Losing at Love (16 page)

“I am about to arrive. Meet me at the door,” Caroline said and then hung up.

Indy thought about leaving her out there to rot on the doorstep, but the idea that Jack might see her first had her heading down the stairs and slipping out the front door. She didn’t need Caroline in the house at all, not with all the tension swirling in the air.

She sat down on the steps, watching a few people leaving their homes for work, kids grabbing their parents’ hands as they walked to a silver or black Mercedes sedan parked on the street, the day still barely beginning for most of London, but so much had happened for her. It felt like a week had passed since she woke up this morning.

A car similar to the ones she’d watched pull away stopped in front of the house and Indy stood up, sliding past the black wrought iron gate that enclosed the property.

“I suppose I’m not welcome inside,” Caroline said as she got out of the car, her large tortoise shell Dolce and Gabana sunglasses almost completely taking over her face.

“I didn’t ask,” Indy said, leaning against the fence. “What’s up?”

Caroline reached into her bag and pulled out a file folder. “I received an advance copy of the draw. It won’t be announced until later today, but I thought you should see it.”

“Who am I playing?”

Her mouth twitching a little in agitation, Caroline handed her a sheet of paper, a sketch of the tournament bracket done in Caroline’s precise script. Indy scanned it, searching for her name and she found it at the bottom left side of the draw.

Indiana Gaffney (WC) vs. Penelope Harrison (4)

Indy felt her stomach knot, something she hadn’t felt since Paris, except she wasn’t about to go out on a court at a Grand Slam, at least not yet. Of course Penny was her first round opponent, because today the universe had it out for Indiana Gaffney. She huffed out a breath and nodded. “I’ll be okay. Her ankle has been giving her issues since France. She’s not even close to a hundred percent,” she said, trying to sound confident.

Caroline raised her eyebrows so high that they actually appeared up from beneath her sunglasses. “If you think so.”

“I do.”

“Will you and she continue to train together?”

Indy shook her head. “Probably not.”

“Good. We will need to find someone for you to hit with, preferably a man. I will speak to Dominic about it.”

“Fine.”

Caroline nodded, beginning to walk away, but after only a few steps, she paused and turned around and said, “Are you not going to ask me about the leak?”

Indy shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t need to. I know it was you. You knew I wasn’t going to run to my dad and you wanted to sign Natalie Grogan, so you did what you had to do to make that happen.”

“I am sorry it had to be that way.”

Pushing off the fence and letting herself back in the gate, Indy let out a small laugh. “No, Caroline. No you’re not.”

June 22nd

The gathered crowd gave out a collective “ahhh” before applauding politely. English tennis fans were notorious for their sportsmanship, but even they were having a hard time staying engaged in the match and Jasmine didn’t blame them one bit. The last round of qualifying for Wimbledon was usually an exciting one, a fitting prologue to the two weeks of world-class tennis about to be played.

She’d been pretty confident after the first two rounds as she and Natalie breezed by two decent enough doubles pairs, but they’d run into a brick wall when the qualifying final pitted them against Camille Mercier and Agathe Lambert, a veteran doubles team from France who’d been off the court for a while after Agathe had a baby. Now just Jasmine and Natalie Grogan were standing in their way to the main doubles draw, where some unlucky ranked team would have to face them in the first round. They’d fallen behind from the very beginning, dropping the first set 6-0 and now they were just one point away from losing the match.

“Match point,” the chair umpire said.

“Cover the alley, I’m going out wide,” Natalie said as they met at the center of the court, bumping fists before she headed to the baseline and Jasmine went into the service box.

Jasmine bent at the knees and at the waist, making sure to keep herself out of the trajectory of Natalie’s serve and then upon the ball, making contact with the grass across the court. She bounced up to the balls of her feet, ready to react to the return, but none came.

“Out,” the line judge called and Jasmine got set again. Natalie only had one second serve, soft and safe, basically a meatball on a platter to any halfway decent player. She watched as Camille stepped up into the court, deliberately shortening her reaction time. With a serve that soft, she could afford to move in and it would give her a huge advantage of any shot she got off, making it nearly impossible for Jasmine or Natalie to get to the return.

The soft thwack of the ball hitting Natalie’s racket had Jasmine tensing briefly and then she sprung into action, watching as Camille wound up and fired a forehand directly at her. She pulled her elbows in and hit a short volley back to Agathe and a net battle began, short and quick strokes, wrists and hands flying fast, back and forth four, five, six, seven times and then a passing shot from Agathe, before Jasmine spun to her left, her back to her opponents, and blocked the final volley back, between where the two veterans had placed themselves on the court.

Both Camille and Agathe bounced their rackets against the heels of their hands in appreciation and the crowd, who’d been expecting the match to end, gave a roar of approval. Jasmine sucked some air into her lungs before turning and high-fiving Natalie.

“Wow,” the younger girl said, “that was incredible.”

“Thanks,” Jasmine said, a huge smile on her face. It faded as she glanced up into the stands and saw Dom standing there, Paolo at his side, but no Teddy. She hadn’t really expected him to show up and he hadn’t been there for the start of the match, but she hoped he might just be running late.

“40-30,” the chair umpire said. “Match point.”

When Natalie missed her first serve again, Jasmine did her best, but the return on the second was too much, a cross court missile out of her reach for a winner.

“Game, set and match, Miss Mercier and Mrs. Lambert.”

They all met at the net, shaking hands, including the chair umpire as well, before gathering their things and heading for the locker room. There would be no women’s doubles for them at Wimbledon this year. Back down to the junior ranks, at least for now. She couldn’t help but consider what would have happened if she and Indy had been playing together. They’d had a lot more training time together and Indy’s serve would have been too much for both Mercier and Lambert. And it meant they wouldn’t be avoiding each other like the plague.

They both showered and dressed quickly and silently. Losing sucked, but talking about losing sucked even more.

“I wanted to thank you,” Natalie said, just as they were both ready to leave. “This was a lot of fun.”

Jasmine nodded. “It was. I’m glad Penny suggested it.”

“She did?” Natalie’s eyes grew wide.

“Yeah, when Indy had to withdraw. Didn’t she tell you?”

“I thought maybe you asked her to ask me and I thought how cool that would be to play with you and maybe qualify for the doubles. My dad didn’t think it was a great idea at first, but I convinced him it would be. You’re an awesome player and I knew I’d learn a lot. Maybe we could play together again some time?”

“I’d like that.”

“Oh good. I was afraid you were pissed at me.”

“Why would I be pissed at you?”

“After what went down a couple of days ago.”

“Natalie, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“When I didn’t sign with Jack Harrison. I mean I still wanted to sign with him, but my dad freaked like he was going to try and get with me or something. Caroline’s good too, I guess. I know how close you all are and I thought maybe you wouldn’t want to play with me after that.”

“We’re not nearly as close as everyone makes us out to be,” she muttered and as the words tumbled out of her mouth she realized how true they were. She and Penny weren’t friends, not really. They just happened to train under the same coach. Indy was…who knows what she was these days, things had been so insanely awkward, Jasmine didn’t even know where to start with that. Jack had never been her friend; he was always away when they were growing up, and Teddy had checked out mentally since Amy Fitzpatrick had waltzed back into OBX. The truth was Jasmine was the odd man out and maybe always had been.

Jasmine pulled her racket bag over her shoulder. “Guess I’ll see you around then.”

“Yeah.” She turned and started toward the locker room door, but she only got a couple of steps before she heard, “Wait, do you want to play doubles in the juniors?”

That stopped her in her tracks. She hadn’t talked to Indy about junior’s doubles, but maybe a little naively, she’d assumed that they would be playing together if Indy lost in the first week of the women’s singles tournament. She turned around and faced Natalie. The girl was biting her lip and her eyes were big again, this time with hope.

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

“Awesome,” Natalie said, bouncing up to her toes, making her even taller than usual, towering over Jasmine. “We’re totally going to win!”

“We’d have a good shot,” Jasmine said. It was the truth. A little practice and they’d be just fine going up against even the best of what juniors doubles had to offer.

“I can’t wait to tell my dad. He’s gonna be so excited,” Natalie said, pulling her phone out of her bag before nearly skipping toward the locker room door.

“Hey, wait. Do you have plans for tonight?”

“No.”

“You’re not going to the Player’s Gala?”

Natalie shrugged. “I’m only a junior.”

“So am I,” Jasmine said, her brow furrowing. “I got an invite.”

“You’re John and Lisa Randazzo’s daughter. Duh.”

Rolling her eyes a little, Jasmine nodded. “Right, duh. Anyway, do you want to come? I have a plus one.”

A huge smile spread across Natalie’s face and she actually bounced a little on her toes. “Sounds like fun.”

“Great. Give me your phone,” she said, holding out her hand. Natalie handed it over and she typed in Alex’s address. “Come by Alex’s house at around seven and we can get ready together.”

~

When Jasmine stepped through the front door of the townhouse, it was already a mad house. Jack and Paolo were watching a soccer match in the library, the volume up almost all the way but still not drowning out their commentary in both English and Italian. Dom, who’d left the courts right after her match saying that they’d debrief tomorrow, was chatting with Alex across the foyer in the kitchen. An older blonde woman Jasmine assumed was Alex’s mother was sitting at the kitchen table listening intently. Teddy came flying down the stairs, holding at least five shirts, shouting for Jack’s opinion.

He didn’t even acknowledge her presence as she flew past her into the library.

“Hi Ted,” she responded softly, knowing he wouldn’t hear.

She took the stairs two at a time, though she wasn’t quite sure why she was in such a rush. Indy, no doubt, would be in their room and things would be just as awkward as they’d been for the last few days.

Penny was just coming out of Alex’s bedroom. Her hair was pulled up into a smooth chignon at the back of her neck, thin straps held the cream colored silk dress on her shoulders, a deep v-neck exposing a lot more than Jasmine was used to seeing from Penny. The dress was fitted at the waist and over the hips, flaring just slightly at the bottom. That famous necklace Alex had given her hung between her breasts. Girls like Penny Harrison shouldn’t be allowed to exist in real life.

“Penny, I hope you and Alex don’t mind, I invited Natalie over to get ready with us. She was kind of bummed about the loss, so I thought the party might cheer her up.”

With a smile and a shrug, Penny said, “Why would we mind? Of course she’s welcome. I’m sorry about the match. I heard you played amazing though. One of your net points made SportsCenter back home.”

“Really?” Jasmine said, laughing. “That’s pretty awesome. Thanks.”

“No problem. I’ll send Natalie up when she gets here.”

The click clack of Penny’s heels echoed down the stairs as Jasmine slipped into the room she shared with Indy and she sighed in relief. It was empty, Indy most likely still in the shower. She set her bag down and went straight to the closet where she’d hung her garment bag. She’d packed a few dresses, knowing she’d want options for nights like this.

The first was a short floaty strapless number, sweetheart neckline, cinched in just under her breasts with several layers of gauzy fabric that would fall unevenly around her knees. The dress behind it was a cream color similar to the one Penny had on, so she moved past it to the last one, a bright pink wrap dress with short cap sleeves and a black satin belt that would hold it together. Pink was her favorite color.

“That one, definitely.”

Natalie stepped into the room, a bag in hand, tossing it onto Indy’s bed.

“You think?” Jasmine asked, holding up the first dress. “Or this.”

“The pink. You’ll look super hot.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jasmine said, taking it from the garment bag and laying it out on her bed, yanking her shirt over her head. “Can you get the door?”

Before Natalie could shut it, Teddy slid inside. “Whoa, sorry,” he said, spinning around and facing the wall. “I just needed you to tie my tie for me in that awesome knot you know, the one with the layers.”

“The Eldredge knot?” Natalie asked, as Jasmine slipped her dress on.

“You know it?” Teddy asked and Jasmine turned around just in time to see Teddy’s eyes flicker down Natalie’s long, lean frame, so much like Indy’s except mocha where Indy was milk.

“My dad loves that stupid knot. He taught me when I was little. Come here,” she said, crooking a finger in his direction. Teddy obeyed immediately, sliding the tie under his collar and stepping closer to her, not having to bend at all for Natalie to reach up and pop the collar of his white dress shirt with a thin blue pinstripe.