Worth the Drive (26 page)

He nodded. “O
f course. Please, go home, we’
ll be fine.” He watched her as she walked away, her full hips swaying side to side, her steps heavy, her gait uncomfortable. She put her hand to the small of her back and rubbed. “Lizzie,”
Darío
said. She turned. “How far along are you?”

She chuckled. “Just six months if you can believe that. I know. I look huge, like I could go at any minute.”
Darío
said nothing, although he agreed with her.

“Don’t worry about Katie,
Darío
. She and I have totally different body types. She’ll love being able to walk the course with you on Tour. I’m sure she’ll be one of those lucky people who won’t show for a long time. And then when she does, she’ll look like she’s swallowed a basketball, not spread all over heck the way I
am
.” Again,
Darío
wisely kept his mouth shut, which only made Lizzie laugh more. “That’s okay, I made my peace with Katie looking like…well…Katie a long time ago. Besides, this time I’m putting on weight for all the right reasons.” She walked toward the clubhouse and
Darío
started down the first fairway.

They were spread out enough on the fairway to only allow talk between each player and their caddy. But when they got to the green, all three men were standing in close proximity as they marked their balls and lined up their shots.

Darío
didn’t want to stare at Ron, but he couldn’t help it. It was easy to see how a woman would fall for him.
Darío
had to admit, Ron was a very handsome man in the traditional blond, golden-boy type. His demeanor was easy, his movements fluid. Ron caught
Darío
staring at him
and
Darío
quickly covered with a suggestion for Ron on his putting grip.

“Unless you would prefer I
don’t
offer you advice,”
Darío
added.

Ron shook his head. “No, I’d love anything you have to offer.”

“I’ve got a
few things I could offer,” Petey Ryan
said.

Ron looked at Petey
, then nodded his head toward
Darío
. “Can we save this, Petey? I’d really just like to enjoy this round of golf. Watch Mr.
Luna
, learn what I can from him.”

Mr.
Luna
? The man was the same age as
Darío
! “Please, call me
Darío
,” he said.

“You honestly think you and I aren’t going to get into it?” Petey asked Ron.

The men finished putting and started walking to the second tee, the three boys trailing along behind them.
Darío
was happy to see that they were not within hearing range. Stevie must have his stepmother’s good sense.

Ron hadn’t answered Petey and apparently the hockey star was not going to let the subject drop. “We can do it now, we can do it on the eighteenth, we can do it all over the golf course. But if you seriously think you’re going to get off of this course without hearing it from me you’re even more full of shit than I always thought.”

He should just ignore them,
Darío
thought. Pretend that he’s not getting it. But some perverse elf seemed to be sitting on his shoulder, egging him on. This would be his only chance to see the real Ron Lipton. A man’s true personality came out on a golf course like no other place.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “is there something bothering you?”

Petey snorted. Ron flushed and said,
“I’m sorry,
Darío
, I don’t mean to bring you into our personal issue.”

This caused a laugh from Petey, though not a friendly one. “Issue? That’s what we’re going to call it? Our issue? Oh, we’ve got an issue alright.”

“Perhaps we would be better off playing these rounds individually?”
Darío
offered, praying they would say no. The thought of golfing alone with Ron was not appealing, and he was beginning to enjoy Petey’s jabs at Ron.

Both men shook their heads. “No. Sorry. I’m really looking forward to this. It means the world to me to play with someone of your stature,” Ron said. It was not said with a fawning that would have turned
Darío
off, but with the understanding of a man who knows he can learn from another.

Darío
turned to Petey who waved the thought away. “Whatever. I’ll behave. I want a few pointers, too.” Petey stepped up to the tee box and addressed the ball.

Darío
nodded. “Well, then, you can start by standing six inches closer to the ball when you tee off.”

Petey looked over his shoulder at
Darío
, who nodded his head toward Petey’s feet. Petey furrowed his brows as if to argue and
Darío
nodded again to Petey’s stance. Petey reluctantly moved his feet closer to the ball. “This feels really uncomfortable,” he said.

“Try it.”

Petey took his swing and the ball sailed at least twenty yards further than his drive on the first
hole
. “Holy shit,” Petey said.
Darío
tried not to smile.

Ron teed off.
Darío
didn’t say anything, even though Ron looked at him hopefully.
Darío
teed off and the three walked down the fairway.

They played the next several holes with
Darío
talking to Petey and Ron about golf, and Ron and Petey ignoring each other.
Darío
enjoyed talking with Stevie, asking him about the area, the
schools, what kids his age did for fun. He usually talked with the sign bearers during tournaments, but never had he paid so close attention when talking with a child before. The thought that his child would most likely spend a good share of its time here in the Copper Country made
Darío
curious about the area.

He began to think about Katie and their child’s future in more concrete terms. They would get married. He would cut back his schedule to maybe twenty or so tournaments a year. Get a house in Florida to have a home base closer to tournaments than the U.P. They could spend the summers here, the falls in Spain and the winters and springs in Florida and at Tour stops. When the child started school, he would cut back even more and only play tournaments in the summer when Katie and the child could come with him. Eventually he would design courses for a living, only traveling when necessary.

He had it mapped out neatly. It was a lovely picture. Except for the fact that Katie didn’t want to marry him. And he couldn’t be absolutely sure the child was his until after it was born and they were able to perform DNA tests.

There were some snags.

That was what would hopefully work itself out during the next few months.

He was pulled out of his planning by Ron’s angry voice. “Jesus Christ, Petey, I fucked up. Okay? Don’t you think I know that?”

They were
at the tee on
the tenth hole. Near the clubhouse. They’d been playing smoothly but apparently while
Darío
was mentally pick
ing out houses in Florida, Pete
and Ron had started in again.
Darío
looked to find the boys, but they were gathered around the cart that had appeared, eating sandwiches, guzzling colas and flirting with the girl driving the cart.

He walked over to the two men. “Please keep your voi
ces down. I know Lizzie wouldn’
t
want
Stevie to hear that type of language.” He felt like a schoolmarm scolding children. Not a tone he liked on himself. He si
lently cursed Ron and Pete
for putting him in the position.

He expected the men to part, but they still stood toe to toe. Ron looked his way. “I’m sorry,
Darío
, you shouldn’t be a party to this. But apparently Petey’s not going to let it die.”

“Let it die? Let it die? You fuck around on one of my closest friends, break her heart and you expect me to just let it die? I thought you knew me better than that.”

Darío
knew he should try to intervene again, but he didn’t. They were taking the break at the turn that most golfers took and the boys would be busy at the beverage and sandwich cart for a while. Better to just let the two men get this over with now and then play the rest of the round in silence.

Assuming Ron could golf with two broken arms.

“I didn’t fuck around on Katie,” Ron said.

Petey raised his eyebrows at that. So did
Darío
, but thankfully Ron was looking at Petey and didn’t see
Darío
’s reaction.

“Yeah. Right. Seems to me there’s a little kid out there
who
proves otherwise,” Petey said. He took a step closer to Ron. The men were of equal height and width, both huge, hulking men.
Darío
didn’t know who he’d put his money on if it did come to blows. Probably Petey
. H
e looked like he knew
how to play dirty
.

Ron held up his hands. Not in surrender, but in a wait and see manner. “Listen, I don’t
expect you to understand
. But you have to know I never intended to hurt Katie.”

Petey took a deep breath, ran his fingers through his already tousled hair, and said, “Make me understand.”

“What?” Ron said.

Petey took a step back, as if literally giving Ron room to tell his tale. “Make me understand. We go back a long time, Ron. But that long time is because of Katie. Nobody would tell me what all was going on up here last winter. I’m out on the road. I know there’s a shit storm happening here and all I can do is call in. All Lizzie would say was that you were screwing some chick and got her knocked up. That Katie couldn’t even function. That she was a total mess. I’m in freakin’ Pittsburgh when I hear that. Do you have any idea how much I wanted to just chuck the whole season and come home?”

Darío
saw Ron wince at that, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the thought that Katie had been distraught or that Lizzie had summed up his indiscretions so bluntly.

“So tell me what happened, Ron. As you see it,” Petey said. He took another step back, giving Ron more room.

Darío
knew he should turn and leave. Join the boys at the cart. Give these two men, these one-time friends, the privacy they deserved. But he didn’t. Couldn’t. He wouldn’t miss this opportunity to hear from Ron’s own lips what type of
total dick
he’d been. The rationalizations he would give to his cheating on Katie. The excuses he would offer up.

“No excuses, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Ron began.
Darío
was taken aback. Had he voiced his thoughts out loud? But Ron wasn’t talking to him, he was addressing Petey. Both men had become oblivious to
Darío
’s presence.

“Good, ‘cause I wouldn’t buy any anyways,” Petey said.

Ron took a deep breath, let it out in a long sigh. “I slept with Amber once, Petey. Once. It was stupid and I hadn’t intended for it to happen. But it was only once. I wasn’t out screwing around on Katie. I wasn’t having an affair.”

Darío
and Petey were both silent, waiting for Ron to continue.

“I don’t expect you to understand how it was for Katie and me then. The doctor’s visits. The shots. The hormones. The sex only when she was ovulating. The cold, clinical sex life we’d had for the last few years. Whenever Katie’s period would come, she’d go into a three day funk. She’d pulled away from me, Petey. She wouldn’t talk to me about it. She shut me out. She’d only confide in Lizzie and Alison.” He looked away, down the tenth fairway, as if the rolling green landscape could help him escape.

Darío
expected Petey to jump in. To challenge Ron on his description of Katie, of their marriage. It certainly did not describe the Katie
Darío
knew. But Petey remained silent.
Darío
didn’t know if that was telling or not.

“I felt so helpless. My wife was hurting and I couldn’t help. Hell, I might have been the cause, they didn’t know. So there was always that between us. The unspoken
“
whose fault is this
?”
question. We’d wanted kids so badly, for so long. It was something we talked about all the time when we were first married. By last winter it was like the elephant in the room. We couldn’t even talk anymore. Can you imagine that? The woman you shared every waking moment with for seventeen years and you can’t even thinking of something to say to her over breakfast that won’t eventually turn to the subject of babies.

“She wouldn’t take any kind of comfort from me. Didn’t want it. Not from me, anyway. I suppose she got it from her friends.

“So, I turned away for comfort too,” Ron continued. “Once. With Amber. The day Katie’s period came and she shut down again. I went out. Got drunk. And
t
here’s Amber. She started coming on strong, telling me I’d been her favorite teacher, that she’d always had a crush on me.
Really stroking me. What can I say? I needed to hear that. I needed to see myself the way Amber saw me. Not as the failure who couldn’t get his wife pregnant. For one night I could forget the pain that Katie was going through. The pain I was going through.”