Forty-nine

I WOKE UP WITH TWO GIRLS whose shirts had unaccountably come off during the night. As had mine. There was a lot of bare flesh touching me, and it was pretty damned nice. So were the two hands gently holding my erection. Apparently, we’d dropped a couple of barriers during the night. I could feel myself pulse and both looked up at me.

“You’d better get up, Tony,” Wendy said. “You need a good breakfast and your match is at eleven.”

“We should probably let this go so we don’t accidentally cause you to lose your edge,” Bree sighed. She dragged her hand up my torso with Wendy’s following closely.

“May I help you with your shower this morning?” Wendy asked.

“May we help you?” Bree repeated.

How could I turn down that request?

I think that day three of one of these big tournaments is the toughest day to get through. Allison played early and took her opponent in the quarter finals by four and seven. We were the only fans for her match, but her coach came over to talk to Lissa and me after the game and ask how we thought she was doing. I’d never met him before, though I’d seen him last year. It was funny how he just assumed we were taking over her coaching after the college season and would be the ones coaching her at National Singles. He was really cool about it and said that she’d progressed remarkably this season and credited our training before Nationals last spring and Opens last fall. Neither of those is a college competition, so he was fine with her working with us and hoped that we’d keep her going after she graduated.

I was in quarter finals, too. Eight of us sized each other up and went to our courts. Because of my position, this was the match where I’d meet the top seeded player in the tournament. With Brian out of the tournament, I would meet Al Trimble from the University of Florida. I don’t think he was any happier about this meeting than I was. If Summers had come to the tournament, Al would have been in the lower half of the bracket and wouldn’t meet the top competition until the finals. Either way, I was screwed. I had to take this match or I was out. There’s no dropping to a new bracket once you reach the quarters.

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve lost matches this year. But Al was the toughest match I’d had since playing Karl at National Singles last year. We played at a different level in that match than any other match of the whole tournament. It was really a shame that one of us had to win.

I was lucky I was the one. The match went the full three games and at the end, I led by one point. We’d played for an hour and a half and the rest of the Gold competitors were standing outside our court watching the last game. When the last rally ended and the judges called out that I was the winner, Al and I collapsed against each other. We both knew it could have gone either way. I’d taken the first game by one point and he’d taken the second by one point. We’d been tied before the match point. Al checked the score and moved from the top competitor for first to fifth. This guy deserved the title, but I was going for it.

My team was waiting for me when I came off the court as well. It was the longest match of the tournament so far, so the next round was ready to start as soon as we cleared.

“Must be a couple of damn good teases,” Whitney drawled at me as she glanced at Bree. Wendy was hustling back to Amanda at our booth and I knew I needed to go up there and give them a break. “I’m gonna see what I can do tonight.” Oh shit!

I went up to cover the clothing booth and found Wendy and Amanda swamped with people. Our team wore our maroon and gold uniforms, but they were only one of the combinations Melody had come up with for our new season line. When I got there, I signed some autographs as well as talking about the sportswear line. Then I noticed that not everyone was there for clothing. Next to our booth, there was a large poster and a donation box for the Tent City mural. I went around in front of the booth in time to see Amanda reach over and drop six gold dollars into the box. People counted them out as she dropped them. When I finally managed to see the front of the line, I saw a sign that said “$1.00 donated for each article of clothing sold!” I saw competitors from other teams reaching over to add to the donations.

“This is a cool idea!” I said to Amanda and Wendy.

“It was Melody’s idea,” Amanda said. “I swear; she might as well have come down here with us. She’s been on the phone almost non-stop since we got here. She can’t be going to classes.”

“I’ve got to talk to her about that,” I said. “But this is awesome.”

“Just wait till you find out what Bree is doing!” Wendy smiled.

“Bree should be on the court,” I said. Damn! I need to get down there. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.” I took off as fast as I could.

Rachel was the first person on our team eliminated from competition, and that was only because she was playing Bree. The match wasn’t at Division 1 level, but they both did us proud and were great sports as well. Little Rachel jumped up and rode on Bree’s back all around the court when the match was over. There weren’t too many people around and I needed to hustle to watch Brent and Franklin on one court while Lissa coached Whitney and Tonya on another. Neither double had mercy on their opponents. Whitney and Tonya were headed to finals tomorrow and Brent and Franklin to Semis. Way to go team!

I had time to run up to the booth before Walt’s game at four-thirty. I was in time to meet the sales rep from Raquethon at our booth. Bree shoved me over in front of our poster as the guy turned to speak to the small crowd gathered around.

“Raquethon is happy to join the students at Seattle Cascades University and Ice Queen Sportswear in supporting this important project dedicated to helping the homeless,” he said. “We’re adding to the donation box with a dollar for every sale we’ve made here at the tournament. And don’t forget to stop by our booth for the great new line of men’s sportswear by Ice Queen Knights.”

The guy turned around and shook my hand and then reached for Lissa who had come up beside me.

“And congratulations to this year’s mixed doubles open champions, Tony Ames and women’s open champion Lissa Grant,” he shouted. Everybody applauded.

I caught hold of Bree as I was headed down to watch Walt’s match.

“Did you do this?”

“It was Melody’s idea. I’m sorry it wasn’t operating on the first day,” she said. “It took a while to get through the red tape to raise funds here. I know a couple people on the athletic staff here at Tempe and got them to support it. I think Denon Sports is going to make a donation, too. Isn’t it exciting?” I just reached for her and gave her a kiss that took the breath away from both of us. We looked at each other for a long moment and then rushed down to Walt’s semi-final match.

Our team was hot. Walt slammed his opponent, using his weight like the lineman he is to get in position and control the court. The guy actually tried to make a rush at Walt and shove him out of the way. It was such an aggressive act that the officials disqualified the opponent and Walt advanced after only one game of the match had been played.

“This was brilliant, Melody!” I said when I called her. “And Bree has all the other merchants contributing, too. It’s really cool.”

“That’s my baby,” she said. “I wish I was there.”

“From what I hear, you might as well be. Have you been attending class at all this week?”

“Yeah, though I’ve been late to a few,” Melody laughed. “Fortunately, Carolyn has been cutting me a lot of slack and I’ve actually been invited to show our line at the gala this spring. Isn’t that cool?”

“You’re amazing! And the Raquethon line, Ice Queen Knights, is selling like crazy from what I hear,” I said. “You know what? We need warm-ups and we should look at outfitting all of SCU’s teams with our sportswear. I’ll bet coach Jacobson will listen to a presentation.”