25. Rose
Rose
DO NOT ANSWER
Do you miss me?
She was sitting in the terminal at the airport early on Thursday morning with Preston’s latest taunt staring at her when her phone dinged. Kirin’s text lit up the screen, and she raised her brows at it.
Kirin
Good morning, beautiful.
The weight on her chest lifted as she pressed on his name and called him. Nobody was looking her way. Bridget was the closest teammate to her, and she was half asleep on the uncomfortable line of chairs.
He answered his phone with a muffled grunt that had her smiling while she reprimanded him, “Why are you awake?”
She could hear him rub a hand over his face. The rustling sound of his rolling over followed. “Because you’re about to get on a plane for four hours. Plus, I slept through my alarm at three.”
“You should be sleeping. Today is your busiest day this week,” she ordered. Today was his day to sleep past eight. Waking up to talk to her was a waste of much-needed rest. She tried to keep her voice soft. “It’ll be a more reasonable hour when I land. You should go back to sleep.”
“I’m good,” he groaned, while it sounded like he was stretching out. “I’ll go back to sleep when you board. I don’t have to see the training team until ten.”
She hummed, exhausted from her ninety minutes of sleep. At the same time a yawn crackled through the speaker. “We board in ten minutes. I guess they needed to check something again. I expect zero responses once I get in my seat.”
It was his turn to hum as if he were considering his options. “I’ll think about it. We didn’t really confirm it the other night, but do I get to call you my girlfriend now?”
An indelicate snort came out, and it earned a look from Laurel as she retook her seat beside Maya.
Rose wiggled a little lower in her seat, wedging the phone between her shoulder and her ear.
Looking out at the morning light working its way across the airport, she kept her voice low. “Weren’t you already doing that?”
It took a second for him to respond, and she waited, her eyes bouncing around the slumped figures of her teammates.
Most of them had their headphones on, arms crossed, and eyes closed.
The commonality was everyone trying to get a few more minutes of sleep between now and getting on their flight.
Bridget was still sprawled across several seats, her legs bent over the armrest. Laurel and Maya were using one another as pillows, their heads resting together, earphones in their ears.
Finally, Kirin’s voice came back through the phone. “Not really? I called you my girl—nothing official. Calling you that felt dishonest.”
She sucked in a breath, her body warming at the thought he wanted to mean it when he called someone his girlfriend. “That is annoyingly endearing.”
“I’m adorable,” he whispered, and she snorted again, quieter this time. “Stop dancing around it, Flower. Are we ‘going steady’?”
“You’ve spent too much time at that diner,” she answered, and he breathed out a laugh, “Don’t you think we should go on a date before we slap labels on things?”
That brought about another second of silence. “What do you think our visits to Rita’s and Happy Burger were? Or the lake? I don’t take just anyone to the best spots in town, you know.”
She took a beat to absorb that, then offered him a low hum. “Honestly? I thought that was schoolwork. Though in retrospect, we didn’t get much homework done. We can count the next one as date three.”
“Fair enough,” he reasoned. “I can make that work.”
Excitement buzzed along her skin as the gate agent stepped up and started boarding people. “Next week? I’ll be back early Monday morning.”
A disgruntled noise vibrated in her ear. “Homecoming is going to make next week nearly impossible. I don’t want to wait that long. But we’re going to miss one another with these damn travel schedules, which isn’t ideal. Guess we will have to wait until after Homecoming.”
“Agreed. It’s not exactly convenient. However, that’s what started this in the first place—our crazy schedules, right?
” she reminded him, and he sighed. A few rows away, Coach Spaulding got up, with Coach Hernandez following close behind as he talked on his phone.
The team started shuffling out of their seats a second later, and Rose reached over to nudge Bridget awake.
To Kirin she murmured, “We’re boarding. Go back to sleep. ”
“Has that fine ass touched the seat?” Kirin asked, and she could hear a brow rise with the question.
She stepped into line ahead of Laurel, who gave her a quick look, her eyes lingering on the phone still pressed to her ear. “Not yet,” she answered as the line moved up. Rose pulled the phone away from her ear long enough to navigate to her boarding pass and let the gate agent scan it.
She paused when she felt Laurel’s laser beams on the name scrolling across the top of her phone—Kirin “Daddy” Callaghan—and promptly blushed.
It took another second for her to press the phone against her ear again.
She walked out the doors of the terminal behind Bridget before crossing the tarmac to the stairs. “We’re about to get on the plane.”
“So not in your seat. I’m not going back to sleep yet,” he said as she hitched her backpack higher on her shoulder. “Are you wearing my sweatshirt?”
A quick glance down confirmed it. Her long sleeves were rolled to her elbows and the length almost covered her bike shorts. “Yes.”
Another low hum, though this one sounded almost pleased. “I’m going to need that back. I’ll leave a new one at your place before I leave.”
She trailed a finger along the bottom of the threadbare sweatshirt. “Better be soft like this one, then.”
“I’ll find one,” he promised, and she grinned as she climbed the stairs.
“Will it smell like you?” she asked off-handedly when she stepped onto the plane.
Rose stiffened when she noticed Laurel was behind her. Her attention was on the line ahead of her as everyone shuffled down the plane’s thin aisle to their seats. Bridget led the way to the back of the plane. Their usual seats beckoned.
“I’ll wear it for you.” The way his voice lowered made the hair on her arms rise. Before she could confirm anything, he murmured, “Sounds a bit like you’re trying to stake your claim.”
“Is that a problem?” she asked as she sidestepped into their row while Bridget claimed the window, then dropped into her seat. “As requested, my ass is in the seat. Time to go back to sleep.”
“It’s not a problem.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “Please let me know when you land.”
Warmth again seeped into her blood, and she answered, “Yes, Daddy.”
Bridget choked a seat away, her cheeks going bright pink as wide eyes met hers, and Rose winked. Kirin only groaned through the phone. It must have come through loud and sexual enough that Bridget’s gaze shot to the phone, her mouth gaping.
While she giggled at Bridget’s expression, Kirin answered, “Truly, I need a better pet name.”
The next giggle came out a little louder, earning a look from their senior goaltender, Sarah McKinney, who’d just taken her seat across the aisle. Rose waved a hand, apologizing as best she could before she quietly sang, “Sweet dreams,” to Kirin, who laughed.
“Have a safe flight, Flower,” Kirin said before he hung up.
She messaged her mom that she’d boarded, then switched her phone to airplane mode. When she looked at Bridget, her eyes were still wider than usual with confusion stamped across her face.
“You don’t want to know, I promise,” she said, and Bridget huffed her disagreement.
“That was Kirin, right?” Bridget whispered, her attention shifting past Rose, where Laurel was sitting with Maya a row ahead of them on the opposite side of the aisle.
“Yep.” She grinned. “Go back to sleep, Bridget.”
Rose pulled her headphones out of her backpack and snuggled as best as she could into her seat.
Friday 11:15 PM
DO NOT ANSWER
How quickly did you open your legs for him? One day? One week?
Whore
Saturday 10:36 AM
DO NOT ANSWER
I keep dreaming about you. Remember how you used to pretend to fight me when I held you down? I know you loved it.
Yesterday, 2:22 AM
DO NOT ANSWER
Can’t wait to see you next Saturday. It’s been too long.
Rose had come home from a busy day of classes to a few more cards with photos tucked into them.
These were a mix of photos—some of her, a few of Kirin, and the rest of them together on campus.
Her hands had shaken as she flipped through them, her stomach clenching.
But it was the small box, wrapped with burgundy and black ribbon, with her name on it that gave her pause.
She knew that Ainsley and Harper thought the haul was from Kirin.
It explained why they’d left it on her bed.
She almost didn’t want to open it, but not knowing was so much worse. It was a curse of an active imagination. So she’d closed her door and pulled it open, finding a pair of ripped panties she vaguely recognized and a note.
These have lost their scent. Can’t wait to get a fresh pair, Angel.
Frigid water poured into her veins, freezing her from the inside out until she was shaking.
She’d put the box back together, tucking the note into it, and stashed the photos with the other cards she’d gotten in a box under her bed.
She forced herself into the shower after a glance at the clock, knowing Kirin was supposed to pick her up in forty-five minutes. She needed to get moving.
Today 9:12 PM
DO NOT ANSWER
I can’t wait to get my hands on you again. I miss the way you screamed for me.