Page 20 of Tee’d Up For Trouble

He smiled as if amused by my defense of him. “I couldn’t give her what she wanted. Stability, certainty, status, family name. She fell in love with a guy who’d join the family business and settle down, not one who was chasing a golf dream.”

“If you love someone, you don’t leave them because they make a choice you don’t agree with,” I fumed.

“It was for the best. She married someone else. She’s got kids. I’m happy for her.”

He sounded sincerely pleased for the bitch who broke his heart. That made my chest ache. “You don’t hold a grudge?”

“No, I don’t.” He met my eyes. “You can’t make someone stay if they’ve already decided to leave.”

I had to admit there was wisdom in his words.

“If you were in love with a man who didn’t conform to society, you’d hang on tight, wouldn’t you?” he continued softly, dangerously. “You wouldn’t run, would you, darlin’ Dee.”

My mouth went dry. “No,” I agreed. “Not if I was in love.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He leaned his head back and looked up at the sky. “I don’t think I’ve seen so many stars in ages.”

“Well, we don’t have a lot of city lights around here.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” His voice was quieter now, like he didn’t want to disturb the night. “Here, it feels as if the stars are brighter, closer.”

I followed his gaze, tilting my head back to take in the sky. It was breathtaking, a view you didn’t appreciate when you saw it every night.

“See that one?” Jax pointed toward the sky, tracing a curve of bright stars. “That’s The Plough.”

I squinted. “The one shaped like a ladle?”

“That’s the one.” He took my hand in his, and I didn’t resist. This Yank was making mush out of me. “My granddad used to say that if you could see the whole thing—clear as day—it meant you were where you were meant to be. Like you’d found your way home.”

He interlaced his fingers with mine, absentmindedly running his thumb over my knuckles.

I glanced at him, his face shadowed by the faint glow of starlight, his eyes fixed on our hands. “And what if you can only see part of it?”

His eyes held mine. “Then you’re almost there. Just gotta trust the stars and keep going.”

I wondered if he wasn’t just talking about stars.

CHAPTER7

Jax

Ihad assumed that a small village like Ballybeg in Ireland would have everyone at church on Sunday morning. In Charleston, my family dragged me to Sunday mass as a child until I grew up and decided it wasn’t my thing.

So, I was surprised when I came down to the pub and found people in at eleven in the morning, scarfing down Ronan’s full Irish.

“I thought everyone would be at Church,” I told Saoirse, who poured me a cup of strong black coffee.

“I go to church on three occasions.” Saoirse held up a hand and started to close one finger after the other as she listed, “Weddings, funerals, and baptisms. And sometimes I go to Christmas Mass when my ma emotionally blackmails me.”

She leaned closer. “Mrs. Nolan goeseverySunday and comes right back here so we know what’s what even though we weren’t there.”

I arched an eyebrow.

“Church is gossip central,” Ronan, who was looking for something in the bar, informed me.

“Liam Murphy, Liam Ryan, and Seamus, well, they sneak into the back for the last five minutes ‘cause they don’t want to piss off Jesus any more than they already have,” this came from a man I hadn’t seen before who was in overalls.

“’Cause Liam’s dyin’,” Saoirse clarified.

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