David was back in her good graces when he suggested to Lindsey, Jamie, and Lauren that his friend could help them tone up. They’d been complaining about bikini season coming up. David and Kirk had gotten tired of listening to them, so David offered Cassidy’s services.
Her business began to boom when the girls had shared that David, Ridge, and the other NFL guys worked out at the same time. If many more showed up, Cassidy would have to hire help.
David was spotting Ridge on the bench press when he heard Lauren complain. Cassidy had the girls stretching.
“I can’t do it. I hurt all over. Even my hair hurts.”
“Uh, oh,” Ridge said, predicting trouble.
If he, or any of the guys, had said that. Cassidy would have made them work harder.
“David! Get over here,” Cassidy demanded.
Ridge and David looked at each other like they’d been caught stealing candy at the quickie mart.
“David!” she repeated.
Ridge chuckled when David dutifully went to the scary ninja glaring at him. Then he got even more worried when she smiled at him.
“David has magic hands,” she told Lauren. “Have him take you over there, and he’ll give you a massage.”
David was torn between telling Cassidy ‘no’ and the idea of getting his hands on Lauren’s body. Mr. Happy began to swell to let his opinion be known.
“Will it help?” Lauren asked.
“Absolutely,” Cassidy assured her.
They’d thought of everything when designing this room. There was a massage table off to the side in a small nook; that would give Lauren and David some privacy.
“How do you want me?” Lauren asked when they were alone.
David bit back, ‘naked and under me.’
“Just get on and lie face down.”
Once Lauren was on the table, David quickly found out that Cassidy was indeed working the girls too hard. Lauren’s muscles were in knots. He would talk to Cassidy afterward. She was used to working with athletes and needed to ratchet it down several notches for novices.
“I hate to say this, but to really help you, I need you to take off your shirt. Just remove it and put it on the table like you would a beach towel when you’re sunning by the pool,” David said.
David turned around until Lauren told him she was ready. His brother, Greg, owned his own massage business, and he’d trained David to help out when he could. Greg had also taught him some sexy tricks that had gotten David lucky more than once. All that went out the window when he found that Lauren needed his help.
Deep tissue massages were not gentle. To help her, David had to dig in to loosen Lauren’s twisted muscles. When he found a particularly tough knot, she would add her commentary.
“Yes ... Right there ... Oh, my ... Yes, yes, yes, oh, dear God, YES! ... It hurts! ... Do it harder!”
When Lauren began to feel human again, David stepped out of the nook to give her privacy to put her shirt back on. He found Lindsey looking up at him expectantly.
“I hurt, too.”
’Frick!’ David thought. He suspected that Cassidy was charging them for Mr. Magic Hands. If she thought she was keeping all the money, she was sadly mistaken.
David helped three more girls before it was time to go with Ridge to practice. All the guys gave him shit about doing more than massages to make the girls scream as they had. David was embarrassed that his mind hadn’t gone to the gutter when he was doing their massages. Looking back, David realized the girls’ screams would have sounded naughty if you couldn’t see what was happening.
When they got to the football facilities, some of the receivers wanted some extra work, so he and Ridge threw to them. David didn’t say a word when they shared Matt’s injury and how the other quarterbacks had performed during the mini-scrimmage on Monday.
Before they left for the day, Ridge pulled David aside.
“If they’re talking about how badly practice went, Coach Clayton knows. You should be careful not to overplay your hand. Coach Clayton isn’t the forgiving type,” Ridge shared.
“One of the guys said something about a video. Do you know what that’s about?” David asked.
“You haven’t seen it? There’s a video on the net showing Matt getting the shit beat out of him, and you coming in like Superman to save the day.”
David winced. He’d have to call Frank to let him know. He could only imagine Matt’s reaction to that.
“Do you think I need to do something about that?”
“Did you post it?” Ridge asked.
“No, of course not.”
“Then there’s not much you can do. Looks to me like Matt brought this on himself. He’ll have to live with the consequences.
“Anyway, we were talking about Coach Clayton. If you’re the number one guy, he’s your best buddy. Once you aren’t, he won’t even take your calls.”
David thought there might be more to what Ridge was saying, but he could read between the lines.
“Any suggestions?” David asked.
“It might be better if you don’t approach Coach with the emergency-backup idea. Let me do it for you,” Ridge suggested.
“You’ll talk to Coach Clayton for me?”
“No. I’ll go to practice and put a bug in the ear of some of the key people in the stands. It’s not like there isn’t a logical solution to their current problem.
“This way, if word gets back to Coach Clayton, it’ll be coming from me and not you. When he finally sees the light, don’t be a dick about it. Give him a lot of ‘yes, sirs’ and offer ‘to do whatever’s needed’ type of bullshit,” Ridge said.
“You think it’ll work?”
“After I tell them that I’ve been working with you and that I’ve seen you throw, they’ll spread the word. I’ll tell them to talk to the receivers who have been working out with us for confirmation. So, yeah. I think it’ll work.”
In the stands watching practice, besides fans, were reporters, bloggers, and sometimes donors. If the reporters and bloggers picked up on the story, it would start to circulate within the fan base. No football team worked in a vacuum. Coach Clayton would get pressure to resolve his lack of a backup problem. David hoped it would be with him.
“Thanks,” David said sincerely.
“My butt hurts. Can you rub it for me?” Ridge teased.
“All kidding aside, I am good at giving massages. If you ever need one...” David offered.
They both knew that working out as an elite athlete could be painful at times.
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Ridge said. “And I’m the one who should be thankful. My agent had me run through some of the combine drills over the weekend, and I’ve shown marked improvement. A lot of it is due to your and Cassidy’s help.”
“As much as I love this girly stuff, I need to go play baseball tonight,” David said. “Hey, I have two tickets for tonight’s game. Do you and Penny want to come?”
“That might be a good idea. I can tell her it’s date night.”
“Always the romantic,” David joked.
On the way back to the dorm, he felt much better about his football plan.
David had only managed one hit and committed his first error of the season to allow the Lions to tie the game in the top of the ninth. The Trojans dropped a heartbreaker in 10 innings against Loyola Marymount. A home run put the Lions on top, 4–3, and the Trojans didn’t have an answer in their half of the inning.
The one bright spot was that David spotted scouts from the Angels and Padres at the game. Andres responded by playing an all-around good game.
After his shower, David went out of the players door and found a crowd waiting. Andres was right beside him.
“I think I’m going to pass tonight,” David decided.
“No, you’re not. Crystal called me and said that if you didn’t take an Alpha Mu home tonight, they won’t be here for the next home game.”
The Trojans were on the road this weekend, going to Utah. David wasn’t looking forward to it because he’d heard they’d gotten a dusting of snow yesterday. That would give them a week to cool off if they were mad at him. But he knew that the threat of Alpha Mu not waiting for players after the game because of David would get him lynched. Not that the other girls weren’t cute, but the Alpha Mus were a cut above. The ones that were jock bunnies were very popular with his teammates.