“I texted her to meet us here when we switched sides on that last changeover,” Jude said, whispering into her ear and placing a hand lightly on the small of her back. “I knew she’d be at the club. Can’t have her feeling left out now, can we?”

“Nope,” Charlie said back, forcing herself to smile. “Good idea.”

“You cut yourself?”

She looked at him, confused. “What?”

He touched the Band-Aid on her back, just above the waistband of her skirt.

She flinched. “Oh, no, that’s a mosquito bite. It’s kind of inflamed so . . .” She trailed off.

“Ah,” he said, in a way that she knew meant he didn’t believe her.

Looking away, she said, “We better not keep Cybill waiting.”

Cybill glanced up from her iPhone as they approached, wrinkled her nose in distaste. “Wow, Charlie, you take your tennis seriously. You won, I hope.”

“She did,” Jude said, bending over to kiss Cybill’s cool blond cheek, taking the chair across from her. “Shows no mercy, this one.”

“Spares no effort either, from the looks of her. I’d have thought you went swimming with your clothes on, Charlie, not played a few measly sets of tennis.”

“Nice table,” said Jude.

“I took it for the stellar view. But the service so far has been less than stellar.”

“Maybe that’s because your whole party wasn’t here yet,” he suggested.

“Or maybe it’s because the service here is for shit.”

Stan chose that moment to saunter up to the table in his club uniform. “Hey, Charlie,” he said, grinning. “How’s Tess doing?”

Cybill shot her a sidelong look, like, you know this person?

“I couldn’t tell you. We haven’t been spending much time together these days,” Charlie said, trying to sound relaxed but her words coming out tight-voiced.

“Do you have menus for us or something?” Cybill said. “I’ve been sitting here for, like, ever.”

“Actually, miss, I’m not your waiter, but I can go get—”

“You are a waiter, though, right?”

The grin vanished from Stan’s face. He got a so-that’s-how-it’s-going-to-be look in his eye. There was a pause; then he said, “I am, yeah.” He passed out the menus under his arm. When Charlie took hers, she didn’t have the nerve to look up at him. “We’ve got a couple of specials today. Would you like to hear about them?”

Cybill snorted. “Not really. If they were so special, they’d be on the menu every day.”

“Waters would be great,” Jude said. “Charlie and I just spent the last hour giving each other quite a workout. Didn’t we, Charlie?”

Why was he saying this? Charlie wondered. To taunt Stan?

Stan returned Jude’s eye contact. Then, his voice light, said, “It’s important to replenish those bodily fluids.”