Chapter 20

Cassidy
David and Ruth came strolling in after being out all night once again.

“Did you shower?” Cassidy asked with a scowl.

“Stop glaring at me like that. You’ll catch ugly that way,” David quipped.

“Okay, smartass, don’t get all put out when everyone teases you because you smell like you spent the night at a brothel.”

“Cassidy Hope!”

“What?” she shot back. “You need someone to be an island of sanity in your sea of delusion. I honestly don’t get what you see in that girl. She’s not your type.”

David sighed.

“Are we really doing this right now?”

“You know it. I know it. Everyone knows Colleen is just a summer fling, and I’m okay with that. What I’m not okay with is that she’s distracting you from what you’re trying to accomplish. Just because you had a dry spell doesn’t mean you have to make up for it all in only a few weeks.

“Is the sex really that good?” Cassidy blurted out, asking the question she’d promised herself she wouldn’t ask.

“The neighbors were pounding on the wall to tell them to quiet down. If I hadn’t seen Colleen looking happy when she left the bedroom between rounds, I would have thought David was killing her,” Ruth commented.

Cassidy felt a slight smile start to creep onto her face but shut it down because she was mad at him. She was beginning to like Ruth. The diminutive security woman wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was.

“It wasn’t that bad,” David said.

“I think the couple next door is going to split up over it. I could hear her yelling at her boyfriend that she couldn’t remember the last time he made her scream like that,” Ruth added.

David glanced at Ruth, who ducked her head.

“Sorry, sir.”

“Leave her alone. It’s just us talking,” Cassidy said as she turned her eyes to David.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You made me a promise,” she reminded him.

“What was that?”

“Well, two, actually. The first was that you were going to help me with the rowing team.”

“And the second?”

“That I could sleep with you whenever I wanted to,” Cassidy said and then turned to Ruth. “Just to sleep.”

“Does that mean no screaming, ma’am?” Ruth asked.

David chuckled.

“I don’t blame you, ma’am. Personally, I like my beer and my showers cold, and my coffee and my men hot,” Ruth told Cassidy.

“You don’t think I’m hot?!” he asked in shock.

Cassidy held her breath to see how Ruth would answer that. It took a moment before the security girl responded.

“I would compare you to a space heater, sir,” Ruth said seriously. “You only use one when it’s needed. It’s sort of like when Cassidy hooked up with Tank. He was the guy who was available when she wanted to scratch her itch, sir.”

Cassidy realized that Ruth saw and heard more than she let on. Usually, she blended into the background. David gave Cassidy a confused look. She rolled her eyes at him because he obviously questioned her telling him earlier that Ruth had a crush on him.

“You’re blind even with your eyes wide open,” Cassidy said as a cryptic answer to his unasked question.

There! Hopefully, that would add to David’s confusion. Apparently, it worked. The stupid boy looked even more baffled than before.

“We’ll talk later. Now go take a shower. We have to go work out,” Cassidy ordered.

Once he left, Ruth nodded to Cassidy.

“Thank you, ma’am. I don’t mind sleeping rough, but that couch has rocks in it. I need a shower, too. Don’t let him leave until I get back.”

“Have either of you eaten?” Cassidy asked.

“No, ma’am.”

“I’ll make some egg sandwiches you two can take with you,” Cassidy promised.

Ruth smiled and rushed upstairs. Duke and Precious followed Cassidy into the kitchen. They knew she was a soft touch and would make them each an egg, too.

When they walked into the weight room, Cassidy noted that the football players perked up at David’s arrival. He was soon shooting the shit with the rest of them as everyone got busy lifting.

Cassidy went and found her girls checking out the guys. She predicted it wouldn’t be long before their two groups began to pair off. She’d noted that the football players kept glancing over. Cassidy spotted the crew team captain, Andrea ‘Andy’ McNally.

When all the senior leadership had left last semester, the team had picked an incoming junior to be in charge. Andy recognized Cassidy would be the stroke, or lead rower, on the eight-woman squad, so she’d befriended Cassidy.

“It was a genius idea to get Tank to help with our training.”

“I like his fan idea,” Cassidy admitted.

In their rowing room, Tank had them install a large fan behind the rowing machines. They set it on low to mimic them moving over the water. It made it feel much closer to actual rowing and cooled their clothes and hair—issues that cropped up in competition.

Cassidy had also been impressed by how Tank customized their training to their sport. When she’d been at Lincoln High, she’d started out conditioning the football team. She’d modified a Marine training program meant to get young men into fighting shape and developed a routine her dad had named sixty minutes of hell. It was a one-size-fits-all approach, which was what the Marines needed.

From Joey, David’s trainer in high school and future sister-in-law, Cassidy had learned that you tailored the training to the individual. That lesson had come about when they’d prepared David for baseball in his senior year. While much of what Joey had done with David translated to football, specific exercises were done to help his hitting and the like.

For the girls, Tank had added to their rowing machine work by having them do some lifting. He’d focused not on over-bulk or twitch-muscle (speed) exercises but on developing them into high-stamina power rowers.

Tank knew that there would be times when Cassidy trained David, so he’d explained to her what he wanted to do with him. Now that David had switched to quarterback, the need to bulk up to play edge rusher was rolled back. Tank had explained the difference as he compared what he was doing with Bear, an offensive tackle. With Bear, he was developing brute explosive strength that was needed to play his position. David the quarterback, on the other hand, had to be more agile but still strong enough to take a pounding.

There was something that did surprise her. Cassidy had always been told that the forty-yard dash was the standard for comparing speed between football players. When she’d been training the professional prospects, they’d all been focused on improving their time at that distance.

Tank had gotten all ‘sciencey,’ as David called it, and explained how football really worked. On most plays, what mattered was how fast they could move over a five-yard area. Getting off the ball with power and speed faster than their opponents was what won games. So Tank had banned forty-yard runs and only allowed ten- to twenty-yard sprints.

His other reason for keeping the runs short was that the longer you ran, the more your running style changed. Tank was of the mind that players were more likely to pull a hamstring on a longer run, so he didn’t allow those in practice.

“Did you ask David if it’s okay if we use your place for off-campus activities?” Andy asked.

“Not officially, but he’s on board with me stepping into more of a leadership role. He’ll support me on having the women over,” Cassidy assured her.

“Do you think that some of the football players might also show up?”

“Are you asking if Oliver will be there?” Cassidy asked in a little singsong voice when she said his name.

David’s vodcast had spread like wildfire on campus, making Oliver a minor celebrity. His goofy, Aussie-accented, bad-boy persona had made him a popular guy. When he’d let Cassidy kick him in the nuts, it put him over the top as far as the rowing girls were concerned.

While none of them wanted him as their boyfriend, he did seem like the perfect ‘date.’ Especially if one was looking for fun in more ways than one.

“I didn’t want to presume, but...?” Andy asked.

“I’ll make you a deal. If you go on the date I promised Oliver, then I’ll make David ask him to come,” Cassidy offered.

She took the squealing, clapping of hands, and dancing around as a ‘yes.’ Of course, that stopped the other girls from working out, as they wanted to know what was going on.

“Cassidy is inviting us all to her and David’s place on Friday night,” Andy announced.

While they all looked happy, there was no dancing.

“And he’ll invite the football team!” Andy added.