Worth the Drive (43 page)

He leaned across the table and took her hand as he had done hundred – thousands – of times before. “But you
didn’t
sign them. And whether it was unintentional or a subconscious decision or, hell, an unconscious decision, the fact is we’re still married.”

She looked at his hand placed over hers, so familiar, keeping hers safe and warm. She should take it back, but she didn’t. It was comforting, in a way, just to be touched. With her other hand, she nudged the papers closer to Ron. “They’re signed now.”

“But not delivered to the lawyer, not posted or whatever it is they do to make it legal, make it final.”

“I thought you could drop them off at your lawyers. That’s why I asked you here. I thought it better to do this face to face.”

“Or, we could just run them through the shredder.”

She should have been stunned, but she wasn’t. She didn’t play dumb, either. “You’re saying this now because you’re hurt, and you’re feeling alone. It’s easy to fall back on the familiar, the safe.” She sure knew what she was talking about. Just having him here in the nook, holding her hand, made the ache she felt from
Darío
’s absence dull a tiny bit.

He nodded. “That. And the fact that I never stopped loving you, Katie.”

She took a deep breath, let it out. “Ron…”

He held up his free hand to stop her. He gently squeezed her fngers, then let her hand go, sat back in his seat. “I know I screwed up, Katie. You have to know I know how much I hurt you, what me having a child with someone else would do to you. But when Amber told me she was pregnant after only having been with her once, I – ”

“You only slept with Amber once?” Katie interrupted.

Ron slowly nodded his head,
his blond
hair tumbling across his broad forehead. “One drunken night, when I was so hurt that you’d shut me out again and I was feeling so useless…” Katie put her head down. “I’m not making excuses, Katie, really, what I did was so wrong, but I want you to know that I never looked at another woman.
Before that night.
You were all I ever wanted. All I still want.”

“I know I shut you out, Ron,” she quietly added. “I felt like such a failure, I just couldn’t face you sometimes. I know I turned away from you, that we should have worked through it together. It should have made us stronger, a team. Instead, it…”

“Yeah,” he whispered. He took a deep breath, as if steeling himself. “But it’s not too late, Katie, not for us.
Now
that I’m not with Amber.”

“What about Crystal?”

“I told Amber I would help out with her. I love that little girl like she was my own, and if I could raise her without Amber, I would in a second, but I can’t take a child from its mother. I wouldn’t have a legal leg to stand on anyway, with Crystal not being mine.”

“I’m sorry about that, Ron, I really am. I’ve seen you with that baby, I know how much you love her.”

He let out a soft sigh. “Thanks, but I guess I got what I deserved. I knew I should have questioned Amber more, demanded an amnio, or blood tests after
Crystal
was born.” He brushed his hand through his hair, the lock on his forehead tumbling back into place. “I just wanted to believe so badly, you know?”

Katie only briefly let herself think about
Darío
questioning the paternity of his child. At some point he
had come to believe
her. Was it because he’d gotten to know Katie, knew she wasn’t capable of a lie of that magnitude? Or did he just want to believe
, like Ron
?

Ron shook her out of her thoughts. “I’ll always want to know what’s going on with Crystal, be a part of her life if I can, but there’s no way I can be with Amber after what she did.”

“What about Crystal’s real father?”

“She was sure it was mine, she says. She’s not talking, anyway. Not giving up a name. Hell, this town is full of blue-eyed, blond Finns, it could be anyone.” He leaned forward again. “Let’s talk about us, Katie. Do we have a future? Is there something we can build on? Start over?”

She leaned back and put her hand on her tummy. She was showing now, there was no mistaking. Ron hadn’t commented thus far on the baby, but she’d seen his eyes on her stomach. He didn’t look surprised, but then she’d figured someone in town had let him know. She’d been counting on it.

“You’re forgetting about this,” she said, rubbing her belly.

He smiled. His perfect, even smile, with beautiful, white teeth. “I’m not forgetting about it at all. It makes even more sense for us to be together now that you’re going to have a baby.”

“But it’s not yours,” she said, stating the obvious.

He didn’t say anything for a moment. He looked around the nook, as if the faded wallpaper
held the secret to what he was trying to say. “I was – am – fully prepared to raise Crystal even though she’s not my own. I know you can love another man’s child as much as you do your own. I do. But with Amber in the picture,
that
’s not going to happen.

“But to love
your
child, Katie, that’s a no brainer. To raise that baby as our own, together, to be a family like we’d always talked about…” his voiced trailed off.

“What about
Darío
?” The question was more to herself, but she muttered it out loud.

“You tell me. Where does he play into all of this?”

“He’s the father.”

Ron nodded.

“He wants to be a part of his child’s life.”

Ron nodded again. “And yours? Does he want to be a part of yours? Because I do, Katie, I do so much.”

Katie was finding it hard to breath. The nook seemed smaller, somehow, as if all the air was being sucked out. “I…I…”

Ron held his hand up. He pushed the papers back to her side of the table and stood up. He pushed his chair back in, and stepped behind it.

“Don’t answer right now. Just think about this. I know I screwed up. But I’m here now, Katie, and I want to start over. I want you to be my wife, to raise your baby together.

“I’m here, Katie. Where’s
Darío
?”

When he passed her, he touched her softly on the cheek. So softly it barely registered. But the tingle stayed with Katie for a long time afterward. As did his words.

Chapter
Twenty Four

The right way to play golf is to go up and hit the bloody thing.

- George Duncan
, Scottish golfer

Thank goodness the Tour Championship didn’t have a cut. He’d have been flying back to Spain on Friday night if that were the case. But because the Championship only included the top thirty players on the money list for the year, there was no cut, all the golfers played on the weekend, and so
Darío
was making the turn to the final nine on Sunday tied for twenty-ninth place.

It would still be a nice payday, but
Darío
didn’t feel he deserved the money playing as poorly as he was.

He had expected to play better. He’d spent the last month and a half since the Spanish Open practicing on the course he’d built in San Barria. For hours. And hours. It was the only time he didn’t think of Katie, when he had a club in his hand and was poised over a ball, so he spent much more time on the course and practice range than he ever had before.

And even then she’d creep in. He’d be addressing the ball and he’d remember the night they’d first met and her drunken request that he take the same stance in the elevator so she could admire his forearms.

He’d put on sunscreen and remember the spot on her f
orehead that she always missed which
would end up bright pink.

He’d brush his hair back, and replace his cap and picture her doing the same, adjusting her blonde ponytail through the back hole.

He considered it a cruel joke that the Championship this year was being played in Texas. At least it wasn’t Irving. But
even
Houston still felt too reminiscent to him.

Only nine more holes and he could leave. Return to Spain for the remainder of the year. Wait to hear from Katie that their child was born.

After the tenth hole, moving away from the clubhouse, their gallery, which was sparse to begin with, thinned out even more. The leaders were teeing off now, and the fans would want to follow those groups, not the players competing for last place.

As they teed up on eleven,
Darío
saw a flash of a bobbing ponytail down the fairway ropes that caught his eye. The woman was walking down the fairway, too far away for
Darío
to see her face, even if she had been facing him and not walking in the other direction. To where his ball would probably land.

To where someone who knew his game would most likely stand.

Dios Mio
, it couldn’t be.

His playing partner hit his ball and
Darío
stepped to the tee for his turn. He teed the ball then took his normal four paces behind it to line up where he wanted to hit his shot. But his eye did not find a place in the fairway where he wanted his ball to land. Nor did it look out for any obstacles to avoid.

His gaze was solely on the woman walking down the fairway. She was the right height. And the ponytail swayed across her back in a rythymn that
Darío
certainly recognized. But perhaps that was the way with all women and ponytails?
Darío
didn’t think so.

The marshal mistook
Darío
’s hesitance for a waiting of the people moving along the
fairway ropes to settle. He stepped up to the tee box and lifted his “Quiet” sign. “Hold, please,” he said loudly enough for those halfway down the fairway to hear him. He stepped back and gave
Darío
the “all clear” signal.

The woman with the ponytail stopped and began to turn. Finally,
Darío
would get to see her face. It was a distance away, but
Darío
knew
he would never mistake Katie’s face for any other.

But it wasn’t her face that
Darío
saw first when the woman turned. It was her belly. Her large, beautiful, swelling tummy.

Darío
’s arms went weak, the club fell right out of his hands. He looked to Binky for help. For confirmation that he wasn’t losing his mind. Binky had followed his line of vision, must have seen Katie. He looked at
Darío
with a smirk. “Don’t like the club selection, Guv?”

Darío
looked at him as if he spoke a foreign language. Binky nodded toward
Darío
’s club on the ground in front of him.

The marshal came back to the tee box. “Sir? Is every thing alright?”

Embarrassed at his unprofessional behavior,
Darío
nodded to the marshal, picked up his driver and stepped to the ball.

He heard the club make contact but had no idea where it had gone. It could have been skidding four feet in front of him for all he knew. But, by the way the other player, his caddy, and Binky all set off down the fairway,
Darío
knew he’d at least hit it in the right direction.

By the time
Darío
came to his ball, Katie had moved up to the green. To be at his approach shot as it landed. Just as she had done when they’d been together.

It was then that
Darío
realized she wasn’t alone. A man stood next to her, talking with her. She pointed things out to the man. It didn’t appear to be just a stranger talking golf with her. They appeared to be together.

Darío
couldn’t clearly see the man from this far away, but a sigh of relief rushed through him as he realized that man couldn’t possibly be Ron. He was dark, for one thing, and only about Katie’s height. And older.

A lawyer? Would she bring a lawyer to him? She’d shown up in Memphis with papers for him to sign, was she doing the same thing now, but with more legal weight behind her?

He didn’t remember hitting the approach shot, just Binky handing him the club. But there was a smattering of applause from the sparse crowd so he figured he’d hit the green.

It was a large green and the pin was placed at the farthest corner from where Katie and
the man
stood. His shot had landed only about three feet from the pin and
Darío
made an easy birdie.

He teed off on the next hole in the same fog, staring down the fairway at Katie and the man she was with. As they walked together down the fairway,
Darío
pulled on Binky’s sleeve.

“Go over and talk to her. Ask her why she’s here. I can’t concentrate, can’t focus.”

Binky snorted. “You just played the best hole of the tournament, maybe you should stay unfocused.”