Page 106 of Playing for Keeps

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t want to keep it from you. To start with, we agreed it was just fun between us, so it didn’t seem like a big deal to not mention it.” She released a long breath. “I’ve been trying to tell you, but there never seemed to be time …”

“Okay,” he said again.

“You’re not saying much.”

“I’m not sure what to say.” He had no idea what to think. “The staff don’t know you own the place?”

“No. I’m going to tell them, I just really wanted to tell you first. Are you angry with me?”

“I don’t know,” he said honestly, then shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m pretty stunned, to be honest.”

“It’s a lot to take in.”

He shifted in his seat. “I should probably check on Emmy. Can we talk about this later?”

“Yes. Of course. Call me later and we can chat it all through.”

He didn’t need to check on Emmy at all; he just wanted to get off the phone so he could gather his thoughts.

Resting his elbows on the desk, he massaged his temples. A quick nudge of the computer mouse lit up the screen in front of him, and he was once again confronted with the golf course design. His chest tightened as he recalled telling Allie they could show them to the owners of the club.

That might have been a nice time for her to mention that she was the owner of the club.

CHAPTER 38

Spilling her guts to Hugh over the phone hadn’t been ideal, but at least everything was finally out in the open. Of course he’d need time to digest the information, but Allie spent the morning feeling as though she was on tenterhooks waiting for him to take it in and react.

To distract herself, she went for a long, rambling walk, which involved a break to sit on a quiet beach and stare out at the water as she contemplated her future.

Back at home, she felt a rush of determination and picked up her phone to call her dad. They spent a few minutes chatting about his health before Allie steered the conversation to work.

“I’ve been thinking some more about changes I’d like to make here,” she told him.

“Hmm. I wondered when you’d get to that. Why do I get the feeling my plan to get you to take a break has backfired somewhat?”

“How do you mean?” she asked, surveying the mess in the room as she sank onto the bed.

“I just wanted you to go back and take a look at the place, and now it seems as though you don’t want to come home.”

“Well. I would like to stay longer. I feel there are changes I can implement at the club, and …”

“And there’s a certain architect you’re not keen to leave behind?”

She couldn’t argue with that, but she’d been doing her best to keep her mind away from Hugh. “There are lots of reasons I want to stay longer,” she said. “At this particular moment, I’m focusing on changes to the club.”

“You don’t want to discuss your love life?”

“Nope. Let’s stick to business.”

“Okay. Tell me your ideas.”

“I want to implement the changes to the course. The ones I mentioned to you before.”

“You want to redo the entire golf course?”

“Yes. The way I’ve been working on it with Hugh would mean impactful changes to the course with minimal work, to keep the costs down.”

“Right.” Her dad didn’t sound convinced.

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