Page 29 of Playing for Keeps

Then he cursed himself, because that was exactly the reason Nancy thought he was pathetic. Because his life revolved around Emmy and work. Not that it mattered what Nancy thought.

Remaining in his office, he picked up his phone, then set it aside again. Even if he wanted to call Allie, he didn’t have her number.

It didn’t even matter, since he had no desire to put himself through another disastrous date. Not that it would be disastrous. If he went on another date, he’d up his game and it would go a lot smoother than the other ones.

He reached for his phone again and sighed heavily. Sod it, he’d go on another date just to prove he could be charming and fun. In fact, it just needed to be fun. One fun date, just to prove to himself he could, then he’d give up the dating game for good.

First, he needed to track Allie down.

He couldn’t imagine that would be too difficult. It was convincing her to go out with him again that would take a little more effort.

And all the charm he could muster.

CHAPTER 12

For as long as Allie could remember, her life had been busy. Her teenage years and most of her twenties had been dedicated to chasing her career goals. She’d done so wholeheartedly and had loved every minute. Then, when injury had caused her dreams to come crashing down two years ago, she’d thrown herself into running the golf course with her dad.

She’d swapped one obsession for another and had told herself that everything was fine. Both her dad and her cousin had encouraged her to take time off, but she’d waved away their concerns. Mostly because giving her mind the space to dwell on what had happened scared the life out of her. In the same way as she’d avoided mourning the loss of her mother, she avoided dwelling on the loss of the career that she’d loved.

In Hope Cove, her long days with nothing much to do gave her mind the space to process everything, whether or not she wanted to. Except, as she settled into new routines and a slower pace of life, she found that the pain wasn’t anything like as bad as she’d anticipated.

One blustery afternoon, she wandered along the coastal path while pondering everything that had happened over the past few years. Admittedly, she shed a few tears along the way, but it hadn’t been the gut-wrenching misery she’d expected to feel if she let her mind wander.

It wasn’t only the lack of emotional pain that surprised her, either. The pain in her shoulder was easing too.

Generally, she relied on a combination of ibuprofen and paracetamol to take the edge off, but she’d definitely been taking less. On Saturday she hesitated over taking a pill before her shift, deciding in the end to see if she could manage without.

Walking over to the clubhouse, she rubbed at her shoulder, smiling at the thought of how her cousin would react when she found out that the pain had improved. Bella had spent the last year telling Allie that if she just slowed down, it would give her shoulder a chance to heal. Allie had argued that she’d rested it quite enough. Not just rest either. She’d also worked with a physiotherapist and a chiropractor before reaching the conclusion that it would never fully heal.

Her cheerful mood dissipated as she crossed the car park and caught sight of Hugh stepping out of a silver Volkswagen. After their evening in the pub the previous weekend, she’d hoped to avoid bumping into him again.

“Hey!” He strode towards her, looking way too confident for a guy she’d told she’d call and then hadn’t. She hadn’t even bothered to get his number, which was a fairly blunt brush-off.

“Hi,” she said, aiming for a purely polite smile. “How are you?”

“Fine.”

“Have you got another date?” she asked, glancing at the door.

“No,” he said, amusement softening his features. “I wanted to call you, but I didn’t have your number.”

“I guess I’m easy to track down. What did you want to call me about?”

“I think I might be bad at first dates,” he said.

She tilted her head. “And you felt the sudden need to tell me that?”

“Yes.” His gentle chuckle made Allie smile. “No. I just thought maybe you could help me test the theory.”

“What sort of experiment do you have in mind?” She rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but find his confidence annoyingly attractive.

“I need someone to go on a second date with me. So I can see if it’s just a first date issue.”

She shook her head. “We haven’t even been on a first date. We went for a drink as friends, that’s all.”

“It kind of felt like a date.”

“A pretty bad one,” she said, then winced.