“How much did you need?” Adele asked.
“A lot. Today was the last day to settle the payments. We would have had to take out a new loan, but no bank is going to lend us money after this mess.”
“Exactly how much did you need?” Adele pressed.
“What does it matter now?” Sylvia threw up her hands in exasperation, but Adele waited for her response. “Seventy thousand dollars,” she said, finally.
Milly gasped. “That’s a lot of money.”
“It sure is,” Sylvia said.
Milly stood and put on a forced enthusiastic smile. “So maybe we should just play? One last time?”
“Hold on,” Adele said. “You said you made twenty thousand from the event?”
“That’s right,” Sylvia said. “It’s not enough, Adele. I know you wanted this to work, but it’s just not even close to enough.”
“Well, the Lacoste people paid me to wear their attire, and Wilson paid me to use their racket. A little over ten thousand for sporting their gear on television, with a bonus of five more from each brand if more than ten million viewers tuned in. And I just found out from Rutherford that they did. I didn’t get the winner’s purse, but I got eight thousand in prize money just for playing.”
“That’s twenty-eight thousand! You’re rich,” Milly said.
“Hardly,” Adele said. “But I live frugally.”
Milly had begun to pace, bouncing the ball on her racket. Suddenly she stopped.
“Lloyd just wrote me a check for eighteen thousand dollars,” she said. “It’s his signing-on bonus for a job he’s taking in New York. I need to save half to cover expenses and the mortgage, but if I had a job and a salary, I could invest the other half—”
“Bien,” Adele burst out.“Excellente!”
“Oh gosh,” Sylvia exclaimed. “I’m so grateful for what you two are suggesting here. But even if the three of us pooled our money together and had shares in the club, it still wouldn’t be enough.”
“You’re right,” Adele said. “We’re still thirteen thousand short, and we’d need a cushion for the operating costs, but I think there’s a way we could make it work.”
“How?” Sylvia said, searching the sky, as if afraid to hear an inevitable disappointment.
Adele tried to suppress the slightest smile forming on her lips. “I’ve found an investor.”
“Who?” Milly demanded.
Sylvia and Milly were holding their breath.
“Margery Horn,” Adele said at last and let it sink in for a minute.
“Margery Horn wants to invest with us?” Sylvia said.
“That’s right.” Adele said. “We talked things over yesterday and we’ve made contact with Wilson. They want to sponsor an annual televised Grudges Match here at The Island Club, hosted by Margery and me, where former champions get to settle longtime rivalries and face off in a final match.”
Milly clasped her hands together excitedly.
“Wait a second,” Sylvia cautioned. “Let’s think this through. Margery lives in London. Why would she want to invest in a club here?”
“She understands as I do that our competing days are behind us. This is a good opportunity to put some of our winnings to good use and hopefully give us decent returns. She’s a smart woman. Just as she plays tennis, she’s thinking three steps ahead, and she knows a good opportunity when she sees it,” Adele said. “And the weather is a lot better here than it is in London, so she’ll have a place in the sunshine to come and play.”
Sylvia closed her eyes and shook her head as if trying to figure out if this was really happening.
“But there’s one caveat,” Adele said. “Walter would be part of the team, of course, director of operations, perhaps, but he would have to run all finances by the three of us.” She shrugged. “No offense. But it’s a lot of money, the only money I’ve got, and I can’t risk losing it.” She looked to Milly. “None of us can.”
“Understood,” Sylvia said. “He’d be relieved to not carry all the burden. That’s what did him in last time.”
“It sounds like we have a plan to be in business,” Milly said, beaming.
“Oh my God.” Sylvia put her hands to her mouth. “I can’t believe this. And you’re willing to put all that heartache and all those regrets from your past behind you?” Sylvia asked.
Adele picked up her racket and spun it in her hands, then she smiled. “I already have.”
