CHAPTER 28

Kendra wished, yet again, that she could be there to support Aspen and DJ in person. Instead, she was covering another NWSL game and two more after that. She loved women’s soccer, but her brain couldn’t focus on it, not when Aspen was playing important international volleyball matches and was struggling with her partner.

Their match against the Brazilian number one team was at six in the morning Kendra’s time, and since she didn’t have to be at the field until noon, she had more than enough time to watch the match on her laptop first, shower, eat breakfast, and then head out for work. It meant that she’d gotten little sleep because her flight had been late getting in, and the ride from the airport to the hotel had been about an hour, thanks to a car accident on the highway, but it would be worth it, she hoped. Kendra powered up her computer and opened her browser, finding the streaming site before she even got up to pee. When she got back to the bed, she settled the computer in her lap and waited for it to start. She yawned a few times as she checked her email, but as soon as she heard the opening music, indicating that the match was about to begin, she toggled over to the other browser tab and sat up straight.

Since it was streaming, they hadn’t covered the player warm-ups and weren’t showing the intros, so it went straight into the match. The Brazilians had the first serve, and Kendra tried to check Aspen and DJ’s body language. Had they made up? Were they okay? She and Aspen hadn’t gotten a chance to talk again, outside of a few text messages where Aspen had been pretty vague, and Kendra hadn’t wanted to press and stress Aspen out the night before a big match.

DJ had a great kill off a good set from Aspen, and Kendra watched them slap hands in the middle of the court and say something to each other. DJ smiled, which made Kendra feel a little better. Ten minutes later, Aspen and DJ were up by one point. Kendra didn’t typically bite her nails, but she was now. This was the opening match, and it had been decided by a draw, so while the TV network would have wanted this to be the final to get the most viewers on the two world-class teams, they wouldn’t get it this time. It was a single-elimination tournament, so in the first match of the event, one of them would be out.

Brazil came back with an excellent serve that DJ couldn’t get to, and they ended up with nineteen points to Aspen and DJ’s eighteen. Kendra worried they were about to lose the first set, but Aspen surprised her when they got the serve. When she should’ve been aiming for something to just go over the net for safety, Aspen didn’t do that at all. She swung hard, and that serve went right between the two Brazilians.

“When in a fiddle, go down the middle,” Kendra said to herself, using the common phrase in beach volleyball that talked about confusing the two players by serving between them instead of at them.

It was now tied at nineteen, with Aspen still at the line. Aspen checked DJ’s hand signal and nodded more to herself than to DJ, who was looking across the net at the other team. Then, she served a tough floater that curved in the wind and landed in the sand, earning her a second ace in a row. They now had set point, and Kendra held up her arms, nearly knocking over her laptop, which she grabbed quickly. The pro-Brazil crowd went silent, probably not expecting this, given how well their team had played. Aspen blew out a breath and spun the ball in her hand.

“Come on, babe,” Kendra said out loud to no one and liked the idea of getting to call Aspen that.

She also liked that Aspen was taking whatever they were doing seriously because she wanted to take it seriously, too. She worried that she might have turned Aspen off a little on their call when she’d told her that they needed to talk prior to them going any further, and she didn’t want to bring it up, but the reality was that Aspen didn’t know how the scar on Kendra’s chest impacted her love life.

The travel part was also a problem for the women of her past, and she knew Aspen understood what it meant to travel for work and that, in some cases, they’d get lucky because they’d be traveling to the same places, but Rio was a perfect example of a time when they couldn’t be together. There would be more times like this in their future, where they would have to go weeks without seeing each other, depending on their schedules and how they lined up, so they’d have to talk about how they wanted to handle that, but Kendra’s biggest worry was about the fact that she didn’t want anyone seeing her naked.

Her shirt not coming off during sex had been an issue before, and not showering with her romantic partners had occasionally been a problem as well. Maybe her ex suggesting she go to therapy about it was a good idea, but Kendra hadn’t been ready to hear it. She’d heard Aspen call her beautiful. She knew in her heart that Aspen wouldn’t be bothered by her scar, but every time she pictured them getting intimate, imaginary Aspen would reach for Kendra’s shirt to pull it off, and Kendra would stop her. Not wanting things to go too far first, she’d decided to talk to the woman instead before they did anything like that. If Aspen had a problem with it, they’d have to talk about it, and Kendra might have to say goodbye to the only person she’d felt this strongly about in years.

“Maybe ever,” she let out.

Aspen served the ball, and Brazil returned it over the net. Aspen was there to pass it up to DJ, who set her for the kill. Aspen swung, but it was blocked. She was able to pass it to DJ, though, and Kendra watched DJ turn her head to see where the other Brazilian player was before she tapped it over and earned them the set point.

“Hell, yeah!” Kendra’s arms went up again, but this time, she managed not to nearly drop her computer.

The feed went dark between sets, so she got up and started making a cup of coffee on the in-room coffee maker. By the time she was back in front of her computer, the match had restarted. She watched Aspen and DJ score the first four points before they finally lost the serve. Then, she watched them win it back again and again, and when they won the second set and the match as a result, Kendra breathed a huge sigh of relief. This was a big win for them, and it made the rest of the tournament seem like it was going to be easy by comparison.

Kendra got out of bed, carrying her coffee to the bathroom, where she showered, and as she was searching through the clothes she’d hung up for what she wanted to wear, her phone dinged, and she rushed to check it.

Aspen Ashley: Were you able to watch?

Kendra sat on the bed, smiled, and typed back.

Kendra Bowie: I did. Congrats! You killed it.

Aspen Ashley: Thanks. Your advice helped, by the way. I know we couldn’t talk much last night, but I wanted you to know that DJ and I talked. We’re good. We were both exhausted and worried about this match, but we’re okay now. Thank you.

Kendra Bowie: I’m glad. What are you up to today now that the match is out of the way?

Aspen Ashley: Massage right now. Ice after. Then, food. I’m starving, but I want to get treatment on my back. It’s fine. Don’t freak out. They have a really good masseuse here, though, so I want her to work on it. She was working on my leg earlier because I mentioned that my ankle had been hurt, and she suggested she help the calf and thigh to support it better. It was amazing, so I want to see if she can work on my lower back, too.

Kendra sucked air between her teeth at the thought of another woman having her hands on Aspen’s body.

“You’re being ridiculous. She’s a professional athlete getting treatment. It’s part of her job,” she told herself.

Aspen Ashley: You still there? Am I interrupting you at work?

Kendra Bowie: I’m here. Sorry. I’m just getting dressed.

She waited and hoped she’d accomplished her goal.

Aspen Ashley: Dressed? As in… you’re not dressed right now?

Kendra laughed. Yes, she’d accomplished her goal.

Kendra Bowie: I just got out of the shower. I’m in a towel.

Aspen Ashley: Pic, or it didn’t happen.

Kendra laughed far too loudly for it being before eight in the morning and looked down. The towel mostly covered her scar, but the top part of it was sticking out a little.

“She’s already seen it anyway. It’s fine,” she muttered to herself.

Kendra took a deep breath, angled the phone just so, and snapped a photo, figuring that she could always delete it and not send it. She looked at it, zooming in on the area around her collarbones and looking at the inch of exposed pink between her breasts.

“It’s okay,” she said and nodded at no one. “It’s okay.”

She hit send before she could stop herself and stared at her messages, waiting. She now wished she hadn’t sent it. Then, she smiled at herself because she had, before she thought better of it again and considered deleting it from the messages in the hopes that Aspen hadn’t seen it. When the three bubbles appeared, it was too late.

Aspen Ashley: God, you’re gorgeous. I miss you, babe. Can I make this picture my phone screensaver?

Kendra laughed and typed.

Kendra Bowie: No way. I’m in a towel, and my hair is wet.

Aspen Ashley: Fine. Send me one where you’re fully clothed, if you want. But your hair being wet and all tossed around like that is sexy to me. If you must, put on actual clothes, but keep your hair like that.

Kendra smiled softly because Aspen thought she was sexy.

Kendra Bowie: I’ll think about it. This masseuse… Is she… like you and me by chance?

Aspen Ashley: A beach volleyball fan?

Kendra sucked that air through her front teeth again.

Aspen Ashley: I don’t think she’s a volleyball fan, no. I think she’s a fan of the trainer Team USA brought with us; a guy named Tim, who actually speaks a little Portuguese. They talked throughout my whole first massage in a combination of the two languages, and based on what I understood, I think they’re going out soon. So, no, not a volleyball fan.

Kendra Bowie: Well, I am a volleyball fan,and I’m also a fan of yours.

Aspen Ashley: I’ll make sure to mention to her that I have a fan at home, then. And she’s a professional, so her hands will be focused solely on making sure I can play well in the next match tomorrow; I promise.

Kendra Bowie: I have to get ready for work now. Can you maybe text later? Or call, if you can? I’d love to hear your voice today. I miss you, too, by the way.

When she didn’t get a response right away, Kendra thought Aspen might have gotten to the treatment tent and would reply later, but before she could toss her phone on the bed, she had a ding. It wasn’t just a text, either. It was a video message.

“Hey, babe. I will call you later tonight. DJ is in her own room, so we can talk as much as you want. And you have nothing to worry about, okay? I just wanted to make that part clear. I’ll call you later, beautiful. If you want to FaceTime then, we can. I’d love to see you.” Aspen smiled at her before the camera turned.

“Hey, Kendra!” DJ waved at her. “She misses you and is a big sap because of it.”

“Shut up,” Aspen said, laughed, and the video stopped.

Kendra laughed and decided to send a video message back.

“I like that you’re freely calling me ‘babe’ now, but I thought we were supposed to wait until after we talked and one of us asked the other out finally for that. Don’t stop, though. Just to be clear: I don’t want you to stop. Tell DJ I said hi. And we can FaceTime later. Congrats on the win. I’m really proud of you, Aspen. You’re amazing.”

She hit send, looked down, and realized that her towel had shifted. Her breasts hadn’t been on camera or anything, but her scar had been more exposed, so she went to delete the message because she wasn’t ready for Aspen to see that much of it. Even when she’d pulled down her shirt on the beach that day, it had only been for a second, and it had taken about that long for Aspen to look down. Kendra knew that Aspen hadn’t really seen much, but in a video that lasted several seconds, she would be seeing a lot more of it. Aspen was already typing, though, and Kendra’s heart was pounding in her chest, waiting on the message.

Aspen Ashley: I can’t wait to see you. So, I’ll call you later so that I can at least see your face on camera. Have a good day, BABE.

The word ‘babe’ was in all capital letters, and Kendra smiled, letting out a sigh of relief. Then, she stood and let the towel drop to the floor before she walked to the floor-length mirror that was opposite the bathroom and took in her body, which she rarely did because she couldn’t stand looking at it. She forced herself to examine the scar that really had faded a lot since her surgery about ten years ago. She supposed she’d failed to notice that due to her trying to avoid looking directly at it. Kendra ran her fingertip over it and felt the small bumps that were still there, wondering how Aspen would feel doing the same thing. Would she be disgusted? Worried about hurting Kendra? Would she just be Aspen?

“She thinks you’re beautiful,” she reminded herself. “She said she thought all of you was beautiful.”