Please, write back soon. I would love to hear how you are. See you in the summertime, I hope. (Don’t worry, we’ve selected a date that doesn’t affect your championship schedule.)
Yours forever, Akira
By the time Yoko finished reading the letter, her face was wet with tears. She folded it up, stuffed it between the pages of abook, and dropped her sweaty body into bed. Anger and sorrow became a perfect storm in her stomach. She wondered at all the things she’d done wrong over the years. Could she have changed this reality? Could Akira have been hers?
Maybe it was because of this heartbreak that Yoko agreed to go out with Kendall Reynolds for the first time. It was a few days before Christmas, and she was sitting cozily in the living room of the Reynolds’s mansion, listening to Kathy and Coach recount old Christmas memories. Kendall was eating a Christmas cookie and eyeing her from his chair near the roaring fire. A mighty wind blasted against the house.
“I don’t think we should stay in tonight,” Kendall announced.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kathy said with a laugh. “I’m already wearing my slippers. I’m already in my robe!”
But Kendall was focused. “You can stay in, Mom. But I think Yoko and I should be with people our own age. We should celebrate. You know?”
At that, both Coach and Kathy yanked their heads around to look at Yoko, who sat in her small and meek way on the sofa, her feet barely touching the ground. Yoko’s heart pounded. She saw in her coach’s eyes the realization that her son was going to try to take his champion away from him. After everything they’d worked for! But Yoko was stronger than Kendall’s advances.
“I won’t do anything to affect training,” Yoko promised him in articulate English.
Coach’s face broke into a smile. “You can get yourself into a little bit of trouble, if you like. It’s the holidays. Wimbledon is months and months away.”
Yoko raised her chin. “Wimbledon will be here in a flash,” she said, using an Americanism she’d heard Coach use time after time. “And I’m going to win it this year.” She downed the rest of her tea, got up, and went to fetch her coat. When she returned tothe foyer, she found Kendall dressed and ready, his black boots gleaming. In his eyes was proof of what she’d known about him since Thanksgiving. He wanted her. She guessed she wanted him, too.
Chapter Eleven
Present Day
The first night of Lily’s trip to Los Angeles ended at a nightclub with all of Liam’s new best friends, the way she’d assumed it would. As she bobbed and weaved through the crowd, her head thumping to the music, she tried not to notice how close Liam and Bex danced to one another. She tried not to guess at the chemistry that pulsed between them and seemed to animate the rest of the room. Liam’s co-stars seemed none the wiser, or they seemed unable to admit that they felt it too. They continued to butter her up, reminding her that, apparently, Liam couldn’t shut up about her on set. It sounded more and more like a lie, especially as the night wore on.
But the following morning, Lily woke up at Liam’s rental house and fell into yet another dream. Liam had ordered a breakfast of eggs Benedict, champagne, hummus, fresh fruit, and plenty of hot sauce. It was all laid out on the coffee table in front of his massive television, which was primed and ready to playThe Wire, a television show they’d both promised to watchonly with one another, when they had the time. Lily burst into tears of happiness and wrapped her fiancé in a hug.
“Hey! It’s just television!” Liam said, laughing.
Lily couldn’t translate what was wrong, nor what was right. She’d been so frightened it was over, that this sudden onslaught of kindness felt like too much. She sat down, cleaned herself up, and told herself to enjoy every second of this. Liam cuddled her close, kissed her, and demanded that she eat. “You’ll feel better,” he said.
And soon, Lily did.
In fact, Lily felt so much better on Sunday that she ended up extending her Los Angeles trip indefinitely. When she pitched the idea to Liam, he squinted with thought, then broke into a smile. “You should stay till the wrap party!” he cried. “It’s at the beginning of November.” It was a few weeks away. “Who wants to go back to that freezing-cold island in the Atlantic? You can do all your work from here. You can research wedding venues from here.”
“And you’re here,” Lily said.
“That’s right, baby,” Liam said. “Stay with me. We’re getting married. I don’t want to be apart.”
Lily threw herself into her new and temporary life in Los Angeles. While Liam was on set, she made phone calls to her clients, researched potential matches for them, networked, and researched wedding venues, wedding caterers, and all things Vance-Reynolds.
While speaking on the phone with her mother, Rebecca wondered if Lily was all right. There was worry in her voice. “It’s just you were only going to be gone a few days,” she said. “I miss you.”
“I know. I miss you too,” Lily said, feeling bright and confident again. “But the thing is, I want to be with Liam. I’m so proud of what he’s doing out here. I want to help him.”
Most nights, Liam came home exhausted from his work on set. Sometimes he went out with the other cast members, but Lily was always invited. She was becoming close with all of them, including Bex, who still thanked her profusely for the “big love” she’d shown her. The skateboarder often came as well, his shoulders slumped, his eyes like a wild animal’s. When he saw Lily in person for the first time, he saluted her and said, “Right on, man. The matchmaker.”
Two weeks into her brand-new life in Los Angeles, she finally had a call with Mick Hamilton. She was in the sunroom of Liam’s rental, wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts, watching the wind flutter through the tops of palm trees outside.
“Mick!” she said, happy to hear his voice. “What happened? I didn’t hear from you after your date.”
“Ugh.” Mick groaned into a burst of laughter. “I wasn’t sure how to tell you.”
Lily sat bolt upright. She’d allowed herself to think that maybe Mick and the redhead were so head over heels in love that they’d forgotten to contact Lily at all. “Tell me,” she urged.
“It’s not that she was awful,” Mick said delicately. “It’s more that we don’t see eye to eye about a number of things.”
