article on what to expect from the toddler years.”
“Who reads these things? People who have no kids. They’re the only ones who have time.” He glanced at Ashley, who was still sleeping, her limbs spilling from the seat in the grocery cart. “She tells me everything I need to know.”
“It makes more sense in the context of expert commentary.”
He shook his head and selected a copy of Golf Digest. “Reading that is not going to make me a better parent any more than reading this would make me a better golfer.”
Her first instinct, as always, was to argue with him, but she forced herself to put both magazines away. She pursed her lips and, when the checker called for a price check on the order in front of them, drummed her fingers on the handlebar of the cart. “Maybe we should pick another line,” she suggested.
“This one’s fine.”
Another urge to argue prodded at her. “That one over there is actually moving.”
“So will this one. They always do, eventually.”
She picked up a pack of gum, read the ingredients, put it back. “I have to say, I admire your patience.”
“Thank you. I suppose I learned it from living overseas, waiting around in foreign airports and taxi lines.”
It was a rare reminder that he had a past, a whole lifetime of experiences in exotic cities. She wondered if he missed that life, yearned for the adventure of it. “Why did you move back to the States?” she asked. She knew what Crystal had thought. She wanted to hear his version.
The line shuffled forward a few paces. “I was banned from the tour for cheating.”
His bluntness surprised her. That was exactly what Crystal had said. “Why would you cheat?”
“There are plenty of reasons for a guy to cheat. The stakes are high in this game, especially for a player with something to prove. I didn’t do it, though. Didn’t cheat.”
“Why would they say you did?”
“A major sponsor wanted me off the tour.”
“Why?”
He started unloading the produce onto the conveyer belt. “You don’t want to know.”
She resisted the urge to rearrange the groceries on the belt, even though it meant the canned goods would probably bruise the produce. “Yes. I really want to know.”
“I was bonking the sponsor’s daughter, and he had promised her hand in marriage to some guy from the Malaysian royal family. Ever heard of the yakuza?”
“Isn’t that the Japanese mafia?”
“Pretty much. Turns out daddy was a yakuza boss with high hopes for his daughter.” He laughed at Lily’s expression. “Well, you asked.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not making this up.”
“Didn’t you try to defend yourself? Deny that you cheated?”
“There was no point in wasting my time. Things are done differently by the mob, and I made the colossal mistake of forgetting that.”
“So how did this work?”
He finished unloading the groceries and the line moved again. “I was set up. At the end of a major tournament, I was handed an erroneous scorecard, and like an idiot, I signed off on it.”
“What do you mean, signed off?”
“I certified that my score was true and accurate. I was in a rush and didn’t check the numbers.”
“So even though you were set up, you’re just going to surrender? That’s absurd. You’re a golfer, Sean. It’s what you do. Why would you let someone take that away from you?”
“Now you sound like Red.”
“How so?”
“He thinks I should stick with the plan to get back on the tour. Get my PGA card. The trouble is, Q School only comes around once a year.”
“Q School?”
“It’s an annual event, 108 holes, and the top thirty-five scorers get their PGA cards. Prior to that, I’d have to clear preliminary stages. It’s a long process, and there’s no way I can juggle that along with the kids.”
So he was sacrificing more than Lily thought. She needed to think about this, about the fact that he’d gone for his dream and had blown it, and he was yearning for another shot. The more she got to know this man, the more he surprised her. A new respect for him rose in her. “Is that the only way to get your PGA card and start playing in tournaments?”
“Red’s looking into some other options, but he’s wasting his time. I’ve got other priorities now.”
She could hear a peculiar note of taut frustration in his voice. “Why not think about doing both?”
“I can do all the thinking I want. There’s too much travel to actually do anything about it. I have a different life now.” He reached