Game. Set. Match.

by Jennifer Iacopelli

  She could still feel the wall against her back, his hands supporting her at the thighs and the feeling that she was going to burst out of her skin. “No, but…”

  “No buts.” He cut her off and the mattress shifted as he stood. In seconds he had on a pair of basketball shorts and was digging around in his dresser for a shirt.

  Feeling a little exposed, Penny pulled a sheet over her body.

  He turned, mouth open, ready to say something, but stopped himself. For a moment he just stared, his eyes scorching her skin the way his hands and mouth had just hours before.

  “What?” she asked, feeling heat rising in her cheeks. It seemed so natural to let him look at her during their frenzy last night, but in the light of day, it was different, more personal.

  He shook his head. “You feel like a run? Unless I wore you out completely…” He trailed off. Then, unbidden, a soft growl echoed up from her stomach.

  Penny bit her lip. “Breakfast first?”

  “As the lady wishes,” he said, his gaze raking over her again, before turning abruptly and leaving the room.

  Penny slipped out from beneath the sheet and gathered her clothes. Stepping into her shorts and sliding her shirt over her head, then sat back down on the bed, trying to tame her hair into a ponytail as reality set in. She’d done exactly what she promised herself she wouldn’t do and now what? Had she woken up to a happily ever after or a walk of shame? It felt more like limbo, like their fate was entirely in their own hands, but that the slightest misstep could shatter everything.

  She wandered out of the bedroom and down the hallway toward the kitchen. A small pang fluttered through her chest when she saw his luggage leaning against the wall. They weren’t leaving for another three days and he didn’t strike her as the type to pack way in advance.

  “You’re already packed for France?” she asked, leaning against the archway that opened to the kitchen.

  Alex was leaning against the island at the center of the room, flipping through a newspaper. “Nah, heading to London tomorrow to see my mum before the tournament.”

  “Does Dom know?” It stung a little that she hadn’t known, but then again, why would he have told her?

  “Yeah, had it planned for a while now.”

  “Oh,” she said, moving to him. Her bare feet cold against the tile floor, she stepped up behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso, pressing her cheek against his warm back.

  “I would have told you, but—honestly, love—I didn’t think you’d care.”

  She sighed against his skin. He was right, she wouldn’t have cared or at least she would have pretended she didn’t.

  Blinking up at him, she shrugged. “It’s okay. I’ll just have to recruit Jack to hit with me until we leave.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he leaned in close. He was about to kiss her, but her stomach growled again.

  “I believe I promised you breakfast,” he said, motioning to the counter behind him, where two tall pink smoothies were waiting. “Strawberry banana.”

  Her favorite. “Did you Google me?”

  Smirking, he shrugged. “Maybe. Drink up,” he said, handing her a straw, “and then we run. Gotta keep our legs under us if we’re going to kick ass in France.”

  They drank in a comfortable silence and when they finished, Penny took their glasses and washed them out in the sink.

  “Let me just grab my trainers and we’ll go.”

  “No,” she said, drying her hands on a towel. She grasped his hand and led him toward the glass doors that opened to the beach. “Barefoot.”

  “Barefoot, in the sand?”

  “Barefoot,” she confirmed as she released him and took off across the beach, sand kicking up around her legs. He caught up easily enough and they ran in silence, their strides matching remarkably well for two people separated by almost a foot in height.

  The rhythm of their steps set a beat behind her thoughts as she ran to the edge of the inlet. Past the jetty, she could see the edge of her neighborhood. She was really just a few blocks from home, could run there if she wanted. Her parents’ faces swam in her head. They probably thought she spent the night at the OBX dorms. She did that sometimes when training ran late. What would they think about this? About Alex? She shook her head. She couldn’t worry about what they would think, especially since she hadn’t figured him out for herself yet.

  Penny stopped and it took a few strides for Alex to realize she was no longer beside him. He jogged back, his breathing harsh.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She didn’t know how to put it into words. How could she possibly explain that she wanted him to be a part of her life, but she didn’t know if it was possible?

  “I…” she began, but stopped, shaking her head and looking up into the sky for answers.

  “I swear to God, love, you’re scaring me. Whatever it is, just come out with it.”

  “I don’t know what this is, you and me,” she said in one breath.

  He brought a hand up, rubbing his palm against the back of his neck. “Christ, is that all? I thought…”

  “What did you think?” She opened her eyes and met his.

  “I thought you were…” He hesitated, waving a hand in the air, searching for the right word, “I don’t know, regretting it, like in Australia.”

  Shaking her head, she stepped closer. “Should I? Regret it, I mean?”

  Alex stepped forward, his hands reaching for her, settling against her cheeks, his thumbs brushing gently over her skin. “Penny, I’ve never—I don’t know how to describe how I feel about you, but I know I’ve never felt it before and I’ve spent every moment since I got here scared shitless that you wouldn’t want anything to do with me. For a while there, I thought I’d have to live with that, and trust me when I say, it wasn’t pretty.”

  He was one of the most confident men she’d ever met. She couldn’t imagine what he just said was even possible, let alone how he actually felt.

  “I don’t believe you,” she said with a laugh, pulling away, the seriousness in his voice was a little scary.

  Alex shook his head, reaching out for her hand. “Maybe we ought to have a little more faith in each other. Can you do that? Can you have faith in me?”

  Penny pushed up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips, hoping he wouldn’t notice she didn’t answer. The truth was she wasn’t sure if she could, at least not yet.

  A few moments later, she pulled away breathlessly. “As much as I’d love to stay here all day just like this, we better get going.”

  “Relax, love. It’s early still.”

  “It’s not that early. Dom’ll be waiting for us. Come on.”

  ***

  Dom stood on their practice court, arms crossed over his chest, clearly unimpressed that they’d arrived ten minutes after six, the time he’d asked them to be there, an early start time to help them acclimate to the time change once they arrived in Paris. He raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting an explanation, but Alex beat her to it.

  “My fault,” he said. “I asked her to wait for me.”

  Their coach’s mouth twisted into a frown. “Alright. You know the drill. Ten minutes, ten Einsteins. Stretch out and then get going.”

  Alex groaned beside her, but Penny just laughed. “I told you so,” she said, as they ran through their stretching regime, starting with the toes and working their way up the body. Then they ran side by side, sprinting from line to line, pushing each other with every stride. They ran through the last line after their tenth circuit, and as they pulled up, his shoulder bumped hers. She caught herself easily and brushed against him as she turned back toward the court.

  “Alright, enough messing around,” Dom barked, pushing off the fence where he’d been watching them run. “I’m not going to have another fight on my hands, am I?”

  Penny shook her head and glanced up at Alex who’d sidled up to her, leaning over her shoulder. A day ago she would have pulled away, but now she reveled in having him
close. If she was truly going to surrender to this, to stop fighting, she had to go all in and try to maintain a balance between those feelings and what she wanted to accomplish on the court.

  “Good,” Dom said. “I want both of you at the top of your game in Paris.”

  He tossed Alex a ball. “You serve first.”

  They fell into the routine they’d established over the last few weeks of training as they warmed up. The tension from their previous sessions was gone, replaced by a comfortable rhythm, controlled and precise.

  When they were both ready, Alex tossed a ball high in the air and fired a laser beam down the centerline, a perfect ace, impossible for anyone to return.

  “Wow,” Penny called out across the court, but her eyes narrowed when she saw a flash of pain flit across his face. She wasn’t the only one who noticed.

  “Al, you okay?” Dom asked, rising from his seat on the sidelines and ignoring the wave of dismissal from the younger man.

  “I’m fine,” Alex protested when Penny jogged to the other side of the court.

  “You’re not fine,” Dom said. “It’s your knee right?”

  “Left, actually, and it’s fine, just a twinge.”

  “But you took meds this morning, you shouldn’t have any pain at all,” Penny said, but as the words flew from her mouth she knew they were the wrong ones. Dom’s eyes widened and Alex’s closed in resignation.

  “You’re on pain medication? You told me that knee was fine.”

  “It is fine,” Alex bit out. “I wouldn’t even call it pain, like I said, just a twinge now and again.”

  “Bullshit. Go get it looked at in the trainers’ room and we’re going to get an MRI done before you leave for London.”

  “If I say I’m fine, I’m fine, Dom,” Alex snapped. “I’m not one of your students. I don’t jump when you snap your fingers.”

  “Alex, maybe you should get it looked at,” Penny said, her brow furrowing as she studied his knee.

  “Don’t be a bull head about this, Al. We’re just asking you to have it checked,” Dom said, his tone softening.

  Alex wasn’t having any of it. “And I’m asking you to trust me, but apparently there isn’t a lot of that around here.”

  He said the words to Dom, but Penny felt them deep her in her chest and as she watched him walk off the court, his stride confident and steady—no hint of a limp at all—she knew they were meant for her.

  Chapter 15

  May 22nd

  Jasmine tiptoed down the stairs, glided across the tiled kitchen floor then slid through the French doors at the back of her house. She held her breath as she braced the door against her palm, letting it shut with a soft click. Sighing in relief, she sprinted across the patio and down the wooden walkway that led to the beach. She felt like a criminal escaping after a heist, her heart pounding in her chest as she started down the beach toward OBX.

  Dom made good on his threat to call her parents and she spent the last twenty-four hours suffocating beneath the weight of their expectations for her, not as a tennis player, but as a person. She could barely look either of them in the eye and couldn’t wait to get back to training, leaving behind the heavy cloud of disappointment.

  It was easier to get to OBX in the mornings by crossing the private beaches that sat between her house and the training center. She could avoid the crush of cars in the parking lot, the dozens of younger athletes who would want her attention—oh who was she kidding? She was sneaking in to avoid the stares and gossip in the locker room.

  The lights were still out and the usually bustling space was empty, no voices echoing off the tiled floor and metal lockers. The fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling flickered to life as she made her way to her locker, hoping to dress and grab her equipment long before anyone else arrived. As she pulled her hair into a ponytail and clipped back her bangs, her luck ran out.

  “I wonder if she’ll even show her face.” Lara Cronin’s voice echoed against the lockers, dripping with ill concealed glee.

  A laugh, high-pitched, bordering on the edge of a screech, responded. That was Addison. “I know. I mean everyone saw what happened.”

  The girls giggled together.

  “Really, though, how pathetic can you get?”

  “Please, she’s so overrated. The only reason Dom lets her train here is because of her parents.”

  Jasmine slammed her locker shut and stepped out into the main walkway. The same girls who’d made Indy’s life miserable when she first arrived at OBX stared in shock, then small, cruel smiles slipped over their features. Spinning on her heel, Jasmine didn’t give them the satisfaction of eye contact even as she heard one of them say, “Oh my God,” before they dissolved into uncontrolled cackles.

  That was what Indy felt like, those first days, with everyone against her. It must have been awful and Jasmine could have put a stop to it, but she didn’t, just like Teddy said. A knot of regret twisted in her stomach. Exhaling a harsh breath, she adjusted her bag over her shoulder and marched toward the courts. Those girls didn’t matter and she could only hope that the people who did would forgive her.

  First, she had to talk to Dom. She had to set things right with him. He was her coach, but while she lay in bed, avoiding her parents the day before, she realized something else. He was right about her game. He knew her strengths and weaknesses better than anyone.

  Jasmine mumbled to herself. “Dom, I’m so sorry. What I did was awful and I’m grateful you’re giving me a second chance.” That sounded about right. She nodded and pushed through the gate, catching sight of her coach setting up the ball machine.

  “Dom,” she began, but her voice caught when Indy stepped into her vision, dumping a basket of tennis balls into the machine’s feeder. Practice started at eight and it was a quarter to the hour. What was Indy already doing here?

  “Jasmine,” Dom said, waving her in, “welcome back.”

  His words said one thing, but his eyes, trained on her like a hawk, said another. He only meant welcome back if what happened over the weekend would never happen again. Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth to assure him it wouldn’t, but he cut her off.

  “Warm up, then we can get started. I mean now.”

  She nodded and started her stretching routine. She would apologize the first chance she got, probably after he got whatever training torture he had in mind out of his system.

  She and Indy stretched together. Jasmine kept her eyes glued to the fence at the end of the court, but felt Indy watching her. Her stomach twisted again, like in the locker room, only worse. She still couldn’t stand the bitch, but a sharp sliver of empathy cut against her conscience.

  “Ladies, are you ready?” Dom called, striding toward them. They stood and Jasmine glanced quickly at Indy, but she was looking at their coach now. “Today we’re going to start with some light conditioning.” There was something in his voice that drew Jasmine’s attention. She turned to him and saw a sadistic glint in his eyes. He nodded at the doubles line. “Einsteins.”

  “How many?” Jasmine asked.

  “Until I tell you to stop.”

  The trick with Einsteins was to not think about how awful you felt, to just clear your mind of the burn in your legs and the shortness of breath and to try to focus on something else. Dom was leaning against the fence, watching them to make sure they ran to each line and not just short of it. Jasmine didn’t count as their feet pounded down upon the hard court; she focused on Dom and ran her apology over and over again in her mind like a penance for her sins. Sorry…grateful…second chance, sorry…grateful…second chance, the words were like a mantra to the thuds of her sneakers. Sorry…grateful…second chance...sorry…grateful…second chance….

  “Okay, girls, grab some water,” Dom called and they skidded to a stop. Jasmine glanced at Indy. She wasn’t huffing and puffing, not like she did on her first day. Still, her breath came hard and quick, while Jasmine wasn’t all that winded. They both grabbed their water bottle
s and stood together, sipping slowly.

  “What’s he doing here?” Indy said as Alex Russell strode up to the court and waved Dom over. The two men spoke for a few moments, keeping their voices low, then Alex shook Dom’s hand and left.

  “All right, ladies, footwork drills, on the service line, no rackets,” their coach said, ignoring the curious looks they were both shooting him.

  The drill was pretty straightforward. They stood where the service boxes met, halfway between the net and the baseline while Dom stood opposite them with a ball in his hand. Moving his arm left and right, they would mirror the action with their footwork, until he released the ball. Without a racket, they were expected to catch it before the ball could bounce twice. Jasmine loved this drill. It played to her strengths, quick feet and quicker reactions.

  She felt Indy’s eyes on her and she met the other girl’s gaze for the first time all morning. Jasmine motioned out to the court, “After you.”

  Dom kept Indy’s feet moving, short, quick steps against the clay court, before he tossed her the ball and she lunged to her left and caught in with the tips of her fingers. Indy stood, tossing the ball back to Dom.

  “Beat that,” Indy muttered.

  “Game on,” Jasmine mumbled back as they switched places.

  “What was that?” Dom asked.

  “Nothing,” Jasmine said, setting her feet shoulder-width apart and waiting for Dom’s first cue.

  Twenty minutes later, they were both dripping with sweat, but neither had dropped a single ball.

  “Okay girls, take ten.”

  “No,” Indy protested, dragging her wrist across her forehead, then over her knee that she scraped when she laid out for one ball.

  “Not yet,” Jasmine agreed, hands on her hips, bent slightly at the waist to try and regain her breath.

  Dom laughed at them outright, clearly satisfied with their performance. “Take ten and rehydrate.”

  He began to walk away and Jasmine saw her opportunity. “Dom, hang on a second,” she said, jogging to catch up with him. “I just wanted to—”