August 26th
A little corny.
Damon
When Chase and I get home tonight, Dani and Ainsley are nowhere to be found.
“I wonder where they went,” Chase says after double-checking both his condo and the One Eleven office space.
“Did you let Dani know we were headed this way?” I ask him.
“No. Thought I would surprise her with being home early.”
“Looks like it’s us who got surprised,” I say with a sardonic chuckle, feeling a little let down as I grab my phone out of my backpack and text her.
Me: Hey, where are you?
Champ: That all depends. Where are you?
And I don’t know why exactly—probably because I can hear her flirty voice saying it—but her text instantly turns me on.
Me: At home.
Champ: Oh!!! You’re so early! Yay! We’re up on the roof!!
“They’re upstairs,” I tell Chase, who is digging through his backpack, still looking for his phone. “And it’s in your jacket pocket.”
“Thanks,” he says, finding it.
I head up to the rooftop deck. The girls are sitting there, drinking out of champagne glasses. Ainsley stands up and rushes toward me, lips first.
After a long kiss, I ask her, “Day drinking?”
“Well, technically, it would be evening drinking. It is after six. Either way, I love seeing your face so much earlier than yesterday.”
“Since we head to Cincinnati tomorrow, practice was a little shorter.”
“That makes sense,” she says.
“We’re sitting up here because it’s unseasonably cool,” Dani adds. “We have some dinner options, but does anything sound good?”
“Since it’s nice, why don’t I grill everything up here?” Chase offers. “Maybe some chicken and veggies. We could throw some rice in the cooker?”
“That sounds perfect,” Dani says while Ainsley nods in agreement. But then Dani looks at me and goes, “What did you do to your eye?”
Chase starts laughing. I punch him in the arm.
Ainsley raises her hand like she’s in a classroom and says, “Um, I might have caused that. I accidentally elbowed him.”
“In bed!” Chase hoots. He thinks it’s hilarious and has been giving me shit about it all day.
Dani is still laughing. “The best part is, you match!”
“Yeah, we know,” I say.
“Must have been some night,” Chase teases.
“It actually was,” Ainsley says boldly. And seriously. Quickly shutting him down.
“Wanna go play a round of pool before dinner?” I ask Ainsley.
“I’d be careful,” Dani says. “Those sticks can be dangerous.”
As we’re walking down the stairs, Ainsley says softly, “I think your stick is the dangerous one.”
I slap her butt. “Wanna find out now?”
She stops and seems to consider it. “Do you?”
“I can wait until later if you can.”
“Actually, I can’t. It’s our last night, and you’re home early,” she says, pulling my shirt off and leaving the pool table in the dust.
We barely make it in the door before she has my back pinned against it, kissing me hard.
And it’s really hot.
Of course, I was turned on from the moment I read her text.
I pick her up, walk us over to the nearest chair, and sit down. She’s straddling me, wearing a flirty little dress. When I reach my hand underneath to strip off her underwear, I find none.
“Were you really sitting up there with no drawers on? How much day drinking were you doing?” I murmur into her neck as I kiss up it.
“I was waiting for you to get home so we could do this easily. And our day drinking was sparkling water.”
I don’t get a chance to reply because she pulls down my shorts, freeing what she wants, then glides on top of me.
“I wish I could come home to this every day,” I tell her, kissing her gently.
“We just have to get through this semester,” she says.
And the way she says it, there’s something in her voice, something different from the fact that she’ll miss me.
“Do you not think we can make it?” I ask, a lump forming in my throat.
She runs her hand through my hair. “I wasn’t sure before, to be honest. Which has nothing to do with what I want. I want more than anything for us to be together, always.”
“Always, like daily?” I ask, feeling vulnerable, almost afraid to know what she was thinking before. “Or like longer?”
“Damon …” she says.
Her eyes, which feel like they hold the answers to my universe, gaze into mine.
“What?”
“I love you. I want us to be together forever. But I was nervous about getting through the semester.”
“But you’re not now?”
“No. Dani showing me the facilities and explaining what you do each day really helped me. My mind won’t be thinking up things you could be doing because I know what’s really happening.
Now, I know things can happen—you know, after practice—but she told me about how important sleep is and your routines.
And I feel like I’m a part of it now, somehow. ”
I let out a sigh of relief. “I want to be yours forever.”
She gives me a kiss. “I want that too.” But then she gives me a smirk. “Although you might change your mind once I kick your ass at pool.”
“I’m pretty good,” I tell her. “Been playing since I was a kid.”
“Well then,” she says with a sly grin, “I wish you luck.”
We straighten our clothes and go back out to the common area and play a game of pool.
She wins.
Not once.
Not twice.
But three times.
And Chase thinks this is hilarious. “Getting beat up by your girlfriend in more ways than one. Whatever will this do to your ego?” He chuckles. “I’m a little scared it might mess with your game.”
When he says that, Ainsley’s eyes get huge. “Will it?” Her eyes are now moving frantically between me and Chase. Then she turns straight to me and says, “I just got lucky.”
I smirk at her and go, “Oh, I know.”
Which causes her sexy little mouth to drop open. And I know she’s thinking about sex earlier and not the game.
“I know your winning was just a fluke,” I reiterate.
She rolls her eyes and punches me in the shoulder. And she uses a little bit more force than a playful one.
And I like it.
I love that she’s competitive. That she’s not the kind of girl to just let me win because she doesn’t want to bruise my ego.
She’s going to be a great mom, I suddenly think. Then I shake my head, wondering where that thought just came from.
I don’t think my dad ever purposely let me win. He wanted me to push harder. Try harder. And in between, he taught me the skills to excel.
But as I look at Ainsley, I realize he taught me a lot more than about sports.
He taught me how to treat a woman with respect.
His and Jennifer’s relationship just oozes love.
It can be serious one minute and playful the next.
The funny thing is that when I first saw Ainsley, I couldn’t imagine any of that.
I didn’t know what it would be like. I was just drawn to her.
“You’re never going to mess with my game,” I say seriously to her.
“True,” Chase finally admits. “He does think pretty highly of himself.”
“I’m confident,” I tell him. “And you damn well know the difference.”
He just smiles and nods.
“You two seem more like brothers sometimes than friends,” Ainsley says with a laugh.
“We are brothers now,” I say, rolling my eyes.
Chase and Dani hold up their ring fingers and say in unison, “ ’Cause we’re married!”
After dinner, Ainsley and I go back to the coziness of my bed. I know I’ll get to see her next weekend, but I was bound and determined to make sure she wouldn’t be even remotely tempted by another man.
And now, I’m quite tired.
She’s snuggled up in my arms, and I’m ready to go to sleep when she jumps up and goes, “I almost forgot!”
I sit up in bed while she runs into the closet and comes back out, holding up a shopping bag.
She hands it to me, slides back into bed, and sits cross-legged in front of me.
Did I mention that she’s naked? And that I’m not so tired anymore?
“I got you something today. It’s a little corny though,” she says with a goofy smile.
I reach into the bag and pull out a pair of yellow socks that look like a cob of corn.
“They are sort of for good luck. At your game, you know.”
I laugh. “They certainly are corny.”