Page 6 of Tee’d Up For Trouble

I headed back to the bar, trying to shake him from my head, but the truth was, I couldn’t. His voice lingered. His face lingered. His bloody dimples lingered.

It’s just that I’d had some dry days…months…fine, it had been at least two years. Maggie had been sick, and I took care of her. After she was gone, I couldn’t be at the farm. Not in the house we grew up in. Not in the same room where I’d held her hand while she slipped away. So, I moved above the pub, where the walls weren’t so haunted, and let Ronan stay at the farm when he needed somewhere to land after his girlfriend kicked him out.

But it didn’t matter how far I ran, the grief followed me. Maggie’s laughter still echoed in my head when I was alone. Her smile lived in the back of my mind, reminding me of what I’d lost.

Now, I was afraid of losing more.

It was a struggle to keep the pub alive while dealing with whiskey suppliers who couldn’t be bothered to send decent stock, and fending off greedy developers who saw Ballybeg as a blank canvas to slap their overpriced golf resort on.

“I hear you’ve got a boarder.” Saoirse pulled beer for Angus, who’d come as he always did with his dog, Finn, as soon as we opened. They were old and, as Angus liked to joke,circling the drain. He didn’t like being home, not since his wife passed, and now both, man and dog, came to The Banshee’s Rest and stayed all day until it was time for bed. He read, and played cards with some others who also came as he did. What would happen to all of these people if the pub was gone? They couldn’t afford some fancy resort, and honestly, they wouldn’t go. Ballybeg would become something else, not what it was today.

“Aye.”

“Heard he’s a Yank,” Angus commented.

“Aye.”

“Drives a Porsche.” Saoirse wiggled her eyebrows. “It’s sitting pretty in Paddy’s garage. Heard he’s aprofessional golfer.” She stressed the wordpro.

“Down, girl, he’s too old for ya.” The lass was only eighteen. I shook my head and went behind the bar.

“He’s rich enough to be as old as he likes,” she quipped airily, waving the dishrag she carried like a kerchief as if she were royalty.

Angus looked up from his pint. “How rich would I need to be?”

Saoirse laughed. “Ah, Angus, love, there isn’t enough money in the world for that.”

CHAPTER3

Jax

The cell reception in Ballybeg was about as reliable as my golf swing on a windy day, but I finally managed to find one corner of my room where I could hold a call without it cutting out. I stood by the window, phone pressed to my ear because my earbuds weren’t charged, and watched the rain batter the rolling hills that were somehow still postcard-perfect.

“You gonna have to explain that. You know I don’t do social media.” I ran a hand through my hair and paced in the tiny room, which was surprisingly charming, and I wasn’t even into the whole cozy-and-cramped aesthetic.

“She said you cheated on her?”

“Who said that?” I struggled to remember who I was rumored to have been dating recently. As a rule, I didn’t date. I had sex when the mood struck,andI could find a suitable partner, but spending time with womenalonewho weren’t friends or family was not in the cards. And this meant that I couldn’t cheat on anyone. I wasn’t with anyone.

“Francia Agnelli,” Brad ground out.

“Francia?” I wondered if I had heard Brad wrong. She was a model turned actress, and I’d probably spent a minute with her in the large scheme of life.

“Yes,” Brad screamed. “She talked to Howard Stern and told him you broke her heart by fuckin’ someone else.”

“I barely fuckedher,” I protested. This is why I didn’t date.Women be crazy!

“Well, according to her, you’re the love of her life. She even fuckin’ cried.”

“There’s nothing between me and Francia. It was casual.Verycasual.”

“You need to make a statement,” Brad demanded.

“Nope. She’s the one turning this into a circus, not me.” I didn’t give statements about my personal life. Brad knew that, my PR team knew that, and the PGA PR team knew that.

Brad sighed on the other end of the line. “Jax, you’re a professional golfer. You know as well as I do that what happens off the course gets just as much attention as what happens on it. This will hurt your sponsorships.”

“Okay.” I didn’t give a shit, and then I sighed. “Look, Francia’s got herself a movie deal now. She’s probably riding my name for all it’s worth.”

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