Page 154 of Unexpected Shot
I feel like the vibe is shifting, and I’m slightly worried where it’s about to go. “Thanks man. But now I’m stuck. I have to stay married to her or she’s going to probably tell everyone I forced her to marry me when she was drunk or some shit. This is my life now.”
Chad sits back, settling into a little too much confidence. He’s entirely too smug when he says, “What if it wasn’t?”
I have no clue what he’s about to suggest, but I do have a feeling it’s going to get me closer to him fucking himself over. “What do you mean?”
Chad takes a drink of his beer. “Shelby famously doesn’t do endorsements. She’s barely played in two years. Her bank account has to be running low…”
Holy shit,he’s about to bury himself.
“I can’t pay her off,” I object quickly, you know…for the drama. “What if someone found out? Put the pieces together? Mysteriously what, ten million goes out of my checking account and magically appears in Shelby’s after we announce a divorce to a marriage that’s barely a month old?”
Chad, in his pompous glory, just shrugs. “Or…I could pay her off for you.”
I thought I was going to have to bring this up. Find a way to really play on his hatred for her and his apparent need to please me. Turns out, Chad’s full of himself enough to lead us right to the big fish. “How?”
“I’ve kept a secret from you, Beau,” he begins. “Not a lot of guys know this, but… When golfers, or others around the sport, find themselves in a pinch, I’m the guy to help them out.”
I do my best to put on my “this is brand new information” shocked face, which it looks like he buys. “Really? You’re…like a fixer?”
“Loan specialist. Fixer. I have a few different titles. But at theend of the day, it’s all the same—I do a little for you, you do a little for me… Then poof, problems go away.”
“Wow,” I say, doing my best to pretend like I’m contemplating this. “You’d do that?”
“In a heartbeat. I’d find the number she’d want to go away. Make sure she signs an NDA as well as a contract that requires her to move out of Nashville after the divorce is final. Then she’s out of your life. Just like that.”
God I hope the camera is still recording.
“What would you get in return?”
“From you, I’m not worried about the money,” he says. “But don’t tell my other clients. I don’t want to cause a stink. No, what I want from you is something different.”
“Different how?”
“I want things back the way they were,” Chad says, leaning in like he’s about to let me in on some huge life-altering secret. Some grand scheme that only we can partake in. “Before Shelby came back to Nashville. Me on the channel. You and me playing together every week. Video game nights. And…maybe…out of courtesy…you call the reporter up, say you lied, and get that story about me retracted.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it, Beau. I just want us back to how we were. When Shelby was out of our lives.”
Again, I pretend to think about it. I can’t be too eager to say yes. That would be even more suspicious. Although, how he doesn’t see that this is a setup, I have no idea.
“Okay,” I say. “Do it.”
Chad smiles from ear to ear, clapping his hands together in triumph. “This is actually perfect.”
That comment takes me aback. “What do you mean perfect?”
“This was the goal all along,” Chad says, a victorious edge to his voice. “Getting Shelby gone. It worked for a while. Then she moved to Nashville. But her out of the picture…that’s what I’ve always wanted. How it was always supposed to be. Just you and me.”
Excuse me, what the fuck did he just say?
“Just you and me? Chad? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you see, Beau. She’s always been the block between us,” he says, trying to grab my hand, which I pull away, because this shit is getting weird. “It was you and me. Best friends. Then she came along and it was ‘Shelby this’ and ‘Shelby that.’ Fuck Shelby and her apparent natural talent and her bitchy attitude.”
I have to stand up because…fucking hell did this take a hard left turn. “Are you trying to tell me you’ve hated Shelby since we were kids because it wasn’t just us anymore? That I had another friend?”
“Exactly,” Chad says, standing up as well. “I miss the days when it was just the two of us. Two best friends on the course.”
