12. Chapter 12
Chapter 12
T he first semi-official event of the weekend was mini-golf before the welcome dinner. The mini-golf was sort of sentimental. Blake had gone there when he was a kid, and he took Haley there the first time he brought her to the beach.
Jane and Haley went up to their room to change and freshen up. Luke was meeting them in the hotel lobby and they were going to ride over together. He was ready, waiting, when they came downstairs. He was wearing the same shorts he had on earlier, but had swapped out the t-shirt for a black polo and gotten rid of the baseball cap.
He looked good, Jane had to admit. Although she was pretty sure looking good was never an issue for Luke Sanderson.
They walked out to the car and Jane fell a few steps behind, with Luke next to her. “Thank you again for doing all this,” she said.
“I should thank you for taking me to mini-golf,” he said.
She laughed at that. “Wait until you see the course.”
They took a few more steps—slow ones, on her part, to give them a little more distance from the others. “So …” she said, lowering her voice, “I guess don’t play up the fact that we just saw each other this morning for the first time in eight years.”
He smiled. “That was part of my marching orders from Haley.”
Jane should have known Haley was way ahead of her. “What else was on that list?”
“Actually,” he said, “it’s classified.”
“Is it.” I’m sure it is , Jane thought wryly.
“I had to sign a document.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“She told me I didn’t have to get it notarized, though,” he said. “You know, due to the tight turnaround.”
“Well, that was nice of her,” she said. “Maybe a little legally irresponsible, but nice.”
“You guys coming?” Haley called over to them, holding open the car door.
They picked up their pace and slid into the backseat. The miniature golf course they were going to was attached to the driving range Blake liked. Haley liked to joke that it was the mini-golf course time forgot. It had all the kitsch and charm you could hope for from a beach town mini-golf course, combined with a heavy dose of nostalgia for anyone who had been going there over the last, say, twenty years. Probably because it looked almost exactly the same each time. There was a newer, brighter mini-golf course across town next door to an ice cream shop that drew most of the families now, but Blake preferred the weathered fixtures and peeling paint—not to mention the ’90s music—of Sandcastle Putt Putt.
It was only about a five-minute drive from the hotel to the mini-golf, barely long enough for any conversation, which was fine with Jane. They pulled into a parking spot and walked along the path to the other side of the building, the side that faced the course.
The first thing they saw when they rounded the corner was Blake. The second thing they saw—or, at least, that Jane saw—was Tommy standing next to him. It was the first time she’d seen him since the night they broke up, which, she was now realizing, was maybe something she should have gotten out of the way before the first semi-official event of the wedding weekend. His eyes fell on her, just for a second, like she was something he accidentally stumbled over, and she glanced away.
And then—thankfully, subject-changing-ly—they saw the third thing: Blake’s bright red sunburned nose. “Blake!” Haley half-shrieked. “Sunscreen! You were supposed to wear sunscreen if you did anything outside!”
“I did,” he protested.
She shook her head vigorously. “No way.”
“I swear,” he said. “Tommy saw me put it on.”
“Tommy!” she exclaimed, whirling on him. “You were supposed to get him to reapply!”
“Huh?” Tommy said. And then: “Oh. Sorry.”
“Sorry?” Haley shook her head. “This is unbelievable. Sorry is not going to photoshop my wedding photos.”
“Is it really burned?” Blake said, feeling his nose with his hand. “I wore a hat, though.”
“It’s not that bad,” Jane said to her. “It’ll be all right.”
Haley was still shaking her head. “It’s the principle.” She looked at Blake. “You better get some aloe on that stat tonight.”
Tommy started laughing, and almost by habit, he caught Jane’s eye, the way he had when she was his seatmate in the front row of the Haley and Blake show. She looked away again, more sharply this time, like his gaze was something she could shake off, then glanced back at him to see if it had worked. He was still looking at her.
He cleared his throat. “Hey, Jane.”
She took a deep breath. “Hi, Tommy.”
Haley stepped in then. “This is Jane’s date Luke,” she said. “You probably don’t remember that he was my neighbor in college, but he was.”
“He was,” Luke said. He stepped forward smoothly, his hand outstretched. “Hey, there.”
Jane could practically see the question marks scroll across Tommy’s forehead, but to his credit, he flicked them away and accepted Luke’s handshake. “I’m Tommy. Blake’s cousin.”
“Well,” Haley said brightly, “now that everyone’s here, let’s get started!”
It was quiet enough at the course—too late for the afternoon crowd; too early for the post-dinner crowd—that they were able to spread out a little, in groups of two instead of groups of four. Haley and Blake kicked things off, followed by Tommy and Bree. Jane and Luke were next.
Luke put his hand lightly on her back as they made their way to the start of the course. Jane could hardly feel it—his hand was barely touching the fabric of her dress, almost like it was there just in case—but she was surprised how comforting it was to have him with her. It was still a little weird, and it was still a little awkward, and she still felt a little self-conscious when she thought about it. But when she wasn’t thinking about it, when she was just being , she had to admit that Haley had been right: It was nice to have him around.
The first hole was basic, a straight shot between two oversized seashells. “Green or yellow?” he said, holding up the golf balls.
“Um … green?” she said, like she was guessing the answer to a riddle.
He handed the green one to her. “You must know my favorite color’s yellow.”
“Is it really?” she said, a smile forming.
He smiled back at her and gave her a noncommittal shrug. “I have a lot of favorite colors. Here, ladies first.”
She placed the ball squarely in the middle and hit it with the end of her club. It hit the edge of the left seashell, then ricocheted off the concrete to land a few inches away from the hole.
“Not bad,” he said.
“I’m a real professional,” she grinned, walking over and tapping the ball in.
They made their way through the next several holes—a lighthouse, a school of fish, the open mouth of a whale. The next hole was a giant starfish whose arms they needed to hit around. Tommy was ahead of them, but the way the course snaked around, at the moment he and Bree were at the hole next to them, something to do with an octopus. Jane placed her ball on the ground and tried not to notice.
Luke watched as she lined up her shot. “So do you play a lot of golf?”
She looked up. “Mini-golf or golf-golf?”
He laughed. “Either.”
“Well,” she said. “Neither. But I did play softball in high school.”
Tommy sank his putt next to her and bent down to pick up his ball. “I don’t think softball and golf are quite the same swing,” he said, like he was trying to make a joke.
Jane wasn’t sure she heard him at first, and then she wished she hadn’t heard him. She didn’t really want him talking to her like a friend. And she didn’t want him listening to her either. It all seemed a little too … familiar. Normal. Like nothing had ever happened. She didn’t know how she wanted him talking to her, or if she did, but she knew she didn’t want that.
Whatever, Tommy , she thought, then whacked at her ball.
It took off in the air, off the end of the club. She ducked down as she watched it, as though she could will it to drop down, too.
It didn’t. It sailed with perfect precision right over the flying fish windmill on hole No. 9 and straight into Maddie’s cheekbone.
“Ouch!” she cried, her hand flying up to her face.
“Oh, no,” Jane said. She dropped her club on the turf and rushed over to her. “I’m so sorry. Are you all right?”
Maddie took her hand off her cheek and turned toward Ian. “Is it bleeding?”
“No …” he said. “It’s not bleeding.” He glanced over his shoulder at Haley. “But it’s probably going to bruise a little.”
Ashley put her hands on her hips and looked at Jane. “What do you think this is, the Masters?” she exclaimed. “What are you doing swinging that hard? You could have hurt an animal! Or, like, a bird!” Her eyes widened even more. “You could have hurt a child !”
“The what?” Bree said.
“Is a bird not an animal?” Blake said.
“I don’t see any kids,” Tommy said, looking around. “For what it’s worth.”
“Oh, my gosh, Ashley, settle down,” Haley said. She turned to Maddie. “It doesn’t look too bad. Even if there is a little mark, the girl who’s doing our makeup is amazing. Seriously. It’ll be fine.”
“Wait, where was this amazing makeup artist when I got a little sunburn on my nose?” Blake said. Haley gave him a murderous look and he shrugged. “I’m just asking.”
“How about you just don’t,” she said.
He put up his hands and stepped back. “Okie dokie.”
Ian took Maddie by the elbow and handed both of their clubs to Tommy. “I’m just going to take her back to the hotel and put some ice on it.”
Do we think ice is necessary , Jane almost asked, but kept her mouth shut. “I’m really sorry, Maddie,” she said instead.
“It’s all right,” Maddie said, still clutching her cheek.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Ashley said.
“No, it’s all right,” she said, a little forlorn.
“We’ll see you at dinner, right?” Haley said. “Or come back out before then if you feel like it.”
“All right,” Maddie said.
They stood around and watched as Ian led Maddie off the mini-golf course. “Alllllll right,” Blake said after a pause. Jane wasn’t sure if he was saying it accidentally, trying to fill the space, or if he was trying to make a joke because of how many times Maddie had said it.
Haley clearly thought it was the latter. “Oh, my gosh, Blake ,” she said, giving him a sharp elbow to the ribs.
“What?” he said. He looked around. “All right, so we have how many holes left, a half-dozen or so? What do you say we get this done?”
Tommy gave his club a little toss in the air and caught it with the same hand. “Sounds good to me.”
“Let’s do it,” Blake said, picking up the errant ball and handing it back to Jane.
They split up, and Jane handed her ball to Luke. “I think I’m probably going to skip this one,” she said. “I don’t think the windmill is my strong suit.”
He slipped it in his pocket and walked around her to the start of the hole. “You actually do have a pretty good swing,” he said under his breath as he went by. “Maybe a better fit for the driving range than the mini-golf course, but it is a good swing.”
“Stop,” she said, but she was smiling.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. “Forgotten about by dinnertime.”
Jane wasn’t sure about that, but it was a nice thought. “I hope so,” she said.
He was chuckling a little to himself as he tapped the ball with the club. “That Masters line was kind of funny,” he said. “You know what they say about the Masters.”
“What?”
“It’s a tradition unlike any other.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. Not exactly the kind of tradition she was looking to bring to the wedding.