Page 24 of Love on Deck

There were varying degrees of assent, and everyone got their golf clubs to begin. Lauren moved to leave when I tugged her back. “Thanks for that,” I whispered.

She looked up at me and her sunglasses slipped down her nose a little. Her hazel eyes were a golden green in this light, her hair looking more honey than brown. “It was nothing. I told you I’d handle it.”

“You handled it, all right.”

A laugh tore from her chest that was more surprise than humor as she pushed her glasses back up. “Punny, are we?”

I grinned. To get one of those laughs again, I could sacrifice my pride for puns.

Lauren immediately looked away, tempering her smile as if she’d realized who she was laughing with and had to remind herself not to find me funny. But that bit of light had shown through her otherwise austere façade, and now I knew I had the power to crack into the Lauren underneath. If she didn’t want me trying too hard to win her over, she shouldn’t have made herself such a challenge.

“Bride and groom go first,” Cara said, leading the way to the start of the course.

We followed them over and stood at the back of the line, me behind Lauren, waiting for our turn. Hovering would more accurately describe my efforts here. Getting as close to her as possible without touching. If it was a game, I’d be going pro.

Only, I’d underestimated Lauren’s competitive nature. We were on our sixth hole—of nine—and our scores were neck and neck. She lined up her ball and squared her shoulders, swinging to hit just as the deck shifted and the ball rolled away. But she’d nicked it.

“One.”

She looked up. “That didn’t count.”

“Yes it did. It was a swing and you hit the ball.”

Her mouth hung open. “The ship moved and the ball rolled. Boat rules. Doesn’t count.”

I looked up at the sky. It was too bright, even with my sunglasses on, but I’d committed to this pose and I was seeing it through. “Boat rules? Hmmm. Sounds like Miss Foley wants to cheat.”

She scoffed. “It isn’t cheating, it’s fair.”

I took a step closer to her. “All is fair in love and war, Sunshine.”

“You don’t want to declare war against me, Fletcher. I’ve won our office scavenger hunt three years in a row, and it’s not from any aptitude for finding things.”

“Actually, war seems like fun.” My blood was pumping, my heart clipping along at a faster beat. Just holding her undivided attention was heady in a way I hadn’t experienced lately. Was it a false sense of accomplishment hitting my veins? My body believing it was winning because she wasn’t ignoring me?

I didn’t really care what the cause was. Lauren’s eyes were sparking and I was here for it.

She wasn’t backing down, either. “Blood was spilled at our last event.”

“You hurt someone to win a scavenger hunt?”

“She hurt herself trying so hard to beat me, but it couldn’t be done.”

I stepped up next to her, chest to chest, one inch of gloriously tense space between us. Her eyes were visible through the lenses of her sunglasses, but still I wanted to remove them. “Be careful challenging me.”

I wanted to sound deep and foreboding, but my whisper lacked the gravitas I was going for. The way I wanted her was pretty evident.

Her eyes flickered, something passing over her face. Was she feeling this, too? This weird, pulling sensation, like she was a fridge and I was a magnet. Or maybe we could both be magnets—I didn’t think she’d like me comparing her to a kitchen appliance.

“What’s taking so long?” Sydney called.

Lauren’s eyes flicked to the group over my shoulder and back to my face. She bent to put her ball back on the starting dot and swung again. It rolled forward, moving a little with the ship until it dropped into the hole. She lifted both of her arms. “Hole in one!”

“Two,” I insisted.

Lauren turned slack-jawed surprise on me. “One. I hit it once and it made it into the hole.”

It was impressive for a cruise ship mini golf game, but I kept my expression passive. “Twice. You hit the ball twice for that hole.”

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