Chapter Twenty-Four
Twenty-Four
With her daughter skipping beside her, Lulu followed along the fragrant garden pathway, her steps illuminated by the glow of the solar torches.
The night air, perfumed with gardenia, smelled heavy and sweet.
Lulu could feel a new energy rising in her, one that matched the exotic loveliness of her surroundings.
She relished the intense sensations of this final evening, this feeling of connectedness to the ancient denseness of the jungle, to the immensity of the sea, and to the vibrant, small creatures that scuttled into the undergrowth as she and Zoe passed.
She was still undecided about how she would respond to the intriguing phone message left on her cell this morning, but now that she had taken the steps toward her future’s seismic shift, her optimism outweighed her doubt.
Smiling to herself, Lulu’s shoulders relaxed. Tomorrow, she would leave Costa Rica, but for now, she and Zoe would…what was the phrase she’d learned? Aprovecharlo. Take advantage of the opportunity. This was the life.
Ahead, murmurs and oohs erupted from the resort guests who had already arrived at the entrance to the fluorescent, illuminated pickleball courts, which glimmered with glow-in-the-dark paint.
Lavender rods of lights turned the scene into a vibrant neon dreamscape.
The boundary lines, brushed with glow paint, shone under the black lights, and the net tape sparkled with fluorescent pink glitter.
Amazement settled on Lulu’s face, and she looked to Zoe, whose eyes, wide with wonder, mirrored exactly how Lulu felt inside.
With black light illuminating their T-shirts, the crowd of resort guests that Lulu had met on her first morning here already frolicked around the lit-up courts.
They swung glow tape–lined paddles and tossed light-up pickleballs into the air.
Zoe gasped, and with unbridled enthusiasm, the three-year-old jumped like a grasshopper from one end of the court to the other, calling, “Look! My shoes are magic!”
Tyler and Lulu exchanged a happy glance. “How ’bout I hit a few to her?” Tyler said when Zoe came running back with an armload of glowing balls.
“Sure. But she’s three,” Lulu reminded him. “I don’t know that she’ll hit them back.”
“In that case, she’ll have to serve them to me,” he said and traded Zoe the balls for a paddle.
The little girl swung with abandon, and Lulu had to catch the top of the paddle and show her how to hold it properly.
“Zoe,” she said. “This is Tyler. Do you want to play pickleball with him? He can show you how.”
“Yep,” she agreed breezily. “Hey!” Zoe remarked, crouching into a squat and squinting at Tyler. “You have long hair like my mom.”
“Yes, I do.”
“It looks weird on you.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate your candor.”
Zoe tilted her head and studied him. “You’re welcome,” she decided. Tyler trod blithely behind the little girl as she led the way to an open court.
Lulu, however, did not budge. Instead, she allowed the cocoon of the moment to wrap around her.
On the practice court, Tyler grinned as Zoe gave it her all and whiffed one pickleball after another.
A patient and cheerful ball boy, Tyler chased after her mishits and placed them back in her hand.
Lulu was glued to her spot, absorbed by the simple joy of watching her child’s joy.
And when Aunt Laverne sidled up beside Tyler and spoke to him in a low, conciliatory voice, his face opened with forgiveness. He made compassion look easy, and it tipped Lulu’s heart even more solidly into his court.
Right here, standing in these day-glow-painted rectangles, lay the sum of her world—family and possibility side by side. Relaxed, she watched them play, enjoying the sensation of being lucky Lulu Gardner, right now, in the moment.
From just outside the court gate, Carmen called to Lulu to offer her a drink.
When the others caught sight of the refreshments, the guests descended on the flutes of agua de jamaica and champagne—all except for Gwendy, who unscrewed a secret cap from the tip of her paddle handle.
As Lulu watched in surprise, she tipped the neck to her lips and swallowed.
“Paddle flask filled with guaro. Costa Rican cane sugar liquor.” Gwendy flashed Lulu a toothy grin. “Beats champagne any day. You want?” she asked Lulu, proffering her paddle.
“Nah. I’m good,” Lulu said just as she spotted Tyler jogging back toward her.
“Rooster took over with Zoe,” he explained. For a long moment, they stared at each other, their smiles breaking like matching sunrises.
Gwendy tutted approvingly. “Aw. Ain’t you two just pickle perfect?”
Ariana let out a laugh and tugged her mom back toward the courts. “C’mon, Mom. I think you’ve had just enough guaro that I might be able to beat you this game.”
Sliding an arm around Lulu’s waist, Tyler pulled her hips toward his. They could nip out to the woods, she thought, for ten minutes and nobody would miss them. But he squeezed her hipbone and said, “C’mon. Let’s play. I wanna hit it with you, ’kay?”
“You mean the ball, right?”
“Not even a little,” he said.
Giddy infatuation fizzed in her veins like champagne bubbles. Her chest clenched in anticipation. What she wanted to do to him later tonight, she decided, would definitely involve pickles and balls. And possibly, paddles.
He trotted ahead, but Lulu lingered.
In the dim evening light, leaves as large as picnic shelters leaned over the jungle floor.
Thick, ropy vines slithered down from the branches.
The smell, wet and heavy like damp earth mixed with animal scat, filled her nostrils, and where the starlight hit the space between the leaves, sparkling patterns shifted against the dark dirt.
It seemed to Lulu that the whole scene glittered, and she sighed.
She would miss this place.
Zoe’s laughter rang across the grounds, and Lulu headed toward her family.
When she reached the courts, most of the guests had deserted the games.
Lulu spotted her aunt first. Pleasure wreathed Laverne’s expression as she watched Rooster and Tyler taking turns tossing the ball to Zoe.
To Lulu’s surprise, her daughter was, indeed, managing to hit the pickleball with a paddle.
Applauding as she neared, Lulu said, “Way to go, Zoe.”
“I’m good at this,” Zoe told her mom. Her daughter would not need rappelling or white water rafting to boost her self-confidence.
Lulu squatted and gathered Zoe into a hug. Overtly patient, her daughter allowed it. “It’s late, okay?” Lulu said, easing into it. “It’s time to go.”
“I know,” Zoe said. “It’s past my bedtime.” She turned to her grandma and said, rather matter-of-factly, “I’m going to be very cranky tomorrow.”
Laughing, Lulu squeezed her until Zoe said, “Stop squishing me,” and then Laverne and Rooster led her away by her sticky little hands.
And then it was only Lulu and Tyler on the court. She asked, “Did you wanna play another game?”
“I think I’m all pickled out.” He tossed a glow-in-the-dark pickleball from hand to hand.
“I didn’t realize pickleballers ever got pickled out.”
“Well, they do if they’re in Costa Rica and would rather just hang out with the coolest, most got-her-shit-together woman in the world.
Hey…” He glanced around the empty court and then his eyes lit again when they landed on hers.
“I have some good news.” Tyler’s expression brimmed, loaded with eagerness. “My agent called.”
“And?”
“And they wanna offer me a spot back on the tour in the fall.”
Lulu’s face opened with pleasure. “I am so, so happy for you, Tyler. That’s great. You deserve it.”
“Thanks. That means a lot.” He held out a pinkie and looped it through hers.
“Thanks,” he said again, but there was a note of hesitancy in his voice.
“The thing is. It’s kinda funny. I wanted so much to get back into pro pickleball.
But…” He slipped his fingers through all of hers and lifted her hand, so that they faced each other, palm to palm.
“After a lot of time wondering what I’d missed out on, I finally got a chance to hang out again with you.
And I’ll tell you…” He shook his head and gave a low chuckle. “I don’t want to miss out anymore.
“I can’t stop thinking about you, Lu. I mean, the only silver lining of getting tossed off the tour was that I hoped that maybe, just maybe we would be in the same part of the world together for a while—and we could, you know, give us a shot.
I love playing pro. I love being on the tour, but I’m torn.
I am. ’Cause if it means…What are you smiling about? ”
“The thing is,” Lulu said, “it’s kinda funny.
But it just so happens that I got a very interesting voice message today, too.
” Tyler’s brow lifted with curiosity. “I didn’t really want to wait around anymore to see if I was gonna get fired or not, so I decided to put out some feelers.
You know, apply for some positions and see what the universe brought back to me.
And after all the pickleballing going on around me, I started hunting around on the PPA employment site. ”
“The Pro Pickleball Association?” Tyler asked, surprised. “You wanna become a pro?”
She laughed. “Me?! No! I’ve been playing for a week! I’m not that deluded. No. I found out that the younger players travel with academic tutors. So a few days ago, I applied. I had a phone interview.” Lulu let it hang there before she said, “And this morning, they told me I got it.”
His expression bloomed, a look so hopeful and sweet that she felt a lump build in her throat.
“Are you going to accept it?”
She shrugged. “I’m considering it. Especially now that I have extra incentive.”