Worth the Drive (9 page)

Katie snorted. “He’s not smitten. He’s a good Samaritan, that’s all.”

“If  you say so. Hey, I say go for it. It’d be just what you need to get a little attention from someone like
Darío
Luna
.”

Katie sighed. “Lizard, there is no way the guy is interested. First of all I shake his crotch instead of his hand when we’re introduced. Then I get drunk. I fall asleep in his car and drool all over myself. Then I pass out on him in an elevator seconds after I tell him his arms are the…” That last missing piece of the previous night came flooding back to Katie. “Oh, God,” she moaned, curling back on the bed and putting the pillow over her head.

“What?” Lizzie asked, sensing good scoop.

“I told him. Oh God! I told him when he sets up over a shot, his forearms are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Lizzie sat down with a plop. “And do you?”

“Do I what?” Katie
said, the pillow muffling
her reply.

“Think his arms are the sexiest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Almost a full minute went by until Katie slowly pulled the pillow from her head. “Yes. Yes, I believe I do.”

He could do no wrong.

The hole looked four feet wide and his putts went in effortlessly. He sank the long ones. He sank the short ones. He sank everything.

But that wasn’t even the amazing part. His drives were straight and right in the middle of
the fairway.

And of course it would have to happen to him when he finally had a reason to want to walk near the ropes.

Katie.
Gata.

She and
Lizzie
had been with his group from the start, and although
Darío
knew that Lizzie was there to follow Chad, he let himself believe that Katie was there to follow him.

Not that it mattered, of course, but he did feel a small burst of pride knowing he was shooting close to a course record today while she watched.

And she knew it too. She knew a truly good shot from just an okay shot. Much of the gallery would break into ecstatic clapping when he sank a long putt. But Katie would applaud a chip that didn’t even get to the hole but had been a bear of a shot because of the lie. She knew the difference and that pleased
Darío
.

She was again dressed for maximum sun and
Darío
kept an eye on her glorious shoulders, worried that the sweltering afternoon sun might get through any protection she wore.

On the thirteenth hole, a par three where players were forced to wait several minutes on the tee box for the green to clear of the group ahead of them,
Darío
watched as Katie licked her lips and grimaced. He had seen her do that several times, and remembered how tender and swollen her lips had looked last night.

He had thought they looked like they’d been kissed and kissed well. Now he realized they were sunburned.

He motioned for Katie to come to him, politely asking the fans
who
had glued themselves to the ropes for the entire day to let her through. They weren’t very happy a
bout relinquishing their sought-
after positions, but the request was so out of place that they moved to the side and let Katie through.

She looked at him bewilderingly and with just a small touch of panic once she got to him. “What? What is it? Is something wrong? Are you sick? Is Binky?”

Darío
chuckled. “No, nothing is wrong.” He then pulled a
Ch
apstick from his pocket and held it up for Katie to see. “You need to put some of this on your lips,
Gata
.”

She stared at him. He knew she didn’t understand it. It was very unorthodox for a player to talk with the gallery during a round. Look at, sure. Possibly even make eye contact
with
. But rarely did a player lose his focus and talk to anyone but his caddy. Even polite chit-chat with the other players was usually confined to the first three or four holes until the players found their groove.

He gestured for her to take the
lip balm
, but she stared at him, dumbfounded. Then she looked around the gallery and saw everyone staring at her and the most adorable flush rose up her neck and cheeks.

Darío
figured they could stand like that for hours. Taking matters into his own hands, he uncapped the tube, gently held Katie’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and applied the balm to her mouth.

Her lips, slightly swollen from the previous day, absorbed the balm at contact, and he made several swipes to build up a good coat. He took his time, enjoying the soft give of her mouth as the balm made contact. Enjoying, also, the feel of her soft skin where he held her chin. Finally satisfied, he looked from her tempting mouth into her crystal blue eyes.

Big mistake.

She felt the connection as well and it shone in her eyes.
Darío
took a step back, so thrown
off guard. He nearly tripped over his golf bag and was caught by a chuckling Binky.
Darío
’s eyes never left Katie’s.

He finally thought of something to say to break the connection, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to. “And are you feeling better this afternoon?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes. Thank you. Your remedy completely did the trick. Thank you for all the effort.”

“It was no effort at all.” He knew he should turn back to the course. Others from the gallery seemed to be getting bolder, moving closer, yearning to hear the conversation he was having with this beautiful woman. He couldn’t seem to make himself move. “Are you enjoying the round?”

Her head nodded enthusiastically. “Very much. Is golf like baseball where you can’t mention to a pitcher with a no-hitter going how well he is doing?”

He was confused. “I am not familiar with
that
.” He quickly glanced at the green and saw that in the group ahead of him, one of the players was having trouble with the treacherous bunkers. Good, he thought, more time.

“In baseball, if a pitcher has a no-hitter going, nobody talks to him in the
dug
out,
or
says anything to him, and
they certainly do
n’t mention that he’s doing so well.”

“Ahh, I see, a superstition?”

“Right. No one wants to jinx him. Is it the same in golf?”

He thought on that for a second. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Chad and Barclay standing to the side of him, watching. Barclay made a move to join him and Katie, but Binky cut him off with some inane question about Barclay’s balls.
Darío
assumed Binky was referring to Barclay’s golf balls, but with Binky, one could never be sure.

“In golf, you really only talk to your caddy during the round. Some to the other players and caddies. Never to the gallery…” he stopped as Katie raised her eyebrows at him. “Very seldom to the gallery,” he amended. “But, your caddy does not see it as a jinx to mention how well you are doing.”

“Oh, okay,” she said. Then her beautiful face lit up into a huge smile and
Darío
heard audible gasps of delight
from the men in the gallery who
were positioned well enough to see her. “In that case, you’re having a spectacular round. Keep it up!”

He did.

An unfortunate bounce on sixteen kept him from tying the course record, but he ended the round on Friday in the lead of the tournament. A position he hadn’t been in for years. He motioned for Katie and Lizzie to meet him at the ropes at the finishing hole.

“We must celebrate, eh?
Let me
take you and Lizzie to dinner tonight. You two seem to be good luck charms for me.” He added Lizzie to his declaration, but his eyes were solely on Katie.

Lizzie smiled. “Thank you, but I can’t. I’m having dinner with Chad and his parents this evening. But it would be great if you would take Katie, that way I wouldn’t feel so guilty about dumping her.”

“You’re not dumping me, Lizard. I’ll be just fine alone,” Katie said.

“But there’
s no need for you to dine alone,”
Darío
added.

He saw her chew on her lip, knew that she must be tasting the cherry flavor of his lip balm, had tasted it on himself throughout the day. It had given him a perverse pleasure to know she was tasting the same thing as he.

Dios Mio, get a hold of yourself! It’s only lip balm.

She still hadn’t decided. “I promise not to let you drink any Margaritas,” he cajoled.

Katie laughed. “That won’t be a problem. Believe me, if I never see another Margarita again, I’ll be happy.”

“Famous last words, luv,” Binky said. He had not been part of the conversation, but had walked by at that precise moment, dropped his one-liner, and kept on going toward the clubhouse with
Darío
’s bag.

Katie smiled at his caddy’s comment. “Will Binky be joining us?” she asked.

Good, she had accepted. Bad, she wanted Binky to come along as well.

Darío
had no illusions about dinner. He had expected to take both women. That he was only taking Katie in no way led him to believe that anything more than dinner would be happening. After the way she ranted in the car last night about her ex-husband,
Darío
knew that Katie was a long way from wanting to be intimate with a man. Any man, let alone one she had just met the previous day. No, it would just be dinner. A chance for him to get to know her better. But it would be just the two of them.

“No. Binky spends Friday evenings playing poker with some of the other caddies. It is a contest, of sorts, to see which caddies are there on Friday nights and which are trunk-slammers.”

“Trunk slammers?” Lizzie asked.

“If a player doesn’t
make the cut on Friday, he puts his clubs in the trunk of the car to go home. In theory, slamming the trunk door shut on a bad week. The caddies
who
are still around on Friday night are there because their players made the cut, thus their paycheck will be more than the usual salary that week.

“
A caddy is paid a weekly salary by a player, but if he makes the cut, then the caddy gets a percentage of the player’s winnings as well. The percentage goes up based on how high the player finishes.”

Katie and Lizzie nodded their understanding. Binky would be in a good position at this week’s
poker
game.

“So,
Gata
, shall I come to get you at your room at, say, eight o’clock?” he asked.

Katie took a peek at Lizzie who seemed to be silently nudging her friend with her eyes. “Eight will be fine,” she said. “But I can meet you in the lobby.”

Darío
nodded, then turned to the autograph seekers
who
had been waiting, some patiently, some not so patiently, for him to sign their various memorabilia. He began with the children, as he always did, then worked his way to the adults. He watched over the heads of the fans as Katie and Lizzie walked away from the group, toward the parking lot.

Chapter
Six

I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father
.

- Greg Norman,
professional
golfer

“Boy, this is kind of like getting ready for dates at State all over again, eh?” Lizzie said as she nudged Katie’s hip with her own to allow herself more room at the bathroom mirror.

Lizzie wore light cream slacks and a pale blue sweater set while Katie, wanting to show off the sun she’d gotten over the last two days, wore a sundress and sandals.

Katie laughed.
“Except there isn’t beer
on the counter in front of us, and these aren’t anything near dates. But yeah, it does kind of remind me of back then.”

“Do you want a beer? Take one out of the mini-bar, or I could order something from room service for you,” Lizzie, always one to please, offered.

“Ugh. No. Just the thought of alcohol gives me the heaves, but you go ahead, Lizard.”

Lizzie ducked her head, looking away from Katie. “Um, no, none for me.”

“Oh right, never drink in front of a client?” she asked remembering Lizzie drinking only water the night before as well.

“God
,
no. You don’t know how many clients I had to drink under the table to prove my  worth. Thank God I’m a Yooper girl.”

Lizzie put the lid down on the toilet and sat down so she could face Katie as she put the finishing touches on her makeup. “Kat, I need to tell you something.” She waited until Katie sensed the seriousness in her voice, and put down her mascara tube to turn to Lizzie.

“I’m pregnant.” Lizzie said, watching Katie’s face for emotion.