Jasmine forgot her embarrassment when an unnatural quietsettled over the players’ lounge. Alex Russell had entered the room. Wearing a gray sweatshirt, hood pulled up over his head, hands tucked into the front pocket, he ignored the stares and whispers that erupted as soon as they were sure it was him.
“People suck,” Jasmine muttered.
“Yes, they do, very much,” Paolo agreed. “Scusi, signorina, but he is my friend. I have to speak with him.”
“Oh,” she said, “of course.”
Paolo left his tray of food and made his way across the room to Alex, who stopped and spoke to him for a moment before they walked together out the door at the opposite end of the lounge.
Indy appeared at her side from nowhere. “So, how’d it go?”
Jasmine whirled on her. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
“Please, you were both all smiles before Alex dragged that black cloud in here. Look, Teddy Harrison isn’t the only guy in the world. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Is this about Teddy and me or about the fact that it’s been two days since you kissed his brother—”
Indy shushed her, cutting off the last word, her face suddenly peaked and drawn. “That isnotpublic knowledge.”
Jasmine shrugged her shoulders in defeat. “I’m sorry. Anyway, you were right, Paolo’s accent is amazing.”
Indy brightened, latching on to the change of subject. “Told you so. Come on, let’s go down and watch the match. Penny could probably use some moral support right about now.”
“Yeah, sure.”
As they made their way down toward the court, Jasmine’smind was whirling. Maybe she wasn’t such a lost cause after all and maybe Indy wasn’t either.
“Jeu, set et match, Harrison.”
In the seats next to her, Dom, Jack, and Indy all let out a collective sigh of relief as Penny looked up at the sky, thanking whatever higher power had pushed her through the match. It was a close call, but she managed to squeak past her opponent, 7–5, 6–4.
“I’m going to talk to her,” Dom said, standing and making a hasty exit from the player’s box. “See you all back at the hotel.”
They watched him go and Jasmine cringed. She could imagine the lecture Dom would give her if she ever played like that, and maybe for the first time ever, she didn’t envy Penny at all.
Then she realized she had her opening, the moment she had been trying to engineer in her head since they sat down to watch the match. She and Indy were friends now, and while Indy’s efforts to help with her love life had been a little heavy-handed, Jasmine appreciated the effort. And not only because she hadn’t been able to get Paolo’s soft smile and beautiful eyes out of her head. The least she could do was return the favor.
“Maybe you better go with him. She’s probably going to need a friendly face after theirtalk,” she whispered to Indy, who nodded and left, but not before glancing quickly at Jack, who was making a rather obvious show of not lookingin Indy’s direction. It made Jasmine’s decision to go through with her plan even easier. They had to get out of their own way.
She and Jack sat in an awkward silence as the crowd around them started to disperse for the bathrooms and concession areas between matches. Jack made to stand, but Jasmine grabbed the cuff of his pullover jacket and tugged.
He squinted at her, obviously confused. She knew it was odd. In all the time they’d known each other, she couldn’t recall ever having had a full conversation with him—just the two of them—without Penny or Teddy around. Jasmine pushed past the awkwardness.
“I need to talk to you.”
“What’s up?” he asked, sitting back down, giving her his full attention. When their eyes met she was startled by how much he and Teddy resembled each other. They were different in so many ways that it was easy to forget sometimes that they were brothers.
“You’ve met my dad, right?” she asked, wanting to approach this the right way. She didn’t want to scare him off before she could make her point.
“Yeah, of course I have.”
“Would you say he’s a good guy?”
Confusion clouded his eyes, but he nodded. “Yeah, your dad’s a great guy. Are you okay, Jasmine?”
“Me? I’m fine. At least, I think I’m fine. I know I’m a little spoiled and I tend to freak out sometimes, but I think my parents did a good job of raising me.”
Jack’s forehead wrinkled and he put a hand on top of hers. “Seriously, Jasmine, are you having some kind of issue withyour parents? I don’t think I’m the best person to talk to about something like that.”
