Worth the Drive (7 page)

Oh
,
God! She had drooled while she’d slept and it was so obvious, he’d felt the need to wipe it off himself. The warm feeling running through her turned to a chill. His look wasn’t desire, she decided, but disgust. If she’d had any idea where in the world they were, she might have just jumped out of the car right then and there
and walked back to the hotel
.

She was saved from having to say anything – and making a dash for it – by the car behind them honking. Katie didn’t know how long the light had been green, but the cars behind them were not happy. The entrance for the expressway was just beyond and
Darío
turned his attention to the road.

They rode in silence for a while, until
Darío
finally spoke. “Tell me, why is it that you are Maki, not Lipton?”

“I drool in my sleep and my husband couldn’t take it anymore.”

Darío
threw his head back and laughed and Katie noticed the white skin peeking through at the juncture of neck and throat. “Somehow, I think that waking up next to you would not be dampened by something as inconsequential as a little drool.”

She loved how he spoke. The
slight
accent was
lovely
, but his word usage
…
Not too many people threw around the word
s
dampened and inconsequential in the same sentence. And this was his second language.

Oh heck, why not tell him the truth. She’d never see this man again after tomorrow.

“My husband left me,” she said quietly.

Darío
didn’t say anything, only nodded for her to go on.

Which she did, and then some.

It was a purge. And this time it was not quietly spoken.

“Not only did he leave me, but he left me for a twenty-year-old that he’d gotten pregnant.”

Darío
nodded.

“He couldn’t handle us not being able to have a child. Or, I guess I should say,
me
not being able to have a child. Because it’s darn sure obvious now that
he
can.”

Darío
nodded
but kept his eyes on the road
.

“We’d been together since we were freshmen in college. Married for thirteen years, and he
comes home and tells me he’s leaving me for some young thing. God, it’s so cliché, so laughable.”

Darío
only nodded again soberly. Apparently he didn’t think it was laughable.

“I should have known though, it shouldn’t have taken me so much by surprise.”

Darío
finally spoke. “Why should you have known?”

“Oh, little things. Like he had to go to the office a lot last summer.” At
Darío
’s questioning frown she clarified, “He’s a high school teacher and hockey coach. There’s no school in the summer, and hockey’s played in the winter.
”
Darío
nodded his understanding, and motioned with his hand for her to continue.

“Last summer he used the money we’d set aside for Invitro Fertilization for a Hummer.”

“What is a Hummer?”

“They’re these huge cars that kind of look like a tank, and no one with any sense would spend over $50,000 on one.
Thank God they’ve stopped making them. Just not in time for me.
”

“Oh yes, a Hummer. Several players on the Tour own such vehicles.”

Feeling she had just insulted his friends, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry.”

He waved his hand. “It’
s fine. I too believe that these vehicles are a bit…” Just as the word popped into her head, he finished, “Ostentatious”.

“Anyway, I should have known then. But I thought it was just the stress of trying to conceive. They warn you about that when you first start seeing the doctors. They tell you that infertility can put a strain on a marriage.”

“The man is a…what’s the word you say here
?
Douche,
”
Darío
said.

Katie smiled. “No. That’s just it, he isn’t really. He’s a good person, and was a good husband…”

“Until he impregnated another woman. A girl, really.”

“Yes,” her voice became quiet once more.

“The man is a fool,”
Darío
whispered.

“No, he’s not a fool. He’s just a man. And when the going got tough…”

“Maybe he’
s not a fool. But the man has no character.”

Katie was about to contradict
Darío
, to tell him that for most of their marriage, Ron had been a good husband. A great husband, even. That the pressure of trying to have a baby was too much for them. He broke in his way – by having an affair.

But she broke in her way as well. She became distant, she saw that now. She hadn’t seen the signs of Ron’s straying because she was immersed in her own self-pity. Knowing that their inability to have a child was her fault had made her withdraw from Ron. She’d felt she’d failed him. Failed herself. The only time they’d had sex was when it was conducive to conception. And e
ven in those times it was cold and
clinical, all intimacy gone.

He had reached out to her several times and she had always turned away.

Ron wasn’t a douche
. He was a man who made a mistake. But hey, if
Darío
wanted to think he was a
fool
with no character, well, she’d just let him.

Darío
didn’t even know this man Ron and yet he wanted to throttle him. As he pulled the car into the valet area at the Imperial he took another glance at Katie. Her outburst over, she was now deep in thought. That was not good. Her beautiful face no longer held the smile it had all evening. Her delicate brow was scrunched into a frown. He longed to bring her smile back but was ignorant as to how.

As the valet took his keys,
Darío
hurried to the other side of the car to help Katie. He would have anyway – his Mamá had drummed that into his head well enough – but he thought Katie may actually need help getting out of the car and walking into the hotel.

She did need his help. She tried to wave him away and made it as far as the lobby door, but the huge revolving door was too much for her and she turned to him with a helpless look in her eyes.

He didn’t say a word, just put one arm around her shoulder and tucked his other hand through her arm, pinning her to him, and proceeded through the doors and across the ornate lobby.

Two Tour players were just leaving the hotel bar and met
Darío
and Katie at the elevator banks.

They said their hellos, the players obviously waiting for an introduction to Katie, who only nodded and smiled at the two men.
Darío
knew Katie would never see these two men again.
She
would probably never see
him
again. And yet he felt a duty not to tell the players her name when they could obviously see she was severely inebriated, and had probably already labeled her for accompanying him to his hotel room.

He could have explained, but chose not to. Let the m
en think what they wanted. Many
of the Tour players partook of the women at each tour stop, and the majority of them were married.
Though the married ones were much more discreet after Tiger’s scandal.

The elevator arrived and the other two players waited for Katie to board.
Darío
gently held her in place. “You two go ahead, we will wait for the next one.”

The players gave him knowing grins, and stepped into the elevator.
Darío
pushed the up button again as soon as the one carrying his fellow players was on its way. When
the next
elevator arrived
Darío
nudged Katie inside.

Once inside he loosened his hold on her. She seemed to take it as some kind of cue and separated herself from him altogether. That had not been his intention. He liked holding her. Liked how her body fit with his. She was taller than the women he was usually attracted to, almost taller than himself, but that didn’t bother him.

Her hips met his, her waist was at a perfect level for his arm to slide around. Her breasts met his chest. In theory. He had yet to feel that particularly tempting sensation.

She moved to a corner of the elevator and steadied each hand on the railing. Her knees bent slightly. She seemed to be bracing herself for the ride. She looked adorable, almost childlike.

“What room are you in, Katie?” he asked, his finger hovering over the button panel.

This seemed a very serious question to Katie and her eyes stared hard at the carpet in concentration. It came to her in a flash and she raised her head, smiling as though she had just solved a difficult equation. “Thirty-five fifteen.”

Darío
pushed the button for the thirty fifth floor and then went to the other corner of the small cubicle
, also
resting his hands on the railing. He noticed that Katie’s knuckles were nearly white with the effort to hold herself steady. Their hands almost met on the back wall railing. He tried to nonchalantly ease his fingers to hers, his body still lamenting the loss of contact. She seemed to notice the movement and her gaze moved to his hand. He held his hand in place.

She stared at his hand for a moment, then her eyes moved up his arms.

“Make like you’re taking a swing,” she whispered.

“Excuse me?”

“Pretend you’re setting up at the ball.” There was a small note of command in her voice.
Darío
liked that. “Please,” she added, and he liked that even more.

She took her hands away from the railing and held them together in front of her, pretending to hold a nonexistent golf club, showing
Darío
what she wanted him to do. Then, as if she might lose her balance, she quickly grabbed for the railing again and only when she had her composure back did she nod for
Darío
to proceed.

This was not a completely unusual request for
Darío
. He was asked lots of times for tips on
a
swing, or to watch someone set up, or to look at their grip, or if he would show them his. But he was always asked by men, and very seldom in elevators. Still, if Katie wanted to see his set-up, fine.

He pushed away from the railing and stepped into the middle of the elevator where he then addressed an imaginary ball, as if it were the opening drive of the Masters. He looked up at Katie, waiting for her instructions, but did not meet her eyes. He could not make eye contact with her because she
was staring at
his forearms. He looked down at himself to see if he was doing something out of the ordinary. No, it was a usual set-up. He glanced at her again. Her eyes were still on his arms. She wasn’t looking at his grip, either. No, it was definitely his arms.

He looked at them again, trying to figure out Katie’s fascination. He could come up with nothing. He ventured another look at Katie, and this time…
Dios Mio
, this time she licked her lips as she watched his arms.

She was aroused? By his arms? It didn’t seem possible, but she finally raised her gaze from his arms to his eyes and there was no mistaking the look in her sky-blue eyes. Unbelievable. His arms made her hot.

It had been a roller coaster ride the entire evening trying to tell if Katie felt the same attraction he did, or whether she was just happy to meet a professional golfer and make new friends. He’d have sworn she felt the same heat he had when their eyes would meet at the Armadillo. Even as far back as earlier on the course. And when they had huddled together to create the state of Michigan with their hands, he was sure she had breathed him in as deeply as he had her.

He had thought he might get lucky.

But the ride back to the hotel had shot that idea down. First, she had fallen asleep, making
Darío
realize that she was drunker than he thought. Then she began ranting about her ex-husband, and he wondered if the sexual attraction was all in his head. Either that, or the bitterness she felt for her husband far outweighed her attraction to
Darío
.

He didn’t want a revenge fuck. He wanted Katie in his bed, all right. But he wanted her sober, willing, involved.

But now, she was making eyes at him in the elevator. He stayed where he was, his body still locked in golf mode.

She slowly pushed her incredible body away from the wall, took her hands from the railing and made the two steps to where
Darío
stood. He started to break his formation, but her hands on his arms stopped him.

“Did you know,” she began. She seemed to lose her train of thought as he stared into her eyes. She became flustered, and lowered her gaze back to his arms. She stood right in front of him, her head bowed, almost praying over his grip. That seemed fitting, he thought, because he often found himself praying over a shot as well.