Page 21

Jade

One look at myself in the mirror, and I felt ridiculous. “Do people really dress like this? To play tennis?” I was wearing a skirt, for crying out loud, and bright preppy colors I didn’t think I’d ever worn in my life.

Bianca pursed her lips and nodded. “Mmhmm. You look great. Pleats are your thing. Bitzy will be so impressed with you.” Oh, you have no idea how happy that makes me. It’s a dream come true really, for a woman who will never actually be my mother-in-law to be impressed with me. Not.

“Mitzy,” I corrected, thinking about what she said about pleats being my thing. Was that some sort of backhanded compliment?

Maybe Bianca wasn’t the right one to ask to help me with this whole thing. “Whatever. Let’s just add”—Bianca stopped and turned around in search of something she left in a bag on the floor by my door—“this.” She held up a hat with a hole on the top.

Cocking my head to the side, I seriously considered telling her I wasn’t wearing that. “What is that thing?”

“A visor,” Bianca said simply, her brows furrowing at my obvious lack of knowledge.

Wasn’t that something old ladies wore? “I’m not ninety.”

“It’s a vital accessory. The rays from the sun can be quite damaging to your skin. All the women on the court wear one.”

Gesturing, I waved her on. “Fine. Since you know so much, when are you going to start telling me exactly how to play tennis?” She obviously had frequented tennis courts, and she agreed to help me, so she better start dishing out quality tips.

Bianca only looked at me, her lips pursed, and laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

My brows formed a deep V. “No.” Was she kidding?

Still laughing, she slipped the visor onto my head and cinched the elastic holding my short ponytail tighter. “Oh, Jade, I have no idea how to play tennis.”

“But you said you’ve been on the court before.” Was I losing it? When she’d offered to help, I’d assumed it was because she knew a thing or two about the sport.

She smiled at me like you would the poor little clueless girl. “No, I didn’t.”

“But—” I turned around and wished I could rewind the tape somehow.

“Just because I know what women wear on a tennis court doesn’t mean I’m a tennis pro. I don’t do sports. I do fashion.” Then she promptly turned around and picked up a shoebox.

Man was I screwed. “So, you’re just here to dress me up?”

Bending down, Bianca pulled colorful sneakers from the box. All right, those were so ugly it should have been illegal to wear them. “Isn’t that why you called me?”

Ugh.

* * *

“You look fabulous, Jade,” Mitzy said by way of greeting and gave me air kisses on both of my cheeks.

I peered down at my outfit. Again, ridiculous if you asked me, but fine.

I was glad someone thought I looked fabulous .

Although maybe she thought I did because I looked a little bit too much like her—visor and all.

“Thanks.” Then I remembered what Red had said about playing nice.

Dumbass would probably enjoy every second of this if he were here.

“And thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Lyons—er, McGee. I’m looking forward to spending this time together. ”

Clacking her tongue on the roof of her mouth, Mitzy shook her head. “Please, call me Mitzy. Or Mom.” She winked. Yeah, Mitzy it is. “It’s a shame, isn’t it, that you and I didn’t spend time together when you were with Nathaniel. All’s well that ends well, though, right?”

I wasn’t so sure about that. “Sure.” I looked around and realized I was starting to sweat, and we weren’t even outside yet.

“So, do you want to sit down and talk?” My attention turned to the restaurant to the side where many people seemed to be spending quality time together over pretentious food. Why couldn’t we do that?

Mitzy’s eyes followed my gaze, a smile crossing her expression. “Darling girl, we have a reservation on the clay court. Let’s go,” she said, hooking an arm through mine like we were old friends. News flash: we were not. “We mustn’t be late.” Naturally.

Outside, I looked around and wondered how we were supposed to play tennis—neither of us had rackets or balls.

I was completely inexperienced at the game, but weren’t those things kind of necessary?

“Uhh, Mitzy—” I started, but she quickly dropped my arm and walked in the direction of a lanky man dressed in all white with a smile on his face.

“Aiden!” she called as she closed the gap and gestured for me to follow.

He—Aiden, apparently—stepped forward and met Mitzy with a bottle of water. “Is this your new daughter-in-law?”

I eyed him speculatively, wondering just how much he knew about me and why he jumped the gun. “Soon-to-be daughter-in-law,” I clarified, emphasis on the soon-to-be part.

Aiden nodded. “Are you ladies ready to play tennis?”

I turned to Mitzy who was bouncing on her heels, far too giddy with excitement for a middle-aged woman of sophistication. “I’m sorry, but you are?” I asked of Aiden.

Beaming, Mitzy brushed me off and bent down to pick up a racket from the bag at his feet, passing it to me. “He’s my tennis coach. You’ll learn a lot from him.” Oh, goody.

Swinging the racket around, I got used to the way it felt in my hands. It wasn’t bad. Like a flyswatter. I think I could do this. There couldn’t be much to it, right? It’d be like whacking balls.

I would’ve liked to hit Red in the balls with this thing at times. Right now was one of those times. You know, for making me do this.

If I was being honest, though, I would have much rather stroked his balls, hearing him grunt and beg for more. I would run my finger through his arousal and taste him. Then I would give him the best blowjob of his life.

Oh, the things I wanted to do to that man.

The problem was that we’d agreed to be sexually exclusive—begrudgingly—for the sake of this farce but hadn’t done anything yet.

Truth be told, it had become like a game of cat and mouse.

When I’d wanted it after he’d eaten me out and left no crumbs behind, he’d walked out my door.

Then when he’d wanted me to come over, I’d denied him.

I was a girl with needs, but I was also complicated. What could I say?

Oh, shit, none of this was right. This was borderline demented, wasn’t it? I was out with his mother, she was literally standing right next to me, and all I could think about was her son’s dick. And me riding it. No. I shook my head and tried to get caught up on what was going on around me.

Mitzy had a racket now.

Aiden was tossing a ball in the air.

They were talking about something.

“What now?” I finally asked to get this show on the road.

“Now, you play,” Aiden said and placed a hand on the small of Mitzy’s back, pushing her to the other side of the court. “You on this side, Jade. Mitzy will be over there.”

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun, isn’t it, Jade?” Mitzy threw over her shoulder as she walked across the court, her racket pitched on her shoulder.

Fun? Sure. I would’ve chosen any number of other words, but we could go with fun. I pushed my visor up and walked to the middle of my half of the court.

“Mitzy, you serve,” Aiden called and backed up to the side of the net as her bright yellow tennis ball streaked through the air.