The Perfect Stroke (Lucas Brothers #1)(38)

The number showing up on my phone, however, isn’t Cammie’s; it’s Seth’s. I know what he’s calling about and I’ve been dreading this conversation. “I have to take this,” I tell Blue, and he rolls his eyes at me. Then again, he thinks all cell phones are evil.

“Hey, Seth.”

“Don’t you ‘Hey, Seth’ me. Did you tell Riverton you didn’t want his sponsorship?”

“Seth…”

“You needed Riverton to grease the wheels here, Grayson! What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that he and his daughter showing up at my mother’s house unannounced and talking down about everything and everyone here was just too f*cking much to deal with. So, I told him he could either sponsor me or not. Besides, her father seems to think because I have a big bank account, I’m great boyfriend material. At this point, the farther I’m away from David Riverton and his whack-o daughter, the better.”

“Kind of a ballsy move for a f*cker who’s been literally blackballed.”

“Whatever.”

“He especially liked the part where you called his daughter a perfect bitch.”

“Hey, what can I say? I have a way with words.”

“Riverton asked me to inform you that he got a job offer.”

“So? What the f*ck do I care?”

“He’s been promoted to overseer of the championship tour.”

“Motherf*cker!”

“If you’re going to piss off the big dogs, you better expect to have shit thrown at you, Lucas.”

“Whatever. Good luck trying to keep me out. All those f*ckers can kiss my ass. I came in fifty-one overall the first part of this season and that was with being off for the last two weeks. They can block me. So I have to putt from every shit-hole coming or going, it doesn’t matter. I will survive and advance and flip them off while I do it,” I growl, fed up with the whole f*cking thing.

“Finally, my brother has found his dick,” Blue mutters in the background.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Grayson, I really do. You’re headed to Nebraska next week.”

“The landfill,” I groan, referring to a golf course that actually was a garbage landfill at one time. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall town that created the golf course to try and get tourism started and save the town’s economy. There’s one fast food restaurant and two hotels, and those are mom-and-pop owned. I hate the place. I have golfed there before when I was earning my stripes. What-the-f*ck-ever. It’s tournament time and it’s time to prove to all of them that I have what it takes to do nothing but win. Maybe Nebraska is exactly what I need to get over Claudia Cooper.

Even as I say it, I know the hope for that is slim to none.





Adrenaline and anger kept me going for the first half of the trip. The second half of the trip was motivated by constant phone conversations with Mer and memories of Cammie calling Gray her fiancé. Now that I’m riding in a taxi to Gray’s mom’s house, there’s nothing to keep me from running. That fact just gets clearer when the cabbie tells me that he won’t drive me up the driveway, but instead stops the car at the end of the main road. When I ask him why, he gives me some kind of vague explanation about a crazy woman shooting at his car because the yellow color scared her pet cow. If I wasn’t so nervous and busy second-guessing myself, I would have demanded more of the story.

“Fine, but stay here and wait for me. This won’t take long.”

“Lady, that woman is nuts. I’m not waiting around for her to fill my car full of buckshot,” the cabbie argues.

“Fifteen minutes. You can wait that long, right? I’ll pay you double,” I bargain, wondering if I shouldn’t just turn around. What is really the point of all of this?

“Ten minutes, tops. And I want to be paid first.”

“No way. I pay you and you’ll leave the minute I get out of this car.”

“Lady, I want my money.”

“What if I pay you half now, and then I’ll pay…”

“What is going on in here? You just going to sit at the end of my driveway all damn day? You’re about to give my baby a heart attack.”

I look up and there’s a lady with my car door open. She’s beautiful. She looks around forty, forty-five. She has soft brown hair that falls around her face in a shaggy bob, and she has green eyes that look just like Gray’s. This woman has to be Grayson’s mother. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to meet her. I’m confused, wondering why I’m giving her a heart attack until I realize she’s looking at the driver.

“I’m leaving, Ida Sue. I’m just trying to get this woman out of my cab.”

“You can’t leave! I need you wait until I do what I came here to do!” I plead.

“What is it you came here to do?” Gray’s mom asks.

I feel my stomach knot up. “I need to talk to Grayson.”

“And why’s that?”

“That’s something I really should discuss with Grayson alone,” I tell her, even though I immediately want to apologize for being snippy.

“You’re Claudia,” she says, appraising me, and I do my best not to squirm.

“CC,” I correct her.