Page 45 of Chasing the Sun

“There’s a golf club a few miles from here that has an excellent par-three course.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means it should only take you three shots to get to the hole.”

“Hmm. Sounds reasonable.”

He laughed again, and she realized how much she liked the sound of it. If only he’d do it more often.

“When did you learn to golf?”

“My dad taught me when I was around eight, but I didn’t really get into it until high school.”

“Are you good at it?”

He shot her an amused glance. “I’m decent.”

She had a feeling he was just being humble.

“Living here, you’ve probably had a lot of practice, unlike in Michigan, where we have such short summers.”

“True. It’s a beautiful state, though.”

“You’ve been there?”

“Um-hmm. My family took a trip Up North when I was a kid.”

“When you say Up North, do you mean the Upper Peninsula or Michigan in general?”

“We went over the Mackinac Bridge. Does that qualify as Up North?”

She laughed. “Yes.”

“Would you ever consider moving?”

“I sort of already have.”

“But this is only temporary.”

She stiffened at the reminder. With each passing day, she was getting more and more accustomed to living in Florida and with him and Molly. She didn’t want to think about going home yet.

“I never really thought about it before. I haven’t had a reason to move.” Until now.

“Home is where your family is, right?”

“Right.” There are different definitions of the word family, though, and lately she’d been thinking of him and Molly as family.

“Here we are,” he said as he pulled into a driveway with a golf club sign out front.

She admired the profusion of colorful flowers lining the drive leading up to the clubhouse. It was still early, but there were several golfers on the course and going in and out of the clubhouse. She got her first flicker of nerves thinking she might embarrass herself in front of him.

“Ready?” he asked once he’d parked the car.

“I hope so.”

“You’ll do fine.”

With that, they hopped out, and she waited for him to retrieve his golf clubs from the back. The bag was full, but he slung it over his shoulder like it weighed nothing. She followed him into the clubhouse, her nerves taking a backseat to her excitement at being by his side.