Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
SAM
London, UK – June
Wimbledon Championships
“No rest for the wicked,” a surprising, but familiar, voice said from behind where I was sitting on a bike, cooling down.
I turned my head to look at Wyatt. “I don’t see Naomi here, so clearly there is.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt the colour drain from my face. “Oh my gosh, that was—I’m—I didn’t—”
Wyatt put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it.
“It’s fine. It’s funny. Mimi would laugh. If she were here, which, as you pointed out, she is not.”
I didn’t know what feeling came over me at the confirmation that Naomi wasn’t on site, but it didn’t feel great. Although it did leave me with one big question.
“If she’s not here, then why are you?” Wimbledon wasn’t exactly en route to anywhere for the Sullivans. They lived on the other side of the river.
“I needed to talk to you in person and figured you’d be on site.
Naomi and I sort of had a conversation on the drive back from Eastbourne yesterday, and I’ve been thinking about it since, and the only way to get it out of my head is to just get it out.
I’m going to preface this by saying that I’m not expecting anything from this at the moment. Or ever, actually.”
My hands started slipping on the handlebars.
“Have you ever thought about changing coaches?” he asked so quietly, I had to strain to hear him. When it dawned on me what he’d said, my eyes darted around the gym to see if my dad was anywhere to be seen. He wasn’t.
“Not really. What my dad and I have going is working for me,” I answered. Even to my own ears, it sounded rehearsed. Wyatt tilted his head and looked at me like he didn’t quite believe me, and I couldn’t blame him.
“Okay, sure. Look, you’ve got time because Mimi’s locked in until next summer, and it’s her before anyone else. But should you find that stops being the case, I would like you to know that I would be open to a partnership.”
My brain snagged on the word ‘partnership’.
My dad used the word ‘we’ all the time, but recently, it didn’t feel like he believed we were actually working together.
I’d spent enough time in the general vicinity of the Sullivans to know that Wyatt meant it when he said ‘partnership’.
That was evident in the fact that Naomi wasn’t here because they’d decided it wasn’t what was best for her, while I knew resting today wasn’t even an option for me.
And nor was firing my dad. If I did that, I had no way of knowing what it would do to our relationship. It wasn’t ideal in its current form, but at least it was there.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I offered. It wasn’t a lie. I would. But that didn’t mean I was going to do anything about it.
Wyatt smiled widely. “That’s all I ask. I’ll leave you to it.”
He started walking backwards.
“Wait, did you come all this way just to ask me that one question?”
A single nod of the head. “Yeah. I’ve got nothing else to do today, and I just wanted to put that out there. I ordered a cake from a bakery ’round here that my sisters love and basically only get during these two weeks, so I’ll pick that up too.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”
“She’s on centre straight after you, so yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Naomi was sitting opposite me in the players lounge, her head resting heavily in one hand while she speared pasta with the other. We were both playing a waiting game, but mine was closer to being over than hers because I was about thirty minutes away from stepping out onto Centre Court.
“Could you do me a favour and get your match done in three sets?” she mumbled before taking a mouthful.
I smiled as I pulled my tape out of my shorts. Her eyes narrowed as I started peeling and wrapping it around my forefinger.
“I would love to. But this is—”
She cut in. “Tennis. I know. But I don’t think I can sit here while you play for five hours or something like that.”
I bit off a piece of tape and noticed a muscle in Naomi’s jaw twitch. I wiped my hand on my shorts to dry them off and make sure the tape would stick. “If it runs that long, they might move you?” I offered uselessly.
Naomi snorted. “They fucking won’t. Someone somewhere is so happy that they got to set a Centre Court schedule that included both of us, they’re not going to change it. But thanks for trying,” she said, her voice staying surprisingly flat.
“Are you okay? You seem kind of…tired?”
She speared more pasta onto her fork.
“Careful, Sam, I might fall in love with you if you say nice things like that.”
I spluttered and felt heat spread across my skin. An almost wicked smile spread across Naomi’s face.
“Relax, I’m messing with you. I’m fine. Just in period limbo. I know it’s coming, but it’s refusing to arrive, and it’s wiping me out. Another reason I just want to get out there and play. The quicker it’s done, the quicker I can go back to being horizontal.”
I finished taping my left ring finger, and as I buried the tape in my pocket, a shadow fell on a table. I sat up straight.
“Should you be here or warming up, Sam?” Dad asked, his tone slightly too forced to sound genuine.
“I’m just leaving,” I said as I stood. Naomi’s eyes darted between my dad and me as she slowly chewed.
“Good luck,” she offered, her eyes locked in on me.
“Thanks. And you. I’ll try to be quick for you.”
And that wasn’t a sentence I ever thought I’d say to Naomi Sullivan.