sound effects that excited Ashley to shrieks of delight.
Cameron gave Sean a run for his money. It was golf after all, and there was money at stake. The two of them traded the lead back and forth.
Charlie was a natural. Sean stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her slight form, and demonstrated a good stance and grip. She caught on immediately and was just as quick to grasp how to keep score, absorbing the terminology like a sponge.
Lily was a terrible golfer, as it turned out. Her stance was awkward and she had a ridiculous grip. By the fourth hole, Sean couldn’t hold his tongue anymore.
“Care for a little advice?” he asked.
She looked up, clearly exasperated. “But what I’ve been doing has been working so well. What’s my score, Charlie?”
The little girl frowned, pencil tapping the scorecard as she counted. “Well, it’s kind of high.”
“I can take it.”
“You’re twenty-three over par, actually.” Charlie giggled and skipped away, following Cameron and Ashley to the next hole.
“Boy, do I ever stink at this,” Lily muttered.
“You do,” Sean agreed.
She leaned down to set her ball on the next tee box. “So about those pointers…”
He started with the basics, correcting her grip and stance. She actually did slightly better on the fifth hole, though she still took eight strokes to get there.
“You have no swing,” Sean said.
“Very funny,” said Lily. “I have no idea what you mean.”
Treating her like one of his students, Sean demonstrated. He made par on the hole. Cameron birdied it, and Charlie made two over par. “That’s called a double bogey,” she said importantly.
“The swing,” Sean reiterated. “It’s a rhythm. Hips, shoulders, arms. Very subtle when you’re putting.”
She addressed the ball, and he could already see things going wrong.
“Wait,” he said, stepping up behind her. “Be still and I’ll show you.”
He put his arms around her from behind. At the club, he did this ten times a week giving lessons. With Lily, it was different. He found himself distracted by the way she felt—surprisingly soft. And the way her hair smelled—clean and fresh. And the heat of her body, tucked up against his. In light of the fact that he’d spent the previous night with Maura, he knew these were completely inappropriate thoughts. He forced himself to concentrate on helping her as if she were any other golf student.
“Okay, feel this.”
“Feel, um, what? What am I supposed to be feeling?”
Good question. “Relax your arms and I’ll show you the movement. This is a putt. The movement is very delicate.” He helped her hit a solid straight shot that left her just one or two strokes from the hole. “Feel the difference?” he said.
“I’m not sure.”
“Want me to show you again?”
“Absolutely not.” She spoke quickly, clipping off her words as she moved away from him.
Clearly she hadn’t noticed the feeling between them when he had his arms around her. It was just as well, he thought. Things were complicated enough for him.
By the end of the round, she showed a slight improvement. Sean and Cameron went into the last hole with a gap between their scores. Sean was ahead by three strokes, a comfortable lead by any standard.
“It’s not looking good for the twenty big ones, Cam,” Charlie said.
“Yeah, real helpful of you to point that out.”
“You could still win,” she said. “There’s a hazard on this hole, see? So if Sean gets in the hazard, he’ll have a tough time recovering.”
Lily grinned at her. “Where did you learn to talk like that?”
Charlie shrugged. “Watching my dad on TV.”
“Well, you sound like a golf commentator,” Sean said.
“I could get into the water hazard, too,” said Cameron.
“You won’t,” Charlie assured him.
“How do you know I won’t?”
She rolled her eyes with an excess of patience. “On account of the twenty bucks.”
“That little boy’s birthday party is catching up,” Lily warned, looking over her shoulder at the group behind them. “I think they’re just two holes back.”
Sean gestured to Cameron. “You won the last hole, so you have honors.”
Cameron stepped up and hit a safe but admirable shot that got him where he needed to be—two strokes from the hole. Sean followed, putting his ball on the tee. As he drew back to putt, his stomach growled with hunger. And against his will, he thought again about having his arms around Lily.
The ball rolled straight toward the water hazard and fell in with a plop.
“That’s a two-stroke penalty,” Charlie piped up.
“Hot dog,” said Ashley.
Sean was ticked off. Concentration was everything. He of all