CHAPTER 4

Aspen, apparently, walked outside and around her house in her bikini, which was going to be a problem for Kendra. How had she moved next door to Aspen Ashley? It was true that she’d done a lot of research on the house and the neighborhood, so she had noticed the sand in the backyard of Aspen’s house, but she hadn’t expected Aspen to be the one living in it. How had she managed to move into the house right next to Aspen’s, the woman she had always had a little bit of a crush on?

Seeing Aspen in that backyard, holding a volleyball and wearing not much of anything, had been enough for Kendra to almost get caught staring, but she was pretty sure she’d averted her gaze before Aspen noticed. She’d gone over there for that coffee, thinking she should because she’d been invited, but also because her coffee maker had still been in a box, her actual coffee had been in another box, and she’d had to wake up early to get the movers started, so she hadn’t had any. When she’d gotten there, though, seeing Aspen, yet again, in next to nothing, despite having seen her in that same look repeatedly for years, seemed wrong in the new context. Aspen was her neighbor now. She was also someone Kendra would have to interview again, so she felt like she should keep those two things separate.

At the moment, Kendra was on her way to a match for the AAWVL, the professional women’s league for indoor volleyball that now had sixteen teams. One of those teams was in Nebraska, where Kendra had to go to cover the event for the network. This was one of four matches they were airing in an effort to promote more women’s sports. While Kendra loved volleyball and had been looking forward to covering the league, the timing was off. She’d just started unpacking. Sure, it had been her life for a long time now that she always had a flight to catch, but as much as she wanted to keep highlighting women’s sports, Kendra also wanted to have time to unpack her new house.

“Wyatt, hey,” she greeted when she saw Wyatt Wicked, the co-commentator for the match.

Wyatt had been one of the first players in the league, had also been named the best volleyball player in history, had just about every award in the sport, and was still the most recognizable face in it, even though she’d retired five years ago. She had recently started a job for the league, commentating on matches, and she’d suggested that Kendra not only sideline report but commentate alongside her due to her experience with the sport.

“Hey, Kendra,” Wyatt said with a smile as she handed the toddler she was holding to her wife.

“Hey, Everly,” Kendra added when she approached.

“How have you been?”

“Good. You two?”

“We’re good,” Everly, the now very well-known sports psychologist who had written a book that had been on the best-seller list, replied. “Can you say hi to Kendra, baby?” she asked her daughter.

“Hi, Ken-duh,” the little girl said to her, substituting the sounds in Kendra’s name she couldn’t pronounce yet.

“So close,” Wyatt said with a little laugh.

“She’s two,” Everly replied. “She’ll get there.”

“Hi, Julia. How are you?” Kendra asked, tickling her tummy.

Julia giggled and turned her face away from Kendra.

“She’s still shy,” Wyatt said, rubbing her daughter’s back.

“That’s okay. I was shy when I was her age, too,” Kendra replied.

“I’m going to take her to the babysitter and come back after,” Everly said to Wyatt.

“Okay.” Wyatt leaned in and kissed her wife. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“I love you, baby,” Wyatt added and kissed Julia on her temple.

“Bye, Mama,” Julia replied.

“I’ll see you two in a couple of hours,” Everly added to both Wyatt and Kendra, referring to the drinks-after-the-match plan they’d made prior to this since they didn’t get to see each other all that often.

“Sounds good,” Kendra replied.

“So, you ready?” Wyatt turned to Kendra when Everly walked off.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

They got set up in their booth and began their pre-game discussion of the teams’ records, top players, coaches, and possible outcomes of the match. Then, it started.

Kendra thought that she and Wyatt had a good back-and-forth. They gave each other space to make their points, didn’t interrupt, and had some laughs while offering insight and analysis that, Kendra hoped, was approachable to those who didn’t know the game very well.

“Ev is back without the kiddo. Want to head out for that drink? It’s been a while since we could hang out like this.”

“Sure. Do you know where we’re going?”

“There’s a place we go to whenever we’re in town. Great margaritas.”

They walked over toward Everly, whom Wyatt kissed, and Kendra couldn’t help but be a little jealous. She wasn’t sure exactly how long they’d been together, but she’d gotten the story of how they’d met, gotten engaged – although, everyone knew that story because Wyatt had proposed on television right after winning the Olympic gold medal – a little about their wedding, and some of their struggles with getting pregnant until little Julia came along.

“So, who is Julia with? You don’t live here. How do you have a babysitter here?” Kendra asked as they sat down in a booth.

“The coach’s daughter is in college at Nebraska. She watches Julia for us the couple of times a year we’re here, if we need her to,” Wyatt explained.

“That works out well.”

“We’ve pretty much got a babysitter in any of the league towns,” Wyatt said. “We rarely actually use them, but they’re there when we want to hang out with a friend we haven’t seen in a while.”

“We all live in LA now since we moved back from San Diego when I got the job at USC, but we never see each other there,” Everly added as Wyatt wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Because she’s always traveling,” Wyatt pointed out, nodding at Kendra.

“It’s the job,” she replied with a shrug.

“Hey, how have you been since… you know?” Everly checked.

“Since my girlfriend of two years dumped me?” Kendra finished for her. “Good. It’s been a few months, so I’m okay with it now.”

“She acted like you weren’t traveling for work when you two got together,” Wyatt huffed.

“It gets old for some people. I’m, unfortunately, used to it at this point. She’s the third one I’ve lost since college, specifically because I’m gone too much. I’m getting older, too, so… I’m guessing, the next woman I date, whenever that might be, will also have a problem with it eventually. They’re going to want to have someone at home with them, just like she did, and right now, I can’t do that. Did I tell you that she asked me to give this up and just work at a news station? Be an anchor there or something.”

“No, you didn’t,” Wyatt said.

“I don’t want to be a news anchor. I don’t even want to be a local reporter of any kind. I’ll admit that I’m tired of the travel myself. I think when she put that out there, and I knew I wasn’t willing to do that for her, knowing how tired of traveling I am, too, it made me realize that it wasn’t meant to be anyway.”

“What can I get you?” their waitress asked.

“Babe?” Wyatt asked Everly.

“Um…” Everly gave her wide eyes. “Water for me.”

“I’ll have a water, too,” Wyatt said.

“Waters? Am I the only one drinking?” Kendra asked. “We came here for margaritas, I thought. Maybe I should just have a water, too.”

“You can’t have a table if you’re just ordering water. Unless you’re getting food,” the waitress said abruptly. “Are you getting food?”

“Wyatt, get a drink. It’s fine,” Everly told her wife.

“No, it’s solidarity.” She looked up at the waitress. “Can I get a sparkling water?”

“She’ll have a margarita. I’ll have a sparkling water,” Everly said and put her hand on Wyatt’s thigh.

“I’ll have a margarita, too,” Kendra added.

“Great,” the clearly disinterested waitress replied and walked away.

“What is going on with you two?”

“Remember how it took us two years before we got pregnant with Julia?” Everly asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well, it only took about a year this time.” Everly pointed to her stomach.

“What? You’re pregnant again?”

“Yeah. About three months along, so I’ll start showing soon.”

“Congratulations, you two!”

“Thank you.” Everly chuckled and leaned into Wyatt. “We weren’t even going to try again. We had Julia and thought that was our family. We went through so much just to have her, you know? We felt so lucky. But about a year ago, we started talking about it again, and I thought we could try one more time. I’m at twelve weeks now, so we’re going to start telling people soon. We just wanted to be cautious because we had some issues with my last pregnancy, and I’m older now, obviously, and high-risk because of that and the issues I had before with Julia.”

“Is everything okay?”

“So far, so good,” Everly replied, and Wyatt pulled her in closer.

“That’s great news,” Kendra said. “I’m so happy for you. Julia’s going to be a big sister. Does she know?”

“No, we haven’t told her yet. We’re trying to make everything about her right now because we know she might struggle when we start doing stuff for the baby and when the baby comes home,” Everly said.

“Spoken like a true psychologist,” Kendra teased.

“She’s a genius. It’s why our kids are going to be super smart, too. Jules already is. She’s way ahead, according to the doctor. And she’s showing an interest in volleyball, too.”

“No, she’s not.” Everly shook her head at her wife.

“She played with that little one I gave her,” Wyatt argued.

“Because it’s a toy, babe, not because she’s going to be a pro volleyball player. She’s two. How about we let her be two for a while before we put her on a court?”

“She was on a court tonight,” Wyatt noted.

“Running around with one of the players’ kids and giggling a bunch, yeah; not exactly learning how to jump serve.” Everly laughed. “She was more interested in the tape from the trainer’s bag than she was about playing anything.”

“True; she loves the pink tape they pull out and give her to play with sometimes,” Wyatt added.

Their waitress arrived with their drinks and set them down without saying anything before she walked off.

“You come to this place a lot?” Kendra asked.

“A few times. I said the margaritas were good, not the service.” Wyatt held hers up. “Let’s toast to Julia getting a sibling, us having another baby, and to Kendra for moving on from her ex.”

“And to her new house,” Everly added, holding up her bottle of sparkling water.

“Cheers to that,” Kendra said, and they clinked glasses.

“How’s it going?” Everly asked.

“It’s a lot of work, and I’m here not doing it, so that’s bugging me a little. I want to be here, but it’s hard when I also want to be there. I have all these things I want to do. I’ve never owned a house before. It’s like I want to make all these changes, and I obviously can’t afford that right now, so I can only do a little at a time, but I can’t if I’m here working.” Kendra took a sip of her margarita. “You know Aspen Ashley, right?”

“Aspen? Yeah, sure,” Wyatt said. “Why?”

“She’s my new neighbor.”

“What?”

“I was moving in, and there she was, in her backyard made of sand, rocking a sports bra with bikini bottoms and preparing to get some training in.”

“She has a backyard made of sand?” Everly asked.

“Yes. I noticed it when I was looking at the house, and it didn’t bother me or anything, but I didn’t know the house was hers.”

“Do you not like her or something? Aspen’s cool, I thought,” Wyatt said.

“No, it’s not that. I like her. I don’t really know her, but she’s nice.”

“O-k-a-y…” Everly prompted.

“It’s just a little strange.”

“Why?”

“Kind of like bringing my work home with me. I’ve interviewed her before and after matches, and now, she lives next door to me.”

“You don’t have to be the kind of neighbors who borrow cups of sugar, if you don’t want to,” Wyatt suggested. “Does she even know you live there now?”

“Yeah, she saw me. We talked a little. She invited me over for coffee; said it was an open invitation.”

“So, you feel obligated or something?” Everly asked.

“No, but yes. I don’t want her to think I’m rude. I need her to be okay during interviews. She’s the face of beach volleyball right now. DJ is fine, but she doesn’t have the TV presence Aspen has, and she also doesn’t really like doing interviews. Aspen doesn’t seem to mind them.”

“She’s good on camera; I’ll give you that. It doesn’t hurt that she’s got those Hollywood-actress looks.”

“Excuse me?” Everly asked her wife.

“Stating a fact, Ev. I love you and your looks. In fact, I think I showed you how much just–”

“She doesn’t need to know that,” Everly interrupted.

“She’s right,” Kendra agreed with a smile. “Glad to see that two people can still be so in love after being together for years. What’s that like? I wouldn’t know.”

“Pretty great,” Wyatt said. “When we get back to the hotel tonight, Julia will fall asleep between us on the bed, somehow take up more room than both of us combined, and I’ll just stare at her, thinking about how much she looks like Ev and how lucky I am to have both of them and this little one now, too.” Wyatt placed her hand on Everly’s stomach. “To love, be in love, and like the person you’re with is something to be grateful for. And I am.”

“Okay. I’m not mad at you about the whole Aspen thing now,” Everly said, teasing her wife before Wyatt leaned down and kissed her.

Kendra looked away in that moment and wished she had someone talking about her like Wyatt always talked about Everly. Then, she pictured Aspen in that bikini bottoms and sports bra combo and promptly drank half her margarita.