Love. Set. Match.

  “You’re too skinny,” her grandmother fussed. “Even skinnier than when I saw you in California.”

  Em winced at the mention of Indian Wells. “It’s been…a long year, Gran. Skinny is the least of my problems.”

  “I know, sweetheart. I know.” Gran cupped Em’s face, stroking her cheek with her age-softened thumb. “Come on. Your big brother’s already in the kitchen. I put him to work making the salad so he doesn’t eat all of my cheese sauce before it’s done.”

  Em let her grandma link their arms and lead her into the cozy kitchen of the condo the Grands had occupied for most of Em’s life. She and Owen grew up in this place, doing their homework at the butcher-block peninsula while Gran and Papa Vic cooked together. Even after a long day at her job as a CPA, Gran still insisted on helping to cook dinner. It was their time to be a team again, she’d argue any time Papa Vic tried to get her to stay off her feet. As they grew up, Owen and Em were slowly allowed to join the team on occasion, but it was always Papa Vic’s special time with Gran.

  “Cheese sauce?” Em sniffed the air. “Are you making mac and cheese?”

  Gran’s eyes twinkled. “Well, when Zoe called to say that my girl was having a rough time of it, what else could I make? Comfort food is the order of the day. Besides, that brother of yours has been bugging me nonstop to make some for him.”

  “Not nonstop,” Owen protested from his spot at the counter, a chef’s knife in his hand. “I just…made a request or five.”

  “We were just in France. World capital of cheese. But the second we get home, you con Gran into making you mac and cheese?” Em teased, her smile genuine but weak.

  He shrugged, popping a slice of tomato into his mouth. “Gran’s is still the best. I will be a hundred and still want her mac and cheese.”

  “Aw. That’s why you’re my favorite grandson.” Gran patted his arm since he was too tall for her to reach his face. “Now pay attention to those vegetables. I didn’t teach you to use poor knife skills.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He grinned, going back to his task.

  Em lifted herself onto the counter beside him, too drained to do anything but watch her family. Her heart ached as it always did when the three of them were together lately. Being with her brother and her grandmother went a long way toward soothing her, but it also reminded her how much she missed her grandfather. He should be here, bustling around, maybe popping outside to grill something—he’d loved his Big Green Egg grill she and Owen bought him three Father’s Days ago.

  Gran dumped the pasta into the cheese sauce and began stirring the gooey goodness together. “Emmy Anne, you go set the table. Owen, take that salad in with the bread. I’ll bring this along in a minute.”

  “You doing okay?” Owen asked as he followed Em into the little dining nook located off the back of the kitchen.

  She sighed, setting the plates on the table in three spots. They always left Papa Vic’s chair empty now. “Define okay.”

  “Hmm. ‘Aside from the jetlag, you aren’t five minutes away from collapsing under the weight of the world’ would work as the definition today.” He set the salad down and helped her with the napkins.

  “Ah.” She pursed her lips, thinking. “In that case, I think I’m probably a little past okay, but not much. Why? Is it that obvious?”

  “Only to someone who shared a bathroom with you for eighteen years.” Her brother winked. “Besides, anyone else would have curled up into a ball by now if they were in your position.”

  “Our Emmy’s made of sterner stuff than that,” Gran said, carrying a giant fiesta ware bowl full of noodles and cheese. “Both of my grandchildren are.”

  Em smiled and went to pour sweet tea into the glasses of ice Owen brought to the table. “How are you feeling, Gran? Are you still going to that yoga class at the community center?”

  “Yes. I’m getting quite good at it. Your grandfather would laugh at me for looking so silly, but I feel much more limber.” Gran wiggled her shoulders. “And ten years younger to boot.”

  Em bit her lip as she spooned some mac and cheese onto her plate, then passed it to Owen. She desperately wanted to ask her Gran some things, but she couldn’t bring herself to ruin the mood. “Don’t hurt yourself. We don’t want you to have to have a hip replacement or something like that.”

  “You worry too much,” Gran chided, helping herself to some bread. “I’m fit as a fiddle and doing everything my doctor says. Besides, the instructor at the community center makes everything gentle on old bodies like mine. I’m not nearly as hard on my body as the two of you are on yours. That was a nasty tumble you took in your last match, Owen. Are you all right?”

  Em took a bite of the mac and cheese, savoring the bite of the cheddar and the smoothness of gouda. Gran put three or four different cheeses in her sauce to make it extra flavorful and creamy. The taste took her back to simpler times, when she didn’t have to worry about secret boyfriends or stalkers or winning Grand Slams. God, what she wouldn’t give to go back to that time today.

  “The clay courts don’t hurt nearly as much as the hard courts, Gran. I had a few bruises, but nothing too bad. Would have had Cruz if it weren’t for that fall, though.” Owen pulled a face. “Oh well. Both Graces in the semifinals ain’t half bad, huh?”

  “Oh, I wish I could have been there,” Gran said. “I miss traveling with you two.”

  Owen coughed. “Yeah, last time you showed up didn’t go so well.”

  An awkward silence stretched for a few minutes before Gran finally spoke. “Your father has always been a difficult man. You two know that better than anyone. And I don’t know how a son of mine and my sweet Victor’s turned out like that, but he’s still your family. Family has always been at the center of our lives, and at the end of the day, we love each other.”

  “We might love each other, but it doesn’t mean we have to like each other,” Em muttered.

  “Speaking of my visit,” Gran said. “How are things with you and that nice young man who was in your room?”

  Em cringed at the memory of her grandma interrupting her having sex with Rob. Even in high school, they’d never had a situation quite like that. “Um. Rob’s…Rob’s fine. I guess.”

  “You guess? Isn’t he your boyfriend?” Gran asked.

  Owen flashed her a wicked grin. “Yeah, Emmy. Isn’t he your boyfriend?”

  “God, what are you, five?” Em glared at her brother. “Rob…my relationship with Rob is complicated, Gran. I wouldn’t necessarily call him my boyfriend. It’s not like we’ve gone on a real date or anything like that.”

  “Ah. So it’s one of those friends-with-benefits things I’ve read about?” Gran nodded wisely.

  Choking on her food, Em took a gulp of her tea, hoping it would cool the embarrassment burning her cheeks. “Oh. Wow. Gran. Um. I—I don’t—”

  “Because I’ve got to tell you, from where I was standing, it seemed like he was your boyfriend,” Gran pressed.

  “What makes you say that, Gran?” Owen asked, mischief still twinkling in his eyes. “Inquiring minds want to know.”

  “Nosy minds, you mean.” Gran gave him a reproachful look but continued. “It was the way he looked at you, I suppose. And the way he positioned himself beside you. It reminded me of your grandfather and me.”

  Gran’s words sent a jolt through Em’s system. She wished that Gran knew everything that had gone on seven years ago. When she’d come back from London with Papa Vic, Em honestly expected him to tell Gran about everything, but he didn’t. At the time, it had been easier for her not to talk about it. Now she desperately wished Papa Vic were here to help her make sense of everything going on.

  “Oh, Gran. We’re not—” Em shook her head. “Rob and I aren’t like you and Papa Vic. You two were a fairy tale. Meant to be together and partners to the end.”

  “And you don’t think you could have that with your Rob?”

  Em sent a desperate look to Owen, but her brother raised an eyebrow at her. />
  “Yeah, Squeaker. What’s going on with you and Rob? Are you going to live happily ever after?”

  She raised an eyebrow right back at him, taking a bite to buy herself some time. “Are you and the D-list TV star you’re dating going to live happily ever after? Why is it guys never get asked that question about a casual relationship?”

  “Sorry, sis, but I don’t look at Tonya the way you and Rob look at each other. Good try at deflection, though,” he said easily.

  She hated how he could be so calm and cool in the face of everything. She tried to be like that, but in the last few months she’d been failing—epically. “Gran, Rob and I aren’t serious. He’s…a friend.”

  “A friend who you have sex with,” Owen put in.

  Em aimed a well-placed kick under the table at her brother. She did not want to talk to her grandmother about sex. Ever. Zoe had even had “the talk” with her in junior high so she didn’t have to talk about sex with Gran.

  “I know things have changed since the days your grandfather and I were dating, dear, but I recognize that a man and woman can simply have a physical relationship,” Gran said coolly. “But that’s not what I saw when I met your young man.”

  “Really?” Owen broke off a piece of bread.

  “Surely you’ve seen them together,” Gran said. “The way he looks at her. The way he defends her, both in public and in private. Wish you could have seen them lay into your dad. I was about to jump in, mind you, but he got there first. Reminded me of one of those old movie heroes.”

  Em shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “He wasn’t doing anything that Owen or Cruz wouldn’t have done if they’d been there. Dad was being a jerk, and Rob called him on it. You’re reading too much into this.”

  “And that’s not to say anything about how she looks at him.” Gran sent Em a pointed look. “Not that I blame you. He’s certainly a handsome devil. If I were twenty-five or thirty years younger, you’d have yourself some competition, young lady.”

  Em’s jaw dropped. “Gran!”

  “What? I may have spent fifty years married to the love of my life, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a fine specimen of manhood. Especially once I saw him smile and look at my granddaughter like she hung the moon.”

  Groaning, Em took another bite of her food. The conversation moved on, but the words kept swirling around in her head. Rob was always there, in the back of her mind. This was why she couldn’t focus. Rob and all that had passed between them had become intrinsically entwined in her thoughts, and she needed to untangle them before it was too late.

  During clean up, Owen got a text message. “Hey, I’ve gotta go and meet some…friends.”

  “Tell Tonya hi,” Em called after him as he kissed Gran and left.

  Now that it was just the two of them in the house, they fell into an easy rhythm. Filling Tupperware with leftover food, putting the salad dressings in the fridge. They stood side by side, Gran rinsing the dishes before Em loaded the dishwasher. As much as she enjoyed this time with her grandmother, she couldn’t escape the tight feeling in her chest that something—someone—was missing.

  “Gran, do you still miss Papa Vic?”

  The words came out before she stopped to think about them. She’d hoped that as time passed, she’d start to miss him less, but with every loss, she had felt her grandfather’s loss more keenly. The clock over her head kept ticking. Her knee had started aching mid-way through the French Open, and it only served as another sharp reminder that she didn’t know how much time she had to honor the promise she’d made to herself and to Papa Vic to win a Grand Slam title.

  Gran froze, her hand dripping with soapy water. “Oh, sweetheart. Of course I do. Every day. What makes you ask that?”

  “I just…” Em put some forks into the basket in the dishwasher. “With everything going on, I miss him. So much. I find myself wishing he was here so I could talk to him. He always made things seem so…simple. No problem was too big for him.”

  That earned her a chuckle, albeit a watery one. “You say that now. You should have seen your grandfather with you and your brother after your mom died. We’d kept y’all a few times when your parents were in town, even one overnight stay, but you’d spent more time with your mom’s family than us. We hadn’t had small children in the house in decades, and we’d never had a little girl before.”

  “I don’t remember that. I always remember him being so good with us.”

  Gran nodded, returning to her work. “Oh, he was. But not at first. You especially. You were this sweet little bundle of energy who wanted to have tea parties and wear princess dresses while you wrestled with your big brother. He kept fretting that you were going to get hurt or break something.”

  “Only I didn’t. At least not then.” So much had broken in the years since. Most notably, her heart.

  “You were so fierce and fearless. You didn’t back down from anything, even your brother and your cousins. You had to run as fast and as far as they did, even though you were so tiny.” Gran smiled. “By the second week, you had him wrapped around your little finger for good. He loved you so much, sweetheart.”

  Em’s throat burned, and her eyes stung. “I loved him too. He was with me through so much. I…I wish he were here now. There’s so much I need help making sense of, and I don’t know where to start.”

  “Would this have anything to do with your Rob?” Gran handed Em a large pot.

  Em placed the pot beside the colander, sighing at her grandmother’s mind. “He’s not my Rob. But yes. There’s…a lot that’s happened between Rob and me. And with everything else going on, it’s becoming distracting. I need to do better, to win a Grand Slam, but the world keeps intruding and distracting me.”

  “You think Rob is part of this?” Gran guessed, scrubbing at a sauce pan.

  “Well, yeah. He’s probably the biggest part of it. Ever since he came back into my life, everything’s gotten so tangled and messy.” Em leaned back against the counter as her grandmother worked.

  Nodding, Gran didn’t respond for a moment. “By back, you mean after the way he treated you all those years ago?”

  “You know?” Em stared at her grandmother, genuinely surprised. She’d never said anything about knowing about Em’s past with Rob. Not in Indian Wells and not at dinner.

  “Of course I do. Your grandfather didn’t keep things from me. We told each other everything for fifty years.” Gran smiled fondly at Em. “How else do you think we stayed together for so long?”

  Em sagged in relief. “But you never said anything. Never even hinted that you knew.”

  “Because I saw how broken you were when you came back from London.” The older woman wiped her hands on the ancient dishcloth she kept on the drawer by the sink. “Your grandfather had a special relationship with you, and I respected that. If you’d wanted to talk to me about it, I knew that you knew I was here for you. But you didn’t even talk to him about it after that first day, so I didn’t push.”

  A well of love bubbled up inside her. This was why she’d always pick her family over anyone else. Her grandmother was one of the most gracious women she’d ever known, and it was because of stuff like this. The bond between her grandparents was another reason. They’d worked seamlessly as a team, even when it came to dealing with their granddaughter’s broken heart.

  “I…thank you for that.” She reached out to hug her grandmother. The two women moved toward the living room together. “So if you know about our past, you can understand how things between us now are…messy. Really, really messy. And more importantly, Rob and my feelings for him are a distraction that I’m not sure I can have right now.”

  Gran pulled Em onto the couch, wrapping her in a hug and a quilt. “You’ve been through so much in your young life, Emerson Anne. You’ve dealt with more heartache than I saw in the first four decades of my life. But why on earth do you think that a boy who loves you is a distraction?”

  Love. That word shook Em to her ver
y core. Love couldn’t be part of the equation, not now. Not ever with Rob. Not again. “He doesn’t love me, Gran. We like each other. We have really, really good sex together. But he doesn’t love me. And I don’t love him. Even if I did, he’s a reporter. If anyone were to find out that we were seeing each other, it would be…a disaster of epic proportions. That’s part of the distraction.”

  “I suppose that’s fair.” Gran ran her fingers through Em’s hair like she used to when Em had a nightmare as a kid.

  “Between the stalker and the news and Rob, I haven’t been able to get my head in the game.” Em snuggled closer to her grandmother. “Zoe even yelled at me today.”

  “You’ve been doing so well. Why would she yell at you?”

  Em let out a bitter laugh. “I haven’t been doing as well as I could. I should have made it to the finals at Roland Garros, maybe even won, but I wasn’t as focused as I should have been.”

  “So you’re questioning if you should continue your relationship with Rob in the wake of the other distractions?” Gran eased back to study Em’s face, her brown eyes thoughtful.

  “Exactly. Being with him is starting to feel…right, but I don’t think I could ever trust him again after last time. It might be easier all around if I told him that we shouldn’t even be friends again, let alone friends with benefits.” The words stuck in Em’s throat, and she hated them even as she said them. Rob did something to her, to her body, that wouldn’t be easy to let go of, but she had to if she was going to do what she set out to do this year—win a Grand Slam, no matter what.

  Gran sighed, cupping Em’s face. “Sweetheart, if it’s starting to feel right now, if it was ‘right’ enough for you to give your whole heart to the boy seven years ago, then it wouldn’t be easier to give him up. Love isn’t a complication. It’s the solution. A man like Rob Ashton would be your partner, if you gave him the chance, just as your grandfather was with me. The other things are momentary distractions. In time, they’ll fade into memory, but those feelings will still be there.”