Page 214 of Out of Bounds

All I needed to get through the meeting was knowing that Kassie would be there in my bed, tangled up in my sheets, wearing one of my shirts and nothing else. But I didn’t want to push it.

"I’m going home," she said over her shoulder, reaching for the doorknob.

"Oh." I nodded, disappointed. "Got it."

Kassie glanced back and frowned. "No, Ryan, I meant, I’m going to your—"

Her words died on her lips and the two of us gazed at each other. She was talking aboutmydorm. And Kassie called it home. The heavy feeling on my chest lifted a little and a tired grin crossed my face. Kassie gazed back at me, surprised.

"I—um—" She tucked a strand behind her ear. "Yeah."

"I’ll see you at…home," I said, testing out the words. Home. It was the place where I knew Kassie was going to be.

She hesitated. "We missed you at bowling."

I nodded. Another thing I had to miss.

"King broke into one of the machines at the arcade and it kept spitting out tickets," she whispered, lingering by the door. "Adam and Zariah had a contest to figure out the grossest drink they could make. We…we missed you a lot."

I took a deep breath. "I’m sorry."

"Don’t be—I know you’re busy," she hurried to reassure me. She dug in her backpack for a moment and picked up something metal from the pocket. "This was supposed to be a present but—um—here."

"I don’t need anything," I told her, confused, but Kassie reached for my hand and unfurled my fingers. The moment she touched me, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I gazed down at her. I could smell her strawberry lotion. My mouth watered.

She stepped away and I got the first look at the present.

A laugh burst out of me. My first laugh all day. It was a keychain with a fake flip phone attached, a completely unusable kid’s toy.

"Claw game master right here." Kassie smiled up at me. "I figured this is more your speed."

I held up the keychain and pressed down on the hard numbers that didn’t do anything. "It’s perfect. You know me so well."

"They had one that flashed pictures but I thought that might be too much for you."

I grinned. I couldn’t even tease her back, I was too happy. The first real good feeling of the day and all because of her.

I couldn’t tell Kassie but for the first time in my football career, the stress was getting to me, worming its way into everything I did. And the only reason why was because I had something else I wanted to spend time on.

Her.

"I’ll see you at home," she murmured and stepped back to the door again.

My fingers curled around the fake phone and I didn’t say anything, just nodded. I slipped out my keychain and watched her while she gave me one last look before the door closed.

I didn’t realize I’d been holding in my breath until it was released. For a long moment, I stared at the door. With a sigh, I returned back to the couch, slipping it on my keychain and stared up at the ceiling again. I couldn’t even text her with the pitch going on in the background.

At least I knew she was going to be at home.

Footsteps echoed outside the door and I half-listened to the phone call before the door opened again. My eyes flickered over. Kassie.

"Art girl, you’re going to get locked in," I told her.

"I forgot something," she murmured and turned off the light switch.

87

Kassie

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