and besides, she enjoyed it. And
she was shocked when Lou had
mentioned Angela; she hadn't
expected something so below the
belt.
A lone figure entered the pro
shop, hesitating for a moment at
the door, then wending through
the racks to the end of the
counter where the blonde pored
over her order list.
"Hi, Marty."
Marty's heart raced at the sound
of the familiar deep voice. Looking
up, she met the tired blue eyes in
a quiet gaze. From the look of
things, Marty wasn't the only one
who'd missed some sleep.
"Hey, Lou."
"Could we… go somewhere and
talk… in private?" the tall woman
asked nervously.
The golf pro gestured toward the
fitting room. "That closet is about
the only place."
Quietly, the two women walked
into the small room and closed the
door. Marty turned to face her
lover. "Okay?"
Louise nodded solemnly. "Marty,
I'm sorry. It was wrong, what I
said. Especially that part about
Angela. I'm so ashamed of
myself.""
The petite woman's insides were
jumping up and down with
excitement, but her face remained
stoic.
Louise continued. "Really, it was…
uncalled for. I don't handle being
jealous very well."
"You had no reason to be jealous,
Lou."
"I… I know. It was childish of me.
It's just that I thought your '50-
cent surcharge' line was kind of
cute, and I wanted it to be just
for me," she admitted, the
corners of her mouth turning up in
a bashful smile.
Relief coursed through Marty's
veins as she took in the obviously
contrite Louise Stevens, who was
saying everything she needed to
hear. Taking the long hand in her
own, she rubbed her thumb along
the back of the palm.
"I hate to disappoint you, Lou, but
I bet I've used that line 500
times. And I bet I've
complimented a thousand women,
maybe two. But in the past eight
years…” she stepped closer, "I've
only kissed one."
Comforted by Marty's admission,
Louise brought her mouth lower to
meet the approaching lips. As soon
as they touched, she reached
forward and drew the stocky
woman tight to her chest. The kiss
that followed was hard, conveying
feelings more like desperation
than passion. "Will you forgive
me?"
"Absolutely." The petite blonde
rested her forehead underneath
Louise's chin.
"Marty, I have something for you,
if you'll take it, that is." Louise
fished into her pocket and
brought out the pin. "It's a pin for
your lapel, or your collar, or just
on your vest."
Marty drew back to get a look at
what Lou was holding. She'd left
her glasses on the counter in the
other room and was having trouble
making out what the pin looked
like. "Is that a diamond?"
"Yeah, but just a little one. This
was Rhonda's. I gave it to her for
Christmas one year. I liked it, and
she used to wear it a lot. I'd like
for you to have it, Marty."
The golf pro was deeply touched
by the gesture, but there was no
way she could take something so
precious. "Lou, I don't think I
should."
"Please take it." Not taking no for an answer, Louise snaked her long
fingers underneath the golfer's
vest and pinned it into place on the
left shoulder. "It'll be nice to be
able to look at it again."
Marty touched it and tested to
make sure it was secure. She was
overwhelmed that Lou was giving
her something so important.
"Thank you," she whispered.
Louise pulled her into a second
kiss, this one tender, almost
chaste. "Thank you for wearing it,"
she said as the kiss ended. "Now,
are we still on for a round of
golf?"
"You bet," Marty grinned.
Marty stepped out onto the deck
carrying two glasses of red wine.
"You coming, Petie?"
The dog scampered out in reply.
Marty had tacked chicken wire
around the edges of the deck to
keep the pooch from slipping off
between the railings. This way, he
could sit outside whenever they
did.
Louise sat sideways on the padded
swing, an obvious invitation for
her lover to join her. "Can I talk to
you about something, sweetie?"
"Sure." It had been a couple of
days since their fight, and while
they appeared to have survived it,
Louise had seemed a little
melancholy.
"It's about… how I got so jealous
the other day."
"It's okay, honey. I told you, you
can trust me." Marty leaned back
into her lover's arms as they
rocked gently.
"I know… I think I was… reacting
to something else, not to you." The
older woman's voice was subdued.
"I hadn't really thought about it in
a long time, but in the last couple
of days, it seems like I've been
thinking about it all the time."
"What is it, Lou?"
Louise sighed deeply. She'd never
told this story to another soul.
"Rhonda cheated on me once. It
nearly killed me, Marty."
The blonde woman tried to sit up
but Lou squeezed her tighter
around the waist. She relaxed
again and started to softly stroke
the long forearms. "If you want to
talk about it, I'll listen."
"It was a long time ago, March of
1980. I remember the date
because it's when my father died.
He was really sick and my
brothers and I worked out a
schedule for sitting with him. I
was supposed to go down to
Wheeling on Friday and stay the
night, and Hiram was going to go
on Saturday. Just before I left,
he called and asked me if I could
switch days with him. I had
already taken the day off from
school, so I hung around the
house and fixed a nice romantic
dinner for Rhonda and me for
when she got home. Except that
she didn't come home.
"So I cleaned everything up and
the next morning, I went on down
to the nursing home. I called
Rhonda that night to tell her that
I'd be home on Sunday and she
something like 'good, because I
sure was lonely in that big old bed
last night.
' I asked her what she
did and she said she'd come home
and watched TV.
"I couldn't understand her lying to
me, but I figured after 13 years
together, there was only one thing
she'd lie about. That night, my
father died and after we got
through that, I just didn't want to
deal with it.
"We were at Hiram's house that
summer and he said something
about how he wished he hadn't
asked me to switch nights so he
could have been with Daddy when
he died. Rhonda figured it all out,
then she finally asked me why I'd
never said anything. I told her
that I just didn't want to know
anything about it, so I'd
appreciate it if she didn't say
anymore."
"And you never got the story?"
"I already had the story. The
details weren't important."
"And she never apologized?"
"Well, I got flowers the next day.
I knew that Rhonda really loved
me, and it took a little while, but I
forgave her. I never had to
question again whether or not she
strayed."
"You won't ever have to worry
about that with me, Lou. I felt bad
about what I did to Angela back
then, but I felt a lot worse about
what I'd done to myself. It took a
long time to get over it. I don't
ever want to feel like that again."
"You're sweet, Marty. And you're
so good for me."
Hearing these kinds of things
from this woman she loved so
much made Marty's heart want to
jump out of her chest. "I love you,
Lou."
"I love you, too."
The summer flew by in a blur, with
Marty working six days a week
and Louise taking a side trip back
to Pennsylvania to visit her
brothers. In early October, the
women were already starting to
pack for the return to Florida.
"You want to leave some stuff
here, Lou? You know, in case we
can get away for a week during
the winter."
"What happens here in the
wintertime?"
"It snows."
"And just why would anyone want
to come back to that?"
"Good point. But you can leave
whatever you don't think you'll
need in Florida and it will be here
when we get back next May."
Louise smiled at Marty's easy
assumption that they'd be doing
this again a year from now. They
hadn't actually talked about
"forever" kind of stuff, but they were sure going through the
motions.
Katie and her husband Brian were
trying to work on their marriage
and he was now down in Cape Coral
working construction. They were
all living in Marty's two-bedroom
duplex, so it just made sense that
Marty could move her things over
to Louise's house.
But that invitation didn't go over
as well as the retired
schoolteacher had hoped.
"I don't know, Lou. I mean, sure,
I'll probably end up staying there
most nights, but I think I ought to
keep getting my mail and stuff at
my place." She could see right
away a look of hurt on her
beautiful lover's face.
"If that's what you want, Marty,
but I don't understand why you
want to go through all that bother
of going back and forth like that."
Apparently, the separation was
important, and Louise couldn't help
but be hurt by that. She'd
abandoned her home for six
months to come here with Marty.
The golf pro knew how foolish it
sounded to keep her things in one
place and sleep in another, but
giving up her home would put her
in a pretty vulnerable spot. "Look,
I know it sounds pretty stupid, but
the last time I moved into
somebody else's house, she threw
me out. Now I'm not saying that I
plan on getting thrown out again or
anything, but I'd like to think that
I can't just be tossed on the
street again. You know what I'm
saying?"
"You're worried if you move in
that I might ask you to leave?"
Marty nodded. "I mean, if we had
a fight or something…"
"Sweetheart, we're going to argue
about things from time to time,
but I'm not going to just ask you
to leave on a whim."
Logically, Marty understood that.
But her fears wouldn't let her
give up that little piece of control
she had, even to Louise. Hell, they
had almost split up back in June
over Charlene Rogers!
In the end, they agreed to the
status quo, with Marty knowing
she was welcome to stay each and
every night, and that she could
bring whatever she wanted to
Louise's house.
Louise stretched out to silence the
obnoxious alarm. From the bed,
she could see the leaves swirling
in the wind on the back deck.
Marty hated windy days on the
golf course.
"Sweetheart, it's time to get up."
"Mmmmmm," she groaned, "don't feel like it."
"You want to sleep a little longer?
I'll take Petie out and we'll just
have some oatmeal for breakfast."
"No, I'll do it. Morning's are my
job."
"Silly thing. I've only got two jobs:
Petie and you. Go back to sleep. I'll
wake you when breakfast is almost
ready."
Louise slipped out of bed and into
the kitchen, setting up the drip
coffeemaker. Going back for her
heavy robe and slippers, she saw
that Marty was again fast asleep.
The blonde woman hadn't felt very
good when they'd gone to bed last
night. Louise hoped she wasn't
getting sick.
Petie waited patiently for his
leash, but almost balked at going
out into the crisp October air.
When he was little and they lived
in that cold place, he used to wear
sweaters outside on chilly days. He
remembered well the first time
his mistress had knitted one
herself. It was kind of long, he
recalled, and practically covered
his… you know. The first time he
wore it proved pretty humiliating
for both of them, and they hadn't
spoken of it again.
Anyway, here they were, walking
across the frosty grass to the
place where he always started his
day. It wasn't worth hanging
around for all those smells in this
nippy air, so he quickly took care
of business, scuffing his feet
backwards to cover his tracks.
Boy,
it felt good to be back inside.
Soon he'd have breakfast and
there was a spot over by the
sliding glass door that got good
sun in the morning.
Louise poured two cups of coffee
and returned to the bedroom.
"Marty? Here you go, baby. It's
time to get up."
The petite blonde stretched and
finally pulled herself to a sitting
position. "Thanks," she said
groggily as she reached for the
steaming cup. "I'll get dressed and
be right out." The nature of her
work meant that Marty always
bathed in the evening, while
Louise was more of a morning
person.
In a few minutes, the golf pro
stumbled into the family room
where the dining table was already
set.
"Honey, you don't look so good.
Are you sure you should be going
to work today?"
"I'll be fine. I'm just tired. A nice
hot breakfast should do the
trick."
Louise obliged with a piping hot
bowl of oatmeal with blueberries
and cream. "You're going to need a
heavier jacket, sweetheart. It's
cool and windy out there."
"That's okay. I'll be working in
the pro shop most of the day."
Marty stood up and leaned over
for a kiss.
"Will you call me later to let me
know how you're doing?"
"Okay. Have a good day, Lou."
Marty disappeared out the front
door. She had four more days at
the club in North Carolina before
the end of the season. Then
they'd take a two-week vacation
before she started back at Pine
Island.
Marty walked through the racks,
straightening the pants and
jackets and buttoning all the
shirts. Virtually everything was on
sale here at the end of the
season, and she eyed two outfits
in a size 12 that would look good
on Lou. If they were still here at
the end of the week, she'd pick
them up for Christmas presents.
Only a few dozen golfers were on
the course today; no surprise,
given the windy conditions. It was
one thing to play in the heat, but
few golfers wanted to give up a
stroke on every hole to the wind.
"Hey, Marty! You 'bout ready to
head back to Florida?" Jerry
Bainbridge never missed a chance
to play golf, no matter what the
weather.
"Hi, Jerry. Yeah, I'm mostly
packed." Marty grabbed the rack
in hopes of fighting off a dizzy
spell.
"When do you go?"
She could barely hear the man.
"We're going to…” The room was
starting to spin. Marty tried to
focus on the rack of shirts as
Mulligan Page 7
