26. 26
26
A bright pink golf ball tumbled into the fifth hole of the tiny green with a dull clink .
“Fuck yeah!” Barrett shouted, pumping his fist in the air as Chastity stifled a laugh.
Suddenly, he remembered where they were and swallowed hard. He looked around. Two sets of parents, each with several young children, gawked at him. One family was ahead a few holes, the other behind. Both in earshot.
“Sorry!” he shouted, waving at both families apologetically. “I just… uh… got the ball in the thing.”
One of the mothers shook her head.
“Smoooooooth,” Chastity mocked.
Barrett shot her a glance and stepped off the green. “Says the loser .”
“By one point! Hardly a margin to brag about.”
The rustling wind tousled Chastity’s loose curls, setting sun bathing her in a golden glow. Barrett found his brown eyes transfixed on her form as she readied herself on the green, small putter in hand. She bent down, eyed the hole, and shuffled her feet.
Her shoulders peeked out of a salmon-colored top with cutouts, shapely ass tucked into tight, complimentary shorts. Despite the chilly temperatures, she didn’t wear a coat either, a common occurrence for many Wyomingites in the late spring.
His mind flashed to images of himself bending her backward over the hip-height windmill on the next hole, stripping her down, and burying his tongue between her bare thighs. His cock swelled against his denim. He adjusted himself discretely, shifting his weight, crossing his arms over his tight-fitting, heathered Henley shirt.
Chastity gently tapped the ball, watching as it tumbled into the hole.
“This was a par three. Got it in one. Guess who is trailing one point behind now?” she taunted smugly, shimmying her hips as she bent down to retrieve her gold ball.
She caught his eyes lingering and smiled, her cheeks turning a peachy pink as she blushed. “Whatcha lookin’ at?”
“I’m looking at the next Tiger Woods. You should think about goin’ pro.”
“Oh.” She leaned up toward his ear. He could feel her hot breath graze the outer shell, sending tingles down his neck and arms. “I thought you were just lookin’ at my ass.”
He chuckled, heading toward the next leg of the course. “Stop trying to distract me.”
Once there, she shook her head. “Me? I am just existing .”
“That’s distraction enough.” He set his pink golf ball back on the starting marker.
“Why fluorescent pink? Are you trying to prove how secure you are in your masculinity? Or do you just like the color?”
Barrett followed her eyes to his ball, furrowing his brow. “Actually, it’s less of a fluorescent and more of a flamingo pink. Working at that picky-ass boutique, you, of all people, should know the subtle nuances of color. Imagine I ordered a flamingo pocket square, and you gave me fluorescent pink?”
“Fair enough.”
He took a swing. His ball bounced off several wooden triangles, falling short of the hole and rolling backward off a sloped platform.
“To answer the question, I just like the color. Women don’t own pink, and men don’t own blue.”
Barrett tapped the ball twice more, finally landing it into the hole.
Chastity placed her ball on the starting mark and wiggled her ass again.
“ Would you stop that? These poor kids don’t need to see me get a hard-on. ”
Chastity laughed. “What? I’m just getting into position.” She wiggled her butt again.
“You’re a monster .” Barrett groaned.
Despite the comment’s intention being flirtatious, Chastity felt a pang of hurt, as if there was some truth to it. As if he somehow saw through her and saw the same thing she saw in herself, like she had some hideous beast dormant beneath her skin. Even though she knew he didn’t mean it like that, his words felt like they confirmed her worst fears.
Thrown off-kilter, she whacked her ball, giving the ball too much juice and bouncing it off the wooden guides back onto the course they had just finished with.
“Whoa.” He seemed stunned by her sudden loss of skill. “I’ll get it.” As he brushed past her, he muttered, “No more bending over for you .”
After he retrieved the gold ball, he bent over to put it in front of her, wiggling his own butt, coaxing an involuntary laugh from her. The simple act was enough to draw her out of her suffocating thoughts and back into the moment.
“Hmmm. I see what you mean about it being distracting.” She cupped one of his jean-covered cheeks and, after a squeeze, pushed him out of her way.
As she tapped the ball again, softer this time, Barrett spoke. “When you’re not on the GPA tour circuit, what sort of trouble do you get up to?”
“Well,” she eyed the course, trying to calculate the best angle, “As you may have noticed at Nussbaum’s house, I’m a bit of a reality television connoisseur.”
“Well,” Barrett jokingly tossed his putter into the real shrubs nearby and started to walk away, “thanks for the date. This was fun. Buh-bye.”
“Why does everyone say that? They wouldn’t have so many reality shows if people didn’t watch them. They’re so fun!”
“Watching angsty housewives slap each other around is not my idea of entertaining.”
“Oh, stop. They’re not all like that. I know a few you might even like.”
Chastity tapped the ball. It approached the hole and whirled around the plastic outer edge without going in. She cursed under her breath.
“I highly doubt that.” He scribbled their scores on the notepad as she gave the ball the two-inch tap it needed to go in.
“ Finally .”
“Okay, besides your terrible taste in television, what else do you like?”
“I love animals. I volunteer at the shelter a lot. There’s this Mastiff up there, Molly, that I’m in love with. I wish I could adopt her.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Money. Plus, I don’t think Rabbit Run allows pets. Although, the people living in that apartment before me were clearly living like animals.”
“No kidding. That place was a fuckin’ zoo.” Barrett laughed. “Animals, huh? I can get behind dogs, but what about other things? Like, you aren’t into snakes and tarantulas and stuff, are you?”
He hit the ball just enough to roll it in. When he looked up, he noticed Chastity with her head cocked to the side like a German Shepard.
“What’s wrong with snakes and tarantulas?”
“C’mon, really? They’re snakes and spiders. People’s two most common phobias. What good are they other than to scare the crap outta people?”
“Snakes keep pests under control. They help prevent the spread of diseases like Lyme, Lepto, and Hantavirus. Spiders do the same thing. They’re also good for soil aeration and, like bees, most don’t harm humans unless they feel threatened.”
Barrett blinked repeatedly, unsure if he was dreaming. “So, you are saying you like every animal.”
“Not all.” She smiled. “Can’t stand Pomeranians. They’re like feather dusters that bite.” She giggled. “I love all types of animals. Wouldn’t want them all as pets , but everything has an important part to play in this world.”
“So, are you gonna freak out if I squash a spider?”
“No.” She laughed. “I get it. They’re freaky, and most people don’t know the good ones from the dangerous ones. I’m just saying I like everything because it all… belongs . It all has a purpose.”
The father of the family behind them cleared his throat, impatiently waiting for his family’s turn. He gave them a flat smile and squinted his eyes uncomfortably. “Can we play through?”
“Sure! Sorry,” Chastity said.
They stepped aside, allowing the two small children to squabble over who would go first. The man stared at Chastity for a moment too long, and Barrett flashed him a sharp “F uck off ” glare before draping his muscular arm over her bare shoulders.
The man turned around just in time to watch his son swing and miss the ball.
Chastity leaned up toward Barrett’s ear. “Pfft, look at these amateurs. This guy with the beer gut and the two boys, he’s definitely got a tattoo he regrets, like a half-sleeve portrait of Pee-Wee Herman on his bicep or something.”
“You think so?” he murmured into her ear.
“I told you. I have a sixth sense about these things.” She shrugged. “But, I guess even Paul Reubens is better than a boo-bee. ”
“ Hey now, ” he playfully warned.
“You were perfect for Man Maid. Even your tattoos wear costumes.”
“I’m feeling some real judgment about my ink right now.”
She snickered, and then her eyes met his. Barrett wanted to lean down and kiss her. For a moment, the world around them seemed to fade away.
“There are corruptible kids around, or I’d be kissing the hell out of you right now,” he mumbled against the side of her forehead.
“Same.”
She turned back toward the course as the second child finally swatted his ball into the hole.
“Thanks,” the man with the dad-bod said with a wave.
Barrett nodded and set his ball on the green.
“What about you?” Chastity asked.
“Ask me anything.”
“With this … with us … are you looking for, you know, like, just a hook-up or… something more ? I just wanna temper my expectations here.”
Thrown off by the question, Barrett hit the ball too hard. It bounced out of the boundary and whacked the children’s father in the ankle. The man whipped around and picked it up.
“Sorry!” Barrett croaked with an apologetic face, rushing over to retrieve the pink ball. “My bad.”
Chastity covered her mouth to hide her smile and pointed at Barrett. “Penalty stroke!”
Barrett waltzed back with wide eyes and put the ball back at the starting mark.
Finally, when she stopped laughing, she said, “So, tell me what you enjoy.”
He swung his putter again, driving his ball to the other side of the green and watching it roll lazily down into another sloped pit. “Well, at the moment, not-effing-putt-putt .”
“Nah, I picture you as more of a full-contact sports guy.”
“Nailed it. Football. It’s a thing of beauty sometimes, seeing drafted nobodies become all-time legends who want to turn each other into drooling quadriplegics. Now that’s a real man’s game. Beyond that, I love shaking my ass at the country bars. I enjoy working out and getting a good sweat going. Obviously, I prefer some forms of exercise over others.” He turned his head toward Chastity and flashed a knowing grin.
“Favorite team?”
“Wyoming Cowboys, obviously for college. Probably the Bills for the NFL.”
“Wow, even into college ball, eh?”
“Of course .” He tapped the ball in, scribbled on his scorecard, and gestured that it was her turn.
“Not bad.” She frowned, swinging her putter in a circle.
“I believe what you meant to say was, Barrett, your skill is astounding. You’re the master of mini-golf. Take me right here on the green and put your ball in my hole, you big stud-muffin.”
“Ewwwww.” Chastity snickered. “I would never call a grown man a ‘stud-muffin.’ Not even if I hated him.”
She tapped her gold ball with startling precision. Another hole-in-one. She gloated, and they moved on.
“Last hole. You go first this time.” Barrett tossed her the dimpled ball and pressed himself against her back. Her body tensed, subtly pressing back against him, feeling the heat from his body warm her own.
He spoke into her ear, voice gravelly, dripping with sensuality. “You might be schooling me out here on the course, but back in the bedroom, I think I could still teach you a thing or two about proper putter handling.”
“Oh yeah?” She swung too hard again and accidentally whacked the ball out of the course boundary, this time smacking the meaty back of the same father’s thigh as he stood at the club return window.
“Ow!” The man hissed, turning, glaring at them with a look of simmering rage.
“Holy crap!” She jogged over to retrieve it. “Sir, I am so sorry. This thing has a mind of its own. I swear, I wasn’t aiming for you.”
“Be careful!” he growled, slamming the ball back into her palm. “I’m gonna have a bruise now!”
“Won’t happen again.”
She walked back to Barrett, making a face of pure embarrassment. “Fuck, that was mortifying.”
“I don’t know whether to penalize you a point or gift you one. That was impressive.”
Chastity looked at the final course. “How about this. I know I beat you. You know I beat you. How about we play this one for all the marbles? The loser buys the winner a round at The Alibi .”
Barrett held his hand out, and she shook it.
“Girl, brace yourself. Get that wallet ready. I feel like some top-shelf liquor tonight!”