Page 73 of Second Chance for the Single Mom

“Apparently.” Lucas leaned on his putter like a cane. “That’s a tap-in for me. No pressure, little man.”

Bran frowned in concentration as he stood over his ball. He watched the windmill rotate for a long time, then pulled back the putter and swung. The ball rolled past the moving obstacles and into the tunnel. Once again, all three of us went to the railing to watch the ball emerge below.

It seemed to stay within the hidden tunnels for an exceedingly long time. Bran’s eyes were the size of saucers as he waited. Finally, the ball appeared. It rolled slower than Lucas’s, but it was heading right toward the hole.

“Come on,” Bran whispered. “Keep going!”

The ball rolled right up to the lip, pausing on the last dimple for two long heartbeats. Just when we thought it would stay there, it plunged into the hole.

“YES!” Lucas shouted.

A sign above the hole flashed brightly, and there was a fanfare of celebratory music. Bran whirled around and looked at me, then at Lucas. “Did it really go in?”

“You bet it did!” Lucas said.

An employee emerged from the nearby building. “A hole-in-one on the eighteenth hole means you win a free round of golf. Congratulations.”

Lucas hoisted Bran up onto his shoulders, then ran around the pathway shouting excitedly. I had never seen my son so happy, giggling and grinning like he’d won a major golf tournament.

As I watched them celebrate, my heartsang.

37

Haley

Bran was practicallygiddywith excitement by the time we dropped him off at home. He wouldn’t stop talking about his hole-in-one, and how he had beaten Lucas fair and square. The date could have ended right now and I would have smiled for the rest of the week.

“We’ll have to use your free game for a rematch,” Lucas told him on the front porch.

“Let’s go inside so these two can go to dinner,” Sara said, putting a hand on Bran’s shoulder.

But Bran tilted his head up toward Lucas. “Where are you going?”

Lucas crouched down so that he was at the boy’s level. “It’s a surprise.”

“Mom says she hates surprises.”

Lucas grinned up at me. “I know. But she’ll like this one.”

Bran hugged him, and once again I felt my heart skip a beat. I never thought I would see the two of them together, let alonehugging. It was like a dream come true, but for a dream I didn’t know I’d had.

“Have fun, you two,” Sara said with a knowing smile.

“I’m surprised your sister likes me so much,” Lucas said as we drove away.

“Why does that surprise you?”

“Because she hated me when we first dated.”

“That’s not true!”

He glanced over at me.

“She… thought you were a bad influence on me,” I admitted. “Which you totally were back then.”

“Fair enough.”

“Where are we going to dinner?”

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