Page 133 of Unexpected Shot
“Exactly. The biggest being how.”
“And why.”
Beau and I sit back, pushing aside our pizza as we start to think. Which is how I know we’re both serious. We don’t mess around when it comes to pizza.
“Okay, let’s go back. I left to go to the bathroom. We had signed off on the cards. They were correct. Am I right?”
“Yes. Definitely,” Beau says. “You beat me by two strokes. We both saw it.”
“Okay, after I left, what happened?”
Beau sits back and thinks, truly digging into his mind to go back twenty years. “I looked over at my card, that Chad was keeping, and it was correct. I signed it…”
Beau trails off, and I swear I can see an actual lightbulb go off over his head.
“Beau? What is it?”
“The tournament official I handed it to…was Mr. Ashcroft.”
My heart drops into my stomach. “Was Chad still at the table at this point?”
Beau nods, and I can tell things are coming together for him. “They did it. The Ashcrofts fucking did it. Chad said he had to talk to his dad about something. That he would meet me before the ceremony started. I didn’t think anything of it, Shelby. Why in the world would I think they would change the cards! They used me as a fucking pawn in their fucked up game.”
Now it’s my turn to comfort Beau, because Gabi was right, we were both victims in this situation. I feel awful knowing how everything went down back then, but I have forever to make amends for how I treated Beau all these years. Right now, I have to comfort him, because I have a feeling no one is going to beat himself up more about this than Beau.
“If I hadn’t been blinded by anger, I could’ve seen that it was something like this,” I admit. “I thought the Ashcrofts liked me back then. They were always nice enough to me when I went over to their house, but I knew I wasn't the girl they wanted their precious Chadwick to end up with. But to make me lose in a tournament? To take that scholarship away from me. Did they hate me that bad? And if Chad wanted me to break up with him so he could go fuck a cart girl, he didn’t need to go that far.”
My joke does the trick, as Beau sits back up. “None of what they did surprises me. But what I can’t wrap my mind around is what did they gain from it? If they’d have made Chad win, okay, they were doing it because cheating was the only way he was ever going to beat either one of us. But what did me beating you accomplish?”
“Exactly. Did they do all of this just because they hated me that much? Were they trying to ruin me? For what? I wasn't doing anything besides trying to golf. Were they that misogynistic? I know that answer is yes, but this even seems far-fetched. Also, he cheated on me and then broke up with me, so it’s not like this was some kind of high school relationship bullshit revenge. I’m so damn confused.”
“The problem is, unless we confront Chad, or his father, we’llnever know,” Beau says. “And even then, do we expect Chad to tell the truth?”
“Never. And honestly? At this point in our lives, rather than him admitting how he and his prick father screwed with my life twenty years ago, I’d like him to tell me the truth on whether or not he was actively trying to ruin my shot and my career.”
Wow…those are words I never thought I’d say. For such a long time, I let that day, that moment, define me. I let it affect my mental state for years. For a girl who already had a chip on her shoulder, that day made it a boulder. That day changed me. I let it affect my friendship with Gabi. It hardened me to so much in the world.
It made me hate my husband.
“Beau…” I try to fight back the tears, because I know I’ve apologized, but what I’m about to say is so much more. “I’m so sorry. I spent all those years hating you. Blaming you when I should’ve been angry at douchey country club men who tore us apart. I’m sorry I never believed you. I’m sorry I didn’t let you explain. I’m just…I’m so sorry.”
Beau has my hand in an instant, gently tugging me toward him. Needing his comfort, but now never knowing if I’m going to deserve it, I allow him to bring me to his lap, where I cry out twenty years of misplaced anger and regret.
“I forgive you, Shelby. I understand why you’d think the way you did. And I’m sorry for not doing more. But you’re right. It was twenty years ago, and this man is still trying to fuck with you to this day. Who knows? Maybe if we play things right, we can find out why he treated you like that then,andwhy he’s doing what he’s doing now. Then we can watch him wither away. Crawl back to his daddy in Louisiana. We can wave and laugh, knowing we won.”
“That sounds nice,” I say through ugly tears. “But can I kick him in the balls one more time? You know, for him to remember me by?”
I shake against Beau as he laughs at my joke that’s in no waya joke. “Of course you can, Belle. And maybe you can take your five iron and knock his windows out for good measure.”
“Now that sounds like a good time.”
We pause and reflect for a moment, and I don’t know what corner of my brain this is coming from, but I think I have a way to get him back.
“Question: Do you have a national media contact you could call? You know, if you wanted to have a specific kind of story written? Preferably someone neither of us have slept with.”
Beau thinks for a second. “Yeah. I do. National golf writer for U.S. Daily. Emily Harwell.”
“Oh, I’ve talked to her a few times,” I say. And because I know her type, I know she hasn’t slept with Beau. Good pick, hubby. “I like her. You think she’d be game?”
