Page 118 of Putting Out
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It was now or never.He knew it. Groups of people were running up the rope lines along the eighteenth fairway. Only one person was so popular, so beautiful, so spectacular she made people run.
Reilly.
It was time to act. Today and not tomorrow when the tall person would ruin everything. The angel had told him so. The angel had revealed all about the true nature of his precious Reilly and the bad man who followed her everywhere.
He didn’t want to scare her but he knew he would. He knew anything he did would scare her because she couldn’t understand how much he loved her and wanted to protect her.
The angel gave him the means.
He pressed his hands into his pockets slowly, jostled suddenly by the push of people who were crowding around him near the 18thgreen.
He’d waited all day and now the moment was finally here.
“Reilly!”
“You go, girl!”
“You can do it!”
Forcing herself to focus, she looked to the green to determine her next move. She’d hit a decent shot, but had gone back to her three-wood to avoid trouble, so she was looking at over a hundred and ninety yards to the green.
Kenny didn’t ask, but handed her a five iron.
“It’s a back hole location,” he said. “You’ve got to keep it below the flag.”
She nodded and lined up over the ball. It was up and it was good.
Reilly shook her head to clear out the sudden rush of adrenaline. The noise around the green was deafening as she walked up. She’d hit her shot flush and knew she’d given herself a chance for another birdie and a round of sixty-four.
Her playing partner had to putt first and the silent paddles were raised to hush the galley. Kenny leaned into her as he watched the other guy miss his putt for par.
“I know I said a sixty-five would be awesome, but a birdie here would be great, too,” he whispered.
“You think?”
“I’m just saying…”
“If you say anything else I’m going to smack you. I’m trying to concentrate.”
Reilly started to walk as soon as her playing partner’s ball hit the hole. She sank down on her hunches and held her putter high and in front of her to get a read on the line. Then she remembered that never worked for her.
Setting it down she leaned forward and studied the break. She felt Kenny come up behind her.
“Anything?” she asked.
“Maybe a little left?”
“What happened to ‘I swear to God it’s going to break left?’”
“That was yesterday,” he told her. “Today you’re on your own.”
Reilly smiled and shook her head. “That I actually pay you kills me.”
“Hey, I carried your bags, didn’t I? Let’s go sink this so we can catch the rest of Roy’s round in the clubhouse and see how far we are out of first.”
Reilly stood up and found the path she wanted the ball to take. She made her decision, stilled her hands and hit it. The ball rolled toward the hole, circled the lip, but then hung there and didn’t drop.
