Page 62 of Offside

Although, truth be told, my body already went through a warm-up this morning when I fucked Karis before she left for the office.

Goddamn, what a way to start the morning.

Our team’s assistant trainer, Beau Gather, remained behind while the team is on the road trip and now gives me a weird look over the top of his clipboard. “What the fuck you smiling about, Keeney? You think I’m going to go easy on you just because you hit your pretty head?”

I snort, knocking on my temple with my knuckles. “This head has taken a lot of hard knocks. No problem there. I’m ready to go.”

“Good. Now give me fifteen deep squats.” He circles his clipboard toward the matted floor of the training room. I nod and do as he says.

After that, Beau has me doing stop-and-go push-ups, then single-leg T-stands on both legs, and then right into push-ups. By the time our junior equipment manager Jeremy—dubbed as The Beav because he’s so damn innocent—walks in, I have sweat dripping down my back and I’m a bit winded and dizzy.

Fuck. That’s not good.

Beau pushes me to the point of fatigue. “Come on, Keeney. Now some dive bombers.”

I’m still on the floor, ready to maneuver into the pendulum-like move, when Jeremy bursts like a dam with his news.

“Holy smokes, did you guys hear?” he asks breathlessly, practically bouncing on his feet, a stack of towels in his arms.

Thankful for the interruption, I pause my repetitions and look over at him, hoping that the news has nothing to do with another player injury. That’s the last thing we need so early in the season.

“Hear what?” I ask, pushing myself up to sit with my legs stretched out in front of me. I bend over and reach to touch my toes to keep myself limbered up. I let out a low groan of displeasure.

Fuck, I’m feeling my age. The head is doing much better but doesn’t help in matters much, either.

Beav leans in and whispers conspiratorially, scanning around as if on some sort of secret mission. “McGowan got canned!”

“What?”

“When?” I chime in over Beau’s question. We both stare at Beav in disbelief.

Beav nods his head furiously as a wide grin plays across his baby face.

“Just now…someone saw him storming out of Ms. Spurlock’s office followed by the Director of HR, then he was escorted from the building by security minutes later.” He takes a big breath. “He looked pissed as hell.”

I furrow my brows and recall Karis’s question about what I thought of Nate. Surely that wasn’t the reason he got fired. Karis uses facts and data to make her decisions, so I know it wasn’t because I called him an asshat.

Beau hums politely, adding nothing more.

“Interesting. Thanks for the info, Beav. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Karis soon.”

“No problem, Keeney. Anything for you. See you guys later.”

Beav scurries off to replenish the stock of towels in the locker room while Beau checks his phone.

“There’s nothing in the news yet and no company-wide email in my inbox.” He turns his attention to me as I continue my stretches to keep my body from cooling down too much. “Between you and me, I say good fucking riddance if it’s true. McGowan was a nutsack.”

I snicker. “And that’s being generous.”

Beau nudges my thigh with the toe of his sneaker. “Let me remind you, I’m not a nice person. Now get back to it, Keeney. Give me fifteen more and then we’re starting it all again.”

I groan loudly but capitulate. In the long run, this will help me avoid losing too much agility and strength while I continue my recovery.

Just as I finish a twenty-minute run on the treadmill, dripping with sweat and probably smelling like days-old trash, Karis steps through the glass double-doors of the team workout room.

I wipe at my forehead with a towel. Beau is standing behind me and can’t see me as I take a long, slow scan up her body, my gaze stopping at the hem of her skirt. She looks fresh and beautiful.

And I want to sully her up like I did earlier today.

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