Chapter 24
JASMINE WAS READY TO STRANGLE HER DOUBLES PARTNER. IT wasn’t the all-consuming envy from a few days ago, but she had no idea that being friends with Indiana Gaffney would be more torturous than being rivals. Indy had made it her mission to find Jasmine a replacement for Teddy.
“What about him?” Indy asked, and nodded to her left as a guy walked by them, studying the strings of his racket.
“Too short,” Jasmine said, wrinkling her nose.
They were killing time in the players’ lounge before Penny’s match, which had been rescheduled from the day before because of the rain.
She’d asked them to be her cheering section and they were more than happy to oblige.
The entire tournament was buzzing about the picture that had been leaked to every major media outlet Caroline could find.
Jasmine had barely glanced at it, but that was enough to tell it was a totally private moment that was put on display for the entire world.
“Okay,” Indy said, scanning the men in the room. “Him, over there by the window, with the bright blue shirt.”
“Gay,” Jasmine said, dismissing him as a candidate.
Indy tilted her head. “Really?”
“Came out last year.”
“Huh, okay. You’re going to have to explain your type for me, then, because I’ve pointed out like a dozen perfectly hot guys and you’ve shot down every one.”
“It’s not my fault the last one was gay. Otherwise, he would’ve been an option.”
Indy narrowed her eyes, leaning forward. “I call bullshit. I think you don’t want to be attracted to anyone else, so you’re not.”
Scoffing, Jasmine examined her nails, picking at a broken cuticle. “Attraction is biology, Indy. You can’t force yourself to ignore it or make it go away.”
Indy shrugged. “Love makes you blind.”
“Maybe.” Her eye caught on a flash of brown hair across the room. The hair belonged to a young man working his way down the buffet table.
“Paolo Macchia,” Indy said when she saw where Jasmine’s eyes had focused. “I saw him play in New York a couple of years ago.”
Jasmine grinned. Olive skin and a floppy mess of dark hair, tall but lean, and like pretty much every guy on tour, in incredible shape. “He’s cute.”
“Very cute, with an amazing Italian accent.”
“Good to know.”
Indy leapt to her feet and started in that direction.
“Where are you going?” Jasmine asked, following her.
“To say hi,” Indy said over her shoulder, making a beeline for Paolo.
Jasmine grabbed her arm and tried to pull her to a stop. “You don’t even know if he speaks English.”
“He totally does,” she said, stepping in front of Paolo as he started loading his plate with lettuce. “Hi.”
He stopped and looked up, a wide smile spreading across his face as he looked back and forth between them. “Hello.”
“I’m Indiana,” she said, but leaned away, giving Jasmine a gentle shove forward. “And this is my friend Jasmine.”
“It’s very nice to meet you,” Paolo said, his hazel eyes crinkling as his smile deepened. His Italian accent was soft and musical, his English very good.
Indy coughed. “And I’ve gotta go make a call. Be back in a second.” She pulled her phone out and walked away before Jasmine could say a word.
Paolo cleared his throat softly.
“Sorry about that.”
“Do not apologize,” he insisted, like he really wasn’t bothered at all. “Your name is Jasmine?”
“Yes, Jasmine Randazzo,” she said, waiting for the immediate flash of recognition in his eyes, but it didn’t come.
“I am Paolo Macchia.”
“I know.” She cringed inwardly. Shit. He probably thought she was some silly girl with a crush who hadn’t been brave enough to approach him on her own. The last part might be true, but the first definitely wasn’t. She still had feelings for Teddy, and there wasn’t room in her heart for anyone else.
Jasmine forgot her embarrassment when an unnatural quiet settled over the players’ lounge.
Alex Russell had entered the room. Wearing a gray sweatshirt, hood pulled up over his head, hands tucked into the front pocket, he ignored the stares and whispers that erupted as soon as they were sure it was him.
“People suck,” Jasmine muttered.
“Yes, they do, very much,” Paolo agreed. “Scusi, signorina, but he is my friend. I have to speak with him.”
“Oh,” she said, “of course.”
Paolo left his tray of food and made his way across the room to Alex, who stopped and spoke to him for a moment before they walked together out the door at the opposite end of the lounge.
Indy appeared at her side from nowhere. “So, how’d it go?”
Jasmine whirled on her. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“Please, you were both all smiles before Alex dragged that black cloud in here. Look, Teddy Harrison isn’t the only guy in the world. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Is this about Teddy and me or about the fact that it’s been two days since you kissed his brother—”
Indy shushed her, cutting off the last word, her face suddenly peaked and drawn. “That is not public knowledge.”
Jasmine shrugged her shoulders in defeat. “I’m sorry. Anyway, you were right, Paolo’s accent is amazing.”
Indy brightened, latching on to the change of subject. “Told you so. Come on, let’s go down and watch the match. Penny could probably use some moral support right about now.”
“Yeah, sure.”
As they made their way down toward the court, Jasmine’s mind was whirling. Maybe she wasn’t such a lost cause after all and maybe Indy wasn’t either.
“Jeu, set et match, Harrison.”
In the seats next to her, Dom, Jack, and Indy all let out a collective sigh of relief as Penny looked up at the sky, thanking whatever higher power had pushed her through the match. It was a close call, but she managed to squeak past her opponent, 7–5, 6–4.
“I’m going to talk to her,” Dom said, standing and making a hasty exit from the player’s box. “See you all back at the hotel.”
They watched him go and Jasmine cringed. She could imagine the lecture Dom would give her if she ever played like that, and maybe for the first time ever, she didn’t envy Penny at all.
Then she realized she had her opening, the moment she had been trying to engineer in her head since they sat down to watch the match.
She and Indy were friends now, and while Indy’s efforts to help with her love life had been a little heavy-handed, Jasmine appreciated the effort.
And not only because she hadn’t been able to get Paolo’s soft smile and beautiful eyes out of her head.
The least she could do was return the favor.
“Maybe you better go with him. She’s probably going to need a friendly face after their talk,” she whispered to Indy, who nodded and left, but not before glancing quickly at Jack, who was making a rather obvious show of not looking in Indy’s direction.
It made Jasmine’s decision to go through with her plan even easier. They had to get out of their own way.
She and Jack sat in an awkward silence as the crowd around them started to disperse for the bathrooms and concession areas between matches. Jack made to stand, but Jasmine grabbed the cuff of his pullover jacket and tugged.
He squinted at her, obviously confused. She knew it was odd. In all the time they’d known each other, she couldn’t recall ever having had a full conversation with him—just the two of them—without Penny or Teddy around. Jasmine pushed past the awkwardness.
“I need to talk to you.”
“What’s up?” he asked, sitting back down, giving her his full attention. When their eyes met she was startled by how much he and Teddy resembled each other. They were different in so many ways that it was easy to forget sometimes that they were brothers.
“You’ve met my dad, right?” she asked, wanting to approach this the right way. She didn’t want to scare him off before she could make her point.
“Yeah, of course I have.”
“Would you say he’s a good guy?”
Confusion clouded his eyes, but he nodded. “Yeah, your dad’s a great guy. Are you okay, Jasmine?”
“Me? I’m fine. At least, I think I’m fine. I know I’m a little spoiled and I tend to freak out sometimes, but I think my parents did a good job of raising me.”
Jack’s forehead wrinkled and he put a hand on top of hers. “Seriously, Jasmine, are you having some kind of issue with your parents? I don’t think I’m the best person to talk to about something like that.”
She rolled her eyes, pulling her hand free. “Jack, chill, I’m trying to make a point.”
He studied her carefully but nodded. “Okay, I’ll play, what’s your point?”
“Do you know how old my mom was when she met my dad?”
“No, I don’t.”
“She was eighteen years old.”
“Okay.”
“Yep. She was eighteen years old and they’ve been together for almost twenty years now. Kind of nice, right? That they’ve been together so long?”
“I guess so.”
“You know how old my dad was at the time?”
Jack narrowed his eyes at her, obviously finally figuring out her point. “I’m guessing not eighteen?”
“Nope. More like twenty-two.”
“Did Indiana send you to talk to me?”
Jasmine snorted. “What? God no. She’d kill me if she knew, unless she died of embarrassment first. Then she’d probably haunt me for the rest of my life.”
“Then I don’t get it. I distinctly recall having to literally hold you back from beating her to a pulp. Why are you doing this?”
Jasmine shrugged.
“And this has nothing to do with my brother?”
“Teddy?” she asked, tilting her head. “What would he have to do with this?”
“If I were with Indiana, then my very easily distracted little brother would be less distracted.”
Jasmine ignored the implication that literally everyone, even Jack, knew how she felt about Teddy and focused on the matter at hand.
Was that the actual problem? That made a lot more sense to Jasmine than the age thing.
Jack was, above all else, a great brother and would sacrifice anything for his family, like a career in corporate law to manage his sister, so yeah, he might not go after a girl he liked because his brother saw her first.
Jasmine shook her head. “Teddy’s my friend. If I thought he’d be hurt by you and Indy getting together, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
Jack raised a skeptical eyebrow, but Jasmine pressed on.
“And as far as the age thing goes, I think you’re making excuses. Indy’s twenty, not twelve. I’m not saying you guys have to get married or whatever, but seriously, for two people like you, a few years are not a big deal.”
He didn’t answer. She stood and walked away, leaving him to his thoughts. As she left the stadium, her phone buzzed. The screen lit up with Teddy’s picture, but she ignored the call and kept walking.