Hello, Tennis! (And Other Love Stories)

Story Excerpt from Chapter 14

"Susan, you are doing quite well. You should be proud of yourself. Not many girls your age would charge the net like you’re doing, and I’m sure it will scare your opponents. But once you get there, you must be able to put the point away, or why do it." He raised his eyebrows and smirked, leaving the word "Right?" unsaid.

Susan stared at him. Did he just insult me?"

Winston decided to say it out loud when she didn’t answer. "Right?"

"Right, what?" Susan’s voice sounded a bit miffed.

Winston picked up on it and decided that Susan’s ego was more fragile than he had thought. "I’d like to help you, if you’ll let me, Susan, but if you are going to take my help as insults, then I won’t. I value the friendship of you three girls too much for you to think I’d insult such an outstanding athlete as yourself."

Susan continue staring at Winston, because she was at a loss for words for the first time in her life. Her embarrassment tied up her tongue.

Winston was patient. He stared back and waited for an answer, or at least some response, because he could tell he had done the right thing and humbled her.

She finally knew what she must say. "I’m so sorry, Winston. I let my ego get in the way of what you were saying. You must think I’m a jerk."

"Never. I’ve seen you operate and you’re good. We all need to hang onto our egos or others will put chinks in our self-confidence. Just mix it with a bit of humility and you will be able to look at things more realistically. Now, can we look at your net volleys?" Winston finished with a grin.

"I can see why Jennie has such a crush on you," Susan said as she looked into Winston’s dark chestnut eyes and saw wisdom.

Suddenly it was Winston’s turn to become speechless. He looked down, shuffled his feet a little, took hold of the net tape, then looked into Susan’s face that held a confident smile. "Where did you get . . . did she say . . . why would she . . . She does?" Winston’s face had turned a different shade of brown. More reddish brown.

"She’ll kill me if she knew I’d said anything to you about how she feels. Please forget what I said," Susan responded quickly realizing what she had done by revealing such a confidence. But on the other hand, couldn’t Winston see it for himself?

"So tell me about my volley. What’s my problem?" She changed the subject abruptly to avoid any feelings of guilt about her big mouth again.

Winston gathered his wits about him once more, tucking the news about Jennie carefully into a comforting part of his brain. His heart was pounding too fast to put her safely there at the moment. Clearing his throat, he answered, "No problem. Just the lack of ball focusing. A way to overcome that, is to go after the ball."

"Go after the ball?" Susan quickly put herself into a learning mode as she had done with Eddie on her serve.