“I can’t get over 76 degrees in December,” she said without opening her green eyes. “How long was it before you did?”
“I’m still not there,” he replied. “Any climate that allows me to golf in short sleeves in December has me at ‘Hello.’”
Richard pushed the gear into Park and flipped the switch to roll up Cassie’s window.
“It’s hard to believe you got me to come golfing with you,” she said with a chuckle. “I hope your friends won’t mind me riding along.”
“They’re expecting you.”
He rounded the back of the car to open her door, but she’d already opened it for herself by the time he reached it. So he took her hand instead and helped her out.
“Why do you drive so far away just to golf?” she asked him as they walked through the parking lot.
“Just?”
“Oh, I mean, to golf,” she corrected with a chuckle. “An hour in the car ju— um…to play golf seems a little excessive to me. I don’t even like to drive from my house into the city for a linen sale downtown.”
“The Pine Barrens course at World Woods is ranked one of the best public courses in the state,” he answered.
“I’ll just pretend I know what that means and nod like I’m impressed.”
“You really need to get out more.”
“Yyyeahh,” she said with a slow drawl. “You’re so right. Chasing a small white ball around acres of grass, sand, and water…that’s really something that’s been missing from my life.”
“Now you’re talkin’.”
“That was sarcasm.”
“It was reality.”
They walked toward the clubhouse, and Richard touched her arm and stopped her before they reached the door. “Listen,” he said, “no one knows that I have any designs on the course out in Holiday. Let’s make sure we don’t tip my hand?”
“Sure,” she said with a nod. “But find some way to show me the things you like about it, the things you’d like to recreate if you do buy the course out there.”
“What,” he laughed, “like a secret code? I’ll touch my index finger to the side of my nose and give you a nod.”
“Yeah,” she replied. “Like that.” He wasn’t entirely sure that she’d been joking until she walked through the door and looked back at him with that big, goofy grin of hers.
Ray Velasquez had bailed on them, but his other two buddies were there already, waiting on him. Richard led Cassie toward the table where they’d parked.
“Gary Todd and Steven Hearns, meet my friend Cassie Constantine.”
Each of them stood up and greeted her with enthusiasm.
What a couple of pushovers. A beautiful woman enters the picture and they mask every trace of the Neanderthals they really are.
“I hope you don’t mind me coming along,” she told them. “I won’t back you up by playing. I really just wanted to ride along in the cart and enjoy the sunshine.”
“We’re pleased to have you with us,” Steven said. “You’ll help us pretty up the place.”
“It already looks pretty to me,” she replied, nodding out the window. “Richard was telling me that this is a pretty spectacular course.”
“Par 71, 134 slope rating,” Gary told her as he led her, with his hand on the small of her back, away from the rest and out the door.
“One of the best courses in Florida, right here in our own backyard.”
“I don’t have a clue what you just said except that it’s a really good golf course,” she answered him, casting a glance back at Richard over the curve of her shoulder.
“By the time you leave here today, Cassie, you’ll be fluent in Linkspeak,” Richard heard Gary tell her, as if he was the foremost authority.
Pretty funny, coming from a guy who finished twelve shots back from me the last time we played.
Gary helped Cassie into the golf cart and then climbed in beside her.
“Uh-uh, Todd. No,” Richard warned, pointing his finger at his friend. “You ladies are in that one.”
Gary turned to Cassie and grinned. “I’ll see you later.”
Richard shook his head as he slipped in next to Cassie instead. “Sorry.”
“Oh, he’s harmless.”
“Don’t you believe it for a minute,” Richard said, turning the wheel and steering them up toward the first tee.
“It really is beautiful,” she said, looking around.
“And a pretty complicated course,” he replied. “I don’t have any illusions about trying to create something like this out of the Holiday property, but there are things I’d like to emulate.”
“Par 4, Dillon,” Gary called out as he and Steven came to a stop next to their cart. “Even you should be able to handle it. Let’s start out strong and impress your lady friend, huh?”
Richard rolled his eyes slightly at Cassie. She laughed and it sounded like a song, making it more difficult than usual to concentrate.
He stepped out from behind the wheel and deliberated as he weighed the distance to the green.
Driver off the tee box. Maybe then a four or five iron with the windup. Eight iron onto the green.
“Let’s go, Dillon. We don’t have all day.”
Richard looked back at Cassie. “Excuse me for a minute while I go teach this guy a lesson.”
Chapter Thirteen
10 DOWN: Genuine; real; dependably trustworthy
The afternoon sky was gray and dismal, and the breeze had a brisk nip to it. Cassie hurried back into the house and grabbed a hooded sweater from her closet. She slipped into it as she strode down the length of her newly repaired dock, sat down at the edge, and dangled her legs over the side.
The water in the canal had a choppy current to it, and the tops of the small waves were foamy with white-gray caps. She chuckled as she zipped the sweater. Since when did 60 degrees constitute a chill?
“What’s so funny?”
She whirled around and saw Richard crossing the grass toward the dock.
“I had to get a jacket,” she told him. “It’s 60 degrees, and I needed a jacket! That’s spring weather in Boston.”
He squeezed her shoulder when he reached her and then folded down beside her and swung his legs over the edge of the dock, too. “Looks good,” he said, running his hand along the wood.
“They did a nice job. And much faster than I’d expected.”
Sophie rushed out through the open sliders, excited to say hello to Richard, and she dropped her ball on the dock beside him.
“How much more do you have to do to the house?” Richard asked, and then he tossed the squishy fleece ball across the lawn.
“I decided against the French doors, and that was the last thing on my list,” she replied, and then she turned to face him with half a smile. “The place is all ready to sell.”
“What did you decide?”
“About the offer?”
He nodded.
“I really don’t know. I thought I’d put it off until after New Year’s.”
Sophie trotted back with the squeaky toy, which looked very much like a large speckled cotton ball protruding from the side of her mouth. Instead of dropping it, she just chewed the thing and it squeak-squeak-squeaked. Richard pried it out of her mouth and tossed it again.
“That’s just a couple of days.”
“I know.”
Richard surprised her by reaching over and taking her hand and then lifting it to his lips. He planted a soft and sincere kiss on her knuckle before guiding her hand to his face and nuzzling it gently.
“I don’t want you to go.”
She had absolutely nothing to say in reply. Not one single thing crossed her mind except to ask herself what she could say to ease his mind.
Nothing. There’s no promise I can make, no hope to lay out there for either of us.
“I’m sorry,” she managed.
“I’m sorry, too,” he replied on a whisper, releasing her hand.
Cassie looked into Richar
d’s eyes and felt stranded there, disoriented. She couldn’t pull away from his gaze.
He’s so handsome, she thought as she watched him.
The wind kicked up a blustery stream around them, and his chestnut hair feathered back from his face in sections. His blue eyes darkened like a night sky, and the parenthetical dimples that she loved so much were nowhere in sight. He would have had to smile for her to get a glimpse of them, and Richard wasn’t smiling.
He lifted his hand and pressed it softly against her cheek. Then he guided her toward him with two fingers beneath her jaw. Cassie knew she had the choice to pull away, but she just couldn’t manage it. She couldn’t even entertain the idea.
When his soft lips touched hers, it was a tender kiss, as smooth as the flight of two soaring birds or a petal falling from a flower. They lingered in that kiss, both of them lost in the poetry of the circumstance.
The heavens rumbled faintly and then rain began to plummet, but Cassie and Richard were spellbound, absorbed in one another and the perfect moment they’d been given. When they finally parted, Cassie felt as if she’d just been awakened from a deep and abiding sleep. Her eyelids were heavy, and her lips ached for more. It wasn’t until Richard was on his feet and extending his hand toward her that she realized it had begun to rain.
“Come on,” he called, and she scrambled to her feet.
By the time they made it to the sliding doors and rushed into the dark house, they were both drenched. Richard peeled the hooded jacket from her and stretched it out over the back of a chair, and then he brushed his hands through his hair and shook the moisture from it in splashes. Sophie quaked as well, adding to the mist of flying water.
“That downpour came out of nowhere,” he said, but Cassie couldn’t reply. She just stood there in the open doorway, trembling slightly.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
She nodded without looking up. She didn’t think she could speak to him even if she gave it her best effort. Words had drained out of her, along with much of her strength and most of her reason.
“Cassie?”
She glanced at him and then felt trapped by his eyes again.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
She struggled to look away, and then she sighed. She felt it—but what was it?—moving up, up, and over the top of her head, and she could hardly move beneath the weight of it. A warm, heavy glaze of emotion and dread and fear and—
“Cass?”
With that one syllable of familiarity, the fire was stoked. She was freed. She moved toward Richard, clenched the front of his soaked shirt with both hands, and dragged him into another kiss.
“Well, I’ve probably been more embarrassed before, but I certainly can’t recall when.”
Rachel’s laughter taunted Cassie through the telephone. “What did he say?”
“He said he had to leave.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“He left?”
“He flew out of here like the wind. I probably scared the poor guy half to death, Rach.”
“You didn’t. He probably left like that because he’s a good guy and he didn’t want the two of you to do anything you couldn’t take back.” Rachel gasped. “Would you have? Would you have done something you couldn’t take back?”
“Of course not,” she scolded. “I didn’t accost him, Rachel. I kissed him.”
“Depending on the kiss, maybe he felt like he was being accosted,” she said. She started to giggle again.
“Thank you very much. I call you for some comfort, looking for you to tell me that I haven’t acted like a foolish teenager, and this is what I get.”
“I’m sorry. Really. I’m sorry, Cassie. So…how was it?”
“How was what?”
“The kiss.”
“Rachel.”
“You can tell a lot about a man by the way he kisses. Was it soft and sweet?”
“Very.”
“Not vulgar.”
“Of course not. I’m hanging up on you now.”
“No, wait.”
“Vulgar!” she exclaimed. “You’re vulgar.”
“I am not. I’m just—”
“Hanging up.”
“Cas–sie.”
“Love you, but you’re about to hear a click.” And in the next second, Cassie made that click happen.
She sat at the table, twirling the disconnected phone in her hand as she stared at the “Surprise Yourself” box in front of her. She entertained herself with imaginings about the next card in the box: Chuck your whole life back home and dive right in to a new life with someone who looks a little like Dennis Quaid.
Or perhaps Viva la romance! Talk about surprising yourself! We thought you’d never be kissed again. Way to go!
Cassie dropped her face into her hands and cackled with a half groan, half laugh. The truth was that she’d sometimes given great, flapping wings to that fear. She’d worried that Zan was the last man who would ever kiss her, that she’d spend the rest of her time on earth eating whatever she wanted until she grew into a rotund old woman who drank coffee by the window and dreamed about that last kiss so very long ago while her ancient dog snored and many, many felines rubbed against her leg, meowing for her to share her cat food with them.
Zan had always kissed her with the same enthusiasm and sheer joy he’d displayed in everything he did. They were often slightly sloppy kisses, filled with eager and appreciative emotion. She loved those kisses of his.
But Richard…
She dug her fingers into her hair and combed it away from her face and then sighed. Richard’s kisses were monumental in their unexpected passion, burgeoning with frightening ingredients, like promise and hope. Two kisses from Richard and Cassie felt changed, as if her soul had suddenly crawled out from its hiding place. But now what was she going to do with it? In fact, she decided, her soul needed to just slink back inside and hush up and stop all that singing.
Oh boy, she thought. I might be in real trouble here.
“Yoo-hoooo!”
Sophie popped up from the floor and tore through the kitchen, barks escaping her faster than she could run.
“No no no, Sophie, it’s just me. I’m a good guy, not a bad guy.”
“Sophie, come here!” Cassie called. Sophie whipped past her and peered at Millicent as she walked through the door from the garage.
“I’m sorry. The garage door was open.”
“It’s fine.”
“Some of us are heading over to the thrift store to find some disco getups for tomorrow night. You wanna come along, hunny?”
“What a great idea,” Cassie said, hoping that she still had a New Year’s Eve date. “Let me take Sophie out, and I’ll meet you out front. Do you want me to drive?”
“Would you, Cassie? Then we can take two cars and I don’t have to be all jammed in the backseat with Stella. She’s in the middle of a dissertation on the history of disco. I can hardly take it anymore.”
Cassie laughed. “I’ll pull out the car. Just give me a couple of minutes.”
Sophie tended to her business in the backyard, and Cassie had barely closed the slider after bringing the dog inside when she heard her car door slam shut in the garage.
“I sent them on and told them we’d catch up in a few minutes,” Millicent told her from the passenger seat of her car once Cassie reached her. “That Stella just twists my earlobes.”
Cassie snickered as she started the car and pulled out of the garage.
“I don’t have one of these,” Millicent told her, clutching the remote for the garage door and pushing on the button.
“You have a carport,” Cassie reminded her.
“I know, but I like the button.” She pushed it again and the door stopped mid-close and went back up again. “Oh dear.”
“Here,” Cassie said, taking the remote from her. “You just push once.”
They watched the door lower, and Cassie clipped the
remote back to the visor above Millicent’s head before pulling out of the driveway.
“Where are we headed?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, where is this store we’re going to?”
“Oh. I don’t know.”
Cassie paused at the stop sign and shifted into PARK. Turning toward Millicent, she asked, “How can we meet them there if you don’t know where we’re going?”
Millicent tilted up one shoulder in a tentative shrug and admitted, “I didn’t think of that.”
“Okay, well, let’s call Stella on my cell phone and find out where they are. What’s her number?”
“Stella doesn’t have a cell phone, hunny.”
Cassie popped with laughter at that and then sighed. “Do you feel like some lunch?”
“That sounds lovely.”
They grabbed a salad at Angelo’s, and while they were there, Cassie referenced the phone book to find the address of the secondhand store in Holiday. When they finally arrived, sure enough, Stella, Georgette, and Maureen were still there, going through the racks of clothes.
“What took you so long?” Stella snapped.
“We stopped at Angelo’s,” Millicent sort of sang, and Cassie realized that she was bragging a little. “Cassie wanted to take me out for lunch.”
It hadn’t occurred to her before then that Millicent was the only one in the group of women from the church who didn’t have a husband or children with whom she could spend time. Presenting herself as the one Cassie chose to spend time with was a bit of a win for her.
“I want to spend as much time with Millicent as I can while I’m here,” Cassie told them, and Millicent beamed. “Have you ladies found anything yet?”
Georgette held up a fringed flapper-type dress and a hat with netting and a feather. “It’s no disco outfit, but I sure do love it.”
They all laughed, and Cassie took Millicent by the arm and headed past the row of dresses and toward some bell-bottom pants and tie-dye T-shirts.
“Let’s look through here and see if we can find something shiny,” she suggested.
Love Finds You in Holiday, Florida Page 15
