Page 33 of Fangirl Down

“No,” he half shouted at her, since his lack of rest was largely due to her mouth, how she’d looked in that green dress, and a million other annoying reasons, most of which originated with her.

“Well.” She moved to stand at his side, so they were both looking out over the course, though their height difference meant her view didn’t reach as far. “If you have the jitters, this is a good time to remind yourself that it’s about the game.” Man, her voice was... soothing. “Not the people and shouting and cameras. Try to remember the course just like this when all the noise starts. A big, quiet field. It’s here to be enjoyed, not feared.”

“Are you my caddie or my Zen master?”

“Get you a woman who does both, Whitaker.”

He snorted and the sound almost, almost, turned into a chuckle.

They stood in the silence for a few moments, watching the sun rise in the distance.

“You know...” She tucked a stray piece of hair into her ponytail. “If you have something on your mind, now would be a good time to let it off. We have golfer-caddie confidentiality. Legally, I can’t repeat anything you tell me.”

“That’s not a thing, Josephine.”

“I just made it a thing.”

“I have nothing on my mind.”

This time, she snorted.

He turned a frown on her.

Damn, she was annoying. And the rising sun was picking up secret strands of gold in her hair and amber flecks in her eyes. Annoying. All of it. “Why don’t you tell me what I’m thinking, since you woke up with so much wisdom this morning?”

She pursed her lips and Wells had to look away. Or risk reaching over and tracing the bottom one, so he could know once and for all if it was as smooth as it looked.

It is. You know it is.

Those lips would slide down his stomach like chocolate sauce on a scoop of ice cream.

The exact last thing he should be thinking about right now. Or ever.

She wasn’t there to hook up. She was there to save her family’s shop.

Herhealthwas on the line, goddammit.

If he didn’t take this tournament seriously, that made him a bastard.

Since when did he care about being a bastard?

Wells cleared his throat hard and let words leave his mouth unplanned. “Buck was there last night. And I guess every time I see Buck, I remember how he gave me this opportunity to be great and I pissed it away. To the press, he used to say, ‘All the kid needed was a chance,’ but maybe... I don’t know, maybe I takechances and set them on fire. Buck isn’t the first one to get sick of my shit and bail.”

“Who else was there?”

He laughed without humor. “You never see any proud parents standing on the sidelines cheering me on, do you? No, because I was nothing but a delinquent growing up. They couldn’t wait to get work on a cruise ship and sail away. I don’t blame them for it, either.” He paused to drag in a breath. “Maybe I don’t have the right... tools to handle success, you know? Maybe I have this skill—and that’s it. None of the character that makes me deserve it. Nothing... else.”

At first, he was simply trying to distract himself from inappropriate fantasies about Josephine’s mouth, but he was shocked to find a knot inside him loosening as his confession wore on. A knot he’d been completely unaware of.

“Wow,” she whispered, staring straight ahead. “That’s a lot to unpack. I thought you were just going to tell me to shut up.”

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“That’s not to say I’m unhappy that you told me,” she rushed to add, reaching over to squeeze his elbow. Regarding him in silence for a beat. “Wells, don’t you realize? You did alotwith your chance. Getting a tour card in itself takes a miracle. It’s not always about the next thing you do. Sometimes it’s about what you’ve already done.”

His chest knit together and pulled, compromising his vocal cords. “Garbage.”

“It’s not garbage. And that whole thing about having parents on the sidelines...” She shook her head. “I have that in my life. So, I can’t really see things from your perspective. But I know for a fact that character doesn’t come from one single place. Success is more complex than that, and we’re in control of it. Do you think I was your number one fan solely because of your golf game?”

---