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They hung up, and Aspen wished she’d known he’d taken an indoor coaching job for a university team and was currently on a four away match trip. He didn’t live in LA, either, preferring to live in cooler climates, apparently, so that would cause issues. They couldn’t afford to move him here, even if he was interested in that, which meant there would be additional travel expenses, and that might mean this was impossible, but she’d see what DJ thought before she said no.

She walked outside with her phone and her coffee and sat at her table. She had planned on getting in another workout for about an hour in the backyard, but she’d changed her mind when she’d gotten home. Instead, she had showered and changed, made a cup of coffee with sugar-free peppermint syrup in it, and decided to sit outside and watch what she could see of the sunset around the houses surrounding her. Very few things calmed Aspen’s brain enough for her to relax. Sex was one of them. It took her mind off pretty much everything else, if it was good sex, at least. A cup of coffee and an e-book helped as well, and that was especially true if she could get some fresh air while drinking and reading. The other thing was playing by herself in her backyard. Hearing the bounce of the ball on that box and feeling the sand between her toes as she moved back and forth calmed her in a way that practicing with a partner or on a public beach never could.

“Hey.”

Aspen looked up and over, seeing Kendra sitting at her patio table. Kendra held up her own coffee cup, acting as a wave.

“Oh, hey. You’re back?” Aspen asked.

“You knew I was gone?”

Aspen hadn’t planned on revealing that she’d been at her front door grabbing her food delivery order when she’d seen Kendra leaving her house with a roller bag and getting into what Aspen guessed was a shared ride car.

“Yeah. I hadn’t seen you around, so I guessed. I also watch volleyball on TV whenever I can, so…”

“You saw the match?”

“Yeah. And I feel like we’re yelling right now. Are we yelling?” She laughed a little and stood up. “I’ll come to the fence.”

“There’s a gate, you know?” Kendra noted.

Was Kendra inviting Aspen over, or was she asking if she could come into Aspen’s backyard?

“Right,” Aspen said. “Is that okay? I don’t want to interrupt your solitude.”

“It’s fine,” Kendra replied. “Had you not had your own coffee, I would’ve offered you a cup of mine since I actually got my kitchen unpacked today.”

“Yeah? Congrats,” she said before she walked out of her own gate, turned, and opened Kendra’s to walk into her yard.

“Thanks. It’s not that hard when you only have, like, four plates and two pans.”

“You only have two pans?” Aspen asked and took the two steps up to the patio.

“Exaggeration. Although, I did have a small apartment before this because I was never home anyway, and I’m not much of a cook. I’ve always wanted to be a good cook, but that’s just not in the cards for me, it seems, so I don’t have the need for much.”

Aspen nodded toward the chair across from Kendra at the round glass table.

“Of course,” Kendra said.

Aspen pulled out the chair then and took a seat, setting her phone and coffee cup down on the table in front of her.

“How was your trip?”

“Same as always, for the most part. One night in a cheap hotel that looks the same as all the other hotels I’ve stayed in, so I went the wrong way in a hallway, thinking I was in the last one, and forgot my room number for the same reason.”

Aspen chuckled and said, “Sounds familiar.”

“It’s the same for you?”

“Yeah. I’ve got to rack up those hotel reward points, right? We tend to stay in the same places. I’ve forgotten which rental car was mine more than once, too, because I thought it was the last one I’d rented and then left at the airport. I technically broke into a car once because of that.”

“What?” Kendra laughed.

“I thought I had a red Toyota Camry because I’d had that car the previous week. I just saw it in the parking lot, got in, but the key didn’t work, and it was then that I remembered that I’d gotten a green Ford Focus that week and jumped out of the car that someone had carelessly left unlocked.”

Kendra laughed harder and said, “No… Really?”

“Yup. Thankfully, no one saw me and called the cops. I think I could’ve gotten away with it, given my reasoning, but I didn’t want to risk it. I ran away. Like, I literally ran out of the parking lot and across the street until I realized that I still needed to find the car I did rent. I stopped renting cars after that, and now, I just get rides, but it was always easier to rent because I had so much stuff to bring with me.”