I gave Blaire a couple days to come to me. She hadn’t. I wasn’t surprised. But she’d asked for space and I’d given her all the space I could handle. I didn’t call anyone to play a round of golf with me. I didn’t want anyone around when Blaire showed up. We needed to talk. No distractions or excuses for her to ride off.

It had sounded like a firm plan but after six holes and no cart girl I was beginning to wonder. Just as I was about to walk to the next hole I heard the sound of the cart. I stopped and turned around. The blood that had started pumping through my veins from the idea of seeing Blaire out here and having her alone froze when I realized it was that blond girl that I’d seen training a few times with Bethy. Shit.

I shook my head and waved her on. I didn’t want a drink from her. She smiled brightly and drove on to the next stop.

“It’s hot out here. You sure you don’t want something?” Meg’s voice asked and I glanced back to see her walking up dressed in a white tennis skirt and polo. She’d been big into tennis ten years ago too.

“Wrong cart girl,” I replied and waited on her to catch up to me.

“You only buy from one?”

“Yep.”

Meg looked thoughtful then nodded. “I see. You have a thing for a cart girl.”

‘A thing’ didn’t even scratch the surface. I pulled my golf bag up on my shoulder and started walking to the next hole. I wasn’t going to respond to that comment.

“And he’s touchy about it,” Meg quipped. That annoyed me.

“Or it’s just not your business.”

She let out a low whistle. “So it’s more than a thing.”

I stopped and leveled my gaze on her. Just because she was my first fuck didn’t mean we had any kind of bond or friendship. This was pissing me off. “Let it go,” I warned.

Meg put her hands on her hips and her jaw fell open. “Oh my god… Rush Finlay has fallen in love. Holy shit! I never thought I’d see the day.”

“You haven’t seen me in ten years, Meg. How the hell do you know anything about me?” The annoyed snarl in my voice didn’t even make her flinch.

“Listen, Finlay. Just because you haven’t seen me in ten years doesn’t mean I haven’t seen or heard about you. I’ve been back in town several times but you were always partying it up at casa de Finlay and screwing every model perfect body that came your way. I didn’t see a point in showing back up in your life. But yeah, I’ve seen you and like the rest of this town I know that you’re a rich, gorgeous player who can have his pick of the litter.”

I sounded shallow. I didn’t like the picture she painted of me. Did Blaire see me that way? Not only can she not trust me to choose her and protect her butshe must think I’ll just move on when someone else comes along. Surely she knows that isn’t true.

“She’s amazing. No… she’s perfect. Everything about her is fucking perfect,” I said aloud then shifted my gaze back to Meg. “I don’t just love her, she owns me. Completely. I’d do anything for her.”

“But she doesn’t feel the same way?” Meg asked.

“I hurt her. Not the way you’re thinking either. The way I hurt her is hard to explain. There is so much pain in what happened that I don’t know if I can ever get her back.”

“Is she a cart girl?”

She was really hung up on the cart girl thing. “Yeah she is,” I paused and wondered if I should tell her exactly who Blaire was. Saying it aloud to someone and admitting this might help me make sense of it. “She and Nan have the same father.” I hadn’t meant to say it like that.

“Shit,” Meg muttered. “Please tell me she’s nothing like your evil little sister.”

Nan had very few fans. I didn’t even flinch at the accusation that she was evil. She’d brought this on herself. “No. She’s nothing like Nan.”

Meg was quiet a moment and I wondered if this was as far as this conversation was going to go. Then she shifted her feet and pointed back toward the clubhouse. “Why don’t we go have some lunch and you can tell me all about this very strange situation and I’ll see if I can’t come up with some wisdom or at the very least female advice.”

I needed any advice I could get. There were no females in my life I could ask for help. “Yeah, okay. Sounds good. You give me any advice I can use and lunch is on me.”

Blaire

This was the second day that I had woken up without getting sick. I’d even had Bethy cook bacon to test me out before I came in for the lunch shift. I figured if I could survive the bacon then I could do this. My stomach had rolled and I’d gotten nauseous but I hadn’t thrown up. I was getting better.

I called Woods and assured him I would be fine. He told me to come on in because they were short staffed and he needed me. Jimmy was standing in the kitchen grinning when I walked in thirty minutes before the lunch shift.

“There’s my girl. Glad that stomach virus has gone. You look like you lost ten pounds. How long were you sick?” Woods had told Jimmy and anyone else who asked that I had a virus and I was recovering. I’d only worked two shifts on the course and I never ran into kitchen staff while on the carts.

“I probably did lose some weight. I’m sure I’ll gain it back soon enough,” I replied and hugged him.

“You better or I’m shoving donuts down your throat until I can wrap my hands around your waist and have my fingers not touch.”

That may be sooner than he realized. “I could use a good donut right now.”

“It’s a date. After work. You, me, and a twelve pack. Half chocolate covered,” Jimmy said and handed me my apron.

“Sounds good. You can come see my new place. I’m staying with Bethy in a condo on the club property.”

Jimmy’s eyebrows shot up. “You don’t say. Well, well, well aren’t you highfalutin’?”

I tied my apron on and tucked my pen and pad in my front pocket. “I’ll take the first round if you prep the salads and make the sweet tea.”

Jimmy winked. “Deal.”

I headed out to the dining room and luckily the only guests were two older gentlemen I’d seen before but I didn’t know their names. I took down their orders and poured them both a cup of coffee before heading back to check on the salads.

Jimmy had two already made for me and was holding them up when I walked back into the kitchen. “Here ya go hot stuff,” he said.

“Thanks gorgeous,” I replied taking the salads into the dining room. I delivered the salads and took the drink order of new guests. Then I headed back to get their sparkling water and spring water with lemon. No one ever just ordered water around here.

Jimmy was heading out the kitchen door when I got there. “I just got the two women who look like they came off the tennis courts. I think I saw Hillary… isn’t that the hostess today? Anyway I think I saw her talking to more guests so there should be a table waiting to be greeted.”

He saluted me and headed back to the dining room.

I quickly finished getting the special waters and put the two orders of crab bisque the men had requested onto my tray thenreturned to the dining room when Jimmy’s panicked expression caught my attention.

“I got this,” he said, reaching for my tray.

“You don’t even know where it goes. I can carry a tray Jimmy,” I replied rolling my eyes. He didn’t even know I was pregnant and he was being silly…

Then I saw him… or them. Jimmy wasn’t being silly. He was protecting me. Rush’s head was tilted forward as he talked about something that caused that intense serious expression on his face. The woman had long dark hair. She was gorgeous. Her cheekbones were high and perfect. Long heavy lashes outlined her dark eyes. I was going to be sick. My tray rattled and Jimmy was taking it from me. I let him. I was about to drop it.

He wasn’t mine. But… I was carrying his baby. He didn’t know. But… he’d made love to me, no he’d fucked me, in Bethy’s bathroom just three days ago. This hurt. So bad. I swallowed but my throat felt almost closed. Jimmy was saying something to me but I couldn’t understand him. I was unable to do anything but stare at them. He leaned in so close to her like he didn’t want anyone to hear what he was saying.