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“That guy is a dick. They need to fire him already.” I wrap my arm around her shoulders and give it a squeeze.
“I’m sucking it up this week, because…”
Jesus, where do I even begin?
“It has to be the biggest thing in your life this week, Birdie. The one thing that is trying on you more than anything else. Those are the rules, so tell the truth,” my sister reminds me when I drop my arm from her shoulders and pause too long, giving me a wink just to soften the blow.
“I’m sucking it up this week, because Putz Campbell is back, and I don’t know if I want to beat the shit out of him or see if Wren is right and give him a chance to explain.”
I say it really fast, because this honesty thing is enough to choke a girl.
“We’re sucking it up, and soon we’ll get cookies!” the three of us chant.
Clinking our bottles together one last time, we finish off our drinks and start collecting the empties before walking around to the back of the Dip and Twist where my mom left three bags of garbage right outside the back door. Throwing everything into the dumpster on the other side of the parking lot, we each head to our respective golf carts.
“I still hope Putz gets sand crabs tangled in his ball hair,” Tess mutters, stopping next to her cart.
“A man like that doesn’t have ball hair,” my sister muses in a rare display of dirtiness I haven’t heard out of her in years.
“All right, stop thinking about his balls!” I shout.
“Oooh, someone is testy.” Tess snorts, and Wren full-on laughs out loud, while I ignore both of them and get in my own cart.
Wren blows each of us a kiss. I tell her to give my favorite nephew a fist-bump from me, and she whizzes off down Summersweet Lane to head toward her cottage.
“Morning break tomorrow, you and me, we’ll sit down and hatch a plan to deal with Putz,” Tess informs me, starting up her cart.
“We don’t need a plan. I’m sure he’s just here to hide out until things blow over. SIG is huge, and you know I’m swamped with work. He can stay on the private member’s side, and I’ll stay on the public side.” I shrug, like it’s no big thing I’m having a casual conversation about Palmer being back on the island.
It didn’t take long for me to make up my mind about not knowing whether or not I want to punch Palmer or give him a chance to explain. He’s had two years to explain. His time is up, and I don’t care.
“And never the two shall meet?” Tess laughs. “Okay, sure. Good luck with that. But in the meantime, I’ll meet you tomorrow morning at the bar so we can come up with a real plan.”
Before I can argue, Tess is backing out of her spot and pulling onto the street.
“Don’t break your vibrator thinking about Putz tonight!”
Her shout echoes down the street, and I shake my head as I pull out behind her, thankful the island has pretty much shut down for the night and no one heard her.
My plan is perfectly fine. This island isn’t that big, but it’s big enough for me to avoid one person.CHAPTER 5Birdie
“What a load of trap.”“You look like shit.”
Tess slides a cup of coffee across the shiny, wooden top of the bar to me where I’ve been sitting for the last few hours trying to get through some paperwork. And to avoid people, since the bar doesn’t open for another hour.
There’s a small bar area right in the middle of the clubhouse with ten high-top tables, four high-back booths, and eight bar stools against the bar where golfers can get coffee in the morning and grab a drink or eat a quick lunch before the restaurant opens in the evening. On the other side of the wall from the bar is the kitchen, and on the other side of that is the golf course restaurant, Tee Time.
I love getting a change of scenery away from my office off the pro shop and coming over to the bar before it opens. Decorated in different shades of deep green, with dark cherry wood furniture, it’s warm, comforting, quiet, and makes me feel like I’m sitting in the den of a rich grandfather who lets me hide away in there and read all the books on his shelves. Except I don’t have a rich grandfather and the books consist of food and beverage deliveries and employee schedules, but I still love coming in here to work. It’s just an added bonus my best friend is a bartender and I get to spend a lot of time with her during the work day.
“I feel like shit,” I mutter, pushing a pile of paperwork aside to grab the hot mug and take a sip.
