Page 24 of The Summer You Were Mine

Good Morning.

Thought maybe we watch and talk

Meet there?

Ellie was brushing her teeth when she heard the texts come in from Cris.

She scanned them, flinching at the words “our” and “we.” Still, it wasn’t every day she could watch her eighty-two-year-old grandmother playing tennis with her fiancé.

Didn’t she promise fun? That was before her brain got the better of her again.

She’d spent the whole night thinking about the fact that she still hadn’t told Cris about her show.

It’s not that she was hiding it, only that she hadn’t found quite the right moment to mention it.

But she couldn’t deny that it had created a storm of vulnerability in her head.

OK

Her fingers lingered over the keyboard on her phone for a moment trying to think of something to lighten the tone, but nothing came to mind. “OK” was going to have to do.

The morning was already steamy as Ellie walked into the Chiavari Tennis Club, and all six outdoor red-clay courts were busy with players getting in a match before the afternoon heat made it impossible.

Graziella and Simone played doubles with Renata and Ugo every Tuesday morning at ten, so she only had to look for a court with the senior-most occupants.

She couldn’t miss Graziella’s white skirt and matching sleeveless shirt with the collar popped, her hair arranged around a white visor in place of her usual sunglasses.

As much as Ellie couldn’t imagine playing a sport, her grandmother’s fashionable look almost made her consider making an exception for tennis. Almost.

“ Ciao, gioia! ” Graziella waved her racket as Ellie made her way to the spectator patio just a few feet above the court.

It was set up with café tables and chairs so viewers could get a Spritz along with their up-close-and-personal view of the match, of course.

How would one be expected to watch without refreshment? “I didn’t expect to see you here!”

“I didn’t expect to be here.” She reached down to hold her grandmother’s hand on the other side of the green chain-link fence. “But I am glad I am! You look beautiful!”

“Eh! Beauty won’t help me with my backhand!”

“Her backhand is fine. She exaggerates. Ciao, Eleonora!” called Simone.

“ Ciao, Simone! You look pretty great, too!” Also in matching tennis whites, he had on a sporty pair of mirrored sunglasses and a blue sweatband around his bald head.

“Unlike your grandmother, I will take the compliment.”

“That’s because you know you’re lucky to get one,” growled Ugo from the courtside benches, piled high with racket bags and towels. He chuckled and stuffed two tennis balls into his pockets.

“Only compliment me if I play well!” said Graziella, turning her face back up to Ellie.

“I don’t know if I’ll know the difference,” said Ellie, shrugging.

“Oh, you’ll be able to tell.” Simone raised his eyebrows. “She’s a little fiery when she makes an error,” he mock-whispered behind his hand. Graziella folded her arms and glowered at him, pretending to be offended.

“Must run in the family.”

The hairs on the back of Ellie’s neck stood up. She turned around to see Cris walking toward her, grinning from under a mop of damp hair and sunglasses. Ellie narrowed her eyes at his comment.

“What? Your dad is the same way. Ciao, tutti! ” Cris called down to the court.

“ Ciao, Cristiano! Wow! We have a real audience!” Graziella said, smiling.

“ Ragazzi, are we ready? It’s four minutes past,” Renata interrupted, making arm circles in a light-pink tennis dress. “I am going to get creaky if we stand around much longer.”

“You’re creaky anyway,” said Ugo. Renata scowled. “But I love your creaks.”

“You see what I have to put up with after sixty-two years?” Renata pointed to Ugo. “Are you two sure about this wedding?”

“Already paid for the suit!” yelled Simone. “Who’s got the ball first?”

“Hey,” Cris said, ducking his head into Ellie’s line of vision. “Are you here?”

“Sorry, yes. I get a little bit distracted sometimes.”

“It’s hard not to.” He smiled, nodding at the court. “Do you want to sit?

“Sure,” she said, pulling out a chair at one of the small tables. “I had to write some new questions. But first I want to tell you something.”

“ Volete qualcosa? ” the café waitress asked as she passed by. Cris ordered a coffee and raised an eyebrow in Ellie’s direction.

“ No, grazie, ” Ellie said directly to the waitress.

“ Ah! Caspita! ” Graziella yelled out from the court below. Ellie watched her shot sail right into the net.

She took out her notebook. “We have gone over a lot of information, and the format of the show is taking shape. But I would like to be honest with you about one small detail.” Ellie paused, watching his eyebrows rise. “I am actually not sure that I still have a show.”

“Um—” he started, leaning forward, “that’s a small detail?”

“I mean, I think everything is going to be okay, but I had a bit of an unfortunate encounter with a hot mic right after a guest left my last episode of the season.” She didn’t want to wince. She knew she was wincing.

“Meaning…”

“Meaning I kind of overshared with my producer my thoughts on some of my guests, and it didn’t go over well.” She bit her lower lip.

“But you still have the show?”

“I theoretically still have the show.” Though she wasn’t sure if she should still have a show. “I’m not willing to give up on it. It means something to me, and I think I can fix it.”

“I see,” he said. “So it would probably help you to get someone who never does interviews anywhere and has a bit of a record to set straight. Maybe a big score will make people forget about your little mishap?”

“Maybe. And maybe that person will be able to convince people that he deserves to sail off into retirement, scandal-free, since the notoriously prickly Dr. Beltrami couldn’t seem to find major holes in his story,” Ellie said, rolling her pen between her fingers.

“A mutually beneficial relationship,” he smiled.

“Let’s hope.”

“I’m still in,” he said with a slight nod. “I want to do this.”

She looked back down at her questions. She had wanted him to not freak out about her show, and he didn’t.

Now the chaos monster in her brain was inviting her to obsess over whether it was a business or a personal decision.

She sighed, choosing to ignore the invitation and remind herself again how important it was to keep her feelings out of this interview.

It was so hard when, somewhere in her heart, eighteen-year-old Ellie was still curled up on her bed crying when she opened his final email: You’re right.

I think we made a mistake too. See you next summer.

Especially when the next summer never came.

“Okay. Great. Let’s start with something easy,” she redirected, blinking a few times to get back in the moment. “Tell me about your interests or hobbies. What do you like to do or what are you excited about? If you do any charity work or volunteer, this would be a great place to talk about it.”

“Still trying to get people to like me, huh?”

“It will certainly benefit you if some of the facts of your situation are not great.”

Cris sat back in the chair and looked down at the court. Ugo stood at the baseline and bounced a tennis ball a few times before lightly tossing it up. He whacked it over the net where it landed out at the sideline.

“OUT!” called Renata.

“You know that’s the opponents’ job, right?” Ugo said, turning to his wife. She shrugged.

Cris shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve had hobbies that are unrelated to training unless it was…

well, actually, I can’t think of anything.

” He leaned back as the waitress set the coffee down in front of him, plus a plate with two small wafer cookies.

“ Grazie, ” he said with a smile. The waitress flushed and smiled back, and she took two steps backward and almost crashed into a flowerpot overflowing with begonias.

“Charities? Any community stuff?” Ellie asked, eyeing the waitress as she marched back to the café.

“Yes. I did some stuff with a foundation for pancreatic cancer research for a while. I did a few YouTube videos for them and was part of their annual walkathon. Then I did the Swim Across America for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute a few times, too. That was pretty fun.” He took a sip of coffee.

“But you don’t work with them anymore.”

“No, not in a while.”

“Right.” Ellie sighed into her notebook instead of letting any more negative thoughts out of her mouth. She tried to keep the pendulum in her head from swinging right back to the place where Cris was as reliable as a puppy on a white carpet.

“Wait, let’s watch this. It’s set point,” he said, touching the back of Ellie’s hand gently. She picked her head up and leaned toward the court. Graziella returned a ball just over the net where neither Ugo nor Renata could sprint quite fast enough to reach it.

“ Brava! Bravissima! ” Simone yelled as Graziella won the point for their team. They clinked rackets as they walked to the side of the court for a quick break.

“Looking good, Nonno! ” Cris called.

“Only because I’m standing next to her!” Simone called back.

Ellie clapped but wasn’t sure if they were done playing completely. She glanced at the large digital clock above the courts.

“They play another set, I think,” Cris said, following her gaze.

“Right.”

“I’m guessing none of what I told you helps my cause.”

“We can move on to something else.” She went back to her notebook. Hobbies and charities were out. Maybe she should ask about pets or what his favorite movie was. It was starting to sound like she was building him a Tinder profile. “This is hard. You used to be more interesting.”

“When? When I was throwing nespole at you from the tree in front of your house?” He smiled.

“At least you were demonstrating other skills,” she said, trying not to smile back.