by Jen Talty
“Him has a name.” Jack tipped his new hat.
“You don’t want to know the name we have for you,” she said. “Dad, I can’t believe you would even consider taking this”—if she used the word ‘drunk or drug addict’ she’d be a hypocrite—“thing back after everything he did to us.”
“Thing?” Jack arched a brow.
“Want me to say what I’m really thinking?” She glared at him. Finally, that smug smile of his disappeared, and his eyes shifted. She’d gotten him right where it counted. Good, he deserved it.
“You should thank him for putting that ex-husband of yours in his place.”
Her mouth opened, and a horrible gasp came from the pit of her stomach. “He wasn’t my ex at the time,” she said under her breath, rubbing her hands against her golf pants. “And he’s still the father of your granddaughter.”
“A fact we’d both like to forget,” her father mumbled. “But Tom doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“I just want a chance,” Jack said. “I know how badly I’ve fucked up. I haven’t two pennies to rub together, and I don’t even know if I have what it takes to even make the cut.”
She blinked. Not only did his voice send a warm shiver down her spine, but he looked damned good with his freshly shaved face, slender dark-blue golf slacks and white-and-blue shirt tucked neatly into his pants. “You have a lot of nerve to come waltzing in here after all these years. Do you have any idea what you did to my father?”
“I know what I did,” he said. “I also know saying I’m sorry isn’t enough, but it’s a start. I plan on sticking around so I can show both of you just how sorry I really am.”
“I’ve heard enough, and Courtney and I have work to do.” Her father held Jack’s arm. “Tomorrow morning. Six forty-five. Game on.” Her father gave her a pointed look.
“I have to take Bri to daycare.” She gritted her teeth.
“I’ll take her,” her father said.
“What about the shop?” she questioned. “The shop opens before daycare does.”
“I’ll get Sandy to handle the shop while I take my granddaughter to daycare. Then I’ll come and check up on you two.” Her father took a step back and looked at them.
“I guess it’s settled then.” Jack tipped his hat toward Courtney.
“Be prepared to lose. I’m better than I was when I was a teenager,” Courtney said.
“You’re like a fine wine, getting better with age,” Jack said, stretching out his hand.
Her father took it and shook.
She, however, turned her back. Once she heard the door close, she slumped down in one of the chairs, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. What the hell was Jack doing back in Denton? Back in her life? “How could you? You said you never wanted to see him again.”
“I said the same thing to you when you told me you were pregnant, barely eighteen, and with Rivers’ kid, but I didn’t mean it.” His comforting hand touched her shoulder. “I was angry and hurt by your actions as I was by his.”
“You kicked me out,” she muttered.
“You got married. You moved in with your husband.” He waved to the door. “And let’s not forget you only slept with Tom to piss me off, but mostly because you were so hurt by Jack getting married.”
“That’s not entirely true.” She swallowed the bile smacking her throat. “Tom had been hitting on me for a year.”
“You were seventeen, and he was in his twenties. He could have gotten arrested.” Her father waggled a finger under her nose. “That’s why Jack stayed away.”
“No. He just wasn’t interested. Tom, on the other hand, I thought he loved me.”
“Don’t start that again. We both know what a bastard your ex-husband is. He belongs in jail.” He pulled a chair up next to her. “Have you heard from him lately?”
“He called the other day, asking about birthday stuff, but he was at his mom’s so I bet it was all for show.” Tom Rivers didn’t love his own child. When Courtney finally got smart and left Tom, she struck a deal with him. She got full custody of Bri as long as she told the press the break-up was her doing, not his. He promised to keep her accident out of the press and she promised not to tell the world what an asshole he was. It wasn’t a win-win, but it protected her daughter and that’s all she cared about. “I didn’t remind he’s six months late on his child support and that it’s been longer than that since he’s seen his kid.” She looked at her father as he wiped the tears from her eyes. “I called the lawyer. It’s close to where we might have a case on abandonment.”
“I’m with you all the way, honey. I just wish you would have fought him sooner.”
She scowled. “I’m not totally innocent in all this and I’m still not sure I want to do it. He could really hurt me.”
“Actually, you are innocent, but I’m not going to continue to have this same argument with you. I told you back then I’d do whatever you wanted as long as Tom stays the hell away from you and my granddaughter.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “In the meantime, I need you to lose tomorrow.”
“Like hell I will.” She stood, knocking a book off the desk. No way in hell would she throw a match, especially when the opponent was Jack, but more so because she didn’t want him hanging around for the next few months while he trained with her father.
“I want to work with him again, and he does deserve a second chance.”
“Then you should have just agreed to take him on.” She tried to leave the office.
“Courtney, you always had a way with him, and I need to know what I’ve got to work with. The only way I know how to do that is to have him play a little competitive round with you. Please, do this for your old man.”
“Damn you, Dad. I’d like nothing better than to kick his butt-ugly ass, and he’ll know if I have to throw the match.”
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“You owe me.” She spun on her heels and left the office wondering why she agreed to play Jack Hollister. He was nothing but trouble. He’d come back into their lives like a whirlwind, and in the end, he’d leave a few broken hearts behind.
2
Courtney tossed her golf shoes in her locker, trying to rid the pictures of Jack from her mind, both past and present. But she couldn’t shake the sense of loneliness the soft lines around his pale-green pools conveyed to the world. He’d aged a bit, and his eyes looked as if they’d seen the dark side of the universe. But his muscular frame appeared to be no worse for wear.
He had a distinctively male aroma, and he used the same damn aftershave he’d used years ago. A sexy scent that smelled like a cool breeze coming off the ocean just as the sun set over the horizon. A scent she could’ve lived without ever smelling again.
“How late are you going to be?” her father called as she headed out the door to pick Bri up from daycare. There had been a time she feared Tom would show up and snatch Bri right from under her nose, just to spite but he’d proven to only care about himself time and time again.
Now that Jack was back, if Tom thought Bri could be a bargaining chip of some kind, that bastard would use his own daughter to seek revenge. Courtney would have to find a way to make sure that didn’t happen.
“I’m just having dinner with Nicole. I won’t be late. Don’t let Bri eat too much junk at the Fun Zone.”
“I won’t. I promise,” her father said, waving as he slipped into his vehicle.
She smiled, unlocking her car door. Her father, considering everything she’d put him through, could’ve turned his back on her and Bri when she came crawling home, but he didn’t. It warmed her heart to know that Bri was loved, regardless of who her father was.
She took a look at her watch. Just a little after five. If she was lucky, she’d make it home in time to tuck in her sweet baby girl.
She started the car and headed down the road, thinking about the way her life had turned out. Only twenty-four and she had made a mess of it, big-time.
&nb
sp; Her father was right about one thing; she did use Tom. She wanted to get back at Jack for marrying Ms. High and Mighty Wendy Van Aken.
Courtney pulled into her favorite local watering hole and looked around for her best friend’s brand-spanking-new Dodge Ram pickup. Of course, it was Texas, and there were like a dozen. Not to mention that Nicole was notorious for being late, especially now that she was a new mom. Courtney used to be annoyed by her friend’s tardiness, but now she gave her a pass.
Rocki’s always smelled like a sizzling hot steak, and it sent Courtney’s stomach begging for food and a beer.
Shit.
Normally, she’d never drink the night before a match, but fuck it. Just one beer to take the edge off.
She followed the hostess into the back of the restaurant, ordered a beer, and sat so she could see the entrance.
With every swish of the door, she stiffened her spine, only to be disappointed. At this rate, her beer would be warm, or gone by the time Nicole showed her pretty face.
No sooner did Courtney dare to order a second beer than Nicole blew into the bar like a spinning twister. “So sorry I’m late. Besides Frankie being a moron when it comes to taking care of a baby, little Frankie doesn’t like bottles, so I had to give him the boob before I left.”
Courtney swallowed the guttural gasp that blasted the back of her throat. She’d had Bri shortly after her nineteenth birthday, and the beatings had already begun. She’d been careful not to drink or use drugs while she’d been pregnant, but she couldn’t face her father, or Jack for that matter, after Bri had been born and she turned to the same white powder that ended Jack’s career and should have ended Tom’s.
God, she wished she could go back to Bri’s first year so Courtney could have been a better mother. Hell, she should have left the first time Tom hit her, but her pride got in the way.
“No worries. But I can’t stay too long, and do not let me order a third, or I will be ordering a Lyft to get home.”
“Oh, I wish I could have one, but not until we know little Frankie will take a bottle, and at this rate, it might be about the same time he goes off to college.”
Courtney chuckled. Nicole always had a flare for the dramatic, but her laugh was cut short the second Jack strolled into the restaurant with his hands stuffed into his pants pockets. Damn slacks fit a perfectly snug around his hips, showing off his tight ass and firm legs.
Nicole glanced over her shoulder. “Is that who I think it is?”
“No,” Courtney said, taking a huge swig of her beer. “It’s his evil twin.”
“Shit. When the hell did he get back into town?”
“He showed up at the club this morning.” Courtney tried to tear her gaze away, but it was like staring at a ten-car pileup on the freeway.
He turned his head and paused midstep.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
She gave him her best sarcastic smile, hoping he got the hint that she did not want to spend any more time with him.
He followed the hostess to a table on the other side of the room, thank God.
“Have you talked to him?”
“Unfortunately, my father set up a match for me against the great Jack Hollister tomorrow,” Courtney said, leaning forward. “But don’t you dare say a word to anyone. I don’t want people showing up at the club, especially the media. I couldn’t handle being in the spotlight again, especially since things have finally died down from the divorce and my custody battle.” She’d spent three hellish years married to Tom, but that wasn’t half as bad as the horrors he put her through when she finally wised up and left.
Tom Rivers was the golden child of the PGA. No one dared speak badly of him. Well, not to his face, or in public because Tom had connections, and he’d find your weak spot, then exploit it until he could ruin you.
“My lips are sealed, but what about Wendy and her father? Don’t they still live around here?”
“Don’t remind me.” Courtney swallowed the vomit that trickled up her esophagus. “Wendy was in the club the other day, and she felt the need to remind me that my father doesn’t have a winner in his back pocket. Hell, he hasn’t coached anyone since Jack left.”
“Wendy and her dad destroyed that,” Nicole said.
From the moment Jack moved into Courtney’s family home when his father had passed away, Wendy had made it known that she planned on having Jack for her own. She constantly gave Courtney a hard time and treated her like shit. Wendy tossed her beauty and money around and flaunted her bedroom eyes everywhere, and she enjoyed letting Courtney know the moment she got Jack in bed. As a matter of fact, she walked out of the bedroom, tucking her stockings into her purse, and smiled at Courtney as if she’d just won the lottery.
“Yeah, but Jack let them.” Courtney and her father could blame Wendy and her dad until they were blue in the face, but Jack was the one that fired Rudy in the first place, and that hurt.
“He was young and green.”
“He was arrogant and let money and fame taint why he played the game in the first place.” When Courtney had first realized she’d fallen head over heels in love with Jack, she had been just short of eighteen and about to graduate from high school. She had been spending a lot of time with Jack, helping him get ready to try to make a sweep of the majors. He’d been favored to be on the top of the money list, and her father worked with him almost every day.
Courtney had trained with Jack as much as possible. At first, her father didn’t like them being together so much. He thought they had too much fun on the course instead of concentrating on the fundamentals. But when Jack got his first big win and she got her full ride to college on a golf scholarship, her father let it go. She and Jack were good for each other. Both highly competitive, and while he was a much better golfer, that only pushed her and by the time she came to the end of her high school career, she a minus one.
She had her own plans to go pro.
But that all went up in a bundle of smoke the day Bri was born. Not that she ever regretted having her baby girl, but she did regret the decisions she made that led up to the birth of her daughter.
And she never did play college golf, nor a single professional round. She’d come to terms with both.
But sitting in the restaurant, staring at Jack’s back, she knew she’d never really dealt with her feelings for Jack, and she probably never would.
“He made a mistake. We all do.”
“I realize that,” Courtney said. “I mean, Wendy and her father offered him the world. But he had to leave my father’s supervision, and he couldn’t train with me anymore; otherwise, James Van Aken would take his money and his daughter elsewhere.” Courtney thought for sure Jack had started to notice her that year. Their age difference seemed to become immaterial, and once she turned eighteen, it wouldn’t matter anymore. They had a deep connection, or at least she thought so. Then she had the brilliant idea to tell him how she felt. That didn’t go too well. A few weeks later, Jack married Wendy in a tacky chapel in Vegas. Courtney slept with Tom and ended up pregnant, and subsequently miserable and in an abusive marriage.
Bri was the only good thing in her life, besides her father.
“So, what is this match all about? And are you going to play him?” Nicole asked just as her phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen. “Crap. It’s Big Frankie. I better take it.”
“Go ahead.”
When Courtney gave birth to Bri, Tom had been in some hotel snorting coke with some groupie getting his rocks off. She told herself then that she’d get her act together, but it took another year and a half before that happened.
“I’m sorry, I’ve got to go,” Nicole said. “Big Frankie’s mom went bonkers at the nursing home, and he’s got to go deal with that.”
If Courtney didn’t know the situation better, she’d wonder if her friend was trying to ditch her for greener pastures. “Code red bonkers?”
“Big Frankie said she stabbed someone with a butter knife thinking they were trying to
poison her. She’s becoming more and more violent, and we just don’t know what to do.” Nicole swiped at her eyes. “She doesn’t even know who we are anymore. Not even a glimmer of recognition. It’s killing Frankie, and that’s just eating away at my heart so bad that I actually suggested we move her in with us.”
“You both know with a new baby that’s probably not possible.” Courtney reached across the table and took her friend’s hand. “Go. Next week, we’ll just bring the kids with us.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Nicole smiled. “Now, do yourself a favor. Go over and talk to him because I know you want to.”
“Nope.” Courtney shook her head. “I’m getting my dinner to go, and then I’m out the door.” And she meant it. No way would she commiserate with the enemy.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.” Nicole raced out of the restaurant, stopping at the door to wave frantically before she disappeared into the warm Texas night air.
Courtney fiddled with the label on her beer bottle while she waited for the waitress to bring her dinner. She opted to eat alone at the bar versus alone at home. Her father and Bri wouldn’t be back for another hour, so she might as well eat her burger while it’s hot.
“What happened to Nicole?” Jack asked as he made himself comfortable.
“She had to go home,” Courtney admitted.
“That’s too bad.” He flashed her a sexy grin. “Why don’t you have dinner with me?”
She laughed. “Why the hell would I do that?”
“So, we can talk and maybe clear the air.”
“Look,” she said, letting out a long breath. “I’m going to do what my father asked and play you tomorrow. But then it’s adios, my friend.”
“Friend, I like that.” He tipped his beer.
“We’re not friends anymore. You killed that when you married Wendy, fired my father, and walked out on both of us.”
“Jealousy was never very becoming on you.”
“I wasn’t jealous, Jack. I was concerned. And I was right.” She lifted her glass with a faint knowing smile.
