Worth the Drive (27 page)

He held his hands up as if to fend off the coming barrage, but Petey kept quiet. So did
Darío
. Ron lowered his hands. No attack had come, but he already had the look of someone defeated.

“I felt shitty about it. Really started trying to break down the barriers with Katie. Knew that we had to get past the infertility stuff or we weren’t going to make it. That’s when Amber told me she was pregnant.”

He looked away again.
Darío
looked to see that the boys had remained on the benches some yards away, eating their sandwiches and talking amongst themselves. He caught Stevie’s eye and knew the boy was the reason the men had been left alone so long. There were other golfers on the course, but none that had made the turn to the back nine yet, so they weren’t holding anyone up.
Darío
nodded to Stevie and the boy nodded in return. Smart kid.
Darío
would tip him well.

Ron returned his gaze to Petey, but it looked to
Darío
that his sight was somewhere else. Miles away. Months away. “How fucked up was that? I couldn’t make a baby with the woman I loved after trying for years and years, and I get some girl
I barely know pregnant on a one-
night stand. It shook me. I didn’t know what to do. Amber was scared. Said she couldn’t go through a pregnancy alone. That her family would turn their backs on her. That she’d have an abortion if I didn’t want to be with her. I don’t know if she was playing me or not. It could have been a bluff, but there was no way I was going to find out for sure.”

Darío
understood that. The minute Katie had told him she was pregnant, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to make sure his child was taken care
of. He could not fault Ron for e
nsuring the safety of his child.

Ron let out a snort of disgust. “I even tried to talk Amber into gi
ving the child up to Katie and me
. I didn’t know how I’d get Katie to agree to it.
I just couldn’t bear
the thought that I’d have to choose between my wife and my child.

“But, eventually, I realized that’s exactly what I had to do. I knew Katie would survive. She would be devastated about the baby, and she’d hate me, but she had her family, and Lizzie and Alison. I knew she’d be taken care of. I…I wasn’t so sure about my baby.”

He cleared his throat
, His voice
cracked as he added, “I had to make sure my baby would have at least one parent in its life
who
was ready to be a parent.
Who
wanted
to be a parent.”

Petey and
Darío
remained silent. What could they add? Would
Darío
be able to choose between the welfare of his child and remaining with Katie? He was thankful
that
wouldn’t be the case in his situation. He would never worry about his child with Katie as its mother.

“So I left Katie. God, that day. That horrible day.” He shook his head, as if the memory would never leave his mind. “It was brutal. No. I was brutal. I was so pissed that I had to make this choice. That I had put myself in this position. And yet, I was so happy
about
becoming a father. I turned it all on Katie. Totally unleashed it. Was a total prick. But, maybe that was for the best.”

“How?” Petey asked.

“She hates me now,” Ron said. He waited for Petey to contradict him, but Petey didn’t say a word. “That’s probably better. At least we can both start over. Get on with our lives. Can you imagine the situation if she still loved me?”

A lump formed in
Darío
’s throat. If Katie had heard all this would she feel differently
toward Ron? Would it matter? It wouldn’t change the fact that she was now carrying
Darío
’s child.
Maybe
carrying his child.
Probably
carrying his child.

“You didn’t say if you still loved her,” Petey asked as
Darío
thought the same thing.

Ron barked a laugh. “Hell yes
,
I still love her. You don’t spend seventeen years with a woman like Katie and not love her forever.”

Darío
held his breath. Was there a but coming?

“But,” Ron said.
Darío
exhaled. “Now there’s Crystal. I got to tell you, Petey, she’s changed my life.” He whirled to
Darío
. “
Darío
, do you have kids?”

Startled,
Darío
answered, “I…I…not yet.” That was true. And all he was willing to say to these two men. For now.

Ron was shaking
his
head. “So you guys can’t really understand. I know they always say you’ll never be the same once you become a parent, and that no one ever really knows those kinds of feelings…protectiveness…fierceness…until you have a kid. It’s true. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Crystal. To make sure she was safe and happy and taken care of.” He held up his hand and shrugged with the simplicity of it. “She’s my life.”

Petey turned and walked away. Ron looked at
Darío
.
Darío
met his gaze. He wanted to hate the man for the pain he’d caused Katie. But the man was simply trying to protect his child. Would
Darío
do anything less?

He was relieved he did not have to make a comment to Ron about his confessions because Petey turned around and said. “Ten bucks for closest to the pin on this hole, guys?”

They waved the caddies
over
to them and played the rest of the round in relative silence, only talking about golf swings
and
techniques.
Darío
told the story that amateurs most often wanted to hear – how he’d won the green jacket of the Masters.

They finished the round with
Darío
wining by double digits, which was no surprise. Petey and Ron had identical scores, which irked both men. It seemed a fitting end to the most exhausting round of golf
Darío
could remember playing in a long time.

Chapter
Fifteen

The more I practice, the luckier I get.

- Jerry Barber
, professional golfer

They hadn’t discussed sleeping arrangements when they’d come up with their plan for Katie to travel with
Darío
. That fact became clear to Katie at their first Tour stop, in Denver, when they had an awkward moment at the hotel registration desk.

The hotel had a last minute cancellation from a player who withdrew from the tournament and Katie was able to have a room of her own. The hotel receptionist remarked on how lucky they were to have found another room with no notice.

Katie wasn’t sure if that luck was working against her or for her.
Darío
seemed amenable to separate rooms, and that too kept her wondering.

The altitude in Denver was a shock to Katie, but she rallied and walked the course each day with
Darío
’s group. They had dinner the first two nights with Binky who seemed delighted that Katie had joined
Darío
.

Darío
easily made the cut and would have made the top ten, but he called a penalty shot on himself on Sunday that took him out of contention.

Binky was furious. “You can’t be sure the ball moved,” he spat out as the threesome drove from the course to Binky’s hotel in the courtesy car the tournament provided.

“I can
’t be sure
it didn’t,”
Darío
said softly.

Katie got that something had happened on the fourteenth hole and it cost
Darío
a stroke, a top ten finish and a great deal of money. She’d watched from the ropes as
Darío
and Binky shared words, then played the rest of the round in stony silence. “Explain this to me,” she said, tentatively, not wanting to upset Binky even more. Oddly,
Darío
didn’t seem nearly as upset as Binky.

Darío
opened his mouth, but Binky beat him to it. “I’ll explain it to you. When you’re addressing the ball on the green for a putt, if the ball moves while your club is grounded, whether you touch it or not, it’s a penalty stroke. That’s why, if it’s a really windy day, lots of golfers will take a long time in their pre-shot, but hit the putt as soon as they get up to the address, just in case the wind moves the ball.”

“So, the ball moved?” Katie asked, not seeing why Binky would be so upset. Golfers lived and died by the rules. In no other sport did the participants call penalties on themselves. It was a fact of the game.

Darío
again opened his mouth and again Binky cut him off from the backseat. “That’s just it. Guv, here, can’t be sure. He thinks it might have moved. Nobody saw it move. Even he didn’t see it move.” The exasperation in his voice was evident.

Katie looked from Binky in the back to
Darío
across the front seat from her.

“When I replace my ball after Binky cleans it, I always place it a particular way with the word Titleist at the very top of the ball reading left to right.”
Darío
’s voice was controlled, just like the man. His tone was patient, as he explained to Katie, and Katie suspected, to Binky as well.

Katie nodded. She had already witnessed some of the rituals that the golfers had. All different, but all consistent.
Darío
continued, “I placed my ball, took my practice swings, and
walked to the ball and took the address. When I looked down, the word Titleist was at the bottom, near the grass. The ball had moved.”

“But you don’t know that it moved before or after you addressed the ball and grounded your club. It could have been while you were taking your practice swings,” Katie said.

“Exactly,” Binky added from the back. He
crossed his arms over
his chest and stared out the window. Katie turned back to
Darío
in time to see him glance in the rearview mirror at Binky with a stern look that Katie was sure Binky would ignore, if he even saw it at all.

“I cannot be sure that it didn’t move while my club was grounded, so, I had to call the penalty on myself,” he said, nonchalantly, as if losing $40,000 because of a penalty stroke were an every day occurrence.

“That stroke cost you more than I make in a year,” Katie said.

“It’s not about the money. It’
s about being able to sign your scorecard with a clear conscience.”

Binky snorted. “Meanwhile, there’s a couple of guys out there
who
take every advantage on their drops, some outright illegal.”

Darío
only shook his head. “I cannot play their game for them. I can only play within the rules myself. I can look myself in the mirror while shaving. I wonder if they can.”

The car fell silent as Katie wondered how Ron felt when he shaved his chiseled face every morning.

Darío
was used to doing things alone. He traveled alone. He spent his evenings alone. Sure, a couple
of
nights a week he and Binky ate dinner together, but he always returned to the quiet tranquility of his hotel room.

It wasn’t like he was starved for company. During the days he was at the course playing a round and then practicing on the range. He usually played his practice rounds with another Spaniard if there was one in town for that particular tournament. If not, there were several players on the Tour that he’d known for years that he played with. The camaraderie on the practice range was enough togetherness to suit
Darío
.

So it came as a great shock to him how much he enjoyed Katie’s constant companionship. And there was no way it could be anything less than constant. Sometimes on a Tuesday or Wednesday she’d stay at the hotel and write or she’d be doing an interview with a fellow player. But otherwise, she was with him.

Except for the nights when they both slept alone, his body aching for her.

After their first week in Denver, Katie’s editor had emailed her applauding the story she’d sent him on a player who had missed the cut for the forty-second straight week and the perseverance of that player to keep on trying to make the cut, save his card
,
and stay on Tour. The wire service picked it up and the next week, in Flint, she wrote about a player on his fourth marriage, who was habitually in and out of rehab with a drinking problem. Much had been written abou
t this player through the years as
he was very popular amongst the fans, but Katie’s story went deeper than a writer normally would, and it showed in the article.

Darío
was not surprised at Katie’s talent, though she seemed surprised at the success of her articles. He was glad that the sacrifice of leaving her home to be on the road with him was paying off for her professionally.