Page 47 of Off the Post

Mein Gott.

I either need to leave now to protect my sanity or stay vigilant to avoid staring at Ali’s body.

Neither sounds like a good alternative to what I really want to do, which is finish what we started and spend time in bed exploring every inch of her.

Somehow, with restraint I didn’t know I possessed, I survive the next three hours, all while hiding my hard-on for Tanner’s younger sister.

To do so, I at first tried to keep my eyes firmly off Ali. That worked for a short time but became increasingly more difficult as the party began to thin out and groups of people started to leave.

Which is usually perfect for me. I’m much better with smaller groups where idle chitchat isn’t required and we can instead find a common activity. Right now, that means I’m in the pool with Rossy, Ax, Canners, Benny, and Thorny playing a version of water volleyball. We have a net and a ball, but we’ve decided that points are earned by hitting someone on the other side with the ball.

It’s a childish, stupid game, started when Thorny wailed the soft, spongy ball into Rossy’s head on accident. From then on, it became an all-out war. Which is precisely why none of the remaining women are in the pool with us.

“Thorny, you’re going down, bruh,” Rossy shouts as he springs out of the water and slaps the ball toward our six-foot-two center.

Thorny ducks to the right, dipping down under the waterline, and the ball splashes between us. When he resurfaces, he glides a hand over his wet face and gives the double bird to Rossy.

“Suck it, Rossy. You’re too slow.” He laughs at his chirp as Rossy flips him off in return, and I reach for the ball to serve.

I’m not typically an aggressive man when I’m not on the ice. I prefer things to be low-key most of the time, so this game does little to hold my interest. But it has kept my focus on something other than Ali this evening.

That’s not to say I haven’t been aware of where she’s been since we snuck out of her bedroom earlier. Currently, she’s at a table poolside and talking animatedly with Canners’s wife, Jeannette, and Ax’s fiancée, Halle. Rossy made today an adults-only party, and I can tell how much all the parents are enjoying their child-free evening.

I aim my throw at Ax, who’s been chirping me like a motherfucker the entire game.

He bumps the ball and lobs it up for an easy pass to Rossy.

And then my attention is stolen when I spy Ali removing her cover-up to reveal that tiny string bikini I had my hands on earlier.

She walks to the edge of the pool and grins at us all. “Okay boys, playtime is over. The girls and I want some time in the water, too.”

I stare in awe as she jumps in, and then resurfaces, water sluicing over her generous breasts.

At the very same moment, the ball flies toward me like a missile, smacking my ear with a wet, stinging slap.

But I don’t feel a thing because all my blood has rushed to my dick. All I want to do is swim over to where she is treading water, scoop her up into my arms, and carry her away to somewhere quiet and empty where I can get her naked.

Instead, I call out my departure.

“That’s it for me,” I offer with a shake of my wet head and a wave. I swim over to the edge and hoist myself up to the pool deck.

“What? Don’t be like that, bro,” complains Ax.

“You can’t leave us now, Wolf,” Thorny says incredulously, raising both palms above his head in a gesture of disbelief. “We’re winning!”

I thread my fingers through my wet mop of hair and shrug. “Gotta go. Things to do. I’m meeting with the goalie coach and trainers tomorrow.”

I grab a towel from the back of a chair and dry off my limbs, then slip my feet into my slides and wrap the towel around my waist.

“Thanks for the invite, Rossy,” I say, finding him scowling at me with his big man-child pout. And then my eyes cut to Ali’s, the pool water shimmering in her baby blues. “You too, Ali.”

She offers me a brief wave. “I’m glad you could join us, Soren. I hope you can come next time.”

Is there a double meaning in her wink?

I’m about to walk into the apartment when she calls out to me. At the sound of her voice, I stop and look over my shoulder.

She smiles; her arms hooked over that yellow inflatable pool duck. Her braids are wet and plastered to her tanned shoulders. Her face is radiant and relaxed.