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“And I’ve got your bag.” Kendra nodded toward the back seat where Aspen had tossed her beach bag.

“Well, I should be glad at this treatment, but I think it’s because both of you are ganging up on me, so I’m going to be mildly annoyed about it.”

“Let’s go,” Kendra replied.

Aspen watched her open the back door and pull out Aspen’s bag. Aspen locked the car, and the three of them walked to the sand.

“Stretches first,” DJ said. “Pay attention to your calf, Aspen. I want your whole leg super limber today to support your foot.”

“Limber…”

Aspen looked over at Kendra, who had just dropped the bag down onto the sand. She appeared to be thinking about something and was zoned out. Aspen waved her hand in front of Kendra’s face.

“You all right there?” she asked with a smile.

“Huh? Yes. What?”

Aspen laughed, knowing where Kendra’s mind had just gone.

“Want to help me stretch out?” she asked, deciding to amp things up a bit.

They’d talked every day since Aspen came back and every day while she’d been in Italy, and if she really thought about it, every day before that, too – at least in texts, if not a call. They’d been in different countries or states for over three weeks now, with only a few days where they’d been able to see one another, so Aspen hadn’t been sure how to proceed with the obvious thing building between them. Last night, she’d planned to cook them dinner, and she’d bought everything online, had the grocery store deliver it, and was getting ready to start prepping, when Kendra texted that her flight had been delayed and she’d be later than expected.

Aspen hadn’t cooked after all, but she’d still wanted to see Kendra, so she’d invited her over to hang out. They’d talked for a bit, but Kendra had been exhausted and decided to go home. Aspen had almost asked her to stay the night, but knowing that she’d want to hold Kendra in bed, she wanted them to have a conversation first when Kendra was less tired, because it would’ve been awkward if they woke up that way without either of them talking about what was actually going on between them prior to that.

“Stretch you out?” Kendra asked.

“Yeah, so that I can play. You and DJ both seem pretty concerned about me being fully stretched.”

“DJ is worried–” Kendra stopped. “Oh.”

Aspen leaned in and whispered, “I can just lie on my towel, and you can stretch my legs out for me so that I don’t pull anything. You’d hate for me to pull something today, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” Kendra said softly.

“Hi! I’m here, too. Who’s going to stretch me out?” DJ half-yelled.

“Chase!” Kendra and Aspen both yelled at the same time.

???

“What do you think?” DJ asked Kendra.

Aspen smiled because that was the first time DJ had asked Kendra directly what she thought they should do. Aspen had asked her something at least three times during their practice so far.

“If we play Steph and Becky,” DJ added.

“We will. You know they’ll beat the qualifier,” Aspen said.

“Steph and Becky are great,” Kendra began as they all sat in the sand. “But Becky isn’t as fast as she was last year. She put on a lot of muscle, which is great, but it’s also a problem for her when her main strength was the fact that she was the fastest one on basically any court she was on. And Steph has been struggling with her passing. I was at the tournament last weekend and the one this weekend. It was weird without you two there, honestly. Like, there was this void that everyone could feel. Anyway, Steph and Becky went out early both weekends. Steph had at least nine or maybe more passing errors, and that screwed up Becky’s set, so they had a higher hitting error percentage, too. I’d say… Pass Steph, make her prove that she can handle it, and prepare to block her because she’s the tallest woman on the tour at 6’4” and can really jump.”

Aspen smiled with pride at the woman she wanted to kiss.

“Her kills could actually kill someone,” DJ offered.

“She’s got one hell of a right arm, but if you can get her scared up at the net with a strong block or two, she starts to lack confidence and second-guesses her spots.”

“That’s a good tip,” DJ said. “Thanks. Becky’s really slower?”