Page 190 of Out of Bounds

Kassie set down the cupholder on the ground and dug two paper-wrapped burgers from the bag. "Cheat day."

"Cheat day?"

"You get in too late to Louisiana to practice and tomorrow morning, they’ll be parading you around. You won’t hit a field until midafternoon," she explained, unwrapping one of theburgers for me to see. "Double-patty, jalapeño bacon, whiskey cheese,actualjalapeños, and barbecue sauce."

My mouth watered.

"Kassie…this—uh—"Don’t look at the burger."This isn’t on my diet plan, I can’t eat this."

"That’s not all!" Kassie sang out and pulled out a thing of fries and onions rings, pouring most of them in the bag. "You get half, I get half. Well…you get a little more."

When’s the last time I ate an onion ring?

My eyes flickered down to the bag. It was warm in my hands too and the smell was overpowering. And while I was being seduced by a little brown bag, Kassie reached down to the cupholder on the ground and dug her spoon into the larger one.

"Cheat day," she repeated, grinning up at me.

I gazed down at her for a long moment.

Fuck. I love this woman.

It wasn’t anything major, Kassie just stood in a fast food line for me and ordered onion rings for me, but she went out of her way to do it and I knew without a doubt, I loved this woman. The love overwhelmed me for a moment while Kassie slipped the spoon between her lips.

"I knew you wouldn’t want a whole milkshake," Kassie told me, leaning up against the brick wall. Her lips curved into a smile and my heart thrummed with my pulse just looking at her. "I put some of mine in an extra cup so you have to take it."

"Really?" I murmured, watching with rapt attention while she licked her lips.

"Mm-hmm. It’s—"

I stopped her. "I bet I could guess the flavor."

Her eyebrows raised. "It’s not my favorite. They have a sale, two dollars off."

"You don’t think I can do it?"

"Nope." Her grin widened and I pushed from the wall.

"Want a bet?" I crossed the distance between us and put two fingers below her chin, tilting her head up. The smile disappeared off her face. She gazed up at me, her dark eyes soft, and I dipped down, capturing her lips with mine.

Five days without her. Goddamn.

How am I going to do this?

My fingers slipped into her hair and I kissed her harder, deepening the kiss, before I swiped my tongue to her bottom lip. Sweet and delicious. I could feel Kassie’s whole body soften as she curved up to meet me and when I drew away from her, she panted, her eyes wide.

"Chocolate," I muttered, kissing her just one more time to confirm it. "Yeah. That’s chocolate."

She was breathless. "Right on the money."

The buses pulled up to the side of the road, dark blue Roman colors and I grimaced for the first time ever at them.

"It’s fucking stupid," I muttered. "Like we want to train together. What bullshit."

"Coach Lawson said it’s a good opportunity," Kassie gently reminded me.

"So we can train together, learn our call signs, and poach each other’s players. It’s a joke." The irritation came out in every word. I’d been the one to agree to it during the summer when they’d asked if we wanted to work together before the game. But that’d been from a Ryan with more free time. "Five days. Goddamn."

Kassie picked up the small cup and held it out for me. "I’m going to miss you too."

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