The dunes that separated Parker's house from the one next door gave them sufficient cover so that Gail didn't see them walking back to the deck together. After a trip to the liquor store for wine and the florist for Emily's favorite roses, Gail walked out to the beach to look for the pilot. When she didn't find her on the blanket, Gail started walking down the beach away from Parker's house figuring that Emily had gone for a walk. It was the only alternative since she had taken the car into town. After an hour Gail turned around and headed back to the house. A few hundred yards from the cut up to the back of their rental she saw a piece of paper flying along the top of the sand so she scooped it up and stuffed it into her pocket to throw away when she got back to the house.



"Emily, are you here?" Gail slid the glass door shut behind her and took her sand filled shoes off on the mat. When she didn't get an answer she walked through the house to their bedroom. The note was sitting on the pillow on her side of the bed, and the writing on the envelope just said Gail. She smiled thinking that it was sweet of Emily to write her. In the first few months of their relationship Gail would find love letters in her briefcase every so often making the days on the trading floor that much more bearable for her. The smile fell the second she got to the ending and instead of reading it again she just crumpled it in her hand and let it drop to the floor. Just to confirm Gail opened the closet and found it empty.



"We'll just see if this is over, Emily. You have to talk to me cause this note isn't going to cut it." Gail pulled down the scotch bottle and poured a full glass. She drank down the entire contents of the glass with stopping, filling it again to fuel her anger. The bottle of wine and roses sat on the counter taunting her to Emily's betrayal. Gail picked up the bottle and threw it against the wall. The thorns digging into her finger didn't break through the scotch fog as she snapped the bouquet in half and dumped them into the trash.



************************************************************************



"Ready?" Parker walked into the front room of her house. It was filled with trophies and pictures from her career on the court, and Emily had been in it ever since she had showered and gotten dressed. When Parker walked in, Emily was running a small delicate finger over the Wimbledon trophy that had just come home with her. In a few weeks the framed photograph of her holding it up before the crowd on center court would hang along side it just like all the other ones in the room.



Emily moved to another picture of Parker with two other women that looked so much like her, but like Parker had said they were both taller. Aside from the height, they both had brown hair, blue eyes and the same brilliant smile. "Are these your sisters?"



"Yes, that's us at the French Open last year. They had some down time so they came to see me play. I owe them so much, and it makes me happy to look into the stands and see them cheering me on. You probably think that's incredibly immature but they are the only family I have." Parker put her hands into the pockets of the linen slacks she had put on and looked at the floor over her admission. Gray and Kimmie were the only two people besides Gary and Nick that didn't want anything from her. The money, the fame nor the publicity of making the papers on her arm weren't important to them.



Emily stepped forward and put her hand on Parker's arm. Seeing this vulnerable side to Parker let her know that she had misjudged the person on the plane. This was the real Parker. "No, that doesn't make you immature, Parker, that makes you incredibly sweet." When the blue eyes focused on her, Emily could understand why so many women had fallen victim to them before.



"Thank you for thinking so," said Parker.



"Are your parents deceased?" Emily wondered since there were no pictures of an older couple in any of the frames in the room. The arm under her hand turned to stone at the question giving her the impression that they had died in some horrible accident making her regret asking it.



"No they're very much alive and living in Atlanta. They unfortunately have major difference with my two sisters and I, and we don't speak very often. I don't really like to talk about it." Parker took a deep breath and tried to let out the instant anger that had welled up at Emily's innocent question.



Her parents' attitudes combined with the letters she had been getting were starting to enter Parker's mind more often. It was disgusting to her that the people that were supposed to love her the most basically agreed with the content of the letters she had been receiving.



"I'm sorry." Emily squeezed Parker's arm trying to offer comfort and was glad when the muscles relaxed under her touch.



"Don't be, it's not your fault and it isn't mine. My parents have condemned us all to hell for the way we live our lives. One gay child would have been bad enough, but three was over the top as far as they were concerned. The cherry was that one or all three of us are constantly in the sports page or on television rubbing their noses in it." Parker made quotation marks with her fingers as she spoke. "They've never attended a match or been there for any of us since I was sixteen. The gulf between us is so big now that it won't ever be crossed, and at this point I don't think any one of us wants to."



"Well those two ladies did a wonderful job with you then," said Emily pointing to the picture she had admired before. With that the smile returned to Parker's face and Emily noticed that her hand was still on the tall woman's arm. "You mentioned something about eating?"



Parker looked down at Emily and laughed. The night before Emily had eaten twice what she had and had been eyeing the piece of fish Parker had left on her plate. Only after the second piece of cheesecake Parker had brought out for dessert did she looked satisfied. "I did indeed, but you are going to have to wait until I make one stop." There was a pout on Emily's face for that and Parker almost laughed again. The woman before her was a little older than she was, but looking at her in the sundress she had put on, they looked the same age.



"Can't it wait?"



"No my book dealer found a first edition "Confederacy of Dunces" and I want to go and pick it up. If you're patient with me, I promise to make it worth your while." Parker held her hand out in invitation and gave Emily a pout of her own.



"You are an enigma, Parker King. I would have thought that jocks only read sports magazines and watched ESPN on television." Emily took the hand that was being offered to her hoping her palms weren't sweating. She was a little nervous being here with Parker having Gail so close to them. Emily was sure Gail would have found the note by now and started her search for her. Her one wish was that her soon to be ex-lover would get help and get interested in someone else before they ran across each other again. For Emily it was over, she wasn't willing to be Gail's support system and excuse maker anymore.



"I only read sports magazines when I'm on the cover, and ESPN when they are showing highlights of me." Parker said it as serious as she could pull off wanting to make Emily smile.



"Ah, the Parker King I know and love." The last part came out before she could sensor it and the smile on Parker's face matched the blush on Emily's.



Parker squeezed her hand letting the comment slide without further embarrassing her. "The truth is I read more books than sports magazines and I only watch television on occasion. That doesn't fit the tabloid image of me, but then again I never have been one to conform to what other people want to define me as."



Emily followed Parker to the back of the house as the tennis player gently pulled her toward the door of the garage. "And what about what all those tabloids say about your nights of wine, women and song?"



"Well there's no enigma there, Emily. I like women, I like to have a good time and I don't apologize for that. The day will soon come when people will say 'Parker King who', when my name is mentioned and that doesn't bother me as much as it has others who have come before me. I will be replaced by some other bad boy or girl who will make better press, and when that day comes the girls who are calling me now for a night on the town will move on." Parker reached for her keys and opened the door to the garage. Emily noticed there was a black Mercedes parked next to the SUV she had seen Parker in before. With a quick press of a button the lights on the car flashed once and the doors unlocked.



"And when they do, what will you do?"



"When they do, I will live my life pretty much the way I do now. I play tennis, I read books and I teach my old dog some new tricks. I know that the way we met hasn't made the best impression with you, but I'm not all that bad. At least I don't think so. Would it surprise you to know that no woman that you have ever read about in connection to me has ever stepped foot in my house? Hell they don't even know where my house is. You do realize I'm only twenty-two, hardly enough time to have earned the reputation that I've been saddled with." Parker opened the car door for Emily and helped her into the passenger seat. Emily smiled as she watched Parker cross in front of the car thinking about what she had just said.