Page 66 of Ace My Heart

I smiled down at her, willing the lump in my throat to go away. “Hello, Natalie!” I said, trying my best to sound cheery. “I hear you’re a bit of a tennis fan!”

“Yeah!” the little girl exclaimed, staring at me in unmasked awe. If she were any older than she was, if she wasn’t sick, I would have found that adulation a little unnerving, but on her it was just sweet.

“Well, I came to give you something, to help you get on your way to a professional tennis career.” I held out the racquet to her. “This got me through to the final at Indian Wells, so I like to think it’s kind of lucky.”

Natalie took the racquet with reverence, unzipping the cover and pulling it out, inspecting all the little scuff marks on it like they were precious. I sneaked a glance at Joel, who had taken a step closer to me, his hand nestling into the small of my back.

“It wasn’t luck that got you that far, though, was it Mel?” His hand started rubbing up and down my back in a very distracting way. I tried to ignore it, to focus on Natalie.

“Is he your boyfriend?” she asked bluntly.

I shook my head, feeling myself blush. “No! Joel’s not my boyfriend, he’s my coach.”

Natalie leaned closer to me, gave me a look that asked me to lean closer too. I did.

“Is Pete Levine your boyfriend? Since you had sex with him and all.”

I stood bolt upright, the heat in my cheeks exploding into a bonfire. Natalie’s father looked mortified.

Joel saved the day. “Natalie, Mel and Pete Levine are two consenting adults, and what they chose to do together should have been private and special between them. But Pete Levine did something that broke Mel’s trust, which was a very wrong thing for him to do.”

Natalie nodded, accepting Joel’s explanation. Her father gave him a look of respect. I gaped at him in shock. I had never expectedhim to be able to handle awkward situations with such eloquence. I realised with a jolt that I’d never really seen Joel as an adult before. Jokester, yes. Overprotective big brother type, definitely. Grown man …? It was like the world was tilting on its axis, showing me Joel from a different perspective.

I turned back to Natalie, determined to change the subject. “So, Natalie, when you’re feeling a bit better, you get your dad to give me a call and I’ll come and hit some balls with you.” I offered.

Natalie’s grin filled her whole tiny little face. “That’d be awesome!” she replied. I leaned down and gave her a hug.

About an hour later, after I’d posed for photos with Natalie and she’d shown me off to some of the other kids in the garden, and I’d answered about a bazillion questions about being a professional sportsperson, Joel ushered me back out of the garden, his hand returning to my back, stroking up and down.

“You hungry?” he asked as we reached the car. He opened the door for me, and it wasn’t until I climbed in that he took his hand off my back. It felt almost odd that it wasn’t there anymore. I nodded.

“Well, let’s go get some lunch. I feel like celebrating.” Joel started the car.

I looked at him with interest. “What exactly do you want to celebrate?”

He turned to me, his mouth twitching. “Today’s the first time you’ve officially referred to me as your coach. So does that mean I’ve got the job?”

I felt my own lips twitching in response. “Joel, you knew you had the job.”

His face broke into a toothy grin then. “Yeah, I know, Stink, but all the same, it’s nice to hear you say it.”

I rolled my eyes. “If I pay you a bonus, will you stop calling me ‘Stinky’?”

He laughed then, loudly and joyously. I hadn’t seen him so truly happy since before Steve’s death.

“Not a chance, Stink.”

I punched him playfully on the arm. Sure, he could be a dick alot of the time, but if I didn’t let him get too far under my skin, he was actually a lot of fun to hang around with.

He insisted on buying me lunch. I protested, until we pulled up outside a takeaway shop in Bondi. I didn’t mind having lunch bought for me when it was under ten bucks. He winked at me and ordered fish and chips for two. Had I told him at some point that fish and chips were my absolute favourite greasy takeaway?

We carried it across the road to the beach, stopping by the car on the way so Joel could grab out a picnic blanket. We plonked ourselves down on the sand and I tucked straight into the fish – peeling off the batter and eating the scalding fish inside, then wrapping chips in the batter. Joel watched me, an enthralled expression on his face.

“What?” I demanded, scoffing down a batter-clad chip.

Joel snorted. “I’ve never seen anyone throw back deep-fried food with such … gusto.” He sounded impressed. I popped another batter-clad chip into my mouth, grinning at him.

“You know as well as I do that it’s all about balance. You’ll just have to help me work it off this afternoon.”

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