Page 128 of Playing for Keeps

Hugh nodded slowly. “I looked you up,” he blurted out, since he knew it would play on his mind otherwise. “Actually Emmy did to start with. She came home last night all excited about finding that you’re friends with celebrities.”

“Ah.” Allie smiled softly. “I think she’d probably be disappointed that my only famous friends are golfers and they’re only really famous in golfing circles.”

“Right.” Hugh tapped on the bar. “And the pictures of you with musicians and actors …”

“That’s mainly just marketing,” Allie told him. “I invited them to play at the golf course for free, then we take photos for social media. It’s good for the golf club.”

“So you’re not friends with any of them? Because Emmy has her hopes pinned on you inviting Alasdair King here for her birthday.”

Allie’s smile widened. “He’s a really nice guy, but he lives all the way up on the Isle of Skye. I don’t think I’d have much chance of coaxing him to Devon for a round of golf and a kid’s birthday party. No offence to Emmy.”

“So you do actually know him?” Hugh asked.

“He was on tour with Ghost Moon. I’d gone through a phase of inviting any celebrities I could think of to the club. I never expected Ghost Moon would even respond, but one day Josh Bane called me out of the blue and said he’d never played golf before and was surprised to get my invitation. He also asked if we had a bar, which should have been a red flag.”

She pressed her lips together. “I’m not sure my dad has forgiven me. They played golf for about half an hour – in which time they tore up the first tee off quite spectacularly – then they spent several hours in the clubhouse with a bunch of their friends and groupies. Pretty much drank the bar dry and left the place in a bit of a state. We got some great publicity shots though. I spent a lot of the evening hanging out with Alasdair and his girlfriend, who were much more down to earth than the members of Ghost Moon.”

“Sounds fun,” Hugh said, for lack of anything else to say.

Allie drew her chin back. “Are you annoyed with me?”

He shook his head, but couldn’t manage an outright no. “It just would have been nice if you’d mentioned it …”

“I told you I played golf at the professional level and about the social media stuff.”

“Yeah, I know. I just didn’t realise it was such a big deal.”

“It’s not,” she said gruffly. “Especially not now.”

Hugh was saved from the conversation by a waiter needing to talk to Allie. She told Hugh she’d be right back but only returned once all the customers had left and the staff were trickling out too.

“Sorry,” she said, appearing with her jacket over one arm and her handbag hooked over her shoulder. “Shall we go back to mine? I’d suggest we go to yours, but I need to be back here again at the crack of dawn.”

“Sure,” he said, slipping off the stool. He was miles away while Allie switched off lights and locked up the club. As they ambled across the car park she murmured about how tired she was, but Hugh was too caught up in his own thoughts to give her his full attention.

He struggled to get his head around how much had changed in the last couple of weeks. Their carefree relationship now felt weighed down by the stresses of everyday life, not to mention all the new information about Allie, which left his head spinning whenever he thought about it.

“Do people usually call you Alegra?” he asked as they neared her door.

“Yes.” Under the dazzling security light she chewed her lip sheepishly. “I never liked having my name shortened. Verity told me the other day that my mum had also insisted on people using my proper name. I’d never known that.”

“Verity knew your mum?” he asked while she rooted in her bag for her key.

“Yes. Apparently they were friends. She remembers me from when I was little which is nice.” She paused and looked up. “Weird, but nice.”

Again, Hugh felt at a loss for words. It seemed as though every time Allie spoke, he learned something new about her. “Should I start calling you Alegra?”

She opened the door. “No I don’t think so. Allie has kind of grown on me.”

“It would feel odd to start calling you something different now.” He heard the edge of irritation to his voice, and given the look Allie gave him, she’d noticed it too. Closing his eyes briefly, he tried to clear his thoughts. “I mean, it would take some getting used to, that’s all, but …”

“I was a little hesitant when I found out my mum insisted on Alegra, but Verity pointed out that my mum would mostly be concerned about me being happy.” She stepped towards him and draped her arms around his shoulders. “I’ve been much happier these last weeks while I’ve been Allie. It feels almost as though I have a different life as Allie, and it’s the life I want. I don’t want to go back to being Alegra.”

She sighed and drew closer to him. “It’s so good to finally have you to myself. The last weeks have been such a whirlwind. I still can’t quite wrap my brain around the events of the past forty-eight hours.”

It hit Hugh then just how much he’d been caught up in his own thoughts. With all his worries, he’d barely considered how Allie was coping with everything.

“You must be pretty stressed,” he remarked.

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