Home is Where the Heart is - Pablo Gavi

Chapter 32: Pre-game

Apparently, along with the go to gaming set up and party worthy living room, Pedri's house also has a pool. During my previous visits to Pedri's home I hadn't thought to look out the back windows or peer around the house. From the street the property appears too small to have any sort of backyard. I clearly don't have very good depth perception as we're currently having Gavi's team birthday party in said giant backyard with a good sized pool.

The pale tiles around the pool warm the bottoms of my thighs as I sit on the edge of the pool in my favorite black bikini. My feet dangle in the water as I lean back on my hands, watching Gavi, Pedri, Ansu and Alex play their own version of volleyball in the pool. Off to the side, on Pedri's deck many other players are barbequing. I decided to stay away from both activities, knowing my hand eye coordination is worse than my cooking skills.

I'm alone for the moment, Alana and Evie as well as the wives and girlfriends are joining us in a bit. We're having a team only celebration first. Gavi had specifically requested it this way. A few of the guys complained because his girlfriend is on the team and it wasn't fair. He stuck to the 'it's my birthday' argument and won.

When Ansu hits the ball out of the pool and it smacks against the wooden fence Pedri climbs out of the pool swearing, his swimming shorts soaking wet and leaving a trail of water behind him as he heads for the ball. The break in the game gives Gavi the opportunity to come over to me. He swims over until he's standing between my legs. He presses his fingers into my skin, holding the bare outsides of my thighs. Water drips off his fingers and gets the entirety of my legs wet. I don't mind, it's hot outside today.

"¿Cómo va mi amor? (How's it going my love?)" he asks, rubbing his fingers up and down my thighs. I knew before we got into this relationship that his love language is physical touch, luckily mine is too.

"Pretty good, I should be asking you," I respond, "it is your birthday party." I push some of his wet hair out of his face so I can see his chocolate eyes.

His smile lights up his face. "If you're good than I'm good."

I smile. "I'm good." Before I know it, he's shaking his head really fast to spray me with his hair water. I try and escape his range, but his grasp on my thighs holds me in place. "Pablo!"

He chuckles, but stops. Most of the time I prefer his current long, fluffy hair to the photos of him I've seen with his shorter hair. This is one of the cases where the short hair would've been better, simply because it wouldn't be able to hold as much water. Either way, I won't complain unless he bleaches his hair. Not on my watch.

Acceptance of the drops of water across my body sinks in and I begin tracing the lines of his jersey tan. The skin over his biceps and forearms is very dark, but his chest and everywhere covered by his training jersey are completely pale. I'm not complaining, I'm tanned exactly the same and in a way it's nostalgic and bonds us together even more.

"Gavi!" Pedri calls, catching both of our attention. Gavi looks over his shoulder to see Pedri back in the water with the volleyball in hand. When they first begun playing I was more surprised Pedri had a volleyball in his house than the fact they were playing a sport aside from a variation of futbol for fun.

Gavi pats my leg, seeing Pedri waving the ball in our direction. Gavi turns back to me. "You sure you don't want to play?"

"No thanks," I tell him with a small laugh. I had attempted volleyball in high school and it had not gone smoothly. Still, I would give it another go with these guys if me joining in wouldn't make the teams uneven.

His eyes linger on me for a second before he pushes himself off the wall and towards the guys.

They continue the play, Pedri setting the ball over the net to Alex who smacks it back to Ansu with no control. It's a wonder the ball has remained in the pool for the majority of the game.