Page 16 of Courting Trouble
‘That… Was thatin?’
Cassie walked to where the ball had landed, glanced down, and looked back up. She nodded. Her eyes were wide.
‘Holyshit,’ Delilah breathed. ‘Did I just win a point?’
Cassie blinked at her. And then, absurdly, she started laughing. A full, rich, unguarded laugh that made her whole posture change into something less controlled, something human.
‘Well,’ she said, eyes alight. ‘I reckon that’s it.’
‘What’s it?’
‘You’re in it now. You’ve crossed the line.’
Delilah frowned, flushed, and confused. ‘What are you talking about?’
Cassie grinned, stepping back toward the baseline. ‘You just fell in love with the game. I saw it happen. Congratulations.’
Delilah felt her face split into a ridiculous grin. She looked down at her own hands, as if expecting the racket to be glowing. ‘It really did feel kind of… amazing.’
‘That’s how it starts. One good hit.’
Delilah turned toward the net again, her legs still shaking slightly. Her body didn’t feel strong. She still didn’t have a clue what she was doing. But something had shifted.
Eighteen
She stayed still a moment longer than she needed to, watching Delilah bounce on the spot with that daft grin on her face.
It was a terrible shot. Every part of the technique was wrong. Her footwork was non-existent, the swing was all elbow, and the ball had only cleared the net by blind luck. But it had landed in. And Cassie had seen something much better.
That look in Delilah’s eyes.
Cassie picked up the next ball and turned away, hiding the small smile tugging at her mouth. She hadn’t seen that look in a long time. Years, maybe. Not in this place.
Her day job had become a blur of polite boredom: private sessions with people in their fifties who called her ‘coach’ like it meant something, while the reality was, they were more concerned with getting steps on their fitness tracker than truly learning to play. They didn’t care about strategy, or form, or footwork. They weren’t there to get better. They were there to perform theideaof tennis.
Cassie went through the motions and took the money. Somewhere in all that, she’d gone a little numb. Until Delilah.
She was terrible. No question. But shetried. She’d come back every time Cassie thought she’d finally had enough. And now, somehow, she’d stopped being awful.
Not good. Not even OK. But… not awful.
And more than that, she wanted to do this now. Cassie could see it in her. That rush of hitting the shot and feeling it ripple up the arm, the chest, the spine. That first real thrill.
Cassie had forgotten how it felt to see that. It was second-hand joy, but it damn near felt like the real thing.
Cassie looked up. Delilah was still grinning at her like a fool.
‘You want to go again?’ she asked, already knowing the answer.
Delilah nodded, flushed and sweaty. ‘Let’s see if I can do it twice.’
Cassie smiled, almost to herself.
‘It’s not about doing it twice,’ she said, tossing the ball into the air.
‘It’s about wanting to.’
She served, taking it easy this time.
