Page 31 of Brick Wall

Annie

T hankfully, I don’t need to wait long to see Sebastian again. My volleyball schedule is changing—for the better.

September was full of invitationals and tournaments, but now that it’s October, my schedule will be a little different.

Chestnut Hill University is part of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), consisting of eighteen colleges and universities among twelve states. When I was a student and volleyball player in North Carolina, I played for the same division, so I’m very familiar with all the teams and travel.

After I graduated college, I became an assistant volleyball coach at a smaller university in a regional division.

However, I think being familiar with the ACC as a student helped me land my first head coaching job at Chestnut Hill University.

It’s kind of fun seeing the division through the lens of a coach now.

Our conference games are just starting, and I know it will be busy, but the schedule has a little more structure than invitational games—mostly Fridays and Sunday games. There’s quite a lot of travel involved, usually every other weekend.

The nice thing about this change is that my schedule is now more similar to Sebastian’s schedule.

We both have Tuesdays off. All right, I may have tweaked the schedule slightly, so my Tuesdays are less busy than other days with a lighter practice day for my players, but that’s the perk of being head coach. Right?

I hear a knock on my apartment door, and I run to greet him.

Goldie has been staying over at Bryce’s more, so Sebastian volunteered to meet me at my place since I had the place to myself, and I still had a few things to accomplish today.

“Hey,” I greet Sebastian with a half hug since his hands are full with various bags.

“Hey,” he says, then kisses me on the cheek in greeting.

He throws his duffel on a chair and then brings the grocery bag to the kitchen.

“Cal has a private chef that makes him some meals during the season, and I hired him for a trial run, so ta-da,” he says when he pulls out a tin foil pan. “We just have to reheat it for a few minutes.”

After the dinner is successfully in the oven to warm up, Sebastian pins me against the kitchen counter, wrapping his hands around me.

“Hi, again.” He kisses me on the neck while working his way up to my ear, and whispers, “I missed you.”

It’s been only two days since I last saw him, but it feels longer .

“I missed you too,” I return his sentiments as his hands start to explore on their own accord.

“We have fifteen minutes until dinner is ready.”

“Oh, do we?” I say innocently, batting my eyelashes. “How ever should we spend our time?”

“I can think of a few ways.” He lifts me onto the kitchen counter with one hand.

Fuck, this man is strong. I’m not a small girl at all, but he makes lifting me seem so effortless.

“Only if you think we have time…” I whimper out between kisses.

“We have plenty of time,” Sebastian says confidently while stripping off my clothes.

* * *

Dinner got burnt.

We were distracted and didn’t hear the timer go off. It turns out we didn’t have as much time as we thought we did.

I’ve had worse for dinner before, though, and the company is top tier.

After we finish dinner, Bash pulls out two pieces of semi-wrinkled paper from his duffel bag. We are still sitting across from each other at my small, round dining table. I’ve already picked up most of our plates; only our glasses remain.

“This,” he says while handing the wrinkled papers to me, “is for you.”

“Thank you?” I say with uncertainty. I have no idea what he’s handing me.

I look down at the papers and see it’s his schedule.

“I thought we could compare schedules and map out the next couple of months together.”

I like how he automatically assumes we will still be seeing each other in the next few months. We haven’t even put a label on things yet, but I like that he’s confident in the direction we are going.

“Is that okay?” He takes my silence as hesitation, which it is absolutely not. I’m just surprised—in a good way.

“Yes,” I quickly say to reassure him. “Let me grab my laptop and planner, and I’ll meet you on the couch in a second.”

A few short minutes later, we are deep diving into our schedules, and as I predicted, our schedules don’t conflict as much as they previously did.

All right, I may have pulled up his football schedule already and compared it against mine, so I already had some idea.

However, this is a much better idea because we can review the schedules together and figure out a plan in person, and hopefully find some extra time in there somewhere. Fingers crossed.

Most of my upcoming volleyball games fall on Friday and Sunday, and all his remaining games fall on Sunday, with the exception of one, which is a bummer for our weekends.

“You play in California?” Sebastian questions as he’s looking at my ACC game schedule.

It’s a legit question, especially since it’s the Atlantic Coast division and California in no way borders the Atlantic Ocean. I rarely question divisions in any sport anymore, as they rarely make sense to me.

“Yeah. Do you go back home to California for any of the holidays? ”

“I’d like to, but it usually doesn’t work out too well, especially when games fall on the actual holiday.”

“Ouch, yeah. Didn’t your games fall on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day last year?”

“Excellent memory,” he says, pointing his pen at me. “It’s not always that bad. I’ve only played three Thanksgiving games in my career.”

“And this year isn’t one of them,” I say, looking at the schedule on my lap. “Are you going home this year?”

“Nah, it’s too hard and too far. We have practice all week still. Sometimes, one of the guys will invite me over, and I may do that.”

I curl my tongue under my teeth. Girl, just ask.

“Do you want to come to my family’s house for Thanksgiving?”

There. I did it.

He doesn’t give me an instant answer, so I continue.

“It would be in Plymouth, just like the first Thanksgiving.” Really, Annie.

You had to add that fun fact in there? “We usually have dinner at three, but we can delay if needed, or you can stop by for dessert later. You can, of course, go see teammates instead,” I ramble.

“I’d love to come to Thanksgiving with you. I may be late because we have practice that day.”

“Okay, great! Full disclosure: all my brothers will be there.”

“I figured. I need to talk to them about some foundation stuff, anyway.”

“Oh! Does your sister Scarlett go home for Thanksgiving, too? Does she want to come with us? Your other sister is obviously invited too if she’s around.”

“I’m not sure what their plans are, but I’ll ask. Thank you.” He seems touched that I asked.

We go over more of our schedules, and I ask what his plans are for his upcoming bye week.

“I’m not sure. Sometimes I fly to California to visit my mom, especially when the holidays won’t work, but it depends on where it lands on the schedule.”

“Toward the end of October—that’s a good bye week,” I state.

“And the same weekend, you’ll be away in California.”

I start to feel sad that I’ll be away when he’s off, but he just waggles his brows suggestively at me. Is he telling me something?

“Wait—do you want to come with me? You can fly out before if you want to make it a longer trip. I’ll only be there for the weekend.”

“Yes, I’d love to go on your road trip with you,” Sebastian says with a smile.

I love how we are making plans for the upcoming few months. It makes me feel like Sebastian is on the same page as me.

I look over the schedules again, and I see we made a lot of plans for Tuesdays in the upcoming weeks ahead. I’m feeling positive about my future.

“You, my friend, are going to get sick of me on Tuesdays,” I tease.

He puts his pen on my coffee table and moves closer to me on the couch where there’s barely any space between us.

“Friend?” He rubs his giant hand over my neck and then teases my hair with his right one. “I hope I’m more than a friend,” he says in a deep, gravelly voice that does something to me.

His left hand trails over my body, exploring all over, making my concentration crap.

“I’ll be anything you like,” I utter in a strain. I’m jelly now. I’ll do whatever he says. His hand dips lower, and I want to set up camp in his big, spacious body.

“Girlfriend?” he questions, and I sit up straight, looking him directly in the eyes. All I see in them is hope.

“I would love that,” I sincerely state.

He leans forward and captures my lips into a long kiss.

“Okay, girlfriend, we’ve both worked hard today. Now it’s time to play,” he says while placing my laptop and papers aside.

“Sounds perfect, boyfriend.”