Chapter 19
First kill: When you’re such hot shit that you let the other team serve first, so you can score your first point off of a hit.
Vivienne was almost naked when Jess and Tania arrived in the locker room.
She had her black-and-gold bikini bottom in place and was just pulling the top on.
Jess dropped her gaze, but not before she got a good eyeful, the image stark in her brain—Vivienne’s muscles rippling under her tattoo, and her gently sloping breast and dark nipple. …
“Oh, hey,” Vivienne said once her top was secured.
“Hey,” Jess said, trying to shake certain thoughts out of her mind.
“Hey, Viv.” Tania dumped her bag on a bench. “Ready to lose today?”
Vivienne pulled her hair back for a ponytail. “Someone’s feeling confident.”
Tania didn’t reply, or least Jess didn’t hear her, because the outline of Vivienne’s nipple was still visible through the fabric. Jess’s pulse jumped as she pictured it again, the memory morphing into fantasy … what her fingers could do, what her tongue might find—
Tania chuckled and patted Jess’s shoulder. “Thankfully, she’s not as dumb as she acts sometimes.”
“Er, what?” Jess stammered, pressing cool fingers to her hot cheek.
Tania waved her hand. “The moment has passed us by, Button. Time to get your head in the game and out of … wherever it was.” She raised a meaningful eyebrow at Jess.
Jess’s face neared the temperature of the sun. “I’m fine. I’m…” She willed her eyes not to look at Vivienne. “… focused.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Vivienne picked up her bag and slid into her flip-flops. “Good luck, guys. I’ll see you out there.”
Jess stared hard at Tania so her gaze didn’t accidentally wander to Vivienne’s retreating curves. “Yup. Good luck.”
Tania’s expression was half concerned, half amused. “You okay? Your face is red.”
“Fine. Just … excited.”
“I’ll bet you are.”
“For the game!”
Tania snickered. “I have no doubt.”
Jess pressed her lips together and changed the subject, refusing to acknowledge what Tania was hinting at. “Did you see the cable van on the way in? Guess we’re televised.”
“Perfect.” Tania pulled her uniform out of her locker. “Some of my family couldn’t make it. And now we can watch our victory over and over again, as many times as we want.”
Jess let out a weak chuckle, but her stomach clenched.
Tania was certainly acting confident to the extreme, but did she really believe it?
Vivienne and Lee had set a SoCal VL record this season for win percentage.
Were they really going to lose the last game of the season to a team scrabbling for the playoffs?
She supposed they were about to find out.
Warm-up was bumpy. Jess’s stomach continued its dance, while a headache at the base of her skull started to bother her.
When Tania had the trainer over at their bench to massage her shoulder, Jess took a deep, calming breath. Just another game, Jess. It’s just another game.
Vivienne and Lee won the coin toss and chose to receive the first serve. This was a power move, for sure. Everyone always picked serve when they won the coin toss, but Vivienne and Lee were so confident that they wanted first kill instead.
“We choose the other side,” Tania responded.
Jess swallowed her chuckle. This call wasn’t so much a power move as it was a dick move.
Requesting a side switch to start the match was rarely done, unless forces of the sun or wind were significantly at play, but in the pavilion, neither was a major issue.
Tania just wanted to make them move their stuff to the other bench.
Lee laughed with a sarcastic bow. “Fine, Tania. Take your side.”
“Did you enjoy that?” Jess asked, settling onto their new bench.
Tania grinned. “I did, in fact. Now go make them pay for choosing to receive first.”
The ref blew her whistle to start the match. They took to the court and shook hands under the net.
Vivienne met Jess’s gaze and reached for her hand. “Good luck.”
Everything but Vivienne went blurry. The crowd vanished. The heat of the sun faded. Vivienne’s hand was elegant and smooth, nails shining black to match her uniform. Jess circled her thumb on the back of Vivienne’s soft hand without meaning to. “Good luck.”
Their eyes held another full second, until Tania smacked Jess’s butt. “Your serve, Button.”
The corner of Vivienne’s mouth twitched as they turned their backs on each other.
Jess marched to the back line, ball in hand.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them, she made eye contact with Vivienne again.
The tentative smile was gone. Now her smirk said “Let’s see what you got.
” Jess thumped the logo, tossed the ball in the air at the whistle, and sent a rocket jump serve over, spinning away from Vivienne.
For a fraction of a second, she thought Vivienne wasn’t going to step into it far enough, but she did.
Her pass wasn’t terrific, and neither was Lee’s resulting bump set.
Tania dug Vivienne’s easy hit no problem, a perfect rainbow pass to Jess, who gave her a great set. Tania wanted that first point and she didn’t hold back. She cranked one sharp cross past Lee’s block and it slammed into the sand before Vivienne could get there.
First point.
“Yes!” Tania roared. “Who’s got first kill now?”
Jess blocked Vivienne for the next point.
“Jess!” Tania crowed. “Hell yes!”
A spark in Jess’s gut caught fire.
And the flames grew. It turned out, Jess and Tania showed up with their best volleyball of the season.
Vivienne and Lee didn’t roll over, by any means, but their energy drained away point by point while Jess’s fire roared.
Lee called a time-out once they were down 9–6.
Vivienne’s body language was more irritated than anything as she made her way off the court.
“Holy fuck.” Tania squirted water over her head. Even for early October, it was still scorching hot in the direct sun.
Jess wiped her face with a towel. “Yeah.”
“Just keep going, Button. I’ve got a good feeling about this.”
Jess realized her nerves had vanished. Her headache had faded. She also had a very good feeling crackling inside of her.
And it continued. They won the first set 21–17.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Tania hissed to Jess on their way back to their bench, pumping her fist. “Yes.”
Jess hadn’t felt so alive in a long time. She was in the fucking zone. She felt like she couldn’t lose a volleyball game ever again.
Vivienne and Lee huddled close together at their bench, talking with lots of nodding and hand slapping.
“Okay, they are going to come out hard this game,” Tania said, wiping sweat from her brow. “We have to do whatever it takes to get the first point. We have to keep the momentum on our side.”
Of course Jess knew that. That was the thing about volleyball … momentum changed all the time.
And Vivienne and Lee came out flying. They were champions, after all. They hit harder, they served tougher, they ran faster.
Jess could get a block touch on Vivienne’s hit four times but not five. Tania dug her six times but not seven. Vivienne and Lee chipped at the momentum they had built, and, despite Jess’s best efforts to hold on, it slipped away one grain at a time, then a chunk, then an avalanche.
They lost 15–21.
“We know we can beat them. We just proved it.” Tania chewed her protein bar furiously. “They’re not robots, they can’t be perfect forever.”
Jess wasn’t sure which of them Tania was trying to convince.
Tania continued. “I want you to mess with Viv’s head again. Make her guess every time. Fuck with her as much as you can.”
“I’ll try.”
Tania glared at her.
“I mean, yes. I’ll do it.” She gave Tania five. “I believe in us. Let’s get this done.”
Vivienne and Lee looked like they had the same plan—determined and unrelenting—but at least they were sweaty, too. Lee adjusted her visor and slapped Vivienne’s butt in the most business-like way possible.
The third and deciding set began, with Jess and Tania’s season riding on it.
Lee blocked for the first point, then Jess returned the favor.
Tania dug an impossible ball, then Vivienne did, too.
Jess chased down a shank she never thought she’d get to, but she did.
It was one spectacular play after another, and the crowd ate it up.
They roared in equal measure for all good plays, and every play was good.
Jess did her best to mess with Vivienne’s head, moving her around the court as much as she could, trying to make her think one thing, then doing another.
It almost broke through Vivienne’s facade, almost. After she misread a dig and shanked it into the stands, she clenched her fist and might have muttered a swear word.
The game continued at an even keel until, tied at twelve, Tania missed her serve. Now down 12–13, she called a time-out.
“What’s up?” Jess asked.
Tania shook her head and found the tube she was looking for in the med kit. She squirted a dollop of ointment onto her shoulder and rubbed it in. The pungent smell tickled Jess’s nostrils, and worry tickled at her brain.
“Just wanted to make Viv think before her next serve,” Tania explained, without making eye contact.
Jess had to ask. “You sure your shoulder’s okay?”
“It’s fine. We need this side-out.”
Jess nodded and drank some more Gatorade. Tania didn’t need to tell her how crucial the next point was, and if she said she was fine … Jess had to trust her.
They went back out at the whistle. Vivienne walked slowly to the back line for her serve, head down. The sweat glimmered on her skin, limbs almost moving in slow motion as she caught the ball the linesperson tossed at her.
Jess waited, hands on her knees. The stands were quiet.
Vivienne drilled her serve at Tania, which was smart. She had no doubt seen Tania’s ministrations to her shoulder.