Opposites Attract

leader of the small group of people that approached her had to speak her name twice to get her attention.
    She’d been recognized, she discovered. Though Asher had known it was inevitable, it still gave her a twist of pleasure to sign the papers and programs thrust at her. She hadn’t been forgotten.
    The questions were easy to parry, even when they skirted close to her relationship with Ty. A smile and double-talk worked well with fans. Asher wasn’t naïve enough to think it would work with reporters. That, she hoped, was for another day.
    As she signed, and edged her way back, Asher spotted a few colleagues—an old foe, a former doubles partner, a smattering of faces from the past. Her eyes met Chuck Prince’s. Ty’s closest friend was an affable player with a wrist of steel and beautiful footwork. Though the silent exchange was brief, even friendly, Asher saw the question in his eyes before she gave her attention to the next fan.
    The word’s out, she thought almost grimly as she smiled at a teenage tennis buff. Asher Wolfe’s picking up her racket again. And they’d wonder, and eventually ask, if she was picking up Ty Starbuck too.
    “Asher!” Chuck moved to her with the same bouncy stride he used to cross a court. In his typical outgoing style he seized her by the shoulders and kissed her full on the mouth. “Hey, you look terrific!”
    With a laugh Asher drew back the breath his greeting had stolen from her. “So do you.” It was inevitably true. Chuck was average in almost every way—height, build, coloring. But his inner spark added appeal and a puckish sort of sexuality. He’d never hesitated to exploit it—good-naturedly.
    “No one knew you were coming,” Chuck complained, easing her gently through the thinning crowd. “I didn’t know you were here until . . .” His voice trailed off so that Asher knew he referred to the ten seconds of potent eye contact with Ty. “Until after the match,” he finished. He gave her shoulder a quick squeeze. “Why didn’t you give someone a call?”
    “I wasn’t entirely sure I’d make it.” Asher allowed herself to be negotiated to a clear spot in a rear hallway. “Then I thought I’d just melt into the crowd. It didn’t seem fair to disrupt the match with any the-prodigal-returns business.”
    “It was a hell of a match.” The flash of teeth gleamed with enthusiasm. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Ty play better than he did in the last set. Three aces.”
    “He always had a deadly serve,” Asher murmured.
    “Have you seen him?”
    From anyone else the blunt question would have earned a cold stare. Chuck earned a quick grimace. “No. I will, of course, but I didn’t want to distract him before the match.” Asher linked her fingers—an old nervous habit. “I didn’t realize he knew I was here.”
    Distract Starbuck, she thought with an inner laugh. No one and nothing distracted him once he picked up his game racket.
    “He went crazy when you left.”
    Chuck’s quiet statement brought her back. Deliberately she unlaced her fingers. “I’m sure he recovered quickly.” Because the retort was sharper than she had intended, Asher shook her head as if to take back the words. “How have you been? I saw an ad with you touting the virtues of a new line of tennis shoes.”
    “How’d I look?”
    “Sincere,” she told him with a quick grin. “I nearly went out and bought a pair.”
    He sighed. “I was shooting for macho.”
    As the tension seeped out of her, Asher laughed. “With that face?” She cupped his chin with her hand and moved it from side to side. “It’s a face a mother could trust—foolishly,” she added.
    “Shh!” He glanced around in mock alarm. “Not so loud—my reputation.”
    “Your reputation suffered a few dents in Sydney,” she recalled. “What was that—three seasons ago? The stripper.”
    “Exotic dancer,” Chuck corrected righteously. “It was merely an exchange of cultures.”
    “You did look kind of cute wearing those feathers.” With another laugh she kissed his cheek. “Fuchsia becomes you.”
    “We all missed you, Asher.” He patted her slim, strong shoulder.
    The humor fled from her eyes. “Oh, Chuck, I missed you. Everyone, all of it. I don’t think I realized just how much until I walked in here today.” Asher looked into space, lost in her own thoughts, her own memories. “Three years,” she said softly.
    “Now you’re back.”
    Her eyes drifted to his. “Now