Page 22 of Finally Home

Hollie frowns, probably more confused than ever, so I try to settle her question as best I can. “It’s not my story to tell, to be honest.”

“Gotcha. It’s been on my mind since I was there. Sorry for interrupting.”

“It’s okay. My sister, Payton—”

“Your sister,” Hollie shouts and then recovers, bringing her hands to cover her mouth in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry. Just the call and text yesterday was from yoursister. Got it.”

Fireworks shoot off in my brain.Oh shit, she was jealous, wasn’t she?I smirk and debate bringing it up. I can’t help it, I need to know more.

“Jealous, were we?”

“What? No, I mean, yes, I mean—” She fumbles for words and fidgets in her chair.

“It’s okay, babe. I won’t tell anyone.” I lean over the center console. “It can be our little secret. Gotta admit, I kinda like it.” My voice is deep and husky, and I don’t miss the slight tremble of her body. She quickly brushes it off and pushes me back to my seat.

“God, you’re annoying,” she grumbles under her breath but with a huge smile on her face.

The GPS shows we’re about five minutes away. “Can I continue, or would you like to interrupt me again?” I joke, and she just rolls her eyes.

“So, Payton attends Rutherford University. She’s an early education major and wants to become a teacher. I think she’d be pretty good at it. I can remember as a child she would always set up her stuffed animals and dolls as if they were her students and my parents had gotten her a chalkboard to use in her room. She’s great with kids, too. Pay was always babysitting all the kids in the neighborhood growing up.”

We pull into the parking lot, and I find a spot up front. I smile as I get out and see that Hollie knows to wait for me to open her door.

“Good girl,” I whisper as she takes my hand and gets out of the jeep. A beautiful blush creeps over her cheeks, and I can’t stop myself from wondering if my girl has some sort of praise kink.

Fuck! One, stop thinking of her as your girl. And two, stop thinking about her and kinks.My dick already hates me for now denying it any action twice.

“What is this place?” Hollie asks as we pass a sign that reads “Bogie Nights.” That’s cute, being a play on the movieBoogie Nights, especially with the logo looking like a disco. But where the disco ball should be, it’s now a golf ball.Clever.

“Extreme Putt Putt.”

“Am I supposed to know what that is?”

“Touché.” I press a kiss to her temple. “Apparently, each hole is a little extreme, hence the term extreme putt putt.” I also tell her my hopes about the rage room, showing her I had listened to everything she had said yesterday.

When I finish talking, Hollie just stares blankly at me, clearly overwhelmed by everything I just said.

We walk inside, and I get us set up with a putter and bright-colored ball. Hollie chose a pink ball for herself and snorted as she passed me a bright blue ball.Oh, the irony, that she’s giving me not only blue balls but a blue ball.

“My girl’s got jokes, I see,” I chuckle as I walk us out to hole number one.

“Woah,” Hollie says under her breath, and I couldn’t agree more.I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Here I thought the first hole might be easy, but yeah, nope. The owners of this place wanted to waste no time getting extreme. Hole number one is basically a life-size pinball machine. We need to hit that ball up a narrow path, and then itwill curve around to various points before sinking into one of the holes, which I assume is a tunnel that will lead out to the hole itself. But the problem I can’t seem to figure out is which hole do we want to aim for.

“Do you want to go first?” Hollie asks, holding out her putter.

“Ladies first,” I insist.

“You just want to see me make a fool of myself first, huh?”

I pretend to be offended, bringing my hand to my chest, but Hollie just laughs as she walks over to place her ball on the green. She takes the position and swings with extra gusto, causing the ball to soar over the intended path and into the rocks two holes over.

“Oh my God,” she shrieks and covers her face with her hands. “This is awful.”

I set my putter against the wooden pole and step up to her, wrapping my hands around her waist. “Hey, it’s okay. It was only the first try. Let me go grab your ball, and then we’ll give it another go, okay?”

After kissing her temple, I take off in search of the ball. Thankfully, the bright pink color stands out against the tan and brown rocks, and I’m headed back to Holls in no time. When I return, Hollie has her arms wrapped around herself and her bottom lip between her teeth. She looks nervous as hell.

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