She fidgets nervously. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her nervous. It’s kind of cute. “I can’t. I’ve been trying for years. I worked on my vertical jump this off-season and am up an inch or two, but I still need at least two more full inches to have a chance at dunking. It feels impossible.”
I grin. “You’ve seen me fly through the air to catch Vance’s passes. I have a forty-three-inch vertical. Jumping is my middle name. I can definitely help. Let’s work on it,” I offer in a genuinely hopeful tone.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she nods. “Okay. Forty-three inches? For real?”
“My cock and my vertical are the same.” I wink before Iturn and dribble over to the hoop, leap into the air, and dunk the ball with ease.
After retrieving the ball, I motion for her to come to me, which she does. “I have some drills my trainer does with me, and we’ll do those too, but we can also work on your arm and leg interplay. You need both in sync to get extra height. You have strong leg muscles. It’s clearly visible.” I point to her legs. They’re long and extremely well-defined. “You obviously spend time in the gym. You must have your dad’s work ethic.”
She rolls her eyes. “I have his coloring. Eyes and hair. That’s about all I want from him.”
“What’s the deal with you two?” I ask.
“He was an absentee father. I barely saw him when I was growing up. He was married to football, not his family.”
I twist my lips. “I’m surprised to hear that. He’s so involved with Pierce.”
“How many times have you met my brother?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Hundreds. I feel like I’ve watched him grow up in our locker room.”
She nods. “Exactly. You’ve played for my father for a decade. How many times did we meet before Layla brought us together?”
My shoulders fall in realization. “Zero.”
She nods again. “Right. I was in high school when you started playing for him, yet we never met. Nannies raised us. I’m not sure what happened after I left for college because I rarely come home, but my parents were never around for us when I was growing up. I’m happy that Pierce is having a different experience, but it wasn’t mine.”
“Both of them? Your mom too?” I ask.
“She’s worse than him.Wayworse. I tolerate him now and then, but I don’t speak to her at all. I can’t even look at her.”
“Why?”
She grabs the ball from my hands and starts dribbling toward the basket while shouting back, “Enough maritaltherapy for the day. Let’s play ball. Time for me to kick your ass, Humblecut.” She easily lays the ball into the basket and places her hands on her hips. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Mr. High-School-All-Conference.”
She proceeds to kick my ass for the remainder of the afternoon, but it’s the most fun we’ve ever had together. Maybe there’s hope for us to get through the next nine months relatively unscathed.
SIXTEEN
KENNEDY
“Ah, that hurts,” I whine to Fallon as I lie on one of the padded tables in our training room.
She kneads her fingers through my right quad muscle. “I need to work out these knots. I don’t feel like this should be happening to you from your team’s practices and workouts. Are you doing any extra-strenuous activities I’m not aware of?” she asks.
“For the past month or so, I’ve been doing some…extra training with a friend to work on my vertical. I want to be able to dunk. I think I’m getting a little closer,” I tell her hopefully.
Daylen and I have channeled our bi-weekly dates into training sessions for me. It’s honestly been a lot of fun, and my vertical is clearly improving. He brings a measuring apparatus each time we meet, and I’ve added another full inch to my vertical leap. I think I’m only one more inch away from making my dream of dunking a basketball a reality.
She shakes her head. “You guys practice twice a day, and you hit the gym most mornings. You’re overdoing it, and now yourbody is revolting.” She points to my ankle. “And I see some swelling from when you turned it at practice this morning.”
I mumble, “I was trying to hide that.”
She raises an unamused eyebrow. “Don’t hide things from me. I see everything. Do you have your period right now?”
“Holy shit, you do see everything. Why do you know that?”
“A woman’s body is more susceptible to injuries, especially ligament injuries, when she’s on her period. It’s got something to do with the added hormones in your body. I’m sorry, Kennedy, but I’m shutting you down for the rest of the week.”
