The two security guards both scramble away at the exact same moment, and
I can’t help but laugh.
Brett sits back down beside me. “Well, that was new and awkward wasn’t it?”.
Before I can respond with a resounding yes, Brett starts to laugh. It’s a full on belly laugh, the kind that once it gets hold of you, you just can’t stop it.
It’s so good to hear him laugh like this. Obviously, I’ve heard him laugh, but not like this. Not where he lets himself lose control so completely that tears are streaming down his face. He looks so much younger, so care free, and although I’m still mortified about being caught with my dress around my waist, I find myself joining in. His laughter is infectious and soon, we’re both laughing, tears running down both of our faces.
Brett presses his hand to his side. “Stitch,” he gets out between laughs.
Somehow, that just makes it funnier and our laughter goes on. When we finally get control of ourselves, my ribs are hurting.
Brett reaches out and wipes a stray tear from my face. “God Opal, what are you doing to me?” he says, shaking his head.
“What am I doing to you?” I laugh. “I’m the one who got caught with my skirt around my waist.”
“Yeah, that was pretty funny.” Brett smirks.
I elbow him.
He shoves me gently by bumping my arm with his. “Come on, admit it. It was funny.”
“Ok, it was pretty funny,” I have to admit.
“And hey, at least they weren’t your staff. I can’t believe I got caught by my own staff. They’ll be having a field day back in the club house now,” he says.
“Oh like you’ve never brought a woman here before,” I tease him. “Even if they didn’t catch you in the act, they knew what you were doing out here.”
“I can hand on my heart say I have never done anything like this before Opal. That’s what I mean. You just … you have this effect on me, like when I’m near you, I just can’t control myself.”
“It works both ways,” I confirm. “Believe it or not, I’m not usually one for rolling around in sand pits.”
“It’s a bunker,” he corrects me.
I shake my head. “Like that matters.” I stretch out on the sand and lay down, resting my head in Brett’s lap. “So this effect we have on each other? You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”
“Well, isn’t it?” Brett says. “I’m your boss, Opal. This is so unprofessional, it’s unreal.”
“It’s only temporary though,” I remind him. “Obviously, we’ll have to learn some self control short term, but once your dad comes back to work, well then ….” I trail off, leaving the rest unsaid. I don’t need to spell it out to him. Once his dad is back, he won’t be my boss anymore and we can do what we want. Although, maybe not in such a public place next time.
“Actually, it might be a little bit more permanent than that,” he says, brushing a strand of hair back from my forehead.
I frown up at him.
“When I told you earlier I was angry at my father, that’s why. Before you came to the meeting, I was meant to be having lunch with my mom. What I didn’t know was it actually lunch with both of my parents where they tried to railroad me into taking over the company permanently.”
“And you’re considering it?” I ask, surprised to hear this after what he said about hating asset management.
He shrugs. “I don’t know what to do Opal. I mean it’s not what I want. It’s not what I’ve ever wanted. And whenever they’ve brought this up in the past, I’ve had no trouble saying no. But it’s different now. As they pointed out, this place runs itself, and the place in France is the same. Both clubs have excellent managers and I don’t need to be involved in the day to day running of the place.” He stops talking for a moment.
I don’t say anything. I don’t think he wants or needs my advice. He just wants to talk it through, to think out loud. I know I’m right when he goes on without waiting for any kind of answer from me.
“See here’s the thing. This time, I heard myself saying I would think about it. Because how do you say no, when your father has just had a heart attack? What if I turn them down and he goes back to work, because he’s made it clear there’s no one else he trusts to hand the company over to. Then the stress gets to him and he has another heart attack? What if he isn’t so lucky next time and it kills him? That will be on me.”
I don’t know what to say to this. I want to tell him it won’t be his fault at all, but I know if I were in his position and that happened, I would blame myself too. And no amount of rationalizing from someone else would convince me otherwise.
He puts his hand on my arm where my arms are crossed over.
Placing my other hand over the top of his, I give it a squeeze.
“So yeah. Nothing is as clear cut as it seems. I should have told you before we started fooling around, I know, but I just got caught up in the moment,” he adds.
“Even if you’d told me, it wouldn’t have stopped me from kissing you back,” I say.
He nods and smiles but it’s a sad smile.
It makes me feel sad for him. I can’t stand to see that look on his face, and I decide to try to make him laugh. It won’t make this decision any easier, but it might at least cheer him up in the moment. “On the other hand, if you’d warned me you had active patrols in place that might have stopped me.” I smile.
He laughs softly
