A Case of Extreme Mistaken Identity - Victorine E. Lieske Page 0,30
on her tone.
He set his ball down on the starting spot of the next hole. This one had a tiger in the middle of the green and you had to hit the ball into the mouth. The tail moved back and forth, and if you didn’t catch it at the right time, your ball would spit back out at you. As Austin lined up his shot, he glanced at her. “It must have been difficult, being the daughter of a famous person.”
She frowned. No one really understood. If she complained about her life, most of the time people would get angry at her, or tell her to stop griping. She had all the money anyone could want. Everyone assumed that equated to happiness.
Dani wasn’t sure exactly what to say to him. He didn’t seem like the type to tell her to suck it up because she was an heiress. He seemed sincere. She finally nodded and glanced away. “Yeah, it was.”
He hit the ball and it sailed into the mouth. She waited to see if it would come out the other side. He’d hit it a bit early, from what she could tell, but hoped the mechanism inside didn’t block him. The tail moved and the ball shot out, rounded the corner, and clipped the hole but didn’t go in. “Aw, man,” Austin said. “Near miss.”
His voice was light, but when he turned his gaze to her, she could see something deeper in his eyes. But he didn’t say anything else and she ignored the heavy look. “Too bad.”
Dani set her ball down and took a minute to assess the angle. After she hit the ball, it went through the tiger and came out the other side with a hole in one. She lifted her arms. “I made it.”
“How did you do that? You hit the ball exactly the same way I had.”
“This one is all about the timing.” She explained to him how she knew when to hit the ball by how the tail was positioned.
He shook his head at her. “And you think you’re not smart.”
Dani froze, his words hitting a nerve. What exactly was he saying? He didn’t look like he was making fun of her. She wasn’t sure how to respond, so she decided to shrug it off. “I’m not. I’ve just played a lot of miniature golf.”
He walked past the tiger and got ready to make another try at getting his ball in the hole. “In order to be good at this game, you need to know a lot about angles, velocity, and momentum.” He glanced at her. “Physics. Not everyone can understand that stuff.” He tapped the ball and it went into the cup.
“I don’t know anything about physics. I just know how hard to hit it to make the ball do what I want.”
“Whether you know it or not, you’re using physics to…how did you put it? Cream me?”
If he was set on thinking she was smart, she wasn’t going to stop him. “I think the loser needs to buy the winner dessert.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, you do, do you?”
She laughed at his expression. “Yeah. There’s a chocolate shop up the street.”
“Okay, I see where this is going.” He pulled his golf ball out of the hole and pointed to the next flag. “You’re on. I’m upping my game. And this time you’re not going to—”
“Austin? Is that you?”
Dani turned to see a woman picking her way across the course in extremely high heels. She wore a cute little empire dress with spaghetti straps, and Dani suddenly had the urge to hide. Why did she have to be wearing frumpy discount clothes from SaleMart?
Austin’s mouth dropped. “Claire?”
Of course she had an adorable name like Claire. Why did that make Dani want to dislike her?
“Oh, my goodness. It is you. I can’t believe I’ve run into you on the Cayman Islands, of all places.” She gave Austin a hug, which further irritated Dani.
Austin seemed unable to speak for a moment. He just stood there, staring at Claire, his mouth opening and closing. Finally, he said, “What are you doing here?”
“Playing golf, of course.”
“By yourself?” Austin’s forehead wrinkled.
Claire laughed, a twittering sound like tiny silver bells. “Lame, right? I’m just on vacation and wanted to see what the local attractions were. This strip along the beach is fantastic. I ate at the best seafood place.”
Austin smiled. “The Shrimp Next Door?”
Claire’s hand flew to her mouth. “How did you know?”