His touch was gentle, the lightest brush of skin on skin. His warm brown eyes met hers and his smile was kind. Mel found herself smiling back at him.
“Thank you,” she said. Her voice came out raspy and breathless and she had to clear her throat.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Ray stomped across the court. “Hands off, buddy.”
Anton dropped his hand and glanced at Ray, who looked like he wanted to snap Anton like a pretzel. Yeah, good luck with that. Anton was lithe but he was all muscle and Mel had a feeling he could take Ray out and not even break a sweat.
The pah of a tennis ball being hit brought their attention back to Mallory. She had assumed her serve position and launched a tennis ball at them. Ray grabbed Mel and yanked her out of the way, while Anton reached up and snatched the ball out of the air.
He started to speak in rapid-fire Italian. He did not sound pleased. Ray and Mel began to back up as Mallory tossed her long blond curls and pouted as if pleased to have his full attention again even if he was yelling at her.
“Oh, this is good,” Ray said. He fumbled with his phone, trying to turn on the camera and be subtle about it.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to ask her any questions about the video,” Mel protested in a harsh whisper.
“Who cares?” Ray hissed. “I’ve got five hundred riding on a passionate clinch. If this goes my way, bah dah boom.”
“Really?” Mel asked. Then she glanced at Anton and Mallory. Anton took Mallory’s racket and tossed it aside, then he pulled her up close and tight.
Mallory stuck out her chin in a taunting manner and Anton put his hand in her hair and held her head still as he lowered his lips to—
“Hey! How’s the lesson going?” Marty yelled through the chain-link fence that surrounded the court. “Did you know they have a steam room here? And the golf course is sweet. I am seriously considering membership.”
Mallory and Anton broke apart.
“Damn it!” Ray said. He swiveled his head in Marty’s direction. “Old man, you are killing me.”
Fourteen
“Me?” Marty puffed out his chicken chest. “What did I do? And who are you calling old?”
Courtney was standing beside him, smiling at him, which only made Marty puff out his chest even more. Mel glanced at the three of them. She grabbed Ray’s hand and looked at his phone. They were out of time. She needed to get her information and she needed it now.
She glanced down at the ball by her feet. The odds of making the shot she needed to were slim but better than nothing.
She scooped up the ball and jogged to the center of the court.
“Hey!” she cried. “Let’s try that again.”
She tossed the ball up into the air and smacked it with the racket. She had her eyes shut, so it was definitely flying on a wing and a prayer. She heard the pah of the hit and then the ball hit something hard and there was a cry of pain and then a stream of furious Italian in a very high-pitched voice.
She opened her eyes to see Anton cradling his privates. Well, all right, she was two for two.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” she cried.
She glanced at Ray and Marty, who were both covering their lower regions and cringing as if in sympathy pain. Courtney’s eyes were huge and she spun on her high heels and hurried from the court yelling, “I’ll go get some ice. Don’t move, Anton.”
Mel walked over to Ray and Marty and said, “Stay here.”
Then she dashed around the net and joined Mallory, who was helping Anton to go and sit down.
“I am so sorry,” she said. “Really so very sorry. I never meant to hit your man.” She directed her words to Mallory, who looked startled but didn’t deny the relationship. Interesting.
They helped Anton lie down on one of the benches. His whimpering had lessened somewhat but Mel knew if she was going to get any information out of Mallory now was her time.
“I hope I didn’t do any permanent damage,” she said. “Are you two planning a family?”
“I . . . What?” Mallory looked at her as if she was cracked.
Mel made her most innocent face in return and said, “Oh, I just assumed because of how you are together that you’re married. He’s clearly mad about you.”
Anton moaned and Mel felt a twinge of guilt. In her defense she’d had her eyes shut and the location of the hit really hadn’t been intentional, she’d just hoped to hit him somewhere.
“We are . . . in love,” Mallory said. She smoothed Anton’s hair back from his forehead in a loving gesture that Mel thought was sincere. “But there are issues with us being together.”
She looked up at Mel and her face crumpled. “In fact, it is highly likely that I will soon go to jail for a crime I didn’t commit.”
“What?” Mel put her hand over her heart in what was only half-feigned surprise. She hadn’t realized Uncle Stan was this close to making an arrest, and she hadn’t known Mallory was their first pick since they’d really seemed fixated on Cassie. To get Mallory to say more, she appealed to her vanity. “But you’re a beautiful woman. What crime could you have committed?”
“I know,” Mallory said. Clearly she was bewildered at how anyone could believe that a woman who looked like she did could be accused of a crime.
Yeah, as if beautiful women and men weren’t capable of dirty deeds. Mel kept her face earnest but it was a struggle.
“My husband’s ex-wife was murdered and the police seem to think I’m responsible,” she said.
“His ex-wife?” Mel gestured to Anton. “How awful.”
“She was awful,” Mallory said. “And no, not Anton’s wife. His wife is, well, she is another
