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She makes a face, and I laugh.

“It’s okay. There’s only one set left. If you want, we can make sure it ends faster.”

“How?”

“None of the balls go over?”

I wink at her, and she laughs loudly.

“But I know you like to win. You’re not going to …”

“I’d do anything to get this over with as fast as possible for you.”

“If you’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“You know, sometimes, I think you’re a really good guy, Brett, and today is one of those days.”

“Well, thank you,” I say.

“You’re welcome. Okay, I’m serving,” she calls out.

“Mom, give it a rest,” I say before my mother can open her mouth.

She sighs. “You may go.”

Rosie hits the ball, and it goes into the net. My mother lets out a long, exasperated sigh.

“I may as well be sleeping for as much exercise as I’m getting today,” she says, and I shake my head.

Rosie giggles. “She’s not lying though. She’s not having to do much work.”

I stare at her. “You know, if we didn’t have that fortress up tonight, I’d be very tempted to devour you and kiss you all over.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a good thing we’ll have the fortress up tonight.”

I run over and give her a kiss on the cheek.

“What are you doing? I’m meant to be serving.”

“Couldn’t resist,” I say. “Plus, I wanted to show my parents that no matter how badly you play tennis, I’m still into you.”

“That’s why you kissed me?” She raises an eyebrow and sticks her tongue out at me.

“Of course. Why else would I have kissed you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because last night, you found it very hard to keep your hands off me.”

“My hands were nowhere near you, darling.”

“Are you two going to keep talking, or are you going to play?” my mom calls out.

I sigh. “Thank you for being here, Rosie, and for putting up with this. I really owe you.”

“It’s okay,” she says. “I’m doing this for a good cause, so you can open your nonprofit.” She smiles warmly at me. “I can put up with verbal abuse from your mom for a weekend for that.”

“Thank you,” I say, blowing her a kiss.