Page 34 of Penalty Kick

“Are you sure? You look upset.”

As always, she looked beautiful. Her athletic shorts hugged her luscious hips and gorgeous backside perfectly, leading to her lean legs that looked like they should belong to a runner. Her shirt was bright yellow, emblazoned with a funny looking man with horns and a pitchfork. Being this close to her again brought back some of the lightness from their date, but it still wasn’t enough to fully adjust his mood.

“Why is diablo on your shirt?”

Talia glanced down at her chest, her sweet giggle ringing out into the air. “It’s Sparky the Sun Devil. He’s ASU’s mascot.”

“Humph,” he grunted, not really sure how to respond. What kind of university had a devil as a mascot?

Must be an American thing…

“What is the matter?” she asked again. Her brows were furrowed, her pretty pink lips pouty. Dash hated seeing this look on her face, but he still didn’t want to talk about it. “You can talk to me, you know. Or have the last few nights slipped your mind?”

They hadn’t. They were impossible to forget.

Talia’s work schedule was so sporadic they hadn’t had time together—at least not one-on-one—since the carnival. Monday night’s Unified practice had provided a moment or two where he’d thought he might be able to at least tell her how much fun he’d had, but every time he’d started to speak, an audience appeared. All that hadn’t stopped them from texting what felt like nonstop during the evenings—Dash at home, Talia responding as she could while at Bunz. They had talked about what felt like every subject on the planet—light and fluffy get-to-know-you basics to the deeper things one only shared with a select few. They shared stories from growing up, laughed about some of the other guys on the team, bonded over having siblings so much younger than they were. Dash couldn’t remember ever feeling so connected to another person.

Dash shrugged, wishing she would drop the subject.

“Dash…”

“Have they done their warm-up laps?” he asked, making a circle motion with his hand. Talia apparently wasn’t going to drop it, so changing the subject fell to him.

“Not yet, but—”

“Tanner, care to lead with me?”

Tanner nodded enthusiastically, taking off almost immediately. With a curt nod to Talia, Dash followed, thankful the short run would be in silence. These few minutes would hopefully be what he needed to get his head on straight.

“D-aaaas,” Tanner said as they were finishing up.

“Yeah?”

Tanner made a gesture with his hands that Dash didn’t understand. Tanner was fluent in sign language, but Talia said he rarely used it since so many around him didn’t know any of it. Which made sense, since Dash certainly didn’t know a single sign. To the best of his knowledge, neither did any of his teammates. And based on the wildness of his movement, Dash guessed this was not a legitimate signal.

“What?” he asked again.

Tanner repeated the movement, his face turning serious as he tried to communicate. Dash still didn’t understand though. Frustration rose within him, Tanner making the same gesture over and over. But it meant nothing. Less than nothing, it was just hands moving.

“Dammit, Tanner. Just use your words!” Dash snapped. Tanner jumped back in surprise, the harsh words ringing out into the air.

Guilt hit Dash almost instantly, even before Talia hollered out at him. He could already see her storming toward him out of the corner of his eye. Fuck, this was the last thing he needed. As if today hadn’t already been shitty enough, now he was going to have his ass chewed by the one person he’d thought might actually be able to make it slightly better.

“What the hell is the matter with you?!” Talia hissed, grabbing ahold of his arm and pushing him away from the group. Her teeth were gritted, her eyes icy as they stared him down. “Do not yell at him. Just because something crawled up your ass and died does not mean you get to take it out on him. Or any of them!”

“I could not understand him! He was gesturing wildly and I have no idea he was trying to say.”

“He’s mostly nonverbal, Dash, you know this. Telling him to use his words is like me telling you to pick up the ball and toss it at the goal during a game. It doesn’t work like that. You know this!”

Dash grunted, knowing she was right. He hated to admit that though. Almost as much as he hated the idea of hurting Tanner’s feelings.

“What was he trying to say?” Talia asked.

“I just told you I do not know!”

Talia sucked in a long breath. It was obvious she was trying to keep her cool, not wanting to cause a scene in front of the kids. She was doing a lot better job than he was.

“What was he trying to sign? Show me what gesture he was making.”