Anyone who had spent more than a casual evening with Edward and Naomi Kennedy knew how to play pétanque—it was practically their religion. The first long weekend she’d spent at their Hilton Head compound was essentially a pétanque boot camp. As Paul’s then-girlfriend, Alex worked diligently to become great at the game, flourishing under the approval that his father reserved only for excellent players. By the time they broke up, she was finding places in New York to play on her own, and mini family tournaments were a staple of her many visits to South Carolina in the subsequent years.

Danial, for his part, was reasonably good at the game. As in all things, his throws were measured, erring to the near side of the cochonnet but always at a fairly short distance. Alex was the bolder player, going for the glory the way he used to in their chess matches, and it paid off consistently enough to keep her ahead. It was comforting to her, being decidedly better at something than he was.

“Listen,” he said, standing off to the side as she prepared her next throw. She paused, looking over at him. As much as she hated to admit it, he looked dashing in his white linen pants and short-sleeved knit top. The gameplay had even loosened his slicked-back hair, making him appear unusually approachable. “In the interest of being friends, I want to apologize.”

Her stomach dropped, mind racing with all of the brutally unpleasant things he might want to apologize for. She brought her hand to her side, tightening her fingers around the metal sphere.

“For… for what?” she eked out, looking onto the docks at a group walking by, joking with each other in French.

“For the ride down. I wasn’t in a great headspace.”

She exhaled. “It’s fine. I’m not upset.” She returned to her position, lightly tossing the boule to a landing spot deliciously close to his nearest placement.

An instinctive yes of celebration escaped her as she moved aside to allow him his turn. She deliberately did not return his apology, even though she had been in a rather unfortunate headspace herself.

“Well, I just wanted to acknowledge that I might have been a little prickly,” he continued, leaning down to size up his next shot, “and that really wasn’t my goal coming into this trip. I was just a little caught off guard by all that work talk.”