Page 185 of Out of Bounds

Noemí stopped peeling the paper and stared at me, shocked. There was a two-inch amount of light blue but I already knew I was right. Kassie turned to me with an incredulous look on her face.

"Swimsuit?" she repeated. "Swimsuit?"

I cleared my throat. "It’s—uh—the campus gym renovations, they redid the pool tile. The whole team went out together for the first day."

"But you didn’tsaypool renovation photo."

I turned a little in the chair and looked down at my girlfriend, sheepish. Her eyes were piercing and she was doing everything to bite back a smirk but I could read the question plainly on her face.

Did you seriously jack off to my photos?

I ran a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath before I just breathed it out anyway. What the hell could I say? A lone laugh escaped me and I shrugged again. What I wanted to say couldn’t be said while we were connected to recording equipment.

"Yep," I answered her unspoken question, leaning back in my chair.

"Oh my god." She put her face in her hands but I could still see the hint of the blush from her neck. "What color is thepoolin that photo, Ryan?"

"Don’t do this to me," I groaned.

"What color is it?"

"Blue? I don’t know. I’m going to guess dark blue."

"It’s…" Noemí paused. "It’s brown and white."

"Goddamnit," I swore on air and Kassie giggled. "That was a guess. Do the next board."

The next board made me sit up in my chair at the small reveal. This was one Kassie could know. Without a doubt. I tapped the back of her chair and pointed. "You’ve got this one."

"It’s just thesky,Ryan."

"Nope. You got this." I nodded at the posterboard. "It’s the JBU game."

Her face lit up in recognition. "That’s the first kiss."

"First kiss at all?" Brad said. I forgot he was even there. He glanced back and forth between us with his eyebrows raised. "Moving a little slow, were we?"

Kassie struggled with her response. "No, no, first—um—in front of the cameras.”

“What was your firstrealkiss?” Noemí asked.

“Our first kiss was…um…"

Damn, that was something we hadn’t narrowed down. I watched Kassie while she struggled with an answer. There were some pretty easy answers I could come up with but I shifted back in my chair, gazing at her.

"In the car, after the frat party," I answered.

Kassie glanced up at me in surprise. Our first kiss was the JBU game and I was rewriting history but the podcast host had a point - that was pretty late considering. And I could remember how badly I’d wanted to kiss her in that car when she’d talked me down a ledge.

"In the car," Kassie repeated, her voice soft.

"Yeah." I nodded. "We were talking about…" I wracked my brain, trying to think of what I could talk about on the air. "The dinner.”

“The dinner,” she echoed.

“And how I was a dick to you."

"Like I was just peaches and cream?" Kassie raised her eyebrows.

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