“I beat you,” he said, awe in his voice.
“You did,” Isaac agreed, tossing the ball back to him, since it was his turn to serve.
“So… if you’re number fourteen in the world, and I beat you, does that make me number thirteen?” Julian teased.
He knew Isaac was still going easy on him, but he was never going to beat him like that again. He planned to milk it for everything it was worth.
“I think the scoring system is a little more complicated than that,” Isaac said.
Julian shrugged. “Nope, that sounds right to me. Get into position so I can launch my tennis career.”
Isaac chuckled, still beaming at him, obviously having a good time.
This was nice. Julian had never thought of himself as much of a sport person, but he could have gotten used to lazy Sunday mornings doing this.
Playing, he supposed. Theplaypart was fun, even if it was already wearing him out.
He served the ball, watching closely as Isaac hit it back, running to get into position.
A bright slap of pain hit Julian directly in the eye socket. It was enough to make him stumble back, tears springing up in his eyes at the surprise, his hand going up to cover his injured eye instinctively.
“Shit,” Isaac said, running around the net to get to him. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean-”
“I know,” Julian said, his voice tight from the shock and the pain. He didn’t think for a second that Isaac would deliberately hurt him, but it did really,reallyhurt.
The last thing he wanted to do was cry in front of Isaac, but he didn’t have a whole lot of choice.
To his surprise, Isaac’s hand landed on his shoulder, pushing him toward the bench off to the side of the court. Isaac lead him over and nudged him to sit, crouching down in front of him.
“You gotta let me see,” Isaac said gently.
As much as Julian didn’t want to move his hand, his instinct to protect his eye too strong to expose it to the world again just yet, he forced himself to let it fall to the bench beside him.
Isaac hissed as soon as he did.
“That bad, huh?” Julian asked. He wasn’t game to actually try to open his eye yet, and Isaac’s reaction didn’t help.
“Could’ve been worse, you’re not bleeding. I’ve seen hits like that cut people up pretty bad. You’re gonna have a helluva bruise, though.”
Before Julian could come up with a response to that, Isaac’s hand touched the sore side of his face. He was avoiding touching the injured area around Julian’s eye, but his hand was warm and grounding against Julian’s cheek and temple.
Julian swallowed. Isaac was so close to him right now, and his face was so soft and gentle. There was guilt written all over it, but something else, too. Concern, probably.
Julian wanted to kiss him. For a few seconds he even thought Isaac might close the distance between them, even just to press a kiss to Julian’s brow to make it better.
Isaac shifted, wetting his lips, still meeting Julian’s gaze.
Maybe hewasgoing to…
Julian’s breath hitched as Isaac moved again, his heart hammering in his chest. This was it, this wasit—
“Hey, are you guys done with the court?” a man’s voice called out from somewhere behind Julian.
Isaac backed off. Whether he’d always intended to or whether that was the worst-timed interruption of Julian’s life, he’d never know.
Hewantedto believe that Isaac had been about to kiss him. Even if he’d missed out this time, that meant there was still a hope in hell that he might, one day.
Julian’s heart had never quite given up that hope.
