Kiss My Putt (Summersweet Island 1)

“Then why didn’t he ask me to go with him?”

She just looks at me pointedly, and I sigh, smacking my elbows on the desk and putting my head in my hands.

“I don’t know, Birdie. Maybe you should have asked him why when you stood on that dock and asked him to stay and then never told him you loved him back,” I mimic Tess’s voice, repeating the words she said to me at Sip and Bitch last night.

“God, whoever told you that must be amazing and brilliant,” she muses.

I remove one of my hands from my face long enough to reach over and flick her thigh.

“There’s still time for you to call him and ask him if he wants you there,” Tess adds.

I scoff, pulling my head up from my hands.

“That sounds like it would be a great conversation. ‘Hey there, sorry to bother you. I love you oodles and oodles, and I know you didn’t ask me to come, and you clearly don’t want me there, but I really want to be there, because go team!’”

Bringing my arms down from their high-vee cheerleader pose, I glare at Tess.

All of a sudden, she whistles really loudly. A few seconds later, my mom and Wren come around the corner of Greg’s office, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with their arms crossed as they look at me and my sorry, sorry state. My face hurts a little after never washing last night’s makeup off, and I can actually see the dried and crusty mascara flaking off my lashes every time I blink.

“Roberta Marie Bennett,” my mom begins, making me shiver a little when she uses my full name, and I realize Tess called my family in as reinforcements. “Did I fail you in some way as a mother?”

“Um, what?” I laugh in confusion. “No, of course not.”

I look at my sister to see if she knows what our mom is talking about, but she just gives me the same pointed glare as her.

“Then why in the absolute hell are you sitting here fretting, and worrying, and being sad instead of standing up for what you want and demanding what you need? I did not raise you or your sister to be weak and not know your worth,” she tells me sternly.

“Why would you ever think for one minute that you aren’t enough for him?” Wren asks, shaking her head at me in shock and I shoot Tess a quick glare that she gave away all my secrets. “You are so amazing, and you put all of us before yourself, and you have more than enough to offer him. Don’t act like you don’t know that. You just forgot for a little bit, and that’s okay. But you’ve been sitting here all this time waiting for him to ask you to come with him. You’re Birdie fucking Bennett! Get off your ass and just go be with him if that’s where you want to be! Or at least get mad about it instead of sad.”

Jesus, she’s right. This isn’t me. I’m not this weak, simpering woman. I threatened Palmer with a golf club the first time I saw him again I was so angry at him. Why am I sitting here feeling sad when I should be pissed? That absolute piece of dog shit told me he loved me and then didn’t ask me to go with him. I begged him to stay, and he didn’t even ask me to go.

I gave him a goddamn blowjob while he watched Caddyshack, and he didn’t ask me to go!

“I am going to kick his ass when I see him.”

“Hell yes!” Tess cheers as my mom and Wren smile.

“Shit!” I curse, reaching for my phone on the desk, but not even knowing who the hell to call. “I can’t get a flight out to California tonight this late, and I can’t just show up there at the end of the day tomorrow and expect someone to let me on the course or anywhere near the resort to see him. I don’t have a ticket or any kind of credentials.”

My shoulders deflate and a little wind leaves my sails when I realize the ass kicking will have to wait. All of a sudden, my phone dings in my hand with an incoming text, and I notice Tess smile and slide her own phone she’d just been typing on into her back pocket.

“What did you do?” I ask nervously as I look down at my phone and see it’s a text from Bodhi.

Bodhi: Hey there, hot stuff! Okay, so, there is a lot to tell you and little time to do it, so you’re just going to have to trust me here, and Bodhi will reveal all soon. I lied earlier when I told you Palmer was doing splendid in warm-ups. He is golfing like absolute shit. OMG it’s almost too hard to watch. But I am, because it’s also kind of funny LOL! Don’t worry. Nothing has been chucked into a water hazard. Yet. There is a very big reason he is playing in this tournament right now that I already told him is a dumbass reason and he should have told you about that reason, but he didn’t listen to me. This prideful dipshit needs to place in the top three of this thing, or he is not going to be fun to live with, and with the way he’s golfing today, he’s not even going to make it onto the leaderboard. There is a red-eye flight to San Fran tonight booked in your name. Someone will pick you up at the airport when you land tomorrow and bring you right to the resort, where there will be a VIP badge with your name on it. A security guard will escort you out to the course as soon as you get here and bring you to whatever hole we’re on. Please get on that flight, get out here, and kick his stupid ass. Kiss-kiss! Give Tess an ass grab for me.