Chapter 54

Sunday, June 17

Father’s Day always seemed weird to me at the country club. Most of the adult male members played golf and would have been perfectly happy to get a round in. But the family obligations cut into one part of their day and the final round of the Open captivated their minds the rest of the afternoon.

The Robinson, Ensberry and Richards families all gathered for the buffet line, the dads already deep in discussion over who had the best chance to close it out at Shinnecock. The four leaders were tied at 3-over and the top 15 were within four shots. There was a very real possibility that the champion wouldn’t even break par.

The 10 of us grouped around a long table with the dads wrapped around the end still talking about golf. I excused myself when I saw Staci Patterson waving at me and crossed the room to again stick my head into the jaws of a hungry lion. Or meet the father of a teenage girl. Something dangerous, anyway.

I stepped up and greeted Mr. Patterson, accepting his offer of a handshake.

“Staci says you’ve finally gotten around to asking her out,” he said as Mrs. Patterson looked me up and down with some kind of mother-of-the-bride radar.

“Yes, sir,” I said, “but it’s proving difficult to get our schedules to match up. I’ve got to go out of town for a few days this week. Saturday will be the first chance we’ll have and we’ll both be working at the pool Saturday and Sunday. It may be the next week before we get it all worked out.”

“Yes, I’ve heard about the modeling assignment in Malibu,” Mr. Patterson said. “I also understand my daughter is not the only young lady you intend to escort for an evening over the next few weeks. Care to explain?”

Great. It was beginning to look like Mom would get the chance to repurpose my room before the week even started.

“May I sit, sir?” I asked, pulling up a chair at his nod.

I did my best to explain the situation — dating Morgan for almost a month, her impending departure which was now mere hours away, the master plan my sister had cooked up back before Memorial Day and the other girls’ eager participation.

“Your daughter was something of a last-minute addition to the plan, thanks to the events of two weeks ago,” I said.

“And what do you expect to achieve with all this?” he asked.

“I just hope to live through it,” I said. “If I can get out of it without them all hating me or each other, it will be a resounding success. I feel like they’ll hate me if I refuse to go along with it and they’ll hate me if someone is perceived to receive more special treatment than the rest.

“I mean, Morgan’s staring at me from across the room right now, isn’t she? I can feel her eyes boring holes into the back of my head. Does she look particularly murderous at the moment?”

Mrs. Patterson stifled a laugh. She was facing directly at my girlfriend.

“I see your point,” Mr. Patterson said after a quick sideways glance in that direction. “I’ll make you a deal. My daughter says you have tomorrow off from the pool. I’ll meet you here at the club and we can discuss the matter more in depth. What time would be good for you?”

I told Mr. Patterson about the 8 a.m. football workouts and my standing appointment for yardwork as soon as I got home. After that, I was at his disposal, wincing inwardly at my unfortunate word choice.

He reached into a pocket inside his suit jacket and withdrew a business card, then pulled a pen from somewhere and wrote on the back of the card.

“Call that number when you’re ready,” he said, handing me the card. “I’m free all day. Anyone I would need to meet with is off on vacation these next few weeks, much like your girlfriend.”

I thanked him as I tucked the card in my shirt pocket, made my farewells to Mrs. Patterson and Staci and returned to my table feeling like I’d been given a reprieve. Maybe Mom would have to hold off on remodeling my room for a bit.

I also felt I wasn’t anywhere near out of the woods on this thing. I kept hearing a line from “The Princess Bride” running through my head.

“Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.”

I finished my plate and tried to make sure I was still in Morgan’s good graces when all the moms decided it was time for Father’s Day gifts. Morgan and Mrs. Ensberry presented a little box to Dr. Ensberry. Jed and Mrs. Richards had something for Mr. Richards. Then Mom pulled out a giftwrapped box of about four cubic inches and called Kacie and I to where Dad was sitting.

Dad tried his best not to tear the wrapping paper until Mom, fed up with his dawdling, took a dinner knife and sliced all the way around one side. He extracted the packing box, used the dinner knife to cut the tape and lifted the lid. I thought he was about to cry as he stared into the box.

He pulled out a shadow box with a little brass plate on the front and a golf ball inside. It was the ball from his hole-in-one during the Memorial Day scramble. The brass plate was engraved with the pertinent details:

Douglas Robinson

Prairie Star Country Club No. 14

128 yards, par 3, wedge

Witnessed by: Dr. Francis Ensberry DDS, William Richards LLD, Garrett Robinson

“I know exactly where this is going in my office,” Dad said. “Thank you, honey.”

He got a kiss from Mom, a hug from Kacie and a “Happy Father’s Day” from all of us.

It was now pushing 11:30 and the three dads were itching to get to the 19th Hole before the leaders teed off at Shinnecock in less than two hours. Jed and I had plenty of time to get to the pool and change for work.

I took the opportunity to speak with Morgan. Mrs. Ensberry told me to walk her daughter home and she would take the car. Dr. Ensberry could fend for himself after watching golf.

I got my girlfriend home in about 20 minutes, swore I’d keep in touch and kissed her for the last time for two weeks. I watched her head up the stairs and was turning to go when Mrs. Ensberry stepped out the door behind me, wrapping her arm in mine.

“Walk with me,” she said, steering me back toward the club.

We were about a block from their house when Morgan’s mother hit me with a nuclear bombshell.

“So, do you think she’s going to be able to make it through the next two weeks without having sex with you?”

How I managed not to puke my guts out at that moment, I’ll never know. This hit me harder than Melinda Hernandez asking about me and Arlene and the redhead asking about me and Kacie combined. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

“You aren’t trying to deny it,” Mrs. Ensberry said, forcing me to keep walking.

“Would it do any good?” I croaked.

“No,” she said. “Tell me one thing: Do you love her?”

I had to think about that one. Neither one of us had said the L word, even in the throes of orgasm.

“I honestly do not know,” I said. “I know I care for her, want her to be happy. I told her I wouldn’t push her away when she made the first move. But do I love her enough to spend the rest of my life with her? Raise babies? I keep thinking I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t dump me before school starts. I’m afraid she’ll burn herself out on me and start looking for something different.”

“I can’t promise you that won’t happen,” my girlfriend’s mother said. “I just don’t want her to get hurt. She’s been pining away for you since she was 11. It was almost as if she put it on a billboard when she finally got you. I had a time distracting her father the first few nights she came home with that look on her face.”

“Is that what gave it away?” I asked, remembering Morgan’s fear that one night she’d return home with too big a grin to deny it.

“That and the fact there was never any underwear in her laundry basket after the nights you two went out,” she said. “I think last night was the first time in two or three weeks that she wore panties on a date.”

“So what do you want me to do now?”

“Keep being you and let her be her,” Mrs. Ensberry said. “These next two weeks will be a big test for her.”