Page 7 of This Could be Love
She beamed. “Really?”
I nodded.
“Then I’ll make a new appointment. When do you go jogging like this?”
It took me a moment to realize she was messing with me. I grimaced. “It’s not exactly how I imagined my first day to turn out, believe me.”
“Today’s your first day?”
I nodded.
“You on vacation here?”
“I’m visiting someone,” I answered evasively. Neither Vince nor Laurie had recognized me, and I wanted it to stay that way. I could do without headlines like “Comeback in danger? Herzog-Riggs collapses on the beach.”
“I’m visiting someone here too. Where you from?”
“Munich.” For good measure I quickly added, “Germany.”
Surprise flashed in her eyes. “You don’t have an accent at all.”
“My father’s American. I grew up bilingual.”
“Wow.” Her response didn’t sound fake. She just sounded nice and as if she were really interested. “That mean you have family here on Oahu?”
“No, no. Dad’s from Minnesota. I…I’m visiting my godmother. But we’re not related.”
“Ah. You want to give her a call? So she can pick you up?” She squinted at my skintight shorts. “You don’t have a phone on you, huh?”
“That’s not necessary. I’m staying just a few houses down.” In my head I added,I think. My memories were a bit blurry, but I could still remember having seen the yellow umbrella before getting dizzy.
“Then we’re more or less neighbors.” Her face brightened. “What’s your godmother’s name? Maybe my brother even knows her.”
“Umm…Kay.”
If she noticed my hesitation, she didn’t let it show. “And how long will you be staying on Oahu?”
“A little over six weeks.”
“Oh, cool. I’m the one around here who’s on semester break right now. I’m helping my brother out with renovations. Maybe you’d be up for helping out too?” She looked at me hopefully. “Aside from Vince, I hardly know a soul around here.”
“Umm…yeah, sure,” I replied, more out of necessity than anything else, as I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that over the next few weeks I’d have absolutely zero free time. That I’d betraining up to eight hours a day and would probably be in bed by nine every night.
“If you give me your number, I’ll send you a message.” She reached into her handbag and pulled out her phone. “Then you’ll have mine too.”
“O-Okay,” I stammered, feeling overwhelmed and toying with the idea of giving her a fake number. But that could be embarrassing if we ran into each other again. And there really wasn’t anything to it. I gave her my number.
“Cool,” she said, more to herself, and dropped her phone back into her bag.
Then she showed me the way to the beach. Just like at Kay’s there was a series of stairs, but they were considerably steeper and, here and there, caved in. I didn’t want to imagine how much effort it had cost Vince to carry me up here. I winced in embarrassment before turning around one more time and looking at the house. It was about as big as Kay’s and had the same kind of flat roof. But that was about it. The ravages of time had gnawed away the partly yellow, partly dark-green color of the facade, and the doors and window frames needed a new coat of paint too. All the same, it had charm. And I was overcome by the strange feeling that, if it could speak, it would have a lot of stories to tell.
Chapter 4
“Would you like some more salad?” Kay asked, as we sat out on the terrace for dinner.
The sun was just going down and bathing the horizon a golden orange. A light breeze was blowing in from the ocean, mixing with the warmth of the dying day.
“Thanks, but I’m really full.” As if to underline my statement, I put my hands on my stomach. Kay had watched me put away two platefuls of spaghetti with shrimp and tomatoes. Coming back from tennis school I was famished, and that was without even having held a racket in my hand all day. Maybe the whole jogging fiasco was still affecting me. I hadn’t told Kay about what had happened on the beach this morning. Pride aside, I didn’t want her going easy on me tomorrow morning. On the contrary. I wantedto go all out. I wanted to exploit all the possibilities the Diamond School of Tennis had to offer.
