Page 60 of A Royal Promise
“His music, of course.” She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “And you, actually.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, he asked about my engagement to you and offered his congratulations. He said he loves following news about royal families around the world. He’s a big fan of ours.” She smirked before turning her eyes back to the tennis court, where the two players competing for the championship title were being introduced.
“Huh. Who would’ve guessed an American country singer would be a fan of ours?”
“Crazy, right? I almost fainted when he bowed to me, greeting me by name.”
Drew rubbed the back of his neck. The first game began, and they fell into a comfortable silence. He watched for a few minutes, having no clue what was going on as words likelove,fifteen, andthirtywere said over the speakers. Since he was going to be sitting here for the majority of the day, he figured he should probably understand what was going on in the game.
He leaned into Bri, using a program to cover his mouth. “If I’m being honest, I have no clue what’s going on.”
Her lips twitched like she was trying not to smile or laugh at him. “You brought me to the French Open, and you don’t know anything about tennis?”
“I knowyoulove tennis. That was enough.” Drew hoped his true meaning came across: he would do anything to make her happy. He cleared his throat. “Can you explain it to me in simple terms? Like tennis for dummies.”
She laughed. “I’ll give it my best shot. Have you ever heard the sayinggame, set, match?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s what the tennis announcer says when someone wins a competition, but those words all mean something in tennis. Agame is played until a player scores four points. I don’t really know where the scoring system came from, but those are the words you’ve been hearing. Love means zero points, fifteen is one point, thirty is two points, and forty is three points. After that is the game-winning point. It gets a bit tricky when it’s forty all, meaning they both have three points, but you don’t really have to understand all those details.”
Drew’s eyes widened as she spoke. “Why do they have to overcomplicate everything in sports?”
“What would you have named the points if you were the creator of tennis? And not the boring zero, one, two, three, please.”
He sat quietly, thinking through her question. “My scoring system would be goose, rooster, phoenix, maverick.”
She turned to him, an amused look in her eyes. “I should’ve known you would’ve named them afterTop Gun: Maverickcall signs.”
“I’m impressed you know where they’re from.”
Bri shrugged. “You only made me watch that movie ten times when it first came out.” She smirked. “I would’ve put rooster on top, though.”
“Why?” He turned his attention back to the court, trying to grasp what was happening now that he knew the scoring system.
“Because Miles Teller is gorgeous, duh.”
He kept his eyes on the court but shook his head at her antics. Maybe she wastryingto make him jealous. He wouldn’t let it get to him this time…also because he couldn’t deny what she was saying. Drew knew most women loved a man in uniform.
The announcer’s voice came over the speaker again. “Moreno wins.”
Drew clapped loudly, and Bri reached over, setting her hand on his leg. She gave a soft shake of her head when he looked at her. “What? They just said he won.”
“It’s a lot more than one game. The next term you need to learn isset. A set is a collection of games. To win a set, a player has to win six games, and they must win by at least two.”
“That’s a lot of games.”
“Yeah, and that’s not even all of it. The last term ismatch. For men to win the match in this tournament, they must win three of five sets.”
His eyes widened. “So, technically they would have to win at least eighteen games?”
She nodded. “Yep, and it’s near impossible to win that many games straight, so think about how many games they have to play to win a set, let alone win three of them.”
“Man, these guys must be in great shape to have the kind of stamina needed to play at such a high level for so long.”
“They do work hard to build up that level of endurance. That’s why we’ll be sitting here most of the day, watching Moreno and Gunter battle it out.”
