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“And if I win?” I ask.
“Winner’s choice.”
I cock my head to the side as I think about it. “If I win, you get to help me at the winter festival in two weeks.”
“When is it?” he asks.
“It’s on Saturday. Don’t worry, it won’t interfere with that busy work schedule of yours.”
He looks a little hurt by my statement and I immediately want to take it back. But instead of responding, he just motions for me to putt.
“Ladies first,” he says.
I line up my ball and send it sailing toward the hole. It gets an inch from its destination and stops.
“Ugh,” I mumble as I knock it into the hole.
Adam steps up and gets a hole in one. He smirks and I groan.
“I should know by now that you’re competitive. I just didn’t realize you had any sporting skills,” he states as we walk to the second hole.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” I reply.
“OK, let’s go with a question per hole,” he suggests. I grin. This question game is becoming our thing. And I love it.
“I like that,” I agree as I look back at hole one. “What’s the question for hole one?”
“Favorite food,” he says.
I roll my eyes. “Cheese ravioli. What about you?”
“Not beef Wellington?” he replies with a wink.
I groan and give his giant bicep a little punch. “Very funny,” I say dryly. “You didn’t answer the question.”
“I like street tacos.”
“Really?” I ask.
“Yes. Really. There’s this place a block from the helipad in the city. It’s right by the subway and sometimes I stop and get them. They are definitely the best tacos I’ve ever had.”
“OK. What’s our question for hole number two?” I ask.
“You pick.”
I contemplate. “How about…the happiest memory you have? Or something you want to accomplish?”
He grows silent and I wonder if I’ve overstepped with my questions.
“I’ll answer both. I want to save my corporation from being taken over by James Titan. I have some plans, and hopefully, it works out. And my happiest memory…I was ten. We had just moved here to live with my grandfather. He wasn’t doing great, but it was his birthday and he announced at breakfast that he wanted to go to the beach. My dad packed up our car, and with no particular plan, we just left and drove over to Triton Cove Beach. We parked in the public parking lot. We hauled our stuff down to the crowded beach. At some point, my dad went and got us sandwiches to eat on a picnic blanket. We built sandcastles and I took my boogieboard out into the surf. My grandfather taught me how to use it properly. It was a perfect, spontaneous day. He died before his next birthday when I was at boarding school. That was the last fun day I had with him. It was the only time we ever did anything like that.”
“Mister, are you guys going to go?” a kid says from behind us.
“Play on through,” Adam says to the three middle-school-aged kids.
“What about you?”
“I would love to buy that old property over on Crestwood and turn it into the town library. But that’s a pipe dream. My happiest memory is Paris. I always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. We didn’t have a ton of money when I was a kid, but then when my dad’s invention started to sell, we were able to take a vacation. My parents didn’t tell me where we were going. They made me get a passport and said it was just good to have one since I would be an adult soon. And then a few months later, they took me to the airport, and at the check-in counter, I learned we were going to Paris.” I smile at the memory. “I didn’t sleep the entire way there; I was so excited. And then, when we arrived, Dad asked our taxi driver to take us by the Eiffel Tower on the way to our hotel. I remember stepping out of the car and just standing there, staring at it in total awe. It was a lifelong dream come true and it was a million times better than I could have imagined.” I finish and Adam is staring at me with a goofy grin on his face.
