The Option Play, page 13
Kellen reached and flicked off the light and we lay in darkness. Strained, weird darkness, at least on my side of the mattress, but he was probably still wondering about the pool capacity. I rustled around for a minute before I found a good spot and got more comfortable. He was so quiet, I could almost forget that he was—
“You did that on the plane, too.”
It startled me so much that I bounced. “Huh? What did I do?”
“You curl up when you sleep. Like a cat.” His voice sounded softer somehow, but I still heard the little difference.
I turned his way. “You said that you spoke other languages when you were a kid. Do you still?”
“Italian, French, Spanish, some German, but that’s rusty. I haven’t kept up with it like the other ones. A little Dhivehi, the Addu dialect. Enough to get by, if I ever went back there.”
I rolled that around in my mind. “What’s your favorite?”
“Italian,” he answered quickly. “That was the first place we lived that I remember. I spoke Italian before English, actually. I think in it sometimes, still. I usually dream in Italian.”
That explained the little difference in his voice. It was hardly noticeable unless you were really listening. “You could talk in Italian to me now,” I suggested. “I want to hear it.”
“Why?”
“Because. Just because,” I answered. “There doesn’t have to be a ‘why’ for everything, does there? I want to hear how it sounds. And I like your voice.”
“Really?”
“Really. Also, I’m a little weirded out,” I admitted. “Like, you’re right there. You, Kellen Karma. I’m sure you’re used to having different people in your bed but you should know that it’s not a normal thing for me.”
“I—” There was a short silence. “I can see what you mean. Right now in the dark, it doesn’t feel much like business anymore.”
It didn’t at all, nothing like it. This bed was huge but I could still feel the heat coming from his body. I could definitely catch the scent of him, and I wondered about that. I’d seen his skimpy grooming products in the bathroom, and all he had were a comb, toothbrush and paste, and some seaweed lotion. That had smelled a little odd but that odor wasn’t what I could sense now. This wasn’t seaweed or fishy, it was just…male.
“I can tell you a story that I used to hear sometimes in Italian,” Kellen suggested. “We lived with my dad’s friend, Giaconda, and she used to tell this to me. It’s actually Greek in origin, about a fox and some grapes. You might know it in English.”
“Do you speak Greek, too?”
“No,” he said, and I nodded, because that would have been crazy! “I only read it, and only Attic Greek, not modern,” he continued, and then he started to speak another language. He said a lot of words that I didn’t understand but it was very nice to listen to them anyway. His deep voice almost seemed to sing them, or maybe it was musical because the language was so pretty. Anyway, it felt like a lullaby and even though I’d thought that I would never get to sleep with him there, so close and so big—
I did. When I opened my eyes, it was morning, and Kellen was already gone.
∞
“Really? He didn’t?”
I shook my head. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask Kellen for money, or a credit card, or anything. Why would he give me that?
“He’s cheap,” Linzee announced. She had texted the night before and invited me to come out with her and her friends, which was very nice. Linzee was the Cottonmouth center’s girlfriend, because we were all girlfriends. As one of the other women in the group had explained to me, the players’ wives didn’t mix with our crowd, and vice versa.
It was so weird.
“He’s not cheap,” I defended Kellen as Linzee picked up another handbag. I got a glimpse of the dollar amount listed on the tag and tried not to let my eyes pop out of their sockets. “Neither of us knew that I’d be doing some shopping today.”
In fact, that was all we’d been doing, from the moment the white limo had dropped me off to meet them. It had been fun to hang out with girls again, because it felt like it had been a while. A long while. But yeah, in terms of spending? I was not keeping up with their level. Even if I’d had Kellen’s credit card…I looked at a belt and then quickly put it back when I spotted the price. Nope, not keeping up at all.
“Are y’all going on the cruise with us?” another girl asked me. I remembered Linzee’s name, because she’d said it twice and spelled it for me, just in case I’d have to write it down? But this girl, who was really pretty and reminded me a little of my friend Gaby with her dark hair…no, I had no idea. Sherry? Margarita? I felt like it was something to do with alcohol.
“Um, the cruise?” I repeated. “Oh, hold on.” I was getting another text from Kellen, who’d been writing a ton today. He kept wanting to know where I was and what I was doing, and I’d been reporting on store after store after store.
“Was that your boyfriend again?” another woman asked me, and I nodded. “He’s so controlling!” But she’d sounded a little jealous or something when she said that.
“No, he’s not,” I answered slowly. I didn’t think that he was, but I wasn’t exactly sure what was the deal with all this communication. He’d been at the gym with some guys from the offensive line and then was at a someone’s house, and now they were going to lunch. I guessed it would take a while to fill up those big linemen, because I’d seen some of the Woodsmen players eat and it was…epic.
“Hello?” the alcohol-named girl demanded. “I asked if you’re going on the cruise with us.”
“Yeah, I heard you,” I told her. “I don’t know what that is.”
Linzee filled me in. “Brandy means her boyfriend’s boat. We’re all going to take a little trip out on the water! We always have such a good time and you guys should totally go. Oh, does that come in purple, too?” She ran over to pick up a wallet and I got another text from Kellen.
Me: Still with the group, still shopping.
That was the answer to his question about where I was.
Me: Do you know anything about a boat trip? A cruise?
Kellen: The TE has a boat.
Ok, not enough information, except now I knew that Brandy’s boyfriend with the boat was the Cottonmouths’ tight end.
Me: How’s it going with the boys?
He didn’t answer and I hoped it was ok, but I had to put the phone away because we were leaving for another store—yeah, another one! This one was makeup and hair stuff, which I enjoyed, even if it was (again) well beyond my budget. The other women did have good suggestions about to make my look more “Florida” though, and more “Cottonmouth girlfriend.”
“Blonder,” the woman in the beautiful heels told me. I’d been so impressed how she’d gone all day walking on them and never said one word about foot pain. “Do you get highlights?”
“I mostly wait for the summer,” I explained. “You know, swimming in the lake, my hair gets a lot lighter on its own.”
“What lake?”
“Lake Michigan, near where Kellen and I live,” I said, and suddenly missed it a lot.
“A lake,” Brandy said, waving her hand like it was nothing. “Wait until you go on the ocean! You won’t be able to see the other side,” she explained, and I bit my lip and didn’t say that I wasn’t spying Wisconsin from my favorite beach, either.
“You’re really pretty, even without the highlights,” Linzee assured me. “Your eyes look so dark with your hair. Right, Jayla?” she asked her friend, who nodded.
“Yeah, my mom is blue-eyed but I got these from my dad,” I said, pointing at the brown. And then I missed them, too. I went and looked at a nail polish display in case the other girls could see my feelings on my face, like Kellen said he could. I stayed there, trying on colors, until they called me to come over because they wanted to discuss going out for apps and drinks after we hit a few more stores.
“I’m sorry, I have to leave,” I told them.
The woman I now knew as Jayla smiled. “It’s been a few hours away from your man and you miss him. I get it! When Tavin and I first got together, we were the same way. That’s cute.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess,” I said. I felt myself blush. “Anyway, it was great to meet you all.”
“We’ll see you on the boat,” Brandy told me, and I nodded even though I wasn’t sure that would happen. We had two more teams to visit, so there probably wouldn’t be time to dawdle in Florida.
But when I got back to the suite, Kellen was already there, and plans had changed. He sat on the big couch with that giant book in his lap and a huge frown on his face which showed me that something was very, very wrong. I threw down my bags. “What happened?” I demanded.
“The Cougars just signed Amari Mars.”
“Mercy.” I joined him on the couch, because I knew exactly what that meant. Mars was one of the top receivers in the league, and his stats had been better than Kellen’s the season before—because the Woodsmen quarterback had been iffy at best. But if the California Cougars had just signed Amari Mars, it meant that they wouldn’t be looking for another wide receiver. It meant they wouldn’t want Kellen.
“They’re dumb,” I said. “They made a very bad decision. They could have signed you instead of that guy, and they’ll live to regret it.”
“Sure.” He slapped the book closed and bored holes in the cover with his glare. “Amari was great last season.”
“You would have been even better if Davis Blake hadn’t retired. You were better when he was still there as your quarterback! Anyway, I think the Cougars are all real jerks. When they were at Woodsmen Stadium last season, two of them peed right on the turf. Right in front of me and MC! It was gross, and I don’t want you to play with guys like that. I didn’t tell you about the peeing because I didn’t want it to sway your decision but now I’m glad you know.”
Kellen looked at me, his face totally serious. Then, slowly, he started to nod. “I wouldn’t mesh well with that team. I’ve never been one for outdoor, public urination.”
I smiled at him and he did back, just a little. “I’m happy to hear it. And I do think they made a bad choice in taking Amari Mars instead of you. But you have two more good choices, right? You could still sign with the Cottonmouths or the Dukes. Or even with the Woodsmen again! So you’re still coming out ahead of those dummies in California.”
“Dummies,” he repeated, and nodded again. Then he pointed to the bags. “Show me what you got.”
It was all t-shirts and silly things, presents that I’d bought for my family, Gaby and her kids, and a few other people. After I’d broken off from the other women that afternoon, I’d done more reasonable shopping.
“This is for you,” I said, and gave Kellen a keychain. “When we were putting in the new battery, I noticed that yours was…well, you don’t have one for your keys. Just the metal ring, nothing personal. I bet you have a bunch of sets for all your cars, though. You probably don’t mix the Ferrari keys around.”
“The what? The keys to what?”
“The yellow Ferrari Enzo. I saw it parked in your driveway,” I explained.
“That was Zalamero’s Ferrari, the image guy. I only have the truck. A lot of players like to have a stable of cars, but they’re generally a poor investment.”
“They’re also fun,” I said. “It must be super fun to drive a fast car like that Ferrari.”
“Maybe. Thank you,” he said, and jingled the painted palm tree and parrot. “Thanks for thinking of me.”
“I was also thinking, if you’re not going to be with the guys from the Cottonmouths tomorrow, maybe we could go to the Florida Air and Space Museum. They have some stuff that really went into space. Outer space.”
“Really? That’s what you want to do?”
“There’s nothing like that at home,” I explained. “My dad kind of drilled into me that when you go to a new place, you have to get the most out of it. I don’t know if I’ll ever be here again, right? You might be, if you decide to play down here.”
“Right. This might be it for you.”
It had been a pretty fun day, but that made me feel… “I don’t like that,” I said. “I don’t like the way that sounds.” I sighed. “I’m probably just hungry. I worked out really hard this morning and those other girls only had little bits of lunch, not really food. They made me too self-conscious to eat. Let’s get dinner.”
“Are you going to spend forever getting ready again before we go?”
“Twenty minutes,” I told him. “Time me!”
He held up his wrist to show that the clock was already going, so I ran. Before I closed the bathroom door, I looked back and saw him smiling.
Chapter 8
The ocean was really pretty, just as nice as I remembered when I’d been in Tampa (on the other side of the state, which I knew because I’d been looking at maps on my phone). Just as nice as it had been in Hawaii, except I thought that was a different ocean. I took out my phone to check on that but then I spotted something.
“Tig Ol Bitties? That’s the name of this boat?” I asked Kellen. “Really?”
“All aboard,” a voice called from the bow, and a huge man walked across the gangplank to where we stood on the dock. He smiled and held out his hand. “I think that shit’s for trains.”
Kellen shook his head at me and did his handshake thing with the other guy, two pumps exactly, up-down-up-down. “Hello again, Barclay. This is my girlfriend, Caitlyn. She and I met at a lecture.”
“Uh, great, yeah. Good to meet you, Caitlyn.” He shook my hand, too, then held on to it. “Anyone ever call you Caitie? What about just cutie?”
Before I could react, Kellen spoke. “Caitlyn. That’s what you’ll call her.”
Barclay laughed and released his death grip on my fingers. “Come on over. Everyone’s already in the hot tub.”
Kellen had a huge scowl on his face. It was bigger than the one he’d gotten when we’d first talked about getting on this boat and taking the cruise that the Cottonmouth girlfriends had mentioned to me. I whispered the same thing to him now as I’d told him before: “We don’t have to go. But isn’t it a good idea to know your new teammates better? It’ll be fun!” And I didn’t add that we had extra time, too, since we weren’t going to California anymore to meet with the Cougars team. We could hang out on this boat for a few days and enjoy ourselves.
“We’re here. We can’t leave now,” he responded. “Should we get a picture?”
We got one. We had already taken a stack of them, and I was faithfully posting and so was Kellen’s crew of helpers. I was trying not to read too much of what people wrote, but it seemed like a lot of them were excited about our vacation and most of the Woodsmen fans were freaking out that he might be signing with the Cottonmouths.
“That will put pressure on the Woodsmen to up their offer to get you to stay with them, won’t it?” I’d asked, but he’d said that the big yogurt wouldn’t care about public opinion. That made me decide to stop putting my anonymous suggestions in the comment section of the Woodsmen website. I’d been writing a lot of stuff to them, saying that they’d better turn on the money faucet or they were going to lose their best player when Kellen Karma signed somewhere else.
We followed the sounds of music, laughter, and high-pitched squeals and found the hot tub. Everyone looked like they were having fun—in fact, two girls were in there topless! A bunch of men on a boat docked next to this one were leaning over the side to film.
One of women, Brandy from the shopping trip, waved and called me over but I shook my head. “Oh, woah,” I muttered. “I’m not going to do that.”
“Let’s find our room,” Kellen told me and picked up my bags, so that he had all three. But his was tiny, like only the size of the purse I usually carried, and our luggage didn’t slow him down as he walked us away from the party. “We’re not getting in that jacuzzi. We have to stay away from nudity,” he announced.
“I mean, I’m never actually attracted to it!” That had sounded like I was anti-sex but I wasn’t, no matter what anyone said. “I don’t mind being naked. No, I do mind if it’s public. In private, I’m happy not to wear clothes. I love taking off my bra at the end of the day, and I have this move where I can shoot it across the room,” I volunteered, then waved my hands. “I’m only trying to say that I’m keeping on both parts of my bathing suit.”
He was just looking at me steadily, out of those blue eyes that could stare so hard. “Are you sure you want to be here?” he asked. “You encouraged me to come but you seem nervous.”
Well, I was—but it wasn’t because of the tight end flirting a little, or because of those girls and their inflated breasts in the hot tub, when I hadn’t even known that a boat could have a hot tub. It was because of Kellen. Yeah, I’d been telling him that this cruise thing was a good idea, and it was for him. But yeah, he was making me nervous.
We’d been together for two full nights now, which should have made me more comfortable with our business relationship. But this morning, things had been even weirder: I’d woken up fully on his side of the bed. In the night, I’d somehow migrated across the fifty yards that had separated us when we’d gone to sleep on the giant mattress. I’d had my body wrapped around his pillow and I’d been having a dream, a dream about Kellen. Both of us were a lot more naked than the women in the jacuzzi but I mostly only remembered the feeling of it. The heat of it. I’d been gasping when I woke up and, mercy, I’d been grinding myself against his pillow!
But thankfully, Kellen himself hadn’t been there. He’d been sitting at the desk that overlooked the beach and the ocean, typing away on his skinny laptop and checking his phone every once in a while. I’d watched him for a bit, wondering what had happened the night before. How had I managed to get on the wrong side? Had we switched or something? And the dream. It was still in my mind, but only little bits of it, like his mouth on my neck, his fingers in…I tried to control my breathing so I wouldn’t start to pant again.
