Chapter 5 #2
Amy watched him go as well but then turned to Jasmine with her eyebrows raised. “If I had known that skinny kid I dumped was going to turn into that, I might not have let him go so easily.”
Jasmine swallowed down the nasty retort that bubbled up from her chest. “I’m glad you got here before we left for London. It’ll be nice to catch up.”
“London?”
“Yeah, um, Wimbledon qualifying.”
Letting out a little laugh like, somehow, that wasn’t a big deal, Amy said, “Oh, right. It’s perfect timing. I can’t believe Dom made you play doubles with her. Like what did he think, it was going to make up for him letting her train here and steal your title?”
Jasmine’s shoulders grew heavy as the real reason why she hadn’t really mourned the end of her friendship with Amy suddenly weighed her down. She had a way of making it seem like she was on your side while hurling an insult like a knife to the gut.
“And what was that with Teddy just now? Are you two, like, together or something?”
“No. We’re just friends. I don’t know what that was.”
“But you liked him for so long, even when I was dating him.”
“Before,” Jasmine said softly. “I liked him before you started dating him.”
“I mean, we both had a thing for him back then, who didn’t? It was so funny. Good for you, though. I mean, you and Teddy? That’s such a bad idea. Let’s go to Deuce. I want to hear about everything. I’m so glad I’m back!”
“Me too,” Jasmine said, hoping she sounded way more enthusiastic than she felt.
As they walked through the club’s grounds, people stopped to wave and say hello to Amy at nearly every turn.
She’d been one of the first athletes to come and train at OBX and was one of its early success stories, signing an NIL deal with Stanford, building a decent following on social media, and becoming an All-American as a freshman.
She helped them to an NCAA championship, but injuries had plagued her the next three years, and she’d graduated without much fanfare a few weeks ago.
Jasmine couldn’t help but keep track of her career.
“Oh, wow, is that her?” Amy asked, drawing to a complete stop just off to the side of one of the half-courts where Indy was hitting against the wall, feet flying over the hard court. “She should, like, model or something instead of wasting her time on the court.”
“She’s good, really good.”
“Penny good?” Amy asked, practically spitting out the other girl’s name.
Jasmine chose her words carefully. She knew how Amy worked and she didn’t need rumors swirling around OBX that she’d said Indy’s game sucked. “Different. Less refined, more powerful.”
“I heard she has a serve on her.”
“It’s incredible,” Jasmine said, and then decided to get in a little dig of her own. “Didn’t you see us in France?”
Amy waved her hand dismissively and shrugged. “A little bit, but not much. I was really busy. NCAAs and then graduation.”
“Right, of course,” Jasmine said, knowing she’d hit her mark. “Come on. Let’s go grab some breakfast.”
“Jas!” Indy called at that instant, and Jasmine groaned. She’d been hoping to put this off for a little longer. The tall blond jogged over to the fence and grabbed a sip from her water bottle.
“Hi there,” Amy said. “Amy Fitzpatrick.”
“Indy—”
“Indiana Gaffney, I know.” At Amy’s words, Indy tilted her head, raised an eyebrow at Jasmine, and smirked.
“Amy used to train here,” Jasmine said, feeling the air swirling with tension around them, growing thicker by the second.
“Nice to meet you,” Indy said.
“You too. Jazzy and I were just going to get breakfast. You should so come with us.”
Indy’s smirk grew. “Thanks, but I’ve gotta finish up here, and then I promised Penny a FaceTime.”
“That’s right. She’s over in London, isn’t she?” Amy asked with a significant look at Jasmine. “The Ice Princess and Alex Russell, who would have guessed that?”
“Ice Princess?”
Amy laughed. “Yeah, she barely let anyone near her for years around here, let alone a guy.”
“Right, okay,” Indy said. “I’ll see you guys later, I guess. I gotta get this done.”
They were just a few steps away from the fence when Amy laughed and laced her arm through Jasmine’s. “Wow, what a total bitch. So fake.”
Jasmine 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’m so sorry, but I have to go.”
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 were together, 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 have known Amy, but he definitely knew of her. “I was just telling her that I had a meeting with you so we couldn’t have breakfast.”
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?”
Amy’s 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, then turned back to Jack. “Thanks for that.”
“Always happy to be of service,” he said with a grin. “So that’s the girl who had my baby brother all tied up in knots?”
“That’s her. She found me and Teddy on the grass courts practicing. He… he sort of ran away.”
“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 NIL guy, 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 were saying didn’t make sense, but if she was going to make a choice like this, she wanted it to be her decision and not theirs, and she wanted all the information before she made it.
“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’d had in Cambridge.
Four years of tennis, great friendships, the best professors in the world.
Even being away from his family, something he’d thought was going to be rough, had 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, and then hedged. “Former best friend. Your boyfriend rescued me. She’s not exactly his favorite person.”
Indy flinched at the word boyfriend, but then what Jasmine actually said seemed to register. “Oh, is she the one… Jack told me a while back about what she did to Teddy.”
“Yeah, she pretty much destroyed him for anyone 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, four years ago? Maybe her being back’ll be the push he needs toward… you know…”
“What?”
“Shit or get off the pot.”
“I thought you wanted me to move on.”
“Not if that isn’t what you want, and you clearly don’t want to. You two make sense in all the ways that matter. You’re hot, he’s hot; you’re already friends. He’s just being ridiculous.”
“Change of subject, please. We’ve beaten this to death, haven’t we?”
“Fine,” Indy agreed. “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.”
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, definitely not ready to talk to Indy about that, as Jack made his way over to them, tucking his phone back into his pocket.
“There is nothing worse than my sister when she has nothing to do. That poor bastard must be wondering what he saw in her.”
Jasmine snorted. It was easy to tell what Alex saw in Penny. Her older brother probably wouldn’t appreciate her outlining it for him, but Penny was easily the most beautiful girl she’d ever seen.
“It’s a good thing we’ll be over there soon,” Jack continued, “before she drives the entire city of London to distraction.”
“We’ll be there soon,” Indy echoed him, smiling widely. “All of us, at Alex’s house, under one roof. Even Teddy.”
Jasmine grinned. Soon she’d be free of worrying about Amy’s bullshit or having to dodge her parents and could just focus on… how many more doubles matches she and Indy would have before one of them had to make a choice about their future. Her smile faded. “What could possibly go wrong?”