“What are you doing here?” he asked with counterfeit indifference.
David’s arm felt warm and comforting around her waist. She burrowed into his side, suddenly feeling very safe and sleepy.
“Come to bed,” Cassidy encouraged.
“I made an ass out of myself tonight.”
She knew that his typical MO was that when he got mad, you left him alone. If you did that, he usually calmed down and saw reason. But if you ignored the signs, he would lash out. It sounded like he was at the reasonable stage and wanted to talk.
“What made you upset?”
He chuckled.
“You know me too well.”
“Just tell me,” Cassidy ordered.
David recapped his conversation with Frank and Kent.
“You should have fired them. Kent is using company resources to get laid. She obviously either had no training or is incompetent, and she might have caused you and your friends a world of hurt. In either case, she should have never been your PA,” Cassidy said.
David didn’t say anything for a minute.
“But that’s not what you’re really mad about, is it?” she asked.
He looked over at her.
“It’s Lexi cheating,” she guessed. “And that’s why you feel guilty for yelling at them.”
David nodded.
“Did you mean what you said?” Cassidy asked.
He sighed before answering.
“I could have been more … diplomatic.”
“You are such a people-pleaser,” she said as amusement touched her eyes. “There are times when you should tell it like it is. Just like you telling Oliver where to get off. He’s bad news, and you don’t need someone like him in your life.”
“The difference is that I don’t have anything invested in Oliver.”
“Do me a favor and don’t apologize tomorrow. They need to fix their internal problems, and having them think that you plan to give them a pass will never solve anything. In fact, it would do more harm than good,” Cassidy warned.
David nodded his agreement and then pulled her closer.
“You’re a good friend.”
“I’m glad you think that because I have a favor to ask.”
“If it’s within my power to help, all you have to do is ask, Buttercup,” he said softly.
“My dad told me that you would eventually get your head out of your butt and take over the leadership of the football team,” Cassidy said. That earned her a raised eyebrow, but she ignored the warning and pushed forward. “I’ve been watching what you’ve been up to and was hoping you would teach me to do the same with the rowing team.”
“Do you have a plan?” David asked.
“What’s yours?” she shot back.
He was smart enough to know that meant ‘no,’ so he let it go for now. Cassidy knew David and his ‘plans.’ That meant that he would make her do stupid stuff like ‘envision what outcome she wanted,’ create goals and timelines, and so on.
“My overall goal is to win a National Championship. The soonest that can happen is the season after this one because I know that Coach Clayton is a stubborn ass and won’t even consider me starting this year.”
“You really think that? Shouldn’t it be that the best player plays?” Cassidy asked.
“You would think,” David said, clearly disgusted. “But your own dad wanted to start your brother.”
She scrunched her nose as she realized that he was right.
“And you think that you’ll start next year?” Cassidy guessed.
“There’s no thinking about it. I will,” he said with a confidence that left no doubt it would happen.
Something she knew about David was that if he set his mind to something, it got done.
“I take it that you have a plan for that?”
He nodded.
“But you don’t need to know the details because your situation is different. Your coach has already penciled you in as the lead rower, right?”
At her nod, he went on. “What you want to do now is win. If that were my goal, then I would be doing things differently,” David suggested.
Cassidy gave her friend a confused look. They had been friends long enough that he didn’t need to know what her question was; he just answered it.
“Remember our sophomore year when the juniors and seniors tried to freeze us out?” David asked, and she nodded. “I took the underclassmen and a handful of backup juniors and created a core group that went on to win three state championships. I plan to do the same with the freshmen and pull in a few upperclassmen to work with this summer.”
“I hope you aren’t thinking of including Oliver in all this,” Cassidy said.
He smiled.
“You’re learning, but I don’t think Oliver’s a bad fit just because he’s an ass.”
“That would be enough for me,” she admitted.
“Did you know that Oliver is probably the best punter in the conference, and he hasn’t even played a down of American football?”
“If he’s so good, why don’t you plan to include him?” Cassidy asked.
“First, he’s just a kicker. That group goes off to the side in practice and does their own thing. They never really get involved with the rest of the team. The second is because he is so much older than all of us, even the seniors. Along with his bad attitude, Oliver won’t want to listen to anyone. He’ll discount what we try to tell him, and frankly, I worry that he’ll work against me. I don’t need someone like that poisoning the minds of my key players.”
“We could have Ruth ambush him, stick him in a crate, and ship him back down under.”
“You still haven’t hurt any boys this week. Maybe you could make him squeal like a little girl for me,” David suggested as they jested about Oliver’s demise.
“I already told Ruth about the one boy a week rule, but I made it clear that it didn’t apply to Oliver.”
“I’d almost forgotten how much fun it was to watch you take down big tough high school boys. I still have no idea what Ruth did to Oliver,” David admitted.
“About Ruth: she has a big crush on you.”
His head fell back as he turned his face heavenward and moaned.
“Please tell me that’s not true,” he worried.
“Well, I am your best friend, after all. I exist to tell you the truth, even if it won’t make you feel good. Deal with it.
“I told you that she and I talked before you first met her. She confessed it then. I explained that she was here to do a serious job. I shared a few of your dustups and about Trip being shot. I advised her to treat you formally and not let on about her true feelings,” Cassidy said.
“And here I was trying to get her to loosen up. Having her call me ‘Mr. Dawson’ might not be such a bad idea,” David decided.
“I’m not sure that wouldn’t bug the hell out of you. I think her calling you ‘sir’ is probably the right compromise,” Cassidy suggested.
Then a yawn hit her.
“I’ve kept you up late enough. Let’s go to bed,” he suggested.
“Can I sleep with you?” she asked.
She’d asked that because David slept better when she did, and he was still keyed up about Lexi. Cassidy hoped that by changing his focus to football and helping her, he might get to sleep. If that didn’t work, she might have to let him have sex with her. A good orgasm always seemed to cause David to nod off.
The only problem was it would open up feelings that Cassidy wasn’t ready to face.
◊◊◊
Cassidy’s appointment with Tank, David’s strength-and-conditioning coach, had been postponed until today. As she walked to his office, she reviewed what she wanted to talk about. She’d decided that she wanted to become a leader for the women’s rowing team.
Part of Cassidy’s leadership plan was to get the girls in better physical shape than their competition. Currently, her team primarily worked out on rowing machines. While they mimicked actual rowing, she had seen the variety of exercises David did. She thought that with Tank’s help, she could come up with a routine to help her girls.