Losing at Love (7 page)

Jasmine rolled her eyes and pulled away. Indy was one of the most genuine people she’d ever met. What you saw was what you got, good or bad.

“You know what Amy, I think I’m going to have to take a rain check on lunch.”

Amy stopped dead in her tracks and stuck her lower lip out. “You’re kidding? Come on, we haven’t seen each other in forever.”

“I just remembered, I have a meeting with…” she trailed off, stalling for time when just over Amy’s shoulder Jack Harrison stepped into her view. “Jack Harrison. I have a meeting with Jack.”

“Jack Harrison?” Amy asked, following the line of Jasmine’s eyes.

“Hi, sorry, do I know you?” Jack asked, politely turning toward her. As far as Jasmine knew, they’d never met before. He’d been away at school when Amy and Teddy dated, but Jack was a pretty recognizable face in tennis nowadays.

“Jack, this is Amy…
Amy
Fitzpatrick
.” Immediately his usually open and friendly features darkened. He might not
know
Amy, but he definitely knew
of
her. “I was just telling her that I had a meeting with you so we couldn’t have lunch.”

Jack caught on quickly, not even letting his understanding pass over his face. “I was just coming to look for you.”

“Sorry, Amy, maybe some other time, okay?”

Her lips were pursed as she looked back and forth between them and shrugged, a smile suddenly overtaking her features, but not reaching her eyes. “No problem at all. I guess I’ll just see you later, Jazzy.”

She walked away toward the main atrium and Jasmine let out a heavy breath. “Cross Stanford off my list,” she muttered and then turned back to Jack. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“Always happy to be of service,” he said with a grin. “So that was the girl who had my baby brother all tied up in knots?”

“That was her. She found me and Teddy on the grass courts practicing. He…he sort of ran away.”

Jack nodded. “What he does best.”

“You don’t have to tell me that.” The words slipped out before she even had time to fully think them. “Um, I mean…”

“Yeah, you’d know that better than anyone, I guess,” Jack said, reaching out and giving her shoulder a squeeze. “I’m gonna go find him, unless you actually need to meet with me about something?”

“Actually, I was wondering,” she trailed off. “If you want to, it’s totally cool if you say no, but my parents hired this recruiter, Felix —“

“Wolner. Yeah, I know him,” Jack said, cutting her off.

“He mentioned something about Harvard and if you had the time…”

“You’re thinking about Harvard?”

“I’m weighing my options,” she said, the words becoming true as she said them. It wasn’t like what her parents and Felix and Dom had said didn’t make sense, but if she was going to make a choice like this, she wanted it to be
her
choice and not theirs. “And if you can keep that between us, I’d really appreciate it.”

“Of course. That’s nobody’s business except yours. And if you want to talk about Harvard, Jasmine, then you’ve come to the right place.”

~

They wandered back toward where Indy was hitting, Jack rambling about the amazing experience he had in Cambridge. Three years of tennis, great friendships, the best professors in the world. Even being away from his family, something he thought was going to be rough, actually turned out to be really good for him.

“That sounds great,” she said and he arched an eyebrow at her. “Not that I don’t love my parents and all, but…”

“Can’t be easy being their kid around here,” Jack finished for her.

“Exactly.”

A bubbly sort of tune rang up from the general vicinity of his shorts pocket as they finally made it back to where Indy was still training, having moved on to backhands.

Jack checked the screen. “It’s Penny. I gotta take this.”

“Sure,” she said, leaning her elbows on the fence and watching Indy finish up a set.

“So, who was that exactly?” Indy asked, as she let the last ball fly past her and bounce into the fence.

“My best friend,” Jasmine said. “Former best friend. Your boyfriend rescued me. She’s not exactly his favorite person.”

“Oh, is she the one…. Jack told me a while back about what she did to Teddy.”

“Yeah, she pretty much destroyed him for any other girl who came after,” she said, remembering the press of Teddy’s lips against hers just a few minutes before, the tension in his entire body. The sooner they all left for London, the better.

“He’s got to grow up and get over it eventually though. Wasn’t it like two years ago? Maybe her being back’ll be the push he needs toward you, you know…”

“What?”

“Shit or get off the pot.”

“Ugh, Indy, really?”

“Well, I’m just saying. You two make sense in all the ways that matter and he’s just being ridiculous.”

“Whatever. Change of subject please. We’ve beaten this to death, haven’t we?”

“Fine. What were you and Jack talking about?”

“He was telling me about Harvard.”

Indy laughed. “He could talk about that for days if you let him.”

“You were going to go there, weren’t you?”

“I was thinking about it. My dad went there and his parents did too, but tennis won’t last forever. I’m pretty sure Harvard will be there if I ever want to try out the college thing.”

Jasmine felt the words on her tongue, that it might be something she was going to try, that it might be the best option for her at this point. Playing doubles with Indy might be something she had to give up and soon, but instead, she kept silent as Jack made his way back over to them.

“There is nothing worse than my sister with nothing to do. That poor bastard must be wondering what he saw in her.” Indy snorted. It was easy to tell what Alex saw in Penny, though her older brother probably wouldn’t see it that way. “It’s a good thing we’ll be over there soon, before she drives the entire city of London insane.”

“We’ll be there soon,” Indy said, smiling widely. “All of us, at Alex’s house, under one roof. Even Teddy.”

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Just a couple of days and we’ll be in Wimbledon.”

June 17th

Penny ended the call with Jack and then scanned through her own messages quickly. She moved around, trying to get more comfortable in her seat on the practice court, shifting back and forth on the wooden bench. At least the weather was cool, a fresh spring breeze swirling the London air around her. Alex was scheduled next for this court, but for the last hour, her attention had been solely fixed on the junior American who’d been granted permission by the board at Queens to use their courts for a practice session.

Sixteen-year-old Natalie Grogan, long limbed, with a frizzy brown ponytail and a baby face, was in London for Wimbledon Juniors and from the army of business attire lining the fences, it seemed she was looking for an agent. Penny didn’t know much about her except that she beat Jasmine during the French Open junior tournament, and pretty decisively at that, and that Jack had his eye on her as a potential client and had been in contact with her parents. So she’d called her brother and given her two cents, for whatever her opinion on the girl’s potential was worth. Her game was solid, no real strength, no real weakness and her playing style actually reminded Penny of her own, doing whatever needed to be done in order to win the match, throwing whatever the opponent sent you back in his or her face, only better.

She watched as the younger girl handed her bags off to her father/coach/manager, and Penny frowned. There was something about girls who didn’t carry their own bags that always bothered her, almost as much as parents who insisted on coaching their own kids, but she wiped the frown from her face when Natalie climbed over the low wall separating the stands from the court and headed in her direction.

“Um, hi, you’re Penny Harrison, right?” Penny slid her sunglasses off her eyes and placed them up on the bill of her cap. So much for that disguise, as if the walking boot didn’t give it away.

“That’s me.”

“I figured that was you. I mean, I know Alex Russell is scheduled after me so it would just make sense that you were here. I’m Natalie. Um, like, would it be okay if…will you take a picture with me?”

Penny blinked, hoping Natalie would take a breath. She did. “Sure, no problem.”

Natalie sat down in the seat beside her and fiddled with her phone before extending her arm out in front of them. They tilted their heads together and Natalie pointed at Penny, feigning a look of surprise before taking the picture. “This is awesome. Nobody would have believed you came to my practice session. You know, like pics or it didn’t happen.”

“Seriously, no problem,” Penny said. “You looked great out there. Keep it up.”

“Really? I mean, thanks. I um, I hope your ankle gets better soon. It was amazing, watching you beat Lutrova like that. I couldn’t believe it. It was like out of a movie or something, just unbelievable. And now that commercial too, so cool.”

There was something about this girl’s enthusiasm that made Penny smile. “I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it. They didn’t even tell me before so it was a complete shock.”

“Nat, let’s go!” her dad shouted from the court below.

“One second, Dad!” And then to Penny, “Are you gonna play at Wimbledon? They were saying on ESPN that your ankle won’t be ready in time. I had a grade 2 sprain once and it sucked. I had to miss Nationals and like all the scouts were there so no one saw me and they were saying before the tournament that I was going to win it and then I had to just sit and watch the whole thing and it just sucked. I really hope you’ll be ready.” Natalie paused and Penny cut in, the girl’s words hitting far too close to home.

“I’ll definitely be out there.”

“Natalie,” her father said, this time making his way up the stairs toward them.

“Good. I can’t wait to see you kick Lutrova’s ass again.” Natalie practically skipped away, tapping at her phone’s screen and most likely blasting out the picture. She felt her own phone vibrate in her pocket, notifications that she’d been tagged in the post.

~

Alex and Paolo stepped out onto the court as she scrolled through the alerts on her phone and she saw Natalie dart over in their direction. There was a message from Teddy, her twin brother, that made her smile,
OMG UR SO FAMOUS!11!
It was a running joke in her family to make fun of just how much people would freak out around her sometimes. It still blew her mind that people wanted her autograph or to take a picture with her. Less than a year ago, she hadn’t been anyone special and it could just all go away one day. That’s why she needed to get back out there, show everyone that she was fine, that she was still the best.

“Hey, you gonna sit all the way up there the whole time?” Alex shouted at her from the court and she rolled her eyes, before standing and slowly making her way down the stairs, the plastic edges of the boot scraping on the concrete. She finally settled on a closer seat.

“You will watch as I destroy him, Penny,” Paolo called from the far side of the court.

They weren’t really playing a match, just working on different aspects of their games that needed attention in the approach to Wimbledon. Playing on grass was different than playing on clay and you needed time to adjust a little. Time she wouldn’t have even if her ankle was ready to go by the first day of the tournament. The pain was manageable now, not nearly as bad as when she first injured it. She could feel pain when her weight was on it, but that wasn’t any different from other small injuries she’d had over the years. She just needed to be able to get through matches on it. A fortnight, as they said in this country, would be grueling on a newly healed injury, but she could deal with it if it meant winning her first Grand Slam. She’d been able to fight through the pain in France. Why should England be any different? A little voice in her head, one that sounded suspiciously like her brother Jack’s, grumbled the many reasons why not, but she ignored it. She needed to be out on the court in the next few days and that was that.

Alex and Paolo started to hit in earnest and for a minute, Penny watched them, her eyes traveling with the ball back and forth, the satisfying thwap of contact was string music to her ears. And then she let her mind drift, felt the ground beneath her feet, no pain in her ankle, just the soft give of the grass, firmer than the clay she’d just played on in France. She could feel the ball in her hands, fitting perfectly in the cradle of her fingers, one bounce, two, three and four, then lifting her arm up to the sky, pushing her weight down to the ground as the ball rose over her head. Then the racket, slashing through the air, perfect contact, barely feeling the ball leaving the strings over the net, landing balanced, keeping her feet under her and waiting for the return, a crossover step, to a slice back hand down the line, drawing her opponent to one side of the court before taking the next ground stroke and firing it to the opposite court with her forehand for a winner.

By the time she opened her eyes again, she’d played a full match in her head against various opponents in the women’s top ten, all with their unique challenges and weaknesses. Women she could come face to face with at Wimbledon, women who were standing in her path to the title. She knew how to beat them all, even when they were at their best. She just had to make sure that
she
was at her best.

“Did you fall asleep over here?” Alex asked, flopping down in the seat beside her and taking a sip from his water bottle, a blue concoction that was supposed to replace electrolytes lost during a practice session.

“Visualizing,” she mumbled, a slow smile spreading across her face as he leaned in and pressed a sweaty kiss on her cheek but didn’t pull away. He hovered for a moment and let his breath slide over her skin.

“Visualizing, hmm? What’s been going through that pretty head of yours, love?”

Penny turned so her lips were just a hair’s breadth away from his. “Well, I was thinking about tennis, but now that you mention it…” she trailed off and was about to close the space between them when a catcall made them both jump and pull apart.