Page 94 of Fierce-Michael

It was the best answer he could have hoped for. Keeping it simple was for the best for everyone.

“Did you tell Kelly that you’ve never been mini golfing before?”

“No,” Ty said. “I haven’t but have wanted to go, so thank you for choosing that.”

“I’m glad,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun. I’m not very good. I just go up and whack the ball and it lands where it does.”

“That’s the best way to do it,” he said.

“I like to whack things,” Ty said. “I do that at Mom’s. She lets me throw things around the house.”

“Throw things like what?” he asked.

“Like paper balls. I just get paper from magazines or junk mail and crinkle them up. Then I line things up and try to knock them down with the paper balls. It doesn’t work and tires me out trying to throw it harder and harder.”

He kept the roll from his eyes. He wouldn’t judge. Ty was an active kid and he’d rather his son do something like that than watch inappropriate things...like sharks eating people.

“I think it’s fun to play with your imagination,” Kelly said. “It sounds like you do that a lot.”

“I have to at my mom’s because she doesn’t play with me. She said it’s stupid and she’ll watch TV and want me to be quiet. So I go in my room and do it. But I can’t be too loud or then the neighbors get mad too.”

Now he was pissed. But what was he going to say? He couldn’t tell Electra she had to play with their son.

“I have to be quiet at my place too so people don’t get mad,” Kelly said. His girlfriend was looking at him and he felt her foot on his leg almost trying to rub it and maybe calm him down.

He changed the subject back to mini golf, then their food was brought out and they ate and laughed.

Thankfully Ty didn’t seem to be bothered by half the things he said that upset Michael.

When their food was done, he paid and they were off to the mini golf course. It was busy since it was such a beautiful early May Saturday afternoon.

But they weren’t in a hurry so had no problem waiting in line while Ty watched what was going on around him.

“I think it’s going great,” Kelly said quietly to him.

Ty had moved a few feet away to look at some of the holes.

“It is,” he said.

“Sorry that he says things about his mother that upset you. But I’m sure you’re used to it by now.”

“I am,” he said. “I just have to move past it all. Not much I can do about it at this point.”

“It’s the right attitude to have,” she said. She grabbed his hand and threaded their fingers together. It was the first timeshe’d done that. The first he thought he held hands with a woman as an adult.

It felt right.

28

MY CUTE GIRLFRIEND

“No fair,” Kelly said. “I came in last. You two kicked my butt.”

Ty was so excited that he beat her. By a lot too. She thought she was better at this but obviously not.

It hadn’t helped any that both Ty and Michael got a few hole-in-ones.

The four-year-old was jumping up and down and almost in tears with his excitement over the first one.