Then, she heard it, the likely cause for her waking up early on her one day off. It sounded like one of those big trucks beeping like it was alerting the entirety of Los Angeles that it was backing up and to stay out of the way. Aspen grunted because it was way too early for there to be a big truck yelling at everyone in the neighborhood. She tossed her phone aside and decided to give herself another half hour to sleep before getting up, but then, she heard the sound of what had to be metal hitting the concrete. It was a loud thud that she could’ve sworn she felt from her first-floor bedroom, and had she lived anywhere else, it probably wouldn’t have reminded her of a small earthquake.

  “What the fuck?” she muttered and sat up, rubbing her face rapidly with both hands. “I guess I’m up.”

  Aspen decided to take a shower to help her wake up since she was pretty sure she’d just been woken up in the middle of some amazing deep sleep, which wasn’t something she got all that often. She turned the shower on to lukewarm because she couldn’t stand cold showers but didn’t want a hot one, either, scrubbed her skin a little, cleaned her face, and got dressed for her morning workout.

  Her smoothie was her go-to breakfast just about every morning, and it was what her nutritionist always told her to have. They’d tweaked it a few times over the years to add more or less of something she might need based on how she was feeling or performing, but the base was greens and banana, which, thankfully, made it taste less like greens. She drank half of it, grabbed a bag of balls, and carried it outside, where she dropped the bag and took a look at the sky.

  The weather was supposed to be normal for a SoCal summer today, which meant that she’d sweat a little, but it wouldn’t be blistering heat making her lethargic and wanting to go back into the air-conditioning. Aspen set her smoothie down on her backyard table that sat on the concrete stone back patio that was here when she moved in, and walked out onto her sand.

  It wasn’t too hot yet, which was another reason to start training early because once that sun hit the center of the sky, the sand could start to burn her feet. She could help things by grabbing her hose and spraying the sand down, but she’d be fine for right now; she’d do that later if she needed to. Aspen pulled a ball out of the bag and walked to the side of her yard opposite her plywood-made triangle-shaped box. She called it a box, anyway, but it wasn’t really a box. It was a thick piece of plywood resting on cinder blocks that she could remove or add to, changing angles to get in a little more work than with the ball usually just returning to her if she hit it just right, which was the goal, of course.

  She had a short fence that hit her around her chest, but she was taller than a lot of people, so for many of them, it would hit them around their shoulders. It helped if the ball bounced and she didn’t get it, but sometimes, it wouldn’t stop it, and she’d land a ball in someone else’s yard. She’d asked her neighbors if she could go in and pick it up if that happened, and the neighbors to her right and left had both agreed. She had one neighbor behind her who hadn’t liked the idea of her going onto his property, so they worked it out that he’d toss the balls back over the fence whenever he saw them. She’d autographed a few things for him for his trouble since his teenage granddaughter was a fan, and that seemed to prevent any issues.

  She lined up to toss the ball against the box and start working on her passing when she heard a voice, which she recognized, coming from behind her.

  “You can just put it there for now. Thank you.”

  Aspen turned her head before she turned around fully and saw Kendra Bowie directing two burly men to put a table down on the back patio of the house next door to her own.

  “We’ve got the chairs coming,” one of the movers said.

  Aspen could tell they were movers because they were wearing uniforms with the name of a moving company, which meant that Kendra Bowie was moving. Well, not just moving; moving in. The house next door had been for sale for a few months. From what she’d seen when she’d been home, it had gotten plenty of interest, but when she’d looked up the asking price, she’d balked because they were asking at least fifty grand more than that place was worth. She’d been inside once at a party held by her now-previous neighbor, and while it was a nice house, hers had been updated more recently in both the kitchen and the master bathroom and had gotten a fresh coat of paint, so there was no way that place was worth more than hers.

  “Um…” Aspen mumbled to herself and walked over to her fence. “Kendra?”

  Kendra heard her name and looked inside the house, probably expecting someone from the moving company to be the one saying it.

  “Over here,” Aspen added.

  Kendra turned her head in Aspen’s direction, and her eyes went wide.

  “Aspen?” she asked in surprise.

  “Yeah. Hey. You’re… You’re moving in?”

  “Yes. What are you doing here?”

  “I live here.” She pointed to the house as if doing that would somehow prove her point. “This is me.”

  “You–” Kendra walked over toward the fence. “You live here?”

  “Yeah. See the sand in my backyard? That’s for me.”

  Kendra got a little closer and looked down over the fence.

  “I saw this when I checked out the house. I didn’t really put it together with you, though.”

  “Why would you? California is filled with the stuff,” she replied.

  She wasn’t sure why she was acting so strangely. Well, yeah, she was. It was because Kendra Bowie was standing just on the other side of Aspen’s fence, and Kendra Bowie was beautiful. She had that blonde, blue-eyed, all-American look about her that always made Aspen internally swoon, but she was also nice, as far as Aspen could tell from the few times they’d talked outside of the interviews she gave Kendra for work. She remembered something about Gatorade but had no idea why they’d been talking about flavors of it or which one of them had brought it up in the first place.

  “I had no idea you lived here,” Kendra said. “I guess this means we’re neighbors now, huh?”

  “I guess so,” Aspen replied.

  “Where do you want this box? There’s no label,” one of the movers asked, holding a box in his hands just outside the sliding glass door.

  “Oh, they’re all labeled. I know I put labels on all of them.”

  “Not on this one,” he argued.

  “Okay. I’ll be right there.”

  “It’s okay. I’m just going to get in a workout. Maybe we can talk when they’re gone or something, if you want,” Aspen suggested. “I’m home all day.”

  Kendra gave her a small smile and said, “Yeah, okay. I just need to get them out of here as quickly as possible. I’m paying by the hour.”

  “Good luck with that,” Aspen replied. “Oh, if a ball goes into your yard, do you mind if I grab it? I had a deal with the last people who lived here. If I break anything, I buy it. That was also the deal.”

  “How many things have you broken?” Kendra asked.

  “None so far.”

  “Can we keep it that way? I just bought this place.”

  “Sure,” Aspen said with a little laugh.

  “And, yeah, you can just grab it. I’ll maybe stop by later if I can find time to breathe.”

  “Just come by whenever. We can have coffee or something. I’m sure you could use a break.”

  “Yeah… Okay,” Kendra agreed with a little hesitation that Aspen wondered about.

  “Great. See you then.”

  “Okay,” the woman repeated and hurried back toward the house.

  Aspen watched her go and turned away when Kendra was inside the house and she could no longer see her. She couldn’t believe that the sideline reporter, Kendra Bowie, was her new neighbor. What were the odds? Los Angeles – and its many, many neighborhoods – was a big city, but somehow, it always felt like a small town when she really thought about it. Aspen tossed the ball toward the box and got in her ready position to pass it back to her imaginary partner. There were sounds behind her as she trained, and she did her best to ignore the men talking loudly with the backdoor open, but when one of them laughed like he had just heard the funniest thing in the world, she spooked at the sound and turned around.

  Kendra was standing there, and she was looking over at Aspen. Then, she quickly nodded and turned around awkwardly. Aspen didn’t know what that was about, but it was around lunchtime anyway, so she just went inside. She made herself a sandwich with baby carrots and celery on the side and mixed up a chocolate protein shake for her dessert. She sat at her kitchen table alone and ate, scrolling on her phone between bites and checking social media. When she heard Kendra’s voice outside saying something Aspen couldn’t quite make out, she got the idea to look her up instead.

  Kendra Bowie had been working as a sports reporter since she’d graduated from UCLA with a degree in broadcast journalism. She’d worked her way up, though, according to her bio online, and hadn’t always been the go-to reporter for the network. She was around thirty-five, if Aspen had her math right, and, according to what she could see of Kendra’s social media stuff that wasn’t private, she didn’t appear to be married or have any kids. Aspen hadn’t ever noticed her wearing a ring, but not everyone wore one, so she hadn’t given it much thought.

  She wondered if Kendra would actually come over for that coffee like she’d said she would or if she’d assumed that Aspen was just being polite. Aspen was, technically, being polite, but she also wouldn’t mind talking to Kendra about something more than beach volleyball. She got her answer when her doorbell rang seconds later. She stood quickly and nearly knocked over her chair, as if the FBI just beat down her door, and realized she was weirdly nervous.

  “What is your deal?” she whispered to herself as she walked toward the door and pulled it open. “Hey.”

  “Oh,” Kendra said and looked down.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. I’ve seen you in a bathing suit before. I just...”

  Aspen looked down and realized that she was wearing a sports bra and her bikini bottoms. She wore this ensemble so often, she usually forgot to change once she was back in the house.

  “I like to practice like I play,” she explained. “I was just having lunch.”

  “I didn’t know if I should just come over or–”

  “Yeah, it’s totally fine. Come on in. I can put on some actual clothes.” She moved out of the way to let Kendra walk inside, closed the door behind her, and added, “Just give me a second. I’ll be right back.”

  “Your place is nice,” Kendra noted as Aspen hurried toward the hallway and into her bedroom.

  “Thanks!” she yelled in response as she quickly tossed on a hooded sweatshirt and found a pair of shorts on her floor. “I wasn’t expecting company, so it’s not exactly clean.” She walked out of her room and found Kendra still standing by the door. “I need to do the dishes and laundry, so please don’t judge me.”

  “No judgment here.”

  “Since everything you own is probably in boxes, can I make you something to eat? I was just having a sandwich, but I have other stuff. Coffee?”

  “I…” Kendra looked around the living room. “I’d love to, but I just came over to say thanks for the invitation and that I really should be unpacking. I leave again soon, so I need to make as much progress as possible… before I do that. Maybe another time?”

  “Oh,” Aspen let out. “Sure. Yeah. Whenever I’m here. Do you need help with anything today? I don’t mind.”

  “I’m okay. The movers put everything where I needed it to be, and I don’t have all that much to unpack since I came from an apartment, and the house has a lot more space.”

  “You have that nice patio table.”

  “I ordered it when I got the offer approved on the house. I’ve always wanted a backyard where I could sit, so it was my reward for buying my first home.”

  “I do that, too.” She gave Kendra a smile.

  “Do what? Sit outside?”

  “Well, yeah, I’m sure I do that, but I meant that I reward myself for stuff. Like, tonight, I’m having wine with dinner; that kind of a thing.”

  “If it works, you know?”

  “Yeah,” she agreed.

  “Anyway, I should get back to that. I need to unpack the things I have to pack in my suitcase later, so…”

  “Okay. Well, the invitation stands for that coffee. Whenever. Doesn’t have to be today or anything.”

  “Thanks, Aspen,” Kendra replied before she turned, gripped the doorknob, and opened the door. “I’ll see you around.”

  “You definitely will now,” she said.

  CHAPTER 4

  Aspen, apparently, walked outside and around her house in her bikini, which was going to be a problem for Kendra. How had she moved next door to Aspen Ashley? It was true that she’d done a lot of research on the house and the neighborhood, so she had noticed the sand in the backyard of Aspen’s house, but she hadn’t expected Aspen to be the one living in it. How had she managed to move into the house right next to Aspen’s, the woman she had always had a little bit of a crush on?

  Seeing Aspen in that backyard, holding a volleyball and wearing not much of anything, had been enough for Kendra to almost get caught staring, but she was pretty sure she’d averted her gaze before Aspen noticed. She’d gone over there for that coffee, thinking she should because she’d been invited, but also because her coffee maker had still been in a box, her actual coffee had been in another box, and she’d had to wake up early to get the movers started, so she hadn’t had any. When she’d gotten there, though, seeing Aspen, yet again, in next to nothing, despite having seen her in that same look repeatedly for years, seemed wrong in the new context. Aspen was her neighbor now. She was also someone Kendra would have to interview again, so she felt like she should keep those two things separate.

  At the moment, Kendra was on her way to a match for the AAWVL, the professional women’s league for indoor volleyball that now had sixteen teams. One of those teams was in Nebraska, where Kendra had to go to cover the event for the network. This was one of four matches they were airing in an effort to promote more women’s sports. While Kendra loved volleyball and had been looking forward to covering the league, the timing was off. She’d just started unpacking. Sure, it had been her life for a long time now that she always had a flight to catch, but as much as she wanted to keep highlighting women’s sports, Kendra also wanted to have time to unpack her new house.

  “Wyatt, hey,” she greeted when she saw Wyatt Wicked, the co-commentator for the match.

  Wyatt had been one of the first players in the league, had also been named the best volleyball player in history, had just about every award in the sport, and was still the most recognizable face in it, even though she’d retired five years ago. She had recently started a job for the league, commentating on matches, and she’d suggested that Kendra not only sideline report but commentate alongside her due to her experience with the sport.

  “Hey, Kendra,” Wyatt said with a smile as she handed the toddler she was holding to her wife.

  “Hey, Everly,” Kendra added when she approached.

  “How have you been?”

  “Good. You two?”

  “We’re good,” Everly, the now very well-known sports psychologist who had written a book that had been on the best-seller list, replied. “Can you say hi to Kendra, baby?” she asked her daughter.

  “Hi, Ken-duh,” the little girl said to her, substituting the sounds in Kendra’s name she couldn’t pronounce yet.

  “So close,” Wyatt said with a little laugh.

  “She’s two,” Everly replied. “She’ll get there.”

  “Hi, Julia. How are you?” Kendra asked, tickling her tummy.

  Julia giggled and turned her face away from Kendra.

  “She’s still shy,” Wyatt said, rubbing her daughter’s back.

  “That’s okay. I was shy when I was her age, too,” Kendra replied.

  “I’m going to take her to the babysitter and come back after,” Everly said to Wyatt.

  “Okay.” Wyatt leaned in and kissed her wife. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  “I love you, baby,” Wyatt added and kissed Julia on her temple.

  “Bye, Mama,” Julia replied.

  “I’ll see you two in a couple of hours,” Everly added to both Wyatt and Kendra, referring to the drinks-after-the-match plan they’d made prior to this since they didn’t get to see each other all that often.

  “Sounds good,” Kendra replied.

  “So, you ready?” Wyatt turned to Kendra when Everly walked off.

  “Yeah, let’s do it.”

  They got set up in their booth and began their pre-game discussion of the teams’ records, top players, coaches, and possible outcomes of the match. Then, it started.

  Kendra thought that she and Wyatt had a good back-and-forth. They gave each other space to make their points, didn’t interrupt, and had some laughs while offering insight and analysis that, Kendra hoped, was approachable to those who didn’t know the game very well.

  “Ev is back without the kiddo. Want to head out for that drink? It’s been a while since we could hang out like this.”

  “Sure. Do you know where we’re going?”

  “There’s a place we go to whenever we’re in town. Great margaritas.”

  They walked over toward Everly, whom Wyatt kissed, and Kendra couldn’t help but be a little jealous. She wasn’t sure exactly how long they’d been together, but she’d gotten the story of how they’d met, gotten engaged – although, everyone knew that story because Wyatt had proposed on television right after winning the Olympic gold medal – a little about their wedding, and some of their struggles with getting pregnant until little Julia came along.

  “So, who is Julia with? You don’t live here. How do you have a babysitter here?” Kendra asked as they sat down in a booth.

  “The coach’s daughter is in college at Nebraska. She watches Julia for us the couple of times a year we’re here, if we need her to,” Wyatt explained.