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“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Annie muttered.

“Oh, it’ll be fun,” Nick cajoled. He slipped on his own bright green vest and handed her a laser gun. “Besides, it’s a school day and this place is pretty much empty, so it’s just the two of us. I promise I won’t make you hide in a corner, and if I did, you wouldn’t be alone, and you definitely wouldn’t be crying.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Annie rolled her eyes and studied her gun. “So, tell me how to use this thing again?”

“I can’t believe you grew up in Kentucky and don’t know how to use a gun. A toy gun, no less.”

She raised her eyebrow at him. “Is that some kind of jab at my home state?”

“No...but doesn’t your dad hunt?”

Annie started to laugh. “Nick, my dad is a surgeon. He doesn’t hunt. He golfs, and when he takes his boat out on the lake, he takes a good book, not a fishing pole.

Nick’s ears perked up at the word “boat.” “Your dad has a boat?”

“Two. One in Fort Lauderdale and one on Cave Run Lake up in Morehead, Kentucky.”

It was Nick’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “Morehead? Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“As in more....head?”

“I know. Totally embarrassing, right? I never thought anything of it as a kid. Then one day, when I was about thirteen, it hit me, and I was mortified. When I was a senior in high school, I did a college visit at the state university there and went to a football game. Imagine my horror when the cheerleaders were yelling Head! More head! With the pause in between the words and everything. It was actually one of the reasons I decided not to go there. I know that’s shallow, but...”

Nick laughed. “I don’t think that’s shallow at all, though I do have to wonder if that’s one of the same reasons teenage boys do decide to go there.”

Annie blushed. “Probably so.”

“So, are you ready?” He picked up his laser gun and aimed it at her playfully.

“No.”

Nick snickered and pushed her towards a door. “You go in this way, and I’ll go in on the other side. That way, we have to actually scout each other out.” He was gone before she had any time to protest.

Annie sighed and pushed the door open. She stood still for a minute to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, then walked inside. When she came upon the first corner, she clutched her gun to the chest and pressed her back up against the wall. She couldn’t help but to hum the “Mission Impossible” theme song to herself as she poked her head around the corner and aimed her gun into the dark corridor. Around the next corner, she saw a flash of green and grinned as she took aim. However, just as her finger started to pull the trigger, she noticed the tell-tale luminescence of a cell phone screen. Was he texting someone? Not wanting seem rude, she waited until he had stuffed the phone back into his jeans pocket before firing at the target on his back. He jumped in surprise and whirled around, shooting in her direction. She pressed herself back up against the wall as a red laser beam passed in front of her nose. “Oh, it’s on now!” he yelled, when he realized he hadn’t hit her. Annie giggled and crouched down into the nearest corner. She watched as he walked by slowly and dramatically, then shot at him again, this time hitting the target on his chest. He yelped as his vest started vibrating for the second time in only a few seconds. Then he saw her. He grinned wickedly as he sauntered over to her and aimed his gun. “I thought we said you weren’t going to be hiding in a corner this time.”

Annie giggled and covered her face with her hands. “Please be gentle,” she squeaked.

“Heh. Not a chance.” He paused for another second to add to the drama, and as he pulled the trigger, she shot up to her feet and darted past him. “You tease!” he yelled after her.
Twenty minutes later, they collapsed onto a bench outside the laser tag arena laughing.

“Okay. That was fun,” Annie admitted breathlessly.

“You’re just saying that because you kicked my ass,” Nick remarked.

“Well, that helped.”

Nick’s phone dinged, signaling that he had received a text message. He ignored it, and instead stood up, running his hands along the front of his jeans before holding one out to Annie. “You hungry?”

She took his hand and stood up. “Thirsty, anyway. I’m too old for this.”

“You’re younger than me, aren’t you?”

“Not by much.” She wondered if Leighanne and Brian had filled him on the fact that it was her birthday, since he hadn’t mentioned it.

As they sat at the snack bar sharing an order of nachos a few minutes later, Nick’s phone beeped again, and then again. Finally, he sighed, pulled it out of his pocket, and silenced it without looking at the screen. “I don’t mind if you text them back, you know,” Annie told him.

“No, it’s fine, she’s just...” Nick paused and looked down at the countertop in front of him. “Sorry.”

“So, it’s Lauren.”

“Yeah,” he admitted quietly. “It’s nothing, really. She’s just checking up on me. Making sure I’m okay.”

Annie cocked her head to the side and studied him. “Well, are you?” Nick didn’t say anything. “Listen, Nick.” She placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I’m wearing a wedding ring on a chain around my neck. She was a big part of your life, and it’s only been what? Four days? There’s no judgement here.”

He smiled slightly and shot a fleeting glance in her direction, then looked back down at their half-eaten nachos. “Then, if I’m being honest with myself, no. I’m not okay. Not really.” She gave his shoulder a little squeeze and rested her head on his upper arm, enveloping him in a half-hug. They both sighed. “It just ended really badly is all,” Nick said into her hair.

She removed herself from him and straightened up so that she could look into his eyes. “You want to talk about it?”

He twitched his lips from side to side while he thought about it. “No. Not really, but let’s just say we ended up disagreeing on some pretty big stuff. Like kids and marriage.”

Annie nodded slowly. “So, she was pressuring you?”

Nick widened his eyes then furrowed his brows in confusion. “What? No. Actually, I guess it was the opposite.”

“But..... I thought you didn’t believe in marriage?”

Nick was reminded for a moment that she was a fan. “I said that in a lot of interviews after my parents finally got divorced. God knows they weren’t the best example of what a marriage should be, but I don’t know. I guess I changed my mind. Lauren changed my mind. I just couldn’t change hers.” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “There’s more to it than that, but that’s really all I’m comfortable telling you right now, okay?”

“Fair enough.” Annie slurped the last bit of her diet soda through her straw and jumped off her bar stool. “Let’s go play some putt-putt.”

Nick laughed. “Why do you people call if putt-putt? Isn’t it miniature golf?”

“You people?” She put her hands on her hips in mock indignation. “Is this another jab at Kentucky, Carter?”

“No. I’m referring to all southerners when I say ‘you people’,” he deadpanned.

“If you must know, I personally call it putt-putt because that’s what you do. You putt, then you putt again. You don’t see people making drives on a putt-putt course. At least not appropriately.”

“Okay. Let’s play some putt-putt, then.” He emphasized the words “putt-putt” facetiously. “I need to redeem myself from that game of laser tag earlier, anyway.” Annie rolled her eyes and sauntered across the brightly colored carpet towards the glass doors that led out to the little hut housing putters and balls.



“You know, you’re really bad for my ego,” Nick said, shaking his head as he wrote his score for the ninth hole down and tucked the score card and tiny pencil into his pocket.

“Did I not mention that I went to UK on a golf scholarship?” Annie traipsed down the set of steps leading to the next hole.

“No, Annie, you never mentioned that. That would have been good to know before I got all ‘Me man. Me golf. You woman. Woman no golf as good as man’.” Annie giggled and dropped her ball on the green, then got into her putting stance. “You know, it should have raised a red flag when I noticed that you linked the pinky of your bottom hand with the index finger of top hand. Only true golfers do that.” She found it a little unnerving that he was watching her hands that closely, but brushed it off and concentrated on the hole. “I’d like to see you try to get another hole in one on this one,” Nick said smugly.

Annie pursed her lips and studied the course. “This one does look pretty tough,
actually,” she said with a shrug. Still, she eyed the hole carefully and conjured up some old college physics, then gave her purple ball a solid stroke.

Nick bent down with his hands on his knees and watched as the ball bounced off a bumper, rolled down an incline, and dropped into the cup. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” he shrieked incredulously.

Meanwhile, Annie, even surprised herself, laughed and started jumping up and down happily, less for herself and more to get a rise out of Nick. She felt her necklace come apart at the nape of her neck and stopped, her mouth opening in horror, as she heard the clink of metal hitting concrete. She dove for the ring, but it was too late. Tears stung her eyes as she sat on her knees and watched it roll down an incline and into the stream of blue water rushing through the course.