make her blush like that, with the sun setting around them, as often as possible for as long as she possibly could.