Chapter 25: Chapter. 26

Only the higher-ups from each company were at the golf tournament, and that finally, finally included me.

I was so focused on networking that I didn’t notice the Martin Enterprises team roll up until Todd waved to me. Board member Leonard and my father stuck close together, offering me tight smiles and nods. Like we were barely passing acquaintances.

The back of Damon’s fingers brushed my tense, frozen forearm. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.

I kept up my usual “business friendly” smile. “Yeah, why?”

He jerked his chin at my “former” family.

“They’re just competitors right now. I’m focused,” I promised.

Damon nodded. “Let’s head out, then.”

I remembered enough about other players’ families, hobbies, and upcoming projects to make a great impression at the beginning. As for the game, Damon had great form, excellent sportsmanship—and a heckler in the form of Todd.

“I used to be on the golf team,” Todd bragged, sidling up to some of the higher-ups present. He fit in perfectly: preppy, lean, ambitious. “Not sure any of us would’ve used that iron.”

Damon practiced his swing. “Do you know which irons to use? Sounds like you just took whatever your coach or caddy gave you.”

“Why wouldn’t I trust the experts?” Todd scoffed.

“Damon is an expert,” I said, crossing my arms.

“According to who?” Todd challenged.

“The former CEO of Gibbons Group. And a lot of those at SnapItUp.” Damon nodded to the current leader of that high-volume direct-to-consumer company, who toasted him with her water bottle.

Working as a caddy must’ve been Damon’s first major tie-in to the business world. People trusted him. Traded information. I decided I would, too.

Every time we got in the cart, I fed Damon helpful tidbits on Todd: he was right-handed, scared of birds (so I whistled a little), and always trying to reap other people’s rewards. Todd had spent most of the day piggybacking onto my conversations with potential clients, which I would then quickly cut him out of.

As the game wore on, Todd got more desperate, moving the ball when no one else was looking, pretending he’d gotten less strokes, parting even from my father and the other players to keep up the ruse that he was an excellent player.

“He’s trying to catch up to the buyers to pitch Martin Enterprises,” Damon commented, gesturing to the final green and Todd, who pocketed his ball and revved his golf cart engine as I finalized my putt.

“Not if we get there first!” I snatched my ball and dove into the cart. “Get in!”

Todd and my dad were not going to shut me out of any opportunity again!

As we raced up to the final hill, I slammed on the accelerator. We practically flew to the finish line. Our water bottles spewed like champagne. We were ahead. We would win!

Damon gripped the dashboard so hard his knuckles turned white. “Alina, you’re going to get us killed!”

I flashed back to the car crash… begging to be let in, to have a chance.

As soon as the tires hit the grass, my ass smashed into the seat and the clubs rattled in the back, bringing me back to reality. We screeched to the green before Todd. For a second, all I could hear was the dull roar of adrenaline and the crowd’s cheers. The heavy suck and sigh of air next to me pulled my attention to my copilot.

“We made it,” I said.

“Nice air!” one guy called around a cupped hand.

I smiled, but Damon’s neck tendons throbbed.

“Damon?”

Pale, Damon took a second to compose himself before yanking his clubs out of the back and storming to the green.

I didn’t expect him to be so pissed off. We had gotten there first. We’d made a strong impression—and a positive one for this crowd. Now, we just needed a strong finish.

But by the red of Damon’s ears and neck peeking out over tense shoulders, I’d have some work to do before he ever let me take the wheel again.

Todd pulled up and came over to my side, rubbing his shins before propping his foot on my cart. “Wow, talk about full throttle. I’ve never seen you like that.”

“I always appreciate a challenge.” I pulled the keys out of the engine and shifted my knees to get out, easing him out of my way.

“So do I.” He smiled, his pale eyes glinting with vapid pleasantness. “Maybe one day, we can win you back. Can I have a hint?”

“I thought you liked the challenge.” I scooted past him, briefly burning under Damon’s dirty look. But he turned away just as fast, whereas Todd kept chasing me, even as my dad and Leonard pulled up in their cart.

“You all know I wanted to be CEO and manager,” I went on.

“We could lead together,” Todd offered, lightly grasping my arm. The cold brush of his fingers sent goosebumps all the way down to my spine. It should’ve been a relief in this heat. The idea of working with him again, of knowing better, of just knowing what was next… all of it should’ve been easy. I did love him, once. And now he wanted to manage the whole company together?

“I’ll talk to your dad.” Todd rubbed my arm.

I shuddered, wiped the chill off me, and headed towards the crowd. “No, no, don’t do that.” I was still processing the fact that he’d had me followed. I couldn’t let one conversation with Todd magically fix everything.

“But you’ll be at his birthday party, won’t you?” Todd raised his eyebrows, hopeful.

“I’m not sure, yet.” Dad’s birthday party was usually at the office. I’d take him out to a fancy restaurant when he could spare the time, of course, but he’d always sneak the waiter his card and tip extra, citing that fathers should spoil their daughters, not the other way around.

Dad and Leonard pulled up to the final hole.

“He’d love for you to be there,” Todd said. “All of us would. Especially me.”

“We’ll see.”

I went back to work, making the most of my time on the green. I chatted up a few members of the crowd who were impressed with my driving, and remained quiet when others were putting—unlike Todd, who was so engrossed in his own conversations and game he had no idea what else was going on.

Eventually, my father and Leonard joined us. Leonard directed a wet cough into his closed fist and waited in the shade for his turn to putt. Dad dabbed his brow with his gloves, slightly short of breath, and asked a caddy for a bottle of water.

“I’m sorry, sir, we’ve run out. But this is the last hole and we’ll be good to go back to the clubhouse soon.”

“That’s okay, I’ll be fine,” Dad said, but the strain around his eyes and smile said otherwise. A few of the other members were melting in the sun, too. They’d get sick in this heat.

Once my dad had walked far enough away, I approached the caddy. “Excuse me, are you still using this cooler?”

“No, it’s just a bunch of melting ice now.”

“Do you mind if I repurpose it for my towel?”

“Oh, you want to dip it in?”

“No, that would leave my sweat in there for everyone else.” I explained my plan, then demonstrated by popping open the drain tab on the side for a few seconds, just long enough to wet my towel. I plugged it, again, wrapping the cool towel on the back of my neck. “Phew, I already feel five degrees colder!”

“That’s really smart!” Leonard said from the cart, waving his own towel like a white flag. “Roy, we should do ours!”

Dad frowned, but nodded, grabbing their towels and handing them to the caddy, who helped them get set up as I orbited back to the buyers.

I overheard one of them say to Damon, “She’s really something, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she is,” he said, and turned away from me to continue negotiating.