Not that he hadn’t had visions of that happening a time or two.
Or a hundred.
“You’re frightening sometimes,” she said. “But why am I not surprised?”
“You know, if Luke’s discovered that you don’t know how to play golf, why are we still going through with this?”
“Because Luke likes golf. If we’re going to have any kind of relationship, I think it’s important that I be able to enjoy the same things he does. Or at least understand them a little better.”
“And what if you don’t end up liking it? Does that mean you two won’t be compatible? Or will you just continue to act like you do?” He sounded a lot more annoyed than he intended.
“Wow. You’re in a mood.”
“No, I’m just trying to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“What makes you so sure that Luke Seeley is the one? I mean, before you’d said two words to him, you were already picking out the names of your kids. What do you know about him other than he plays golf, served some humanitarian stint for a couple of years, and is a doctor?”
“First, the fact that we both are in the medical profession says a lot about his character already. That we have common interests and goals and worked hard to get where we are. Second, I know that he feels just as strongly as I do about family and marriage. His parents have been married more than forty years, and he, like me, wants to emulate that.”
“So if a person comes from a broken family, maybe raised by a single parent, you’re saying they wouldn’t be compatible with someone whose family is intact, for lack of a better word.”
“No, you’re twisting my words. I’m just saying that he believes that a good marriage can exist. That there is such a thing as happily-ever-after. Unlike some people, who think a meaningful relationship is two people who make it to lunch the next day.”
“You don’t think I believe in marriage?”
“Well, do you? I seem to recall you expressing your cynicism before that such a thing was akin to a fairy tale.”
“I never said anything about a fairy tale.” However, he couldn’t deny that up until recently, he’d been convinced that that stuff only existed in Hallmark movies. Or in commercials that aired over the holidays to make everyone feel incompetent and wistful over something that wasn’t real.
Only, having spent time with Benny, he was actually starting to believe that such things were real. That maybe a man and a woman—or two women or two men or whatever fate chose—could find a special spark with another person and that they could be happy to spend the rest of their lives happy to experience the ups and downs of life together.
Not that he was going to try and explain that to Benny. “Let’s just say that you’ve made me believe a lot more things are possible.”
She grew quiet, so he risked a glance at her. She was looking at him with an odd shine in her eyes. He turned his attention back to the road in time to catch their exit, and they rode in silence the last few minutes to the club.
…
“See where you want it to go. Now…tap it. Very gently. If you hit it too hard, it’s going to sail right past.”
The ball was six feet from the hole. It might have taken too many swings to count to get her there, but she was, and was so close to getting it in she was wired.
Benny took in a breath and lifted the club and brought it lightly down. The ball moved gracefully one then two then the final three feet and for a minute looked like it was going to miss, but it looped in the curve of the hole and, for a long second, hung there before it finally dropped in.
“Woo-hoo!!” Benny cried and moved her hands in front of her in her trademark dance. Henry lifted his brows, a smile on his face as he watched her in amusement. But she didn’t care.
Wow. Is this what it’s like once you master actually hitting the ball with the club? This invigorating feeling as they finished another hole?
“Grab your ball, tiger,” Henry said. “We’ve got to get to the next hole before the mob waiting behind us takes matters into their own hands.”
The disco beat of “We Are Family” trilled from her phone, and she pulled it from her back pocket, already knowing who it was. “Hey, Daisy.”
“Wow. Don’t you sound chipper. What are you doing?”
“Golfing.”
“Again? I thought after you nearly maimed Henry last weekend you gave up on that. Who are you with?”