Page 32 of A New Chapter in Rosewood Beach

I hope she’s here, he thought as he strolled down the cement sidewalk toward the tennis courts.It’s a beautiful day for tennis.

A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the trees overhead and kissed his face. It was a soothing feeling, and it helped him feel more relaxed as he approached the tennis court.

There weren’t many people on the court, and his eyes landed almost immediately on a woman playing by herself, wearing navy leggings and a sunshine yellow top.

Terrence’s heart skipped a beat when he recognized Vivian. He thought to himself how well colorful colors suited her, and how attractive she looked with her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining.

She didn’t notice him at first, and he stood next to the court feeling tongue-tied as he watched her. He knew he should speak up and let her know that he was there, but he felt bad about interrupting her—and on top of that, his mouth had become extremely dry.

Then she hit the tennis ball in his direction by mistake. She let out a squeak of alarm when she saw him standing there, and then she froze when she recognized him.

“Terrence,” she said, her eyes a little wide.

“Vivian.” He nodded at her. There were so many butterflies in his chest that he marveled that there was any room left for his lungs. It must be why he was struggling to breathe a little.

“It’s good to see you.” She cleared her throat. “Sorry about the tennis ball.”

He chuckled. “You really do seem to have a hidden animosity toward me.”

“Oh no,” she assured him. “Not at all.”

She was so sincerely emphatic that he felt badly that he’d made the joke. He wished things weren’t suddenly so awkward between them.

“I was only joking,” he said, smiling at her. “Where’s Hazel? Is she coming to play with you today?”

Vivian shook her head. “No, not today. My granddaughter has started cheerleading, so Hazel is busy helping her get ready for that. She won’t have as much time to play with me as she used to, but that’s all right. I can still practice by myself.”

He nodded. He still felt uncomfortably tongue-tied, and he had no idea how to bring up what he had come there to say. He wanted to tell her that he would like to pursue the potential of aromantic relationship with her, but he didn’t want to blurt that out suddenly. It was a delicate matter. In the bright sunlight, with the sound of tennis balls being thwacked and people laughing and shouting, he didn’t feel that he could bring up something so important, so personal, all of a sudden. He would have to speak loudly in order to be heard over the sounds of the tennis court, and he felt he would have trouble speaking at all at the moment.

“Would you like to try to hit the ball?” she asked him all of a sudden, smiling at him in a way that was almost coy.

He blinked at her. “Do I—I mean, I’ve never really played tennis.”

“Oh, come on.” She grinned at him and held her tennis racket out to him. “Give it a try.”

Terrence obeyed, unable to keep from smiling over the way she was behaving so gleefully. “You’re eager to see me fail, aren’t you?”

She laughed. “I’m sure you’ll do very well. I’m eager to help you out if you need my assistance.”

He couldn’t help being struck by her words, since they echoed how he felt about her. He was always eager to help her out if she needed assistance. He felt a desire to tell her so in that moment, but instead he simply took the tennis racket from her.

“So, I just toss a ball in the air and try to hit it with this mallet—I mean racket?”

“Oh my.” Vivian laughed, giggling as if she was unable to stop. “I called it a bat the other day. We’re two peas in a pod, I guess.”

He chuckled. “Well, bat is better than mallet. Apparently, I intend to hit this ball with a great deal of force.”

“Be careful if you do that—you don’t want to send it sailing into the parking lot. It might hit some poor unsuspecting health inspector’s car.”

“Oh, he’d be fine. Those health inspectors are tough cookies.”

For a moment, they stood there laughing. He nearly blurted out that he wanted to talk with her about their conversation the other day, but then she picked up one of the tennis balls and handed it to him.

“Go on,” she urged him. “Give it a try. Just throw it up in the air and then hit it with the mallet.”

He laughed at her joke and tossed the tennis ball in the air. It sailed straight up and he swung the tennis racket toward it. By the time the tennis racket was in line with where he’d thrown the ball upward, however, the ball was bouncing away across the tennis court.

“Ah,” Terrence said, watching it roll away. “It seems I need to move with more speed if I’m going to be successful at this.”

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