The Woman He Married (21 page)

“Woman, you are on one today.”

Josie dropped her leg and turned to frown at him. “You just keep talking…”

Raising one brow, John regarded her like maybe he was on the wrong balcony. “All right, just so long as your mood improves before tee-time.”

Josie turned her focus back to the palm, moving the opposite foot up to half-lotus. She heard John let out a low whistle before the door clicked shut behind him.

* * * *

Dressed and ready for an afternoon of golf, Josie made a quick call home to check in with her mother before heading down to the course.

“Well, Jack got a mysterious phone call from a girl that he took in the study, with the doors closed,” Carol explained. “Curiosity got the best of Bobbie and Beth, so they hooked a walkie-talkie to Sampson’s collar and sent him in to spy. When Jack found them hiding in the closet with the other walkie-talkie, all hell broke loose.”

“Lord, Momma, my little boy is growing up.” Josie felt homesick. “What else is going on?”

“Oh, Bobbie’s failing science—his teacher requested a parent conference as soon as you get home,” she said, then cleared her throat, “and Beth wants to talk to you. Here she is.”

“Momma, I have a ’storm
throap
,’” she informed Josie in a raspy voice.

“That’s too bad,” Josie said sympathetically while she wasn’t buying a word of it. “Is Granny Carol going shopping today?”

“Yes ma’am,” Beth confessed in a puny voice, and then coughed twice more. “She said if I feel better later I can go with her.”

Uh, huh.

* * * *

An ideal day for golf,
Josie thought, looking around at the perfectly manicured golf course with green fairways flanked by swaying palms and tall spindly pines. Overhead, white wispy clouds moved slowly with the light breeze, further intensifying the blue of the sky.

Catching up with the group, Josie took a seat on a bench near the first tee to change her shoes.
Lanny
explained the rules, starting with the fact that they chose a short course “for the ladies” and continued by saying, “We’ll be playing as couples, four to a group, and to make it interesting, along with five hundred dollars, the winning couple gets a weekend in Gatlinburg.”

“Do we have to take our wife, or do girlfriends qualify for Gatlinburg?” Andy joked with a sly smile, while
Lydia
regarded him under a tense brow.

“Wouldn’t be fair if you didn’t.”
Then under his breath,
Lanny
added in jest, “But no one said you can’t get an extra room for the mistress.”

At least, Josie hoped he was being funny.
Yikes!

“Barbara and I’ll tee off first. Then,
Andy
,
Lydia
, Trisha, and
Denton
, followed by Josie, John, Patrick, and Amy,”
Lanny
said, motioning to each group. “No taking shots for the
ladies,
and the ladies get two
Mulligans
each. Winning couple takes all.”

Josie casually sized up the competition as each group took their turn teeing off.
Lanny
and Barbara took, collectively, ten shots on the first hole. Andy and
Denton
’s first tee shots were all right, ten to fifteen yards from the green.
Lydia
, well she had to use a Mulligan on the first swing.

Trisha was wearing the shortest golf skirt Josie had ever seen. She must have had it specially made because Josie was pretty sure no self-respecting golf store would sell such an atrocity. With all male eyes trained on her legs, and more, she swayed her backside seductively as she set up for her swing.
Barf.
Slicing slightly to the right, her first drive wasn’t too bad, but Josie was pretty sure she could take her.

While the others moved down the fairway, Josie noticed that Amy was biting her thumbnail while pacing two and fro.

“You all right, Amy?” Josie asked.

“Uh, huh.”
Amy stopped pacing. “It’s just that I don’t want to make a fool of myself in front of everyone, embarrass Patrick.”

“Have you ever played before?”

“Sure but it was just the two of us.” Amy motioned to Patrick. “And he always lets me cheat.” Finishing off her thumbnail, she moved onto the nail of her forefinger.

Josie pulled a nine iron out of her bag and handed it to Amy. “Let me see your swing.”

Setting up tentatively, Amy moved the club back fast, arms bent, club moving every which way, and then slammed it into the ground on the way back through. Although her swing wasn’t as feeble as
Lydia
’s, Josie understood Amy’s apprehension.

“Okay, bend your legs more, and don’t let your hips move up or down. Try using only your upper body for now.” Josie demonstrated, and Amy followed her example, swinging this time without hitting the ground, at least. “Good, we can work on form later.”

Noticing Amy’s bare left hand, Josie rifled through her golf bag, producing a new golf glove, and gave it to Amy. “Your hand will be all tore up by the end if you don’t wear one of these.”

“Thanks, that’s real kind of you.” Looking puzzled, Amy smiled at Josie and slipped the glove on her hand. “Now, what did you say about keeping my hips even?”

Down the fairway, Andy berated
Lydia
for taking so many strokes as they finished up and moved off of the first green. Josie gave Amy a few more tips:
Eye on the ball, don’t grip the club too hard, save all the momentum for the forward motion…
Giving Amy a thumbs up, Josie felt uneasy herself watching her set up for her first stroke of the day.

Amy managed to pop the ball up, keeping it relatively straight, although it didn’t fly too far. Ecstatic, she gave Patrick a high-five and mouthed “thank you” to Josie while John shot his wife a
what-are-you-doing-helping-the-competition
look.

After Patrick drove his ball into the left rough about a hundred yards out, it was Josie’s turn. Josie pulled out her 3-wood and gave John a precarious look before setting up her shot. Focusing down the fairway, Josie could see the green was situated off to the left, partially hidden behind a row of trees. She adjusted her stance slightly more in that direction, knowing that she tended to slice right at times with this club, and began her drive. Executing her backswing with perfection, her arms then moved the club forward, and as it made contact with the ball, Josie could feel that she was “on” today. She watched with satisfaction as the ball flew about a hundred and seventy-five yards, landing just to the right of the green.
I love par-three courses
.

Swinging her club up onto her shoulder, Josie strode past John and Patrick’s astonished faces. “Guess
I
should have warmed up too. Huh?” She winked at Amy as she slid the club back into her bag.

As John set up his shot, Josie could tell by his expression that he was worried about not hitting the ball as well as she had. She felt her competitive spirit kick in when she hoped he wouldn’t.

As he looked out to the green and then back to the ball, John’s arms and shoulder muscles flexed impressively as he readied himself to swing. The ball flew beautifully through the air, bouncing twice on the green before rolling to the edge and coming to a stop. Making a fist and curling his arm, John rejoiced with a “yes!”

Lucky shot,
Josie thought.

For the rest of the afternoon, Josie and John played neck and neck, competing as much against each other as with the other couples. Josie hadn’t had so much fun with John since before Jack was born. Unwittingly, she was reminded why she’d fallen in love with him all those years ago.

Throughout the course, Josie continued to help Amy with her game and it appeared a promising new friendship was developing between the two of them.

On the tenth hole, when Amy’s ball landed in the sand, Josie instructed her not to be afraid to kick up a little sand. “It’ll help the ball pop-up better.”

Amy took Josie’s advice, kicking up a small storm and coating all four of them with sand. Unfortunately for Amy, the ball didn’t move an inch.

Brushing sand out of his hair, John scolded Josie again. “You do realize that this
is
a competition.”

Then he smiled proudly when Josie said, “Like any of these couples have a chance in hell of beating us.”

As the sun started to sink into the afternoon sky, everyone stood around while John made his final putt.
Lanny
tallied up the scores. And, win they did, finishing an impressive four over par combined. When
Lanny
announced John and Josie as the winners, John celebrated enthusiastically by making “in-your-face” gestures at Andy, and then grabbing Josie around the waist, he picked her up and swung her around in a circle. After setting her back down, he leaned down and planted a big smooch right on her lips. Unable to pinpoint the last time John’s lips had actually touched hers, Josie felt her eyes grow wide with shock while her lips tingled for more.

“Oh, you can do better than that,”
Lanny
quipped. “Go ahead, give her a real kiss. After all, she’s the reason you won.”

With his arms still around her waist, John looked down at Josie tentatively for a second. Josie’s cheeks burned with anticipation. Then grinning, John spun her around, bending her back until she was facing up at him. Supporting her with one arm, he leaned down, pressing his lips to hers once more, and kissed her passionately.

As she felt his warm, moist lips moving gently with hers, Josie’s head started to swim and her legs turned to jelly as the blood coursing swiftly through her body heated up. Parting her lips, she allowed him to intensify his kiss. He reacted to the increased weight by reaching down with his other arm to support her wilting body. Then, without warning, he swiveled Josie back up to standing, keeping his arms around her until her legs regained their strength once more, his deep gaze locked on hers. And just for a moment, it seemed they were the only two people in the world.

After what seemed an eternity, she regained her composure, and John released her. Then, turning to the crowd of gaping spectators, he held out his arms, as if waiting for applause. “How’s that for a kiss?”

Lanny
said, “Now, that’s what I’m
talkin
’ ’bout.” Clapping his hands, he pointed to a nearby building. “Come on, let’s head into the club; I’m ’bout to starve.”

Barbara gave Josie a supportive thumbs-up.

It took a few paces before Josie fully regained her footing as she followed the group into the clubhouse.
It was just a kiss for crying out loud!
But she knew it was so much more than that. After all, it was John’s kiss on that fateful night in the blues bar that began the chain of events leading her to the crossroads where she found herself now standing, wondering which way to head next.

* * * *

Tossing a poorly aimed dart toward the corkboard, Josie could feel John keeping one eye on her while she played with Andy, Patrick, and Amy. Trisha was sitting next to John with her thin, tanned, fully exposed legs crossed, facing out, elbows resting on the bar, spine arched, and breasts bulging.
Denton
disappeared after supper, as usual, and hadn’t been heard from since.

The game ended, and Josie, with the others, headed back to the bar.

Andy shook his head and pointed an accusing finger at Josie. “Jocelyn, you suck! You hear me? I’m never playing darts with you as a partner again.”

“You’re the one who wanted to play with me,” Josie said. “What did you think? Because I can golf, I must be good at darts too?”

“Never again, Sis,” Andy reiterated.

Josie pulled a mock, frowning face.