36. Beau
BEAU
“Why do we have to come to the bakery?” I grumble to Shelby as I pull off the highway to head toward Sugar and Sweets. “It’s Monday. We each just got back from tournaments, and the only thing I had on the agenda today was spending the day in bed with you, doing absolutely nothing.”
“Really? Nothing? What happened to being productive with our time?”
“That’s a you thing, Belle. That’s never been a me thing,” I say, kissing her hand. “Plus, since I’m not playing this week and I can regroup, I’m going to the bakery tomorrow anyway. So why am I going two days in a row?”
“Because, Gabi texted me that she made lemon bars.”
“And how does that affect me? Two months of marriage means you get the princess treatment and I have to drive you twenty minutes to visit your best friend and get pastries?”
Shelby punches me in the arm, which is rightly deserved. But, I’m sorry. I’m grumpy because I wanted to have sex all day. And now I have to come get lemon bars.
“You just had them,” I practically whine, trying not to think of all the “nothing” we could be doing right now. “I brought you some home just a few weeks ago.”
“I know, which is why I’m craving them,” she says. “I hope she makes a batch like that again. I don't know what was different, but those were the best lemon bars I've ever had. Something about the curd was…I don’t know, but it was perfect.”
Don’t smile…don’t make a face….stare straight ahead…play it fucking cool…
Fuck it. I can’t help it. I let the smile out. My wife just said I’m a better baker than my sister. I knew going into the bakery while she was at a tournament was the move.
Best.
Husband.
Ever.
“We can only hope,” I say as I try to wipe the amusement off my face. “Especially since I put on real clothes for this. You know what we’d be wearing if we were at home? Nothing, Shelby. Naked as the days we were born.”
"Oh, quit whining," Shelby says, leaning over to give me a quick kiss on the cheek. “Did you really expect us to just have sex all day?”
I give her a side-eye. “It was definitely an option.”
She shakes her head at me. “You act like we haven't seen each other in weeks.”
“It's been a whole week, and that's too long.”
“We knew this is what we were getting into, Big Boy. And it's still early in the season.”
She's not wrong about that. It's been a whirlwind over the last month. After I won in Georgia—yes, even with the shit going on all around us off the course, I was still able to pick up what I’ll call the biggest win of my career—life has been nonstop.
Shelby had back-to-back weeks where she was playing before I was back at it.
Then this past week, I was in Dallas while she was playing in Florida.
And that’s just our normal crazy. Add the fallout of the Chad shit show, and, needless to say, neither of us have felt relaxed in a very, very long time.
When Grayson dragged a battered and whimpering Chad out of the hotel room, we had no idea what was going to happen next.
For Shelby and I, we got what we wanted and then some.
We got answers—some more disturbing than others.
We got to perform a little vigilante justice.
Shelby lived out her long-desired moment of beating the shit out of Chad.
Except, at least at the start, the aftermath wasn’t what we thought would happen.
Turns out, the head of the golf tour didn’t want a scandal, which I wasn’t surprised to hear.
Like many privileged old men that Shelby and I have been dealing with our entire lives, he truly believed enough power and influence can make problems go away.
He told Grayson as much. That it would be handled internally and we weren’t to worry about it.
With all due disrespect, as my wife likes to say…fuck that.
It’s why both Shelby and I were shocked—shocked, I tell you—when our good friend Emily the reporter wrote a quite damning exposé about Chad, the near-criminal enterprise he was running in the shadows of golf, and how the head of the tour was trying to cover it up.
Wonder how that happened…
After that piece came out, the shit started raining.
The things Chad admitted to us that night and the files Michael gave us were just the tip of the iceberg.
Chad wasn’t just paying off measly gambling debts and making a few mistresses go away.
We’re talking money laundering. Illegal gambling in many forms. Players, caddies, tournament directors.
It seems like everyone at one point turned to Chad for something, and he used them all.
Currently, the federal government is going after him, his father, and many of his father’s partners for racketeering, trying to bring a RICO case against them.
Yes, Shelby and I are being called in for depositions. And we can’t fucking wait. Shelby even said she’d wear a dress for the occasion.
When the news hit the golf world, the ones who were shocked were genuinely shocked.
The ones who weren’t…let’s just say they didn’t hide their guilt well.
It’s a scandal that’s rocked the golf, and sports, world.
All because an insecure man wanted to be cool, have a little power, and he used his daddy’s money to do it.
The video we took wasn’t shared with the world—mainly because he admitted more in that against me and Shelby than he did about his crimes.
But it has been turned over to prosecutors.
We don’t know if they’ll be able to use it, but even if not, we’re glad we did it.
He admitted to enough of his crimes to get the legal ball rolling.
He admitted to all the crazy shit he pulled over the years when it came to me and Shelby.
And wow…was it crazy…
Never would I have ever thought that Chad tried to ruin Shelby because he was jealous of her. It’s like he was a crazed fan. I’ve never had one, but the lengths he was willing to go… I still can’t believe it. I don’t even want to think how much further he would’ve gone if we hadn’t caught him.
But I can’t dwell on that. He’s in jail. He’s going to be prosecuted. And hopefully, somewhere along the way, he gets the help he needs.
“Whoa! You can’t park here.”
I shoot Shelby a curious look, because why can’t I park in my own parking spot in the back of the bakery I own? “Care to tell me why?”
“I have to pee!”
Now, since we were kids, I’ve always known that when Shelby has to go, she has to go. But even this seems a little sudden for her. “And you can when we get inside.”
“No. Go park out front. It’s closer. If I’m sprinting, I don’t want to have to dodge things in the kitchen.”
Her pleading look does me in, and I put my SUV in reverse and drive around the building. “You’re lucky I love you.”
“I know you do,” she says, seemingly a bit more relaxed. “And I promise, we’ll go in, say hi to Gabi, grab my lemon bars… If Kitty and Phyllis are here, give them each a pinch of your ass…” She snickers at the not-amused look on my face. “Then we’re home for the rest of the day.”
“Promises, promises,” I joke as I make a right onto the street, and, luckily, find a spot right up front. “This good, wife?”
“Yes!” Shelby exclaims, jumping out of my SUV. But then she slowly walks around to my side of the vehicle.
“I thought you had to run inside?”
“Um…I did. Must’ve passed.” She shrugs, holding her hand out. “Ready to go in?”
“Are you up to something?”
“I don't know what you mean,” she says as we walk toward the door.
“You’re a shit liar, Shelby Lynn.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
With a final smirk, Shelby opens the door of the…empty bakery?
“Surprise!”
I jump a little as a herd of people come pouring out of the kitchen.
“What the hell?”
I’m a little dazed and a lot confused as a laughing Maddox greets me first, putting a…party hat on me? “Happy birthday, old man.”
“My birthday isn’t for another two weeks.”
“Yes, but you’re going to be in San Diego in two weeks,” Gabi says, placing a “Birthday Boy” pin on my shirt. “And we have to celebrate your birthday, so why not do it early?”
“I…” But before I can get anything else out, Theo comes over, handing me a mini “congratulations” sign.
“And we haven’t officially celebrated your big win,” he says. “It's not every day one of our best friends wins the most prestigious golf tournament of the year.”
“You guys did all of this?” I say, still a little stunned.
“That would be Mrs. Devereaux.” Theo nods toward Shelby. “Her plans. We were just told what to do.”
“And she can be scary, so we listened and followed very good directions.”
I laugh at Maddox’s joke as I turn to Shelby, who’s leaning against the counter with a pretty proud grin on her face.
“You did this?”
“Amazing what you can get done on a plane when you buy the WI-FI package,” she says as I bring her in for a PG, but with promise for later, kiss. “Happy birthday, Beau. And congratulations. I’m so proud of you.”
“I love you. So much.”
I go in for another kiss, wishing I could take it deeper, but before I can, it’s getting broken up by my sister.
“I know you two probably want to go do a thing, but Kitty and Phyllis are here, and if you two start making out, they’ll record it and turn it into some weird porn film for the nursing home.”
We laugh, but that’s a serious possibility, so we smartly back away.
Plus, I need to visit and say hi to everyone who’s here.
Of course, Kitty and Phyllis are in attendance, sporting birthday hats and feather boas and waving at me from their normal table.
My parents are playing with Ace. Stu and Lauren are gathered in a corner talking with Ethan, Kat, and Grayson. The only person I don’t see is…
“Where’s Asher?”
“On his way,” Maddox says. “Texted the three of us saying there was an emergency with Adalyn.”
“Is she okay?”
“He says yes, but we’ll understand when he gets here.”
As if on cue, we hear the bell go off over the door, and Asher walks in with—
“Wow! Adalyn…you look…”
I don’t know where Theo was going with that statement, but it’s best he stopped it there because…