Epilogue
Two years later.
"Easy," Kate whispers, squeezing Leire's hand as they walk down the hallway toward the courthouse exit.
"I'm fine."
Kate lets go of her hand and wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.
"You're shaking, sweetheart," she says, pressing a kiss to her temple.
Leire grabs her around the waist and leans into her.
"I just want to get out of here."
Patricia, the attorney walking alongside them, glances at them sideways.
"You did great, Leire—both of you. It's over now."
They push through the door and a burst of camera flashes goes off around them.
Leire wishes it were only because of their relationship—because they're two retired professional tennis players who are together—but the press is here because the news of the complaint against her father leaked a few months ago.
"He may well have leaked it himself," Patricia had said when they found out. "A way to sell himself as a victim of his own daughter, hoping it helps him walk free."
Leire had felt her stomach turn, still asking herself whether it was grief over her mother's death that had broken her father, or whether he had always been this way.
Questions rain down on them, but Patricia shields them, stepping in front of the microphones to make a brief statement while they wait behind her for it to be over. A few officers clear a path through the crowd until they reach the waiting car, where the attorney says her goodbyes.
"It's not a bad outcome, Leire. Given his lack of prior record, we couldn't have expected much more—but from here on out he'll have to walk a very fine line, because if there's ever another complaint like this, nothing will keep him out of prison."
She extends her hand to Leire first, then to Kate.
"If you need me, you know where to find me."
"Thank you," Kate answers for both of them, and Patricia heads off as they climb into the car.
Just as the attorney had predicted, the process could have stretched to three years; in the end it took two.
The hardest part was today—the hearing and coming face to face with her father, whom Leire hadn't seen since she came back from the US Open just over two years ago, because he had moved to his brother's village and stayed there ever since.
In the end, he was convicted to two and a half years for the discovery and disclosure of private information, with the aggravating factor of family relationship plus an additional sentence for attempting to distribute the images he had sent to Candela's phone—who said her goodbyes to them inside the building.
Bruno won't serve prison time since it's his first offense and, as the attorney noted, he has no prior record, but this will stay on his file.
The taxi ride to Leire's apartment in Madrid—where they arrived yesterday and plan to stay a couple more days before heading back to Kate's house on the island—passes in silence.
But the moment the taxi drops them off at the entrance and Kate closes the door behind them, Leire crumbles and lets out all the tension she has been carrying for the past few weeks, ever since Patricia told them the date of the hearing and the anxiety started eating her alive.
"It's over, sweetheart," Kate whispers, holding her tight against her body until Leire has cried it all out.
Then she takes her by the hand and leads her to the kitchen, helping her up onto the counter before handing her a glass of water.
"I'm going to make us something to eat—you need to get some food in you," the Australian decides, because Leire was so nervous this morning she couldn't manage breakfast.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it," the redhead answers, opening the fridge and raising an eyebrow. "Though don't expect anything fancy with how little we bought yesterday."
Leire manages a small smile.
"Honestly, I'm ready to go home. We could check if there's a flight this afternoon."
Kate glances at her sideways. They'd planned to stay a couple of days and explore the city a bit, but the truth is she's ready to go back too. She's grown so used to the quiet of their home that the chaos of Madrid wears her out.
"You sure?" she asks, closing the fridge and stepping in front of her, between her legs.
Leire drapes her arms over Kate's shoulders and laces her fingers behind her head, looking at her with puffy, red-rimmed eyes, but smiling.
"Yeah. Besides, we just opened the club and I don't really trust Tom and his zero people skills."
Kate lets out a short laugh that shakes her shoulders, and Leire, completely smitten, traces a finger over the freckles on her cheeks.
"Fair point—he's a great teacher, but people skills aren't exactly his strong suit," Kate admits.
Tom is the kid she gave morning lessons to for a year and a half.
He was solid at tennis, but not solid enough to consider going pro, so when Leire retired last year and they both invested in opening a small club on the island, they brought him on as Kate's assistant on the court—and he's the one they left in charge while they've been away.
"I ran some numbers last night," Leire begins—she'd taken advantage of the nerves keeping her awake to open her laptop and get some work done.
The original plan was to open the club and have them both coach, but once they got into all the paperwork, Leire discovered she really loved the management side of things, and since she was burned out after a final year on the circuit that had pushed her hard, she told Kate she'd rather handle that and take a break from the racket—so Kate is the club's only coach.
"And?"
"We should invest in another indoor court and bring Tom on full-time to handle beginner sessions, so you can focus on the more advanced players.
Your schedule is starting to fill up, and if we don't do something soon, we'll have to start a waitlist—and when people have to wait too long, they just go somewhere else. We can't afford to lose clients."
"Look at you, a real businesswoman," Kate smiles. "So you're not thinking about helping me out on the court? You want to stay in the office?"
"I like it, baby," Leire says with a shrug, pulling a strand of hair away from Kate's face before kissing her. "I want to keep doing the management side, if that works for you."
"Works for me—and you're really good at it, so if you want to invest in another court and put a new offer together for Tom, go for it."
"Thank you."
Leire kisses her, and what starts as something tentative quickly deepens into a long, hungry kiss that ends with the two of them on the couch—naked, exhausted, and still without eating, but wildly, completely happy.
"What are you thinking about?" Kate asks after a couple of minutes watching Leire, who is staring at the ceiling, tracing idle shapes with her finger on Kate's shoulder.
"About us. About how hard and messy the beginning was, but how it brought us here." She turns to look at her. "Thank you for waiting for me, Kate. For being there, patient, and for giving us another chance."
"Reaching out to you that day was the best decision I've ever made," Kate says, holding her gaze.
Leire smiles at her—soft, full of warmth—and rests a hand against her cheek, and because she can't find words for everything she feels, she leans in and kisses her slowly, sighing against her mouth as her eyes fill with tears again, though this time they're tears of happiness.