Game. Set. Match.

by Jennifer Iacopelli

  A half hour later, they were thrashing each other, holding their serves, and despite the bruise blooming on her hipbone, she was pleased with her effort. The respect she saw in his expression after she returned one of his serves for a clean winner wasn’t a figment of her imagination. She would never admit it out loud, but playing against him every day would help her prep for the French.

  Drenched in sweat and adrenaline thrumming through her veins, the sound of the gate opening didn’t register. She was too caught up in the thrill of the match, of having a fierce opponent, and she relished every point she won, a small revenge for the little part of her that still resented him hooking up with an Australian supermodel the night after Penny was in his bed.

  “Got started without me, huh?” Dom’s voice rang out, startling Alex as he tossed the ball up into the air. It fell to the ground, bouncing away.

  Penny cringed. Dom instructed her to start on her conditioning, not get roped into a full-on grudge match. Her coach stood at the edge of the court, the breeze ruffling his dark hair, looking every inch the elite athlete, still in great shape, even in retirement.

  “Couldn’t help ourselves,” Alex quipped, retrieving the ball.

  “Well, next time, wait for me. I’m your coach. Can’t analyze anything if I’m not here to watch,” Dom said.

  “Right,” Alex said, laughing. “Haven’t had a coach in a while. Might take some getting used to.”

  Shaking his head, Dom turned his attention to her. His eyes caught the red clay staining her white tennis shorts and blue T-shirt. His thick, black eyebrows lifted up into his hairline, asking the question “What happened?”

  “Can I talk to you for a second?” Penny asked, inhaling deeply through her nose, trying to keep from exploding at her coach. He didn’t know about her and Alex. This situation wasn’t his fault. It was hers. “Privately.”

  “Say what you like, love. I’m a big boy.”

  Her back teeth grinded together and she turned to her coach. “We only have five weeks until Paris and I don’t have time to waste helping him get back into match shape or whatever. I’m not training with him.”

  “I don’t know. It looks like you two got in a pretty good workout. Any other reason?” Dom asked, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest. It was his battle stance. She hadn’t seen it in a while.

  “She thinks I’m a has-been,” Alex said as he started kicking around one of the stray tennis balls, picking it up with his foot and bouncing it off his knee, showing Dom exactly how seriously he took her opinion.

  Penny pressed her fingertips against the side of her head, trying her best to ignore him as she led Dom a few feet away, giving her a little more privacy. “I can’t train with him, Dom,” she said, her voice quieter this time. “He’s too…I just…can’t.” Her words failed her. She couldn’t tell her coach she couldn’t train with Alex because he was a smug prick who already managed to seduce her once. That no matter how much playing with him could help her game, he would be nothing but a distraction at a time when she could least afford it.

  Dom folded his arms over his chest and lowered his head, keeping his voice low. “Listen to me, P. He’s the perfect training partner for you.” She opened her mouth to interrupt him, but he cut her off. “This is the best thing for you going into Paris, a training partner who can keep up with you, challenge you on a daily basis. Even not having played in months, he’s better than everyone here.”

  “He seems fine,” Penny groused, looking up at the sky and sighing in defeat as his words echoed her own thoughts.

  “Good then, so there’s no problem?” Dom asked, but it wasn’t a question and he was already walking away from her, gathering up the stray balls from their impromptu match.

  “So, love, what’s the verdict?” Alex asked, suddenly right beside her, and despite everything, as his body hovered just inches from hers, her skin started to hum at the proximity. She spun on her toe, their chests nearly colliding. Alex’s hands came up to steady her, but she slipped away from his grasp.

  “I told you not to touch me.” She moved back out onto the court and he matched her stride, his arm brushing against hers as they walked. She pulled away immediately and stepped in front of him. Looking up, she squinted into the sunlight shining behind his head, reflecting off the golden streaks in his hair. “Outside of this court, you stay the hell away from me, understand?” she whispered so Dom wouldn’t hear.

  Alex grunted, a sound deep from within his chest, a sound she recognized. He’d made it once with his lips buried between her shoulder and her neck, his weight pressing her down into the bed, skin again skin. “Understood,” he said, but Penny knew the real test wasn’t if he could stay away from her, but if she could keep herself away from him.

  Chapter 3

  May 14th

  “Easy, agevole, ragazze, easy,” Coach D’Amato called as the Junior Elite Girls jogged around the practice court, cooling down from their practice session. “Va bene, va bene. That is all, eccellente.”

  Jasmine, leading the line, slowed to a walk and then made a beeline for her racket bag resting against the fence that surrounded the court. She’d had a good practice and her muscles were tingling, a good hurt. It was the perfect way to start off Classic Rankings day.

  “Good practice ragazze,” Coach D’Amato said as the girls began to leave the court. “Indiana, uno momento, per favore.”

  D’Amato pulled the new girl aside and seemed to be explaining something about her footwork, demonstrating a simple crossover step.

  Jasmine smirked. Indiana had an insane serve to go along with her ridiculous name, but not much else. Her footwork was a mess. Her forehand was okay, but her backhand was so weak decent players would never give her the courtesy of ever hitting to that side. And of course she started at OBX just before the Classic. She wasn’t the first player to try that strategy. They would show up thinking Dom would be so floored by the talent oozing out of their pores he’d just hand over the Classic trophy and all prestige that went along with it, though Indiana was the first to actually show up on ranking day. It didn’t make her any less delusional, but still, it was a gutsy move.

  No, Indiana Gaffney wouldn’t be giving her any trouble during the OBX Classic. Jasmine let her eyes wander over the other girls gathering up their things, almost all of whom looked ready to drop. In truth, none of these girls would give her a problem. Since Penny started full time on tour, Jasmine was easily the best player at OBX. Years of hard work had brought her to this point and now it was her time to shine. Time to live up to her parents’ legacy.

  “Lookin’ good out there, Randazzo.” A voice carried from the other side of the fence, breaking into her thoughts. She would know that voice anywhere. Teddy Harrison. Her eyes flew open wide, looking around for an escape route, but the fence surrounding the junior courts only had one other exit and it was four courts away. She briefly considered sprinting in that direction, but it was too late.

  “What’s up?” she asked, forcing a smile onto her face before turning to look at him. He was standing just behind her, outside the court, both hands up against the top rail of the three-foot fence.

  “You ready?”

  “For what?” she asked, stalling, looking around for someone, anyone to latch herself onto and give her a plausible excuse to leave, but most of the girls were already off the court, headed for the locker rooms. The only one left was Indiana and hell would freeze over before she asked that girl for anything.

  “It’s Monday, Jas,” he said, “We have a hitting session.”

  “Oh right, I uh, I forgot.” It was only half a lie. She hadn’t thought about him at all during practice, but when she woke up this morning, she’d hoped he’d forget about their weekly session. They’d had one stilted and altogether awful conversation after their kiss last week. It was all about how much better they were as friends and how they shouldn’t let one stupid kiss change all that. Or at least that’s what Teddy said and she’d gone
along with it like an idiot because the truth was she’d rather have him in her life—even just as a friend—than not at all. She loved him. It wasn’t just a stupid kiss for her. It was everything she’d ever wanted for the last four years, even though she knew Teddy didn’t do relationships—ever.

  “Right. So, are we going to train?” he asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet, expelling some of the excess energy he always carried around. It seemed like he was willing to just move on and ignore the tension that still lingered, if he even felt it at all. Jasmine felt like her body was encased in quicksand, being crushed under the pressure of loving someone who wouldn’t love her back.

  Keeping her expression schooled into indifference, Jasmine nodded and moved off the court.

  “Hi, Teddy,” Indy said as she followed just behind Jasmine.

  “Hey, new girl,” he said, flashing her a brilliant grin, one that made Jasmine’s stomach flip, even if it wasn’t for her. “How’d you find out my name? You asked around, huh?”

  Indy laughed, yanking her long blond hair out of its ponytail and shaking it out. “More like Roy recognized you through the window.”

  Teddy laughed and winked. “Sure he did.”

  Jasmine cleared her throat, forcing down the lump that was practically choking her. How the hell did Indy know Teddy? She’d been at OBX for like three seconds.

  “You two know each other?”

  “Yeah, someone was lost and late this morning, so I showed her the way to Dom’s office.”

  “Right, only after I swore—”

  “Sorry, Indiana, Teddy and I have a training session. See you later.”

  Jasmine pushed past the other girl and started down the path to the practice court she and Teddy always used. She heard him mumble a quick good-bye to Indiana and then the sound of his footsteps as he jogged to catch up.

  “That was rude.”

  She stopped short and turned to him. He nearly crashed right into her, but caught himself just in time, taking a quick step back. “Do you always have to do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Flirt with every single girl who smiles at you?”

  “I was being polite,” he shot back.

  “You were flirting.”

  “Jas,” he said, his bright green eyes looking into hers. Jasmine pursed her lips, not impressed that he thought her name and an apologetic expression would be enough.

  Running a frustrated hand through his short hair and huffing a breath, he began again. “I’m sorry. I just thought we said we were better off as friends.” She could practically hear the panic in his voice, like he was being backed into a corner.

  “We did.” She tried to pretend she didn’t hear his sigh of relief.

  “Then why are you freaking out?” He took another step back.

  “I’m not freaking out. I just—wait, what were you doing here this morning?”

  “I uh…” His eyes grew wide and she knew he was fumbling around in his head for an excuse.

  “Who?”

  “Who what?”

  “Who did you screw last night, Ted? Don’t play dumb.”

  “Shit,” Teddy muttered, his eyes locking onto something over her shoulder. She could hear the chatter of girls walking down the path behind her. “Teddy?”

  “Walk with me this way.” He grabbed her arm and led her down a smaller path, away from the practice courts, near the edge of OBX property that ran along the beach.

  “Teddy, what the hell? Why can’t you just answer the question?” Jasmine yanked her arm free and turned just in time to see a girl with long, blond hair, a lot like Indiana’s, stride past on the main walkway where they’d just been standing. Katie Nelson, another junior player, probably on her way to the late-morning session with Coach D’Amato. She’d be going to UCLA in the fall.

  “Sorry, I just—”

  “Didn’t want Katie to see you,” she finished for him.

  “Yeah, I didn’t want a scene,” he said, looking away from her, keeping his eyes trained above her head.

  “Why would there be a—oh, it was her?”

  He shrugged carelessly. “It didn’t mean anything.”

  “It never does,” she muttered.

  “What?”

  She felt herself deflate, the anger seeping away. They were just friends, nothing more. That’s what they’d agreed to, and if she kept pushing this, she’d lose him.

  “Nothing, let’s just go hit, okay? I need to get another good workout in before Dom posts the rankings. I know my mom and dad will want to go celebrate afterward so I probably won’t be around for afternoon session.” She was at her wits end, and if she didn’t have a tennis ball to hit soon, she was going to use his head for one.

  ***

  “Jasmine, come on!” Lara Cronin, one of the other juniors, yelled from the locker room door. “It’s going to be posted in five minutes!”

  It was the rankings sheet for the OBX Classic Invitational. Every year Dom invited some of the best young female players in the world to play at the Classic, people likely to make a splash on tour in the next year or two. There were major bragging rights involved, and as they lived in the age of information, the results were almost always big news in the tennis world. When Penny swept through last year’s tournament, the media labeled her a player to watch going into the new season. Tournament directors all over the world took notice. Of course Penny was the first Classic winner to ever have so much success in her first year on tour, which just added a whole new level of expectations for this year’s winner.

  Jasmine gathered her racket bag and met the gaggle of girls waiting for her at the locker room door. They were twittering with anticipation as they all followed her down the hallway, past the Title Wall and out into the main atrium.

  “What’s all this?” Roy asked from his desk, looking up over the edge of his newspaper. “You girls all here for me?”

  A ripple of laughter echoed up into the atrium’s high ceiling.

  “We’re here for the Classic rankings,” one of the stupider girls said and Jasmine rolled her eyes.

  “Ah, it all makes sense now. Dom’s still up in his office. Should be comin’ down the pipe any minute though.” Roy chuckled, going back to his paper.

  They all looked up and saw Dom through his office windows. He was standing in the corner of his office, where his printer sat on a table. He reached for a piece of paper and studied it for a moment, before nodding and disappearing from view.

  It was like all the air was sucked out the room. Everyone pulled in a breath and held it, waiting for their coach to appear on the stairwell, rankings in hand.

  “I think I’m gonna be sick,” one girl muttered.

  “Gross, then get away from me,” another chimed in.

  “Are they out yet?” a voice asked. Jasmine turned and saw Indiana Gaffney standing at the edge of the crowd, long blond hair still wet from her shower and hanging halfway down her back.

  “Not yet, Dom just—”

  Jasmine cleared her throat, a firm ahem-hum, cutting off whoever was responding. She squinted in that direction, but it was impossible to pick the voice out of the group of girls.

  “There he is,” Lara said from beside her, gripping her wrist. Dom stepped off the last stair and turned to the wall next to the stairwell.

  Jasmine pulled away and took a step forward, feeling the girls behind her hesitate and then move with her.

  Dom pinned the single sheet of white printer paper to the corkboard and then turned to them. “Ladies, behind me is a draw ranking for the OBX Classic. Remember, not everyone will make the tournament. Some of the best junior players in the world will be attending as well. If you have any questions, I expect you to come see me in person. I will not be taking any calls or meeting with your parents on this subject. Is that understood?”

  The girls nodded.

  “Good, now one more thing. Some of you might’ve heard that Penny’s back on campus and that Alex Russell is here as well, getti
ng himself back into match shape. He and Penny will be training together leading up to the French Open.”

  Jasmine’s focus shifted from the white sheet of paper behind her coach’s head to Dom’s face as a few gasps and nervous giggles came out of the crowd around her. Most of the girls were used to Penny being around, although some of them liked to suck up to her once in a while, like her talent might rub off on them if they got close enough, but Alex Russell? That was just insane. Her own parents were a big deal, but more for their relationship off the court than anything else. Alex was only twenty-one and already had the same amount of Grand Slams as her parents did combined.

  “I expect you all to behave professionally. No hovering around their practice court and making nuisances of yourselves. Do I make myself clear?”

  Everyone nodded again.

  Dom eyed the crowd like he didn’t quite believe them, but he continued anyway, “Excellent. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

  He turned around, escaping up to his office, and the crowd pressed forward immediately.

  For a moment, Jasmine’s vision blurred as she took in the names. She took a deep breath, blinked then looked again.

  OBX Classic Rankings

  1. Jasmine Randazzo (USA/OBX)

  2. Cara Pagnini (ITA)

  3. Tatiana Belova (RUS)

  4. Indiana Gaffney (USA/OBX)

  5. Stella Almanzar (ESP)

  6. Jessica McCormack (NZL)

  7. Aliya Polina (RUS)

  8. Ellie Forester (AUS)

  9. Jelena Petrović (SRB)

  10. Yulia Markelova (RUS)

  11. Laura Wiltvank (NED)

  12. Sydney Whitcomb (USA/OBX)

  13. Lara Cronin (USA/OBX)

  14. Saskia Johnstone (GRB)

  15. Daciana Raducan (ROU)

  16. Keisha Bernard (USA/OBX)

  Behind her Lara squeaked in delight at making the cut, and Addison Quinn, who’d missed the tournament, started sobbing, but none of it really registered for Jasmine. Her eyes were glued to the top of the list.

  How was it possible that after one day of training at OBX Indiana Gaffney was fourth? Dom even put her above Stella Almanzar, the Junior Australian Open runner-up, and a player Jasmine lost to on more than one occasion.