Chapter 3
THREE
CHARLOTTE
“I’ve got a delivery for you,” Mia, one of my fellow bev cart girls, tells me as I pull up to the pro shop at Pembroke.
I’ve only been at work for a little over an hour, and things have been slammed.
I’m having to stock up on more blue Gatorade because, apparently, that’s the preferred flavor this morning.
“A delivery for me?” I ask, sliding out of the cart and walking up to her. She stands in the open garage at the back of the pro shop with a knowing smile. I don’t know what she knows or what the delivery is, but she’s acting suspicious.
Mia nods. “It came from a very cute deliverer too.”
I narrow my eyes at her as I follow her into the garage. She opens the door to the walk-in cooler, and I follow behind her because I do need to grab those Gatorades.
Mia pulls a coffee off one of the shelves and holds it out for me. “Jude Kensington dropped it off for you. He was adamant that it was kept cold.”
I stare at the coffee cup. It’s from the same coffee shop I stopped at earlier.
“Jude brought this?” I ask, a little shocked.
Mia nods, rubbing her lips together in an attempt to hide her smile. It doesn’t work very well. “Do you know he’s in love with you?”
I let out a loud snort before grabbing the coffee from her.
She’s crazy to think he’d ever be in love with anyone, let alone be in love with me.
“Jude’s in love with himself. He’s not capable of falling in love with anyone.
” I take a sip of the coffee, shocked to find it’s my exact order.
We’ve gone to this shop numerous times together, but I didn’t realize he was paying that kind of attention.
“He isn’t bringing any of the other bev cart girls a coffee,” Mia points out.
“None of the other girls are his friend,” I respond, turning and walking out of the cooler. I walk to my cart and take a long drink of the coffee before placing the cup in one of the cup holders.
Mia, a coworker who I’m quickly developing a friendship with, waits for me in the same spot. She watches me carefully as if she still has something else she wants to say.
I grab the carton of blue Gatorades. “It’s nothing, Mia,” I call over my shoulder. “Jude’s my best friend and brought me a coffee because I spilled mine this morning, and he knows that. He isn’t bringing anyone else coffee because he’s probably already slept with all the bev cart girls.”
I scrunch my nose at the idea. I truly have no idea who he has and hasn’t slept with at the club.
I don’t want to know. It’s frowned upon for anyone who works at Pembroke to get involved with the members, but people still do it.
Jude openly flirts with everyone in front of me, but as far as who actually goes home with him, I have no idea. I’m happy not knowing.
“Well, I want to know how to find myself a mega-hot, rich, thoughtful best friend,” Mia remarks.
I start to fill my cooler with the bottles. “I’m not sure I’d call him thoughtful. Plus, it’s not like I was looking for a new friend. Jude and I just got thrown together when his best friend and my best friend started dating. Then he was annoying and decided to never leave me alone.”
Jude’s best friend, Cal, is now engaged to my best friend, Lucy.
Jude and I first met last year when Lucy became Cal’s private chef.
They had a little bit of history—she dated his brother—and she quickly went from being his employee to being his girlfriend to being his fiancée.
Cal and Jude are always together, and Lucy and I try to spend as much time as we can together too, so Jude and I becoming friends was inevitable.
Cal and Lucy spent the off-season back in the city like everyone else, but Jude spent a lot of his time here.
Since I live in the Hamptons full-time, we found ourselves spending a lot of time together.
It was easy to want to spend time with him, even when no one else was around.
I never thought about how lonely the off-season could be, but I’ve never once felt lonely because I’ve had him here.
Speaking of Jude, I walk around the bev cart and pull my phone from the compartment on the passenger side. I pull up our text thread and fire off a text.
CHARLOTTE
A special coffee delivery for me? You shouldn’t have.
I go to put my phone away again, but it vibrates in my hand before I can.
JUDE
I didn’t want you to have to conquer the day without any caffeine. I pity the poor members who had to deal with an uncaffeinated Charlotte this morning.
I can’t help but smile.
CHARLOTTE
I’m a professional. I was very nice this morning. I’ve even made some generous tips already.
JUDE
Good. Everyone should be tipping you well. If they don’t, let me know.
I roll my eyes at his comment. He’s always trying to get me to tell him who is and isn’t a good tipper.
He did the same thing when I was a waitress at Pembroke Grill.
I’ve kept my lips sealed on who tips terribly or who doesn’t tip at all.
Luckily, Jude is a good judge of character when it comes to who he spends his time with.
All of his friends and colleagues tip extremely well.
JUDE
I’m waiting for my thank you.
“Thank you for the coffee, Jude. You’re the best, Jude. You’re my hot, swoony hero, Jude.”
CHARLOTTE
Thank you for the coffee, Jude.
I consider sending him the middle-finger emoji but decide to leave it out. I really do appreciate him going out of his way to bring me the coffee this morning. If I remember right, he had a tee time early this morning that running out and grabbing coffee might’ve made him late for.
JUDE
One of these days you’ll call me hot and swoony and it’ll make me the happiest man on Earth.
I shake my head at his text.
CHARLOTTE
I’m not here to stroke your ego. You’re not hot and swoony. You’re more of a bridge troll.
JUDE
A bridge troll?!
That’s cruel.
Going to ignore the second part of your text and focus on the stroking part.
I grimace. He’s absolutely ridiculous. I toss my phone back into the compartment and finish stocking my cart.
Since I’m already here, I walk back into the garage and grab a bucket of ice.
The weather is beautiful this morning, cool enough that I might even ask one of the guys at the pro shop to lend me one of the fancy Pembroke Hill jackets they have.
I keep meaning to get myself one, but I know if I sweet-talk one of them, they’ll lend me theirs.
“How’s it been this morning?” Mia asks before sliding into her cart.
“It’s been good. I didn’t expect so many people to be here for the weekend already, but it’s been steady. What about you?”
Pembroke Hills has two eighteen-hole courses.
On a day like today, when it’s steady, two cart girls work the bev carts.
We each take one of the eighteen holes. As long as the players don’t have a preference, they alternate which course they send the group to, so that way things don’t get congested.
As a private club, we try to do everything possible to make sure all members have the ultimate experience every time they step onto the course.
Mia adjusts her ponytail before putting her cart in drive. “It’s been good. There are more people out than I was expecting. Good tippers too,” she yells over her shoulder with a wave.
I wave back at her, smiling as I watch her drive away.
Hopefully, the good tipping continues throughout the morning.
The pay at Pembroke is better than at any other country club around.
I make good base pay at Pembroke, but it’s expensive to live in the Hamptons.
I’m trying to give more to Devin so he lets me stay in my apartment for the summer instead of renting it out to tourists who can pay more.
I need as many tips as I can to compete with the typical renters Devin’s used to having for the busy season.
I slide back into my cart and take a sip of my coffee, my eyes fluttering shut in euphoria.
It tastes amazing, and I didn’t realize how much I needed the caffeine.
It hits my soul, giving me the pick-me-up I need to continue the rest of my shift.
My morning started out rough, but it has turned around with Jude coming to the rescue.
On top of that, it really was thoughtful of him to drop off the coffee.
I make the mental note to tell him how much I appreciate it, but for now, I plaster on a smile and pull up to the group of men waving me down.