Page 183 of Out of Bounds

We slipped back into our seats and they pressed a few buttons on the table, gesturing for us to use the huge headphones. They weren’t connected to anything. I picked mine up and inspected it, taking a look at the huge mess of cords on the table.

The headphones disappeared from my hands and Kassie busied herself next to me, pushing cords into place and reaching up to put them over my ears.

I grinned back at her.

“Oh, wow.” Brad chortled. “Total girlfriend material.”

Kassie flushed pink back at her seat. “It’s not what it looks like. You don’t want him touching any of this, he’ll break it.”

“It’s true.” I chuckled and reached over to pick up her hand in mine, slipping my fingers over hers. She blushed harder.

“As long as you don’t pressthisbutton, we’re good.” Noemí laughed, pointing off towards the big red button at the middle of the table, designated with a printed warning. “Easy way to stop recording. Are we ready?”

The four of us discussed the draft—Kassie had all of her pre-written answers memorized from Cleo’s careful hand—some of the games within the season, and our upcoming trip to Louisiana, UNLP for five days where we trained with the team. That only lasted for so long before they turned back to us.

"Okay, so, there’s this saying going around," Noemí started, giving both of us a knowing look, "that if you see one of Kassie’sposts, and Ryan hasn’t liked it yet, you just need to refresh your feed."

I leaned in my chair, dipping down to Kassie. "What does that mean?"

"You like all my posts."

"Ah." I nodded. "Yeah, that’s true."

"Ryan knows the schedule for everything that goes on." Kassie laughed, squeezing my hand. "And we’re kind of glued to each other. Him liking everything isn’t a shock."

Those were nice explanations for it but it wasn’t the truth. Before we became official, I didn’t happen to stumble upon her pictures with great intentions. I definitely sought them out in the couple of minutes before practice, every day. And the minutes between meetings. And at dinners with the guys. And in my dorm, with a bottle of lotion on the nightstand.

Brad shifted up in his seat. "We have a game for you."

"A game?" Kassie perked up instantly.

I grinned. "We’re great at games."

"We’re kicking ass—uh—opponents?" She stopped herself, trying not to curse on air.

Noemí picked up a couple of large posters from a plastic box. "So this is a game with the two of youagainsteach other."

I shook my head. "We don’t do that."

"We don’t?" Kassie asked.

"Do we?"

"What are you, scared I’m going to win?"

Competitive Kassie was making an appearance and I shifted up in my chair, watching her. We were really going head to head against each other?

"What kind of game is it?" I asked and I could see Kassie grin out of the corner of my vision.

"It’s a social media game."

Damn.

A low noise emitted from my throat.

"Oh, you’re going down, ball dribbler." Kassie stuck her tongue out at me. "I approve the schedules, Cleo and I work on them together, I amwinning."

"We’ll show you part of someone’s post and you have to guess where it’s from," Noemí explained.

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