CHAPTER 14 BEN
Phase One of our offseason practices start soon, but since they’re voluntary, I’ll continue working with Tony, the trainer I’ve been working with since I moved to Vegas. And today that means endurance training.
Yesterday that’s what it meant, too, and I ended up sore as fuck after sparring for hours.
I’m still sore, but today it’s not boxing.
Today it’s sprint ladders…my least favorite of all the endurance workouts.
I start in the end zone, sprint to the ten-yard line, sprint back to the starting line, then to the twenty, back home, to the thirty, and so on, all the way down the field.
Then I do crunches before I do a ladder running the other way.
Rinse and repeat.
Running isn’t my preferred workout, but it gets the job done as it works to increase my endurance and stamina—two incredibly important traits every football player needs.
And they also happen to be important traits I take advantage of off the field quite frequently, too. Like in the bedroom, for example. Or in a dark corner of a nightclub.
Despite my exhaustion at the end of the day, my buddy who’s been working out with me badgers me into a night out.
Eric Scott is a tight end in his third year—all with the Aces—and while we didn’t have the greatest first meeting since I was coming in as the projected starter when I was traded from Chicago, we’ve become good friends over the last year.
He’s rounded up a few others to come with us, including Austin Graham, who is another Aces tight end, plus running back Jaxon Bryant, cornerback Patrick Harris, and wide receiver Cory Marshall, who are always up for a good time.
He asked Tristin Higgins, the wide receiver who’s stepping in for the fresh retiree Luke in our upcoming season, but Tristin’s going through a nasty divorce and he’s keeping a low profile.
Once the dust settles in another few months, though, that kid is going to be ready to take Vegas—and its women—by storm.
So I’m sitting at a bar on a Thursday evening with a handful of professional football players as they all chat up the honeys. I’m over here fending off women who I’m not interested in because there’s another chick I can’t seem to stop thinking about.
And that’s when a text happens to come through from an unknown number.
Unknown: Hey, Trouble. Every time I say OF MICE AND MEN in my classroom, I think of your hand under the table. And trust me when I say I mention that title at least ten times a day. Looking forward to Monday night.
I laugh out loud as I stare down at her text. I’ve been thinking about her all day, and now this.
I shake my head as I draft a text back to her.
Me: Who is this and how’d you get my number?
Me: Just kidding. I know who it is and I don’t care how you got my number. I can’t stop thinking about what I want for my turn on Monday.
Kaylee: I stole it out of Jack’s phone. What are you thinking for Monday?
I laugh at her honesty. I like it. It’s refreshing and real—something lacking in the chicks I usually communicate with.
Me: So many options. I don’t want to settle for a handy under the table when I could feel your mouth all over me. I think I might have to go with your mouth. [tongue out face emoji] [eggplant emoji] [fireworks emoji]
Kaylee: Maybe a little of each?
Me: [laughing emoji] Now that sounds like a good plan.
Kaylee: We haven’t even discussed the main event. Are we just casually skimming the surface or are you going to take a deep dive at some point? [eggplant emoji] [two finger peace sign emoji] [water droplets emoji]
Me: Are you sure I’m the one who should be nicknamed Trouble?
Kaylee: In all fairness, you started it.
Me: And I haven’t stopped thinking about it. You were so [water droplets emoji], Trouble.
Kaylee: Hey that’s your nickname. Your assignment is to come up with an original nickname for me.
Me: Ooh, getting all nasty teacher on me. I like it. Maybe you can boss me around in a tight skirt one of these days.
Kaylee: How does Monday sound?
Me: I might be busy taking a deep dive Monday, but we’ll work in a time.
Kaylee: Just to be clear since I know your reputation and I’d rather chew tin foil than have this discussion in person…it’s okay to do this, right?
My brows dip as I try to figure out what she means. Does she mean because of her brothers? She said my reputation, though. A light dawns.
Me: Yeah, we’re good. I don’t do the bareback thing ever, and I have regular physicals with the team.
Kaylee: Then I look forward to deep diving on Monday. [wink emoji]
Me: Me too.
It feels like a natural break in our conversation, and I don’t bother admitting even to myself that I hope I get to see her again before Monday.
And now I have an assignment. That’s fucking hot.
I’m thinking Sugar Tits. She’s got a nice pair. Or Peaches for her sweet, peachy ass. I recall what she looked like in that black bikini with the gold rings all over it.
I remember touching her hipbone in the middle of one of those rings.
Fuck.
I force my brain to focus on a random page of my playbook to calm the monster down. Some guys think of apple pie, some think of their dogs, but I think of my playbook when I need to relax a massive boner.
“What are you smiling at?” Eric asks me, pulling my focus from the playbook. He nods toward my phone. “And why are you rejecting all the gorgeous women asking for a chance to play?”
I shrug, trying to be casual before he lands on the reason. I’m too late.
“You got some secret side chick?” he asks, his tone accusatory.
Not exactly. I’d hardly call a one-time finger bang my side chick, and I refuse to admit it’s more than that with her.
It isn’t.
It can’t be and it won’t be.
Famous last words, right? Yada yada yada. It’s nothing. It’s just fun.
“Nah,” I say to Eric instead of any of what’s really in my head. “Just not up for it tonight, I guess. Sprint ladders today did me in.”
While it’s true that my workout was tough today, that’s never stopped me from hooking up in the past.
Still, though, I’m not going to tell Eric the real reason why I can’t seem to find anybody here very interesting. The guy I tend to have serious conversations with such as these is Jack, not Eric. But considering Kaylee’s his little sister, this just feels like something I need to keep to myself.
Maybe that’s part of the fun of it. It’s just for the two of us.
The thought of that sends a buzz of excitement through my chest, and just like that, I can’t wait for Monday to roll around again.