Worth the Drive

by Mara Jacobs

  “I know, I know, I’ll play nice. Besides, it’d be a waste of perfectly good vodka,” Alison said, reading Katie’s thoughts, and the squeeze to Alison’s arm.

  “Ladies,” Ron said in greeting. “Great success Lizzie, you should be very proud.”

  Lizzie, always the peacemaker, replied, “Thanks, Ron, it’s been a great day. Did you have a good time golfing?”

  He snorted. “Good time? It was amazing. I got paired with Steve Yzerman! Can you imagine playing golf with Steve Yzerman?” The women all shook their heads. “I mean, the only way this could have been any better was if I’d been paired with Darío Luna.”

  Alison choked on her drink. Lizzie looked away, as if checking out the enormous party she was giving, but in reality she was trying to hide a smile.

  Katie swallowed loudly, uncomfortably. “But you’ve always loved Steve Yzerman. That would have been your dream pairing. You’re not that big of a fan of Darío’s.” She hoped the proprietary way in which she said Darío’s name was evident only to herself.

  “Well, yeah. To meet, to spend some time with, then definitely Steve Yzerman. He’s been my hero forever. But to play a round of golf with? Can you imagine playing a round of golf with a guy who’s won three majors?”

  “I can imagine playing all sorts of games with Darío. Can’t you, Kat?” Alison joked. Katie lightly kicked Alison’s shin under the table.

  Ron rolled his eyes at Alison’s double entendre. He’d never really liked Alison. He loved Lizzie, but then, everyone loved Lizzie. And Lizzie hadn’t been around for most of the years she and Ron had lived in the Copper Country. Lizzie hadn’t been there to distract Katie from Ron. Alison had. Alison had been the one Katie turned to when struggling with infertility, not Ron. Ron still resented Alison for taking the place in Katie’s life that he couldn’t fill. Katie supposed it was easier for Ron to blame Alison than to blame Katie herself. Or himself.

  Lizzie seemed to take great interest in what Ron had just said. “Ron, do you think a lot of people feel that way? Would they have all liked to play with a professional golfer rather than a hockey or football player?” Lizzie asked. Lizzie was formulating some kind of plan, but then, when wasn’t she?

  “Anybody serious about golf would,” Ron answered. “I’d pay good money to play a round of golf with him.” He spoke to Lizzie beside him, but he didn’t take his eyes from Katie. Katie now realized that he hadn’t since he sat down with them. She wondered if she looked different outwardly? If someone who knew her as well as Ron did could tell she was pregnant just by looking at her? Did she glow as much on the outside as she did on the inside?

  “Do you think Darío would play a round of golf with someone tomorrow and we could put it into the auction tonight?” Lizzie asked Katie and Alison.

  “Lizard, that’s a great idea,” Alison said, then looked at Katie for her reaction.

  Katie nodded. “A great idea,” she added. “Do you want me to ask him?” She hoped Lizzie would say yes so she could leave the table.

  But Lizzie was already rising. “No, I’ll do it,” she said and was halfway across the room before Katie could move.

  Ron gave her a puzzling look. “Did you meet Darío while helping Lizzie out?” he asked.

  She gave a noncommittal shrug and took a drink of her milk, left over from her dinner. She swallowed the liquid, praying the stuff would go down her rapidly closing throat.

  Ron knew something was up. He looked at her with suspicious eyes. There was almost a sweet kind of symmetry to that. That Ron would be suspicious of her! Katie desperately wanted to blurt out that she and Darío were a couple. Wanted to see Ron’s reaction to that. She also wanted to shout out her pregnancy to the man who thought such a thing literally inconceivable.

  She held herself back. She wasn’t going to tell him about the baby, much as she wanted to. She’d made a spur of the moment decision at her parents place on Friday not to tell even her family until she got back from her three months with Darío. Only Lizzie and Alison, and Don at work, would know, and they had promised complete secrecy. Katie wasn’t even sure Lizzie had told Finn, but even if she had, he wouldn’t say a word if Lizzie asked it of him. She was at the end of her first trimester, it should be fine to tell people, but it wasn’t the fear of miscarriage that kept Katie from wanting her family and, by extension – with her well-meaning but gossipy sisters-in-law – the rest of the Copper Country to know she was pregnant.

  In fact, Katie had no real fear of a miscarriage at all. She had nothing to base her security on other than a deep-seated sense of calm. She knew, just absolutely knew with complete clarity, that her baby would be fine.

  She didn’t tell her family because she wanted to keep it to herself for just a while longer. She wanted to share this only with the two women she loved more than sisters.

  And Darío.

  But not Ron. Even if seeing his beautiful face register his shock would have brought her a sadistic pleasure.

  She took another sip of milk, wincing at the taste, and prayed Ron would leave the table soon so that her resolve to not taunt him with her news would hold. And that Alison’s resolve not to throw her drink in his face would hang in there, too.

  “You hate milk,” Ron said suspiciously.

  “I’ve acquired a taste for it,” Katie said, her eyes lowered. She never could lie worth a darn, and never to Ron.

  “Acquired a taste for it?” Ron said, disbelieving.

  “Yes, acquired a taste for it,” Katie echoed, her chin raised in defiance.

  “So Ron, how are those divorce papers coming along?” Alison asked. Katie gasped at the abrupt change of subject, and the new topic, then realized that Alison had done it on purpose. She was trying to take Ron off the track that Katie’s sudden taste for milk might take him. Katie sent a telepathic “thank you” to Alison and swore that she heard a “you’re welcome” in return.

  “Actually, that’s what I came to talk to you about,” he said to Katie, totally ignoring Alison, as if it were Katie who had asked the question. He turned to Alison, as if seeing her for the first time – though Alison wasn’t someone you could ignore – and said, “Do you mind, Al? Could you give us a minute?”

  “Yes, I think I do mind,” Alison said.

  Katie was grateful. She didn’t want to be alone with Ron. She didn’t completely trust herself not to lose her resolve and tell him she was pregnant and that she was going away with Darío. Especially if they were going to be talking divorce. “Alison can stay, she knows all the gory details anyway.”

  Ron snorted. “Of course she does. And so does Lizzie. So does the whole damn town. I’m surprised your brothers haven’t come to string me up.”

  “They wanted to, believe me,” Katie said.

  Ron smiled. A small, sad smile. “Well, I guess I can’t really blame them,” he said. “Thanks for keeping them away from me.” Katie nodded in response.

  “So, back to the divorce,” Alison said.

  Ron shot her a dirty look, then looked back to Katie. “The papers should be ready to sign in three to four weeks. I’ll bring them by the house when they’re ready.”

  Katie assumed, but didn’t ask, that Ron’s wedding to Amber Saari would take place soon after that. Just another good reason to be out on the road with Darío. Katie shook her head, “No, that won’t work.”

  Ron sighed, “Okay, I’ll bring them to the Ingot.”

  “No, that won’t work either. Bring them to Alison. She’ll forward them on to me.” She looked at Alison for consent and got her nod of approval.

  “Where will you be?” he asked, suspicion returning to his voice. “I’ll send them to you myself, just tell me where you’ll be.”

  Katie fidgeted on the hard, metal folding chair. She wasn’t going to tell him about the baby, but should she tell him about Darío? Her family knew. The people at the Ingot knew. It was just a matter of time before the rest of the town knew too. But not yet. Not Ron. It wasn’t something she could
talk to Ron about.

  “Well, that’s just it. I’ll be moving around a lot, so if you don’t know the exact date you’ll be sending them, it’d be better to give them to Alison, and she can contact me and I can give her the address of the hotel where I’ll be.”

  Ron looked from Katie to Alison, trying to figure out what tactic to take, and which woman was more likely to spill. Knowing Katie could never lie to him, he said to her, “What hotels? What’s going on, Katie?”

  “I’m going to be traveling for a few months, doing some correspondence work. I have the itinerary, but if you’re not sure exactly when the papers will be ready, I can’t tell you where to send them.”

  Ron shook his head, as if to clear it. “Traveling? Correspondence work? You mean like a writing assignment for the Ingot?”

  Katie saw her hands shredding her paper napkin into bits. Reminded of Peaches, she put the napkin down, straightened her back and said, “Exactly.” Well not exactly, but close enough.

  “Since when does the Ingot have the budget for a traveling correspondent?”

  Katie shrugged again. “It’s not coming out of the Ingot’s budget. It’s something I’m doing for myself.”

  Before Ron could answer, Alison piped in, “Don’t worry, Ron, it won’t affect the settlement.”

  Ron looked at Alison with contempt, then to Katie. When he turned to her, the disdain left his eyes and the blue pools of warmth that she’d once gazed into by the hour returned. “Traveling, eh? That’s great, Katie. You always wanted to travel.”

  It’d been so long since she’d given up that dream that she was surprised Ron even remembered it. “It should be fun,” she said, her uncertainty clear in her voice.

  “It’s something you want to do, isn’t it? I mean, you’re not just leaving town to…to…” he didn’t finish his sentence.

  “Get away from you? She should be,” Alison barked.

  Ron let out a heavy sigh, looking at Katie, trying to ignore Alison.

  Katie shook her head. “No, I’m not leaving town for any other reason. I have this opportunity, it’s something I want to do.” That was all true, at least.

  “Well, then, I’m happy for you. Finally getting to do something you always wanted.” She waited to hear the mocking in his voice, but it wasn’t there. What she’d always wanted most – what they had always wanted most – was a child together. She looked at him and saw the hurt in his eyes, the pain that she felt too. He was sincere, she realized. He knew that traveling was a poor second place prize. He reached his hand across the table, as if to capture hers. “Katie,” he whispered.

  Alison made a grab for a napkin dispenser, knocking Ron’s hand back to his side of the table. Ron shook his head, rose and nodded a goodbye.

  That must be Ron. The bastard. The enormously tall, well-built, handsome bastard. Darío chuckled to himself. It wasn’t like him to be insecure, and he wasn’t really. He knew he could offer Katie things that Ron never could. He was rich for one thing. And famous – or at least to those who followed professional golf. But Darío sensed that those things weren’t important to Katie.

  No, the only thing of importance that Darío could do for Katie that Ron could not was give her a child.

  And be faithful.

  Darío knew he would never look at another woman once Katie was his. And he had every intention of making her his as soon as they got out of her hometown. He’d thought that maybe they’d be together tonight now that he was staying at her house, but it would probably be better to wait until they were on neutral ground. Besides, would she be ready to make love to Darío in the house she shared with Ron? Did he want those ghosts to contend with?

  He watched as Ron left the table Katie and Alison sat at. He watched Katie’s eyes follow Ron as he disappeared into the crowd on the other side of the room. Alison placed an arm around Katie, comforting her. Had the bastard said something to upset Katie?

  After a moment, Katie and Alison both rose from the table, Alison heading toward the lobby. Katie scanned the room and Darío was pleased when her gaze rested on him. She smiled and walked toward him. He rose and met her halfway.

  “Is your hand ready to fall off yet?” she asked.

  In fact, his hand was cramping up a bit from signing so many autographs, but it came with the territory, so he wasn’t about to complain. “It’s not so bad. Did Lizzie tell you I’ll be playing golf tomorrow? Is that okay with you?” He wanted to ask about Ron, but kept his mouth shut. If it wasn’t something Katie wanted to talk about, he’d let it drop.

  Katie stared at Darío for a moment, then laughed. “I’m sorry, but I was momentarily stunned at the idea of a man actually asking my permission to spend his Sunday playing golf.” Darío started to make a comment to the types of men who’d been in her life before, but she hurried on. “That’s fine. I can finish up my packing and take care of odds and ends. Thank you for doing it, Lizzie thinks it will go for a good price in the auction.”

  Darío shrugged. “We will see. Your Copper Country appears to be more of a hockey town than golf.”

  Katie smiled. “That’s true, but a big part of that is because the golf season is so short up here. There’s snow on the course as late as mid-May most years and it gets too cold to play by mid-September.”

  They were interrupted by Lizzie’s arrival onstage, welcoming everyone to the second annual Annie Aid. Katie led Darío to seats in a deserted corner to watch the festivities. He liked being private with her, but assumed it was out of a need to get away from people asking questions as opposed to wanting to be alone with him.

  Things were happening on the stage, applause sounded every few minutes but all Darío noticed was Katie sitting close to him. He slung his arm across the back of her chair and her hair lightly brushed his skin. It felt cool, soft, and he leaned his head closer to her to take in the scent of her shampoo. A fruity aroma assailed him. He hoped she brought whatever shampoo she used with her when they traveled. He took another deep breath then leaned back and watched Lizzie raise funds for her worthy cause.

  Katie’s house reminded him of Katie herself, beautiful, classy and yet comfortable.

  He picked up his suitcase bag from the kitchen floor where they’d piled his things. He looked at Katie with questioning eyes. She only stared at his bag as if just now realizing that he was staying in her home overnight. He saw the indecision on her face and knew he had to let her off the hook. He wanted to sleep with her, but this was not the time or place.

  “You have a guest room, or should I take the couch?” he asked.

  He was a little pissed at the look of relief on her face. “A guest room. Yes, of course. Let me show you upstairs.”

  He shook his head. “Just point the way. I’m really tired and think I’ll just go straight to bed. I need to be at the course tomorrow morning for the round of golf that was auctioned off.” He’d been surprised and pleased how high the round had gone for. Several professional hockey players joined in on the bidding and raised the price. In the end, they had awarded the prize to the highest celebrity bidder, a hockey player named Pete Ryan. Knowing the locals couldn’t outbid the professionals, Lizzie decided to raffle off a place in tomorrow’s group – making it a threesome. They were just starting to sell the raffle tickets when Katie began to yawn and Darío insisted on taking her home.

  “I’m ready to go up, too, I’ll take you,” Katie said as she turned off the kitchen lights and led Darío up the stairs. “Do you need me to wake you in the morning?” she asked as she climbed the steps in front of him.

  His eyes on her swaying behind, he had to concentrate on what she’d said. “Uh…no, that is not necessary. I have a travel alarm.”

  She nodded and he watched her hair bob up and down against her shoulder blades. “Do you remember your way to the golf course? Do you want me to take you?”

  “No. I can manage,” he said. They’d reached the top of the stairs and she turned to face him in the hallway.

  “Of co
urse you can. What am I thinking? You travel all over the world, get yourself to golf courses all the time. Surely the Copper Country isn’t going to be a problem.”

  No, navigating the Copper Country wasn’t going to be a problem, but sleeping across the hallway from Katie and not being able to touch her surely would be. “Do you mind if I take a shower before I turn in?” he asked.

  He didn’t add that it would be a cold one.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I can tell right away if a guy is a winner or a loser just by the way he conducts himself on the course.

  - Donald Trump

  Lizzie had told him last night that they’d tee off at ten, so Darío planned to be to the course by nine thirty. There would be no need for his usual two-hour warm up. This was to be just a friendly round of golf.

  He made his way downstairs after showering and shaving. There was no sign of Katie. When he went to the kitchen there was a pot of coffee made and a note on the kitchen table saying she’d gone to the Ingot offices to pick up a few things she’d forgotten.

  Good, she was an early person, like himself. She would need to be on the Tour. It was an early to bed, early to rise life. Except for the caddies. Somehow, they managed to burn the candle at both ends.

  She’d left a travel mug out for him and he gratefully filled it. He gathered his clubs and left Katie’s home. He had no trouble remembering his way to the golf course. In fact, in just three days he had the small area practically memorized. He supposed once he and Katie were married they’d be spending a lot of time here. His child’s uncles, aunts and grandparents were here, after all.

  Thinking so easily of being married to Katie shook him. She hadn’t agreed to it. Yet. If Darío were honest with himself, he wasn’t absolutely sure that it was the right thing to do. To raise a child in a loveless marriage. Oh, he and Katie had a mutual attraction, there was no denying that. And he liked her as a person – assuming she hadn’t lied to him about her being able to get pregnant or the paternity. But he didn’t love Katie. And he was quite sure Katie felt the same way about him.