Page 79 of Here We Go Again

I laugh to myself as she turns and covers the rest of the distance to the house.

I will think about what I’ve done. And cross my fingers it won’t be long before I get to try again.

20

BECCA

I probably had a little too much confidence going in. But Theo is a professional athlete. While I might not be the most coordinated person in the world, I at least have youth on my side. I expected us to at least be decent.

So when our mothers trounce us in our first game of pickleball, I’m more than a little baffled.

“Okay, we need a game plan,” Theo says as our mothers take a water break. We’re at an enormous indoor pickleball center, and we reserved the court for the entire afternoon. It only took them twenty minutes to wipe the floor with us, so I don’t disagree. We have a lot of playing time left, and I’d rather they not stomp us over and over again. But it’s only pickleball. I had plenty of fun, even if we did lose. Theo, on the other hand, looks like it’s physically painful for him to not be winning. I suppose he has to be that way to do what he does, but in this context, it just makes me giggle.

I grin. “You’re very serious about this.”

“Aren’t you?” he says. “They completely smoked us.”

“It’s literally the first time either one of us has ever played. They do this twice a week.”

He huffs. “But I’m…”

His words trail off, and I start to laugh. “A big, strong man who should be able to beat the old ladies?”

He finally smiles. “That’s not what I said.”

“But you were thinking it.”

“I wasn’t. I just … usually pick up on stuff pretty quickly.” He’s right about that part. In high school, he could do anything. Football, basketball, baseball. He was good enough that he could have played on the high school team for any sport he wanted.

I breathe out a dramatic sigh. “The burden of finally feeling average.”

“Don’t pretend like you aren’t competitive. Do you really want to lose five more games to our mothers?”

“I do not,” I agree. “But they’re already setting up for the next game. Unless we switch up the teams so we’re each playing with one of them, I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”

“Oh, we’re not switching teams,” he says. “That’s even worse than losing.”

I laugh. “Okay. What do you suggest?”

He pulls out his phone. “We’re going to take a ten-minute break and do a YouTube crash course on how to get better fast.”

“Oh my gosh. You’re ridiculous,” I say.

“Hey, what are we doing?” Kim calls from the other side of the court. “Are you ready to play or not?”

“We need a longer break,” Theo says. “We’re strategizing.”

Kim laughs. “Of course you are.” She looks over at my mom. “Let’s go get a snack.”

It takes twenty minutes instead of ten for us to watch three different videos about backswings and holding the kitchen line and keeping our power controlled. I only understand half of what we watched, but Theo is fully invested, nodding along, likely taking very detailed mental notes.

“All right. I think I’m ready,” he finally says.

“Are you like this when you play golf too?”

He grins. “It’s why I mostly only play with my teammates. They’re as relentless as I am.” He retrieves our paddles from the bench beside him. “Ready to do this?”

“I think we’re still going to lose, Theo,” I tease, and he shakes his paddle at me.