Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
They were over halfway through the course. Will’s lessons must have paid off with Alex because those two had already finished and were back at the bar, swooning over each other, clubs discarded.
Sam was trying her damnedest on this hole to beat Taylor. She squinted, lined up the putter and tapped. The ball went around the hole, refusing to drop in.
“ Argh .” Sam stamped her feet.
“What happened to those awesome lessons you wanted to teach me?” Taylor tilted her head.
“Oh shut up.” Sam knocked the ball in the hole as Taylor wrote Sam’s score down with a cackle. Sam reached for her cocktail, downing the last of it. She made a face. She’d picked Fairy Floss, and boy, did it live up to its name. It was insanely sweet, making her jaw ache. She looked up to see Alex making her way over to them.
“Another round ladies?” She eyed Sam’s glass.
“Not gonna say no. Surprise me with the next one?” Sam held out her empty champagne flute.
“On it. Taylor?”
“Just a cola for me. Gotta drive tonight.” She gave a thumbs-up.
“Sure thing, Miss Sensible.” Alex saluted as she strode back off towards the bar.
They stood in front of their next hole, a jungle-themed course where you had to “escape” before the timer went off, with all sorts of obstacles and raised levels where the ball could fall off. Sam swallowed.
“And I thought the last hole was hard.”
“They’re definitely getting progressively difficult.”
Taylor geared herself up, taking a deep breath and dropping her ball through the starter timer. She quickly hit it through a swamp with rippled bumps that tried to throw the ball off course. Then she whacked it up the cliff, where it bounced off the back wall but luckily stayed on the top platform.
Sam watched on in awe at just how good Taylor was playing, wishing she could look that cool with a club. She couldn’t help but watch Taylor’s arms flex with every swing or the way she’d flip her hair out of the way to watch where her ball would end up. She really did want to run her hands through it, or give her those golf lessons she’d offered, even if she was absolutely terrible herself. She could picture it now.
She caught the thoughts. Held onto them. Rolled them around in her head. They felt… good. Why could she not stop thinking about Taylor like this? She couldn’t keep blaming it on that dream either. Maybe she wanted this. She bit her lip as she felt the familiar heat creeping up again.
“Here you go,” Alex said from behind.
“Ah!” Sam jumped.
“Jeez, calm down. I’m not that scary am I?” Alex laughed, handing her a tall, bright green glass.
Sam eyed it suspiciously.
“It’s a Tokyo Tea. I got the same. Enjoy.” She winked, then turned to Taylor, “Your drink’s here!”
“Thank you!” Taylor yelled back from the top of the green as her ball wound through the treetops, finally landing in the hole just before the timer went off.
“Yes!” She fist-pumped the air.
“Good work!” Alex clapped. “Even I didn’t make the timer on this hole.” She turned to Sam. “She’s good.”
“I know. Don’t rub it in,” she replied, watching Taylor collect her ball as she threw Sam a self-satisfied grin, cute dimple and all.
“I better get back to Will. Can you guys hurry up so we can hang out already?”
“Doesn’t seem like you need us.” Sam smirked, pulling her eyes away from Taylor and back to Alex. She took a sip of the new drink. “Woah, that’s strong. Tastes good though.”
Alex leaned in even closer and whispered, “Between you and me, this is going even better than I imagined. And I’m not just talking about me.” She waggled her eyebrows at that and walked off back to the bar.
Was Sam really that obvious?
Thankfully, Taylor was preoccupied with checking out their next torturous hole, an escape from a prison cell, to notice their exchange and her subsequent fading flush. She took a quick gulp of the new drink and made her way over.
“So, whaddaya think?” She pulled up next to Taylor, their arms touching ever so slightly, sending tingles all the way to her spine.
Taylor turned and grabbed her by the shoulders, maneuvering her back to the jungle hole.
“I think you need to finish this timed hole before we move on. You’re not getting out of it that easy.”
“Damn it!” She swapped her drink for her putter, lined herself up, and dropped the ball into the timer.
She totally maxed out on the jungle hole. It took her well over the seven-stroke limit, and the buzzer going off before she finally got the ball in the hole. Tonight was not her night for mini-golf.
“I’m sure you’ll do better on the next one,” Taylor encouraged, patting her facetiously on the shoulder. “How about you go first this time?”
“Fine.” Sam took another quick sip. “I can’t do much worse than I already am.”
She went to step into the jail cell, but her foot caught the edge, lurching her forward.
A strong arm wrapped around her middle.
“Woah, you all right?” Taylor asked, her voice awfully close to her ear, before letting go.
“Yeah, sorry. Stupid boots.” She pulled a face at them and straightened up, the room starting to spin juuuust a little. She stood still for a second, blinking to get her bearings.
Taylor looked at her concerned as she passed her the ball. “You sure?”
“Mmmhmm.” She nodded her head. Way too vigorously it turned out, which was not helping.
Get yourself together Garner, you’ve only had two drinks!
She popped the ball down and whacked it before she had a chance to think about it. The ball shot straight up the skinny ramp and into the darkness beyond as the ball “broke out” of the jail. They quickly walked around the cell just in time to see the ball pop out of a tiny gap in the wall at the back and make its way over to the hole, stopping just shy of going in.
“Wow, not bad Sam. Maybe you need to go first all the time.”
“That’s what she said,” Sam deadpanned, then cracked up at herself. Taylor shook her head, her mouth pulling into an affectionate smile.
They finished off the last few holes much quicker than anticipated. Sam wasn’t sure whether to blame the green drink or going first, but either way it seemed to be helping and she was starting to feel really good.
Taylor wrote down their final scores. “Right, better go actually hang out with your friends.”
“But I like hanging out with you!” Sam whined.
That was not meant to come out.
Luckily, Taylor just laughed it off and held out her arm again. She gladly snuggled into it as they made their way over to Alex and Will.
“Come on you,” was all she said, a smile playing on her lips as she bopped Sam on the nose.
It was no surprise that, once all their scores were added up, Will was the reigning champion, much to his delight. Alex came in second, with Sam tying with Taylor for third.
“I thought you’d beat Sam-I-am for sure,” Alex said to Taylor, nudging Sam’s shoulder.
“Hey!” Sam replied, shooting some well-deserved daggers at her best friend. “You’re meant to be on my side.” She folded her arms.
“Sam-I-am?” Taylor snorted. “I haven’t heard that nickname before.”
“Do not,” Sam warned.
“But it’s so cute!” Taylor pleaded. “Or I could just call you Ham instead? Oink oink—OW!”
Sam slapped her on the arm.
Now it was Will and Alex’s turn to share a look.
“How long have you two been together?” Will asked.
“Oh, they’re not—” Alex started.
“We aren’t—” Taylor spoke at the same time.
“Just friends,” Sam finished, avoiding looking directly at Taylor.
“Riiiiiight.” Will looked between them, eyes sceptical. “Well then,”—he downed the last of his beer—“anyone up for another round of mini-golf?”
A chorus of groans from the rest of them said Will was outnumbered on that front. Thank god. Sam’s stomach lurched at the thought of swinging any more clutters… HA wait. Clubs? Putters? Ah who cares. She did not want them Sam-I-am. Oh no, now she’d started referring to herself in the third person. This was not good.
Taylor had gone to grab a big bowl of fries for the table along with another round of drinks. Sam was drooling at the thought of greasy food. By the time she’d tuned back into the conversation, they were now on the topic of household appliances.
“How did we get so old?” Will said, swilling his new beer with one hand, the other resting on the back of Alex’s chair.
“Old? There’s nothing cooler than a round of golf on a Tuesday night and a little debate on the best vacuum over chippies,” Alex said proudly.
“Touche,” Taylor agreed. They both picked up a chip, high fiving each other with them.
By this stage, Sam was halfway through her third drink, a regular champagne, and really starting to feel the buzz kick in. She was having so much fun, but talking was best left to everyone else right now, as she wasn’t sure she trusted herself not to speak her thoughts out loud again—especially with Taylor sitting right next to her, looking so damn good.
“What’s damn good?” Taylor asked, head tilted.
Shit .
“These chips!” She smiled quickly, grabbing a few more.
She was surely heading for disaster at this rate.