Page 24 of Fake it With Me

I positioned my ball, gripped the putter the way I had seen Daisie do it, and took a swing. The ball shot forward, bounced off the ramp, ricocheted off the lighthouse, and came to rest approximately where it had started.

None of us said a word. I could tell by Darek’s expression he was speechless. Daise looked like she was trying to figure out what to say that wouldn’t hurt my feelings. That was very sweet of her.

“You have to tap it gently. Like this.” She guided my hands through the motion. I was struck by how patient she was. It felt like that was something she would have picked up from her father.

Just a little something to think about.

I tried again. This time, the ball made it halfway up the ramp before rolling back down.

“Better!” Daisie declared.

It took me six strokes to complete the first hole. Darek got it in two. I was too busy laughing at my own incompetence and enjoying the way Daisie cheered every time I made any progress at all.

The second hole had a windmill with rotating blades. Daisie explained the strategy with the patience of a saint.

I watched her demonstration, marveling at her confidence. Seven years old and already so self-assured. When had I ever been that brave as a kid?

“Okay,” I said. “I can do this.”

I waited for the blade to pass, then hit the ball. It rolled forward, straight toward the gap, and I felt a surge of triumph until the blade swung back and knocked my ball sideways into the fake grass.

“So close!” Daisie said. “Try again!”

By the fifth hole, a volcano that required bouncing the ball off a wall at just the right angle, I was actually starting to get the hang of it. Or at least, I was only taking four or five strokes per hole instead of six or seven.

“You’re getting better,” Darek said, watching me line up my shot.

“Don’t patronize me. I’m still losing by about thirty strokes.”

“But you’re having fun.”

He was right. I was having way more fun than I’d expected to.

We made our way through all eighteen holes, Daisie winning easily, Darek coming in second, and me bringing up the rear with a score that would have been embarrassing if I actually cared.

“That was so fun!” Daisie declared as we returned our putters. “Can we go to the arcade now?”

The arcade was next door, a massive building that was all flashing lights and beeping games with the smell of pizza filling the space. It reminded me of the arcade in Seaside but on steroids.

And a lot nicer.

We got a card loaded with credits, and Daisie immediately dragged me toward the Skee-Ball lanes.

“We need to win tickets so we can get a prize.”

“What kind of prize?”

“I don’t know yet. But something good.”

We played Skee-Ball for the next twenty minutes. It was a game I knew and was surprisingly decent at.

“Yes!” she shouted when I landed one in the fifty-point hole. “You did it!”

We high-fived before Daisie took her turn. I caught Darek watching us. He looked a little happy but also a little sad.

Our tickets printed out in a long stream. Daisie gathered them up like they were precious treasure. We headed to the prize counter and then surveyed the options.

“What about the friendship bracelets?” Daisie asked.