Chapter 24

“It’s complicated.”

Will went straight from lunch to the Westmouth Hills Golf and Country Club to meet his partners and friend. David Jenkins was the only one of the founding partners of JMS still working for the company—McCall and Smith having both retired several years earlier. The firm had started as a one-office practice in central London and it was thanks to David Jenkins that it was as large as it now was.

As well as being an exceptional lawyer and shrewd businessman, Jenkins was a golf nut. It was because of his love of the sport that the firm held an annual golf tournament for its partners, The Partner’s Trophy.

Jenkins had held the title for all but two years of its history until Will became a partner. Since then, the trophy had been wrestled back and forth between them, although Will had now won the tournament for three years in a row.

As Will retrieved his clubs from the small storage area behind the seats of his car, he heard the booming voice of his partner from the putting green between the clubhouse and the first tee.

“Brown! It’s about time. I was bringing to think you’d bottled it.”

“Not a chance, David. I’ll take every opportunity I can get to remind you of your place before this year’s Trophy.”

“I wouldn’t get too confident if I were you, son. It’s about time that title came home.”

“We’ll see. We’ll see.” Will walked across the green and shook David’s hand. “I don’t plan to give it up easily.”

“Well, I hear on the grapevine that this lad you’ve put forward for partnership is pretty handy with a club. If he’s as good a lawyer as you say he is, you might not have a choice about relinquishing the title. Where is he anyway?”

“I don’t know. I told him not to be ... There he is, just coming out of the clubhouse with Maurice.”

Jeremy and Maurice joined David and Will on the putting green and they got some practice in while they waited for their tee time. David suggested they play for fifty pounds each a hole, which the others agreed to. Half an hour after they had teed off from the first, David, Jeremy and Will had each won one hole. The fourth was a long par five, with a dogleg to the right. Will and Jeremy both opted to put their tee shots on the left side of the fairway. David stayed right and Maurice found himself in the rough for the third hole in a row.

“So?” Jeremy asked as he and Will walked up the fairway.

“So what?”

“Did you give your friend my number?”

“Oh, that? Yes, I did. She said she’d call or text over the weekend.”

Jeremy grinned.

“I told her to be gentle with you,” Will said with a grin. “I don’t want her to break you.”

Jeremy scowled. “Yeah, right.” A few paces later he said, “So are you glad you went to the reunion?”

Will nodded. “Yeah. I should have got in touch with some of my old friends a long time ago.”

“What about that old girlfriend of yours? Was she there?”

“Yep.”

“And?”

“It’s complicated.”

After another five holes, with the tally at four holes for Will, three for Jeremy and two for David, Jeremy and Will had another chance to talk with some privacy.

“Complicated in what way?”

“She’s married.”

“Bugger.”

“Quite. But here’s the thing. She still wants to.”

“Wants to what?”

Will shot his friend a look that left Jeremy in no doubt he’d asked a stupid question. “Oh. Right. So, do you want to?”

“I don’t know.”

“How can you not know? Has she gotten fat or something?”

“No. The opposite, in fact. I saw her on Wednesday and thought she looked far too thin.”

“How can you be too thin?”