Page 94 of Putting Out
“A first timer who followed you to Little Creek, then followed you to Savannah.”
Reilly shook her head. “Or not. That reporter who wrote the story about Birdie’s window noted I was staying in Savannah. Everyone in town has seen me. Heck, this could be a whole new stalker. Maybe there’s a bunch of people who get off on watching me play golf. I know I do.”
Kenny caught her attempt at levity and tried to smile, but his chest was tight and he realized that if anything happened to her it would be his fault.
“I pushed you to do this.”
“No. You wanted me to do this. I made my own decision.”
“I thought it would be cool. I thought it would be fun to walk around and play a few rounds with the big guys. Now you’re getting hate mail and creepy mail. Golfers are going on television and calling you unworthy. Jimmy Fallon is making jokes. And I’m standing here in a pile of trash you left behind that some sicko has probably jerked off to a million times. I don’t know if it’s worth it anymore. Do you still think it’s worth it?”
She rubbed her hands on her cotton pants. “Ew, you don’t really think he…you know.”
“I’m not kidding,” Kenny snapped. “You don’t need this. You’re the best woman golfer ever to play the game. That’s what they’re going to say about you. Years from now when you can’t hold a club in your arthritic hands and Luke is chasing you around the kitchen in a walker, they’ll show lists of your records that still haven’t been broken. You don’t need to do this. To risk your life. It’s just a game.”
Reilly inhaled. “Bite your tongue. If Pop heard you…this is more than a game to us, Kenny. This is our way of life. Our family’s passion. This game is who we are. At least it’s who I am. I have to tell you a couple of months ago I wasn’t all that crazy about me. I wasn’t having fun anymore. I was tired of playing and tired of winning and I didn’t know what the hell to do because being a golfer is the only thing I’ve ever known how to be. Not a wife or even a just a friend. But now everything is different. I know the next step to take. I’m not sure what’s going to happen on the other side of this tournament. I can’t see that far. But I’m not pulling out. Not because of what anyone says or does. Am I scared? Yes. Am I stopping because of this twerp? No.”
He guessed he hadn’t expected anything different, but he also hadn’t expected to be so worried about what could happen to her.
“Did you ever think it was a little crazy we define ourselves by a game?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was too much. Maybe we should have been exposed to more. Maybe Grams should have taken me to dance lessons and Pop should have put a football in your hand at least once. But Grams was busy making the transition from grandmother back to mother and Pop had to figure out how to be a father in a different time. It’s how he related to us. It worked. We were two pretty happy orphans.”
“Staying happy is harder,” Kenny said, thinking about the five hundred unreturned messages he’d left for Tessa.
“Staying happy is up to us. If we screw up, it’s on our heads.”
“I’ve screwed up. A lot.”
“Yeah, me, too. But I don’t know, I feel different now, Kenny. Like things might be changing for the better.”
Kenny snorted. “You’ve got a thing for Luke. That’s the only change.”
“I do not!”
“You do, too. The tension has been thick between you two since we came down here. The looks. The stupid fights. It’s so middle school it makes me sick. You might as well just do it and get it over with.”
Kenny watched as her eyes climbed up into her skull in a desperate attempt to avoid eye contact.
“Uh, gross. What makes you think I would ever… I mean… you know … with him? ”
“Crap, you two already did it,” he accused her, reading her face like he did a scorecard. “My best friend and my sister. Do you know how many unwritten social laws that breaks?”
“You were going to do it with Erica! She’s my friend.”
“You’re the sister. I’m a man. It’s different. Now I have to hit Luke. Then my hand is going hurt all night. Damn it.”
“Or you could not hit him.”
They left the thicket of trees to join Odie and Pete who were waiting for some answers.
“Not possible. I have to hit him. Just promise me you were over twenty-five when it first happened.”
“Uh, okay.”
