Page 80 of Up All Night

Once she’d paid, she handed me a putter. “You ready to lose?”

“Please.” I took the putter from her. “I’ve been golfing with my dad since I was five. I could putt in my sleep.”

Golfing had been a big part of my childhood. Dad had insisted that I learn it at a young age, emphasizing how important it would be for my career. Yeah, he was already thinking about my future as a businessman when I was in diapers. And he’d been correct. We spent a fair amount of time on the golf course with clients and other investors. It broke the ice, made people more open to working together when they were having fun and golfing on someone else’s dime.

Halle set down her golf ball at the beginning of the first hole, Rocking Stone. She needed her ball to either go up the ramp and through the stone or go around the stone completely to get to the hole on the other side.

“Do you want to make this competition more interesting?” she asked, lifting her gaze to mine.

“Aren’t we already in the middle of another competition?” We hadn’t even finished our last competition, and she was ready to start another one. I couldn’t stop my smile at how much I enjoyed playing these games with her.

She gripped her putter, lining up her shot. “Are you scared? I thought you couldputt in your sleep.” She rolled her eyes.

“Fine. You’re on,” I said. “But I’m not going easy on you.”

She hit her pink golf ball, and it went straight up the ramp, shooting out of the stone and directly into the hole, a saccharine smile now on her face. “I wasn’t expecting you to.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “What are the stakes?”

She moved to the side, making room for me to set my ball down. “What do you want them to be?”

I took a second to look at her. What did I want? I wanted to kiss her. I wanted more than anything to find out if her lips were as soft as they looked. I wanted to tell her that if I won, I got to kiss her, and if I lost I got to kiss her. Either way had me getting to kiss her in the end.

I couldn’t exactly tell her the truth, so I said, “Winner gets to decide.”

A mischievous gleam flashed in her eyes. “Are you sure you’re willing to put yourself in a position that will require you to do whatever I choose?”

I lined up my shot, checking to make sure my ball was aiming for the middle of the ramp in the distance. Pulling my putter back, I hit my yellow golf ball. It followed up the ramp, through the stone, and right into the hole.

It was now my turn to give her a cocky grin. “No, but Iammore than willing to have you do something of my choosing.”

Her lips pursed as she eyed my ball, a hole-in-one, just like hers.

“Unless you’re too nervous you’re going to lose and no longer want to compete?” I taunted.

She stomped over to the next hole. “Oh, we’re competing.”

She set up her ball again, and I couldn’t help smiling at her competitive tone. Her ball went through a barrel, skimming past the hole. I smirked at her miss but heard a clunk when her ball hit the edge of the green, bouncing back and into the hole.

I stared at the hole in shock. No freakin’ way.

“Yes!” she yelled, jumping up and down. “Yes, yes, yes!”

I wanted to be annoyed, but I wasn’t. She looked too cute as she celebrated her second hole-in-one. She broke out into a victory dance, her hips shaking side to side as she held her putter in the air.

“Did you see that, West? That was my second,” she held up two fingers. “Hole. In. One.”

I shook my head at her in mock exasperation. How was she so good at mini-golf? I had thought for sure I would have this competition in the bag. I hadn’t known my competitor was going to be some secret mini-golf pro. But we were only on hole two out of eighteen, so there was still plenty of game left.

“Step aside,” I said. “You’re not the only one who can keep getting a hole-in-one.”

“Mmhm,” she responded, crossing her arms and revealing a hint of cleavage at the neckline of her v-neck shirt.

Focus, West. You’re never going to win if you keep checking her out.

I held my putter, making sure my grip was in just the right spot. I relaxed my shoulders and took a breath before hitting the putter against the golf ball. The ball sailed straight through the barrel, but just when I thought it was going to go in the hole, it rounded the rim and bounced out.

Halle gasped and pulled in her lips, looking like she was trying to hold in her excitement.

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