“Eli!” Nolan shouts from the golf cart. “What the hell are you doing? Mr. Brown is waiting!”
I’m still staring at her through the trees as she approaches the three old men she’s golfing with. I need her.
A panicky, twitchy feeling starts to overtake me as she starts walking farther away. How can I get her in my arms? How can I get her in my bed?
“Eli!” Nolan shouts as loud as you can on a golf course without getting kicked out. “Get over here!”
My head is spinning and my pulse is on overdrive, but somehow, I manage to walk out of the forest.
“What hole is that?” I ask, pointing to where my angel disappeared.
“Who cares?” Nolan says as he grabs my arm and yanks me into the cart. He’s peeling away before my feet have left the ground. “Let’s just get this over with. You got your ball?”
I quickly slide it into my pocket. I’m not hitting this one into the water. She touched it. It’s priceless.
“What’s wrong with you?” Nolan asks. “You didn’t eat any of those mushrooms growing in the forest, did you?”
My head is turned all the way away from him as I try to catch another glimpse of her, but it’s impossible with all the trees and the increasing distance between us.
“Eli!” Nolan snaps. “Get your head in the game. Jesus.”
“The girl…”
“What girl?”
He wouldn’t even believe me if I told him. I don’t even know if I believe it.
“Carrie,” I whisper and a shiver snakes down my spine. I have enough money to buy anything I desire, but all I want is her. I’d burn every dollar I have to spend the night with her.
“Carry what? Your clubs?” Nolan says, looking at me funny. “Just stay in the cart and stop acting so weird.”
He pulls up to where Mr. Brown and Gabriel are waiting. They look very annoyed. I couldn’t care less. All I care about is seeing that girl again. My girl. She’s going to be mine.
She already is. I’ve decided it and once I get something in my head, I get it no matter what.
Possessive feelings are flowing through my veins as we step out of the cart. This girl is wedged deep under my skin already. I’m all wound up and irritable, hating that I’m not running over to her right now.
“That took an excessive amount of time,” Mr. Brown says with a frown as we walk over to Nolan’s ball. We’re playing best ball, which means that we’ve been playing off of Nolan’s ball all day.
“Save it,” I snap.
All eyes dart to me as I squeeze my club and whack the ball. I’m irritable and ready to kill something, so I hit the ball as hard as I can. It goes about two feet, but the big chunk of grass goes about twenty.
Gabriel snorts out a laugh, but his smile quickly disappears when I glare at him in warning.
Thoughts of my Carrie are flooding my mind, drowning me in desire as I look back at the trees, wishing we were both back there.
Nolan hits the ball—somewhere, I don’t care—and the rest of my foursome returns to their carts.
“Wait!” I shout a little too loud. “Can we go play on that hole? The one down there?”
Gabriel and Mr. Brown glance at each other before looking at me with confusion in their eyes.
“Normally, it’s customary to play the course in numerical order.”
And normally it’s not customary for a man to lose his shit after seeing a girl once, but here we are.
“He’s just joking,” Nolan says as he grabs me by the collar and drags me back to our golf cart. He practically throws me in. “What the fuck is up with you? We’re supposed to be professional and you’re acting like you decided to try crystal meth for the first time! Are you trying to lose this account?”
“I’m losing my mind…”
Nolan drops his eyes with a sigh. “Is it drugs? What kind?”
“The female kind,” I say as my heart wrenches around in my chest. Being apart from her physically hurts.
“Not the old lady at the ticket counter?” Nolan says, scrunching his nose up.
“What? No! I met her in the woods. When I was getting my ball.”
Nolan frowns as he glances back at the empty trees. “You’re sure it’s not drugs?”
I roll my eyes. “Just go.”
We drive over the hill and Nolan curses when he sees that he’s landed in the sand trap. I couldn’t care less. My mind is in another dimension. One with me and Carrie on vacation… her in a bikini… holding my hand after a candlelight dinner on the beach… me carrying her into our room… honeymooners written in lipstick on the mirror… the bliss… the euphoria… the sweet softness of her tight little—
“Eli!” Nolan snaps. “It’s your shot.”
Mr. Brown and Gabriel are on the other side of the green where they can barely see us.