Finally, the competition winnowed the field down to some play-off games to determine winners. The final pairing was Grey and Jake against Cate and me. Part of me wanted to forfeit and declare it past time for lunch, but I couldn’t do that without looking like a jerk.
Grey’s eyes met mine across the net. “I should have figured you could hold your own,” he said. His face didn’t break into a smile, but I could tell he was teasing me. “All those summers at the club with those sexy pros.”
“I don’t remember the pros being sexy,” I said.
“Don’t you remember Sam Dodd?” he asked with a laugh.
“I do,” Cate said with an exaggerated dreamy sigh. “All the ladies tripped over themselves trying to get his attention.”
“While all the men slept with him in the back of the pro shop,” Grey said under his breath. I wanted to ask if that had included him. Just the thought of it pissed me off.
“That sounds like my kind of pro,” Jake said, slapping Grey on the back. His slap turned to a caressing shoulder massage before I glared at him to cut that shit out.
He walked away with a chuckle. “Let’s have some fun,” he said over his shoulder. “Grey, babe, would you like to serve, or do you want me to?”
Babe?
I expected Grey to bristle at the cheesy endearment, but he didn’t. He smiled and gestured politely. “You’re the better server by far. Lead us out.”
Cate touched my elbow. “You want to stay on the ad side like we’ve been doing? I don’t mind mixing it up.”
“Ad’s good,” I said, hoping I’d get a chance to accidentally aim an overhead at Jake’s solar plexus. “You kick ass at deuce.”
The game started friendly enough until Jake served an ace at me that spun wildly off to the side. I nearly fell on my face lunging for it.
Grey turned a big grin on his partner as he walked back to high-five him. “Great serve, man. You’ll have to show me how you do that sometime. That was gorgeous.”
I stared at him. Was he for real? This pompous show-off wanted nothing more than Grey’s fawning approval, and Grey had just given it to him. I clamped my teeth closed against a sarcastic comment.
During the next point, Cate got into a fierce rally with Jake. She had unending patience and waited for him to get frustrated and try a high-risk shot. It was a tactic I’d seen many women use against men in mixed doubles. Jake finally sent a topspin forehand slamming into the net.
I let out a soft snort before glancing back at Cate with a wink.
Grey’s friendly voice surprised me. “Bad luck, Jake. We’ll get ’em next time.”
I turned to see him pass Jake on the court with another high five. Jake followed it up with a casual slap to Grey’s ass. Motherfucker. Was this some kind of flirt fest, or were we playing tennis?
The next point’s loss was my fault. Jake had tried the nasty spin serve again, and I’d been so proud of returning it, I hadn’t been ready for the next shot.
“Sorry,” I muttered to Cate. “Stupid mistake.”
She walked up and patted me on the shoulder. “Happens to all of us. That was a killer return, though!”
I glanced over at Grey, but he was talking to his partner.
Jake put his arm around my hot, sweaty boyfriend and turned their backs on me so I couldn’t overhear or, apparently, lip-read their strategy. I took the opportunity to stare at Grey’s muscular back and ass. Fuck, he was sexy. But I sure as shit didn’t want to see Jake touching him as possessively as that. Or at all.
Jake’s next serve to Cate ended in another baseline rally until I found a shot to pick off. I angled it shallowly on Jake’s side since he was too deep to get there in time.
Cate squealed and ran over to hug me. Since she’d been bouncing up and down at the time, I ended up with a face full of boobs. Not a bad way to celebrate a point, to be honest. “We’re at deuce! Great job!”
When I moved back to the baseline to get ready for the serve, I noticed Grey shooting daggers at Cate. Was he fucking jealous? Seriously? After all the “great shot, Jake” bullshit?
Game on.
I played as hard as I could after that, trying to balance brutal competitive play with the facade of a man who was simply out enjoying a nice social round-robin on a pretty day.
The harder I played, the harder Jake flirted with Grey until all I wanted to do was smash the ball in the redhead’s face and end the game. The score went to deuce at least twenty times. Other guests started wandering back to the house when it went on so long, but the most competitive of them stayed riveted on the back-and-forth.
At one point, I managed to volley a ball right at Grey’s feet, and he got me back the next point by sending it down my alley. Jake hooted with glee every time Grey took a point off me, and he took every opportunity to touch Grey’s butt. Grey reciprocated, which made absolutely no fucking sense to me considering the lecture I’d gotten about “men like Jake.”
So maybe I hugged Cate in celebration a little too often after that.
“Your man seems to be out for blood,” Jake teased after one particularly stressful point. Then he lowered his voice so only Grey and I could hear. Cate was back behind the baseline. “But don’t worry, babe, you can always drown your sorrows in my room if he stays angry long.” He shot me a wink.
I suddenly realized I was a sucker. I’d allowed this asshole to bait me so successfully, I’d forgotten one of the lessons I’d learned in team tennis in high school. Figure out how to win without your ego.
I stepped back to the baseline and whispered my new strategy idea to Cate, who laughed. “I was waiting for you to remember that winning doesn’t have to be pretty.”
I grabbed her shoulders and mock shook her. “Dammit, stop being so smart, woman!” She laughed and slapped my butt with her racquet.
“Let’s do this. Come on.”
On the next serve, I barely managed to return it, but when Jake sent it back to me, I was ready. I began a loopy lob game up and over Grey’s head deep into the far corner of the court. Jake raced to return it on the defensive, which meant I was able to send another loopy lob up and over Grey’s head again to the opposite corner of the court. After six of these lobs, Jake was out of breath from racing back and forth, and Grey was losing his patience at the net. We won the point easily.
Thankfully, we were able to do it again on the very next point since apparently Cate had been trying and perfecting the strategy all along without talking to me about it. We jumped up and down and hugged in celebration for the win before walking to the net to shake hands with our opponents.
Jake grinned and congratulated us, but he made a point of slapping Grey on the ass again when he thanked him for the game. Grey swatted him back with a grin. I was seriously tempted to swat Cate’s ass the same way just to point out how ridiculous it was. But I wasn’t that guy.
I took my time downing cold water from the bottle on the bench while several of the guests gave us kudos for such an entertaining match. Grey smiled and thanked the people congratulating him and even approached Cate again to compliment her on her playing. Eventually, everyone wandered back to the house except Grey and me.
I had a mouthful of words that needed spewing. I bit my tongue against them because I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, and there was no point to my vitriol. If I could avoid looking at Grey, maybe I could avoid shouting at him.