Krissy smiled.
“Yeah,” she said. “Friday night. Well, and, like all day yesterday.”
“Oh my god,” Rachel squealed softly, “I’m so happy for you both!” She glanced at the rest of their friends who were almost to the locker rooms. “Why didn’t you say anything to them?”
Krissy shrugged. She had meant to; that had been her plan—to somehow slip it into the usual locker room chat or to wait until they were having post-game drinks. But then they started ragging on her about her propensity for welcoming any cute woman into her bed and she had suddenly got stage fright.
“I’d rather wait until Becca is with me,” she told Rachel. “I’m worried that they’ll think I’m just doing something casual with her, and then it will be all, like, ‘You better not hurt Becca!’ or ‘Becca is not one of your casual flings!’”
Rachel nudged her shoulder.
“They won’t think that,” she said soothingly. “They love you.”
Krissy shrugged again.
“I know that, but, as you just heard, I have a reputation and I’m worried that if Becca isn’t with me when I tell them, they’ll think I’m just using her to get another notch in my belt.”
Rachel pouted.
“Oh, sweetie,” she said. “Okay, I understand. My lips are sealed. Come on, let’s get changed because I want a watermelon margarita.” They started walking to the locker rooms. After a few steps, though, Rachel suddenly stopped. “But can I pleeeeease tell Ainsley?” she begged. “I promise I’ll swear her to secrecy!”
Krissy laughed.
“Fine, go ahead,” she said, looping her arm through Rachel’s and continuing their trek to the locker room.
Chapter 21
Monday was Becca’s day off, following her twenty-four hour shift at the fire station. As it turns out, Ainsley was also off from her duties at the hospital—just because. The two friends decided to go for a run together that morning on the beach. They started at the end of Tamarack Surf Beach closest to the Agua Hedionda Lagoon and ran along the edge of the surf all the way to the Oceanside Pier, a distance of about four-and-a-half miles. Once they reached the pier, they promptly turned around and headed back the other way.
Afterwards, they decided to walk to a nearby juice bar for some refreshment.
Seated outside on the patio because the day was typically gorgeous, Ainsley nudged Becca’s leg with her foot under the table.
“So…you and Krissy, huh?”
Becca couldn’t help the smile she gave Ainsley. Nor could she help blushing.
She nodded.
“Did Krissy tell you yesterday?” she asked.
“No,” Ainsley began, “she told Rachel who then begged Krissy to let her tell me.”
Becca laughed.
“Krissy didn’t tell anyone else?” she asked. The truth was, while at the firehouse yesterday, Becca had been expecting her cellphone to chirp and buzz constantly with text messages from her usual gang of friends, bugging her like teenage girls, asking for all the details about how she and Krissy had gotten together.
Shaking her head, Ainsley replied, “According to Rachel, Krissy was a little worried that the rest of us would question her motives with you. I’m afraid we were kind of teasing her about her tendency to have a flavor of the month when it comes to women.”
Becca scoffed.
“Month? More like flavor of the week.”
Ainsley laughed.
“I guess,” she said. “But us teasing her was her own fault, really. She was playing so well yesterday! Like, really kicking ass!”
Becca nodded.