Page 50 of Spin Serve

“Why not?”

“DJ…”

“Fine.” DJ laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” Aspen replied, and they walked outside toward the parking lot.

Kendra didn’t even notice that Aspen had let go of her hand until Aspen’s hand was on her lower back, guiding her into the passenger seat of the car. She rested her head back against the seat and unbuttoned two buttons on her shirt, feeling warm from the night and the alcohol.

“Okay. No more wine for you tonight, huh?” Aspen said and started the car.

“Nope. I’m going to bed when I get home. Straight to bed.” She pointed toward the windshield as if that was where her bed would be.

Aspen laughed and said, “You’re kind of a lightweight, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Was DJ mad at you? Or me, I guess.”

“She wasn’t thrilled at first, but I told her that you and I were just worried, and she understood. Plus, I think Chase did enough on his own to make his intentions clear, so that helped.” Aspen pulled out of the parking spot.

“Can you turn the air on in here? It’s hot.”

“Sure,” Aspen replied. “Ugh…”

“What?” Kendra asked.

“Nothing,” Aspen said quickly.

Kendra looked down, following Aspen’s eyes, and she realized that Aspen had probably noticed that she’d undone her buttons.

“Did I tell you that you looked great tonight?” Aspen asked before she pulled the car out onto the street.

Kendra blushed again.

CHAPTER 17

They had one more domestic tour event before they’d fly to Italy to compete in one of the Beach Pro Tour qualifying events. This wouldn’t be the most important event of the qualification cycle, but it was worth ranking points in the FIVB World Ranking, which considered the twelve best performances achieved by a pair in an almost eighteen-month window prior to the Olympics, and the seventeen highest-ranked pairs would make up the majority of the total of twenty-four women’s teams that would be competing for the Olympic gold in the upcoming cycle.

Their event in Italy was one that would count for one of those seventeen spots, so to speak, meaning that if they were the top US pair, it would help their cause and all but assure their spot, although they still had to perform well in the other events in the meantime. Later that year, they had the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championship, which, this cycle, would be held in Berlin, and that could do it for them, but only the winner automatically qualified for the next Olympics, so if they couldn’t win that one outright and stand at the top of that podium, they’d have to rely on either their long-term ranked performance or a win in their continental tour final, which would be a last-ditch attempt.

Aspen wasn’t too worried. She knew they could qualify. Yet, anything could happen, so she preferred not to have to wait until the last minute to qualify. Since only two teams per country could go through regardless of all of those qualification rules, and there were four teams all in a bunch at the top of the US standings, if one of them, other than Aspen and DJ, won the Berlin event, taking a spot, and another American team had the highest ranking among the seventeen, the continental event wouldn’t even matter, and it would be over for Aspen and DJ.

It was all so unnecessarily complicated in Aspen’s mind, and they were, of course, hoping to win in Berlin to lock down their spot and not have to worry about it as they played the other events, but where the US used to lead in beach volleyball, winning gold after gold on the women’s side – specifically during the era of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, when they won three gold medals in a row and had a record-breaking streak of wins in all events that went on and on and on – other countries had since caught up. There was a good chance a US team wouldn’t even win these events, which meant that the chance to qualify might not be there until the end.

Either way, Aspen shouldn’t be caring about any of that right now, and instead, she should be focusing on the actual pair they were playing against for their second match of this domestic tournament. Their opponent was already down by ten in the first set, with Aspen serving six points in a row. This team had come through the qualifier round, which was amazing because they’d made it this far, but they weren’t ready to go up against the best team on tour just yet.

Aspen remembered going through their round herself, and it had been rough. There had been extra matches, early-morning matches, midday-in-the-sun brutally-hot matches, late-night matches – all just to earn the next match that they’d probably lose. There had been teams that shouldn’t have been out there because they hadn’t been ready or just downright not good, throwing a winning team off balance; teams who had been amazing and could really kick ass if given the right opportunities. It was hard, so the fact that this team had made it to center court was in and of itself an accomplishment because both of them were just out of college, with this being their first season on top of everything else being stacked against them.

“Mine!” Aspen yelled.

She passed the ball up to DJ, who set her up for the shot.

“Cut! Cut!” she said after looking over at the other side of the net to see where the defender was set up.

Aspen swung for a cut shot, and it landed in the sand. They were now up by eleven points in the first set. The team across the net looked demoralized and exhausted, but they shouldn’t be demoralized. Exhausted, yeah – they’d played that morning just to get here. But they’d been playing well against Aspen and DJ. They hadn’t made any big or rookie mistakes. They were just outmatched.

Aspen rolled the ball in her hands, finding the lines on it and knowing just how to toss it and hit it against those lines to get the flattest serve possible, which was a difficult serve to play because it was sort of just dead when it hit the forearms of the defender. She tossed it, made a short jump to get a little height, and smacked the ball over the net. It hit just how she’d expected it would, and the pass up to their setter was as flat as her serve. The set was off a bit, and they had to tap it over. Aspen was there to pass it back up to DJ, who hit it over in two, finding a spot in the sand to tap it, and it landed there without issue.

“We should just forfeit,” one of the players said.

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