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  “Two reasons. Number one, I’m hoping it’ll deter you from doing awesome.” He laughed. “Number two, you look ridiculously hot in it.”

  “Wha..um… Bu…wha?” I couldn’t spit out a single coherent thought. All that was running through my head was: He called me hot.

  “Yes, I’m so going to win this year!” Travis pumped his fist in the air, smirking.

  “Trav, you know, just because you put me in this dress, doesn’t mean I still can’t kick your butt. Do we need to remember what happened when we first met? Pretty sure I was wearing a dress then.” I informed him, making him remember our meeting.

  “You didn’t kick my butt. I fell off my bike trying to impress you!”

  I snorted, “Yeah. Whatever you say. But are you forgetting the part where I had you screaming like a little baby?” I asked feeling a smirk come across my face.

  “You dumped a whole bottle of peroxide on my open wound!” he wailed, wincing at the memory.

  “Right. I’d call that a victory for dress wearing Riley.”

  “You are so…,” Travis started. “Just…ugh….”

  I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. Travis always had to have one up on everyone—it’s part of the reason why he excels so well in his profession—he’s unable to let other people have the victory. Oh yeah, this was going to be a great day!

  We pulled into our usual mini golf place, Al’s Mini Golf. The first time we came here on my birthday, I had turned eleven. It was the first birthday I celebrated with Travis. We had so much fun that day, when my birthday came around the next year and my mom asked what I wanted to do, I said mini golfing. Eventually, it just became a tradition. And even though I’d been traveling with Travis since he’d gone pro, and my birthday usually fell around an event, we’d always made time to find a mini golf place wherever we were and play a round.

  I’m not going to lie, we were competitive. Eventually our parents and siblings stopped coming with us, because we were just too over the top. Travis and I usually went back and forth each year with the winning. Our current scores were: Travis—8, Riley—7. I was bound and determined to bring it back to a tie.

  We got out of the car and walked up to the concession/ticket shack. Behind the open window sat the ancient owner of the place. His name was Alfred and he opened this as a small nine-hole course when he was 20. He had to be in his 80s now. The course had been updated throughout the years. He first added another nine holes. Then he added different 18-hole levels. Currently there were a total of 72 holes, four different levels: kids, advanced, difficult and extreme. Alfred tried to update some of the holes yearly so if you are a regular you aren’t always playing the same course.

  Travis and I always go for extreme. We haven’t played here in five years, so I was curious as to what had changed.

  Alfred was busy cleaning the golf balls when Travis rang the bell on the counter. Alfred looked up at us, took a moment to register who we were, then broke into a toothy grin.

  “Well well. I see I’m the lucky guy who gets to enjoy your birthday battle this year.” He shuffled towards us, pulling out our usual golf clubs and handing us two golf balls, one bright green, the other bright yellow.

  “Hey Al, how have you been?” Travis asked, shaking the old man’s extended hand.

  “Oh you know, I’m not getting any younger.” Alfred laughed at his own joke and smiled gleefully at us.

  “It’s good to be back here. I can’t wait to see what has changed,” I said to him, with a smile.

  “You’ll have some fun up there on extreme. I’ve changed a few holes since you’ve been here last. I can’t wait to see who comes out on top. What’s the score now?” Alfred took the money Travis handed him and rang up our game.

  “I’m kicking her butt Al!” Travis laughed and grinned like a kid.

  “Um, the score is eight to seven. I would not call that kicking my butt.” I pushed Travis’ shoulder with my own.

  “Ah. I’m going to have to cheer for Riley today.” Alfred handed us the score card and a little pencil.

  Travis’ smile fell. “I thought we were friends, Al.”

  “Oh son, you always cheer for a beautiful woman.” Alfred pointed out, giving me a wink.

  I’m pretty sure a blush appeared on my cheeks, but I returned Alfred’s smile and leaned across the counter to give him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Thank you Alfred,” I whispered in his ear.

  “Oh, and happy birthday sweetie.” Alfred gave my shoulder a little squeeze, before releasing me. He looked over my shoulder, “Who are those folks?”

  Travis and I turned to see the camera crew standing behind us. We had somehow forgotten about them again.

  “They’re Travis’ posse.” I grinned at Alfred. He let out a little laugh and turned to Travis for an explanation.

  Travis sighed, “I agreed to do this TV show…” Travis stopped, I’m assuming he was hoping to get off with that, and not have to explain what the TV show was about.

  “And this TV show is about?” Alfred asked, causing me to laugh.

  “It’s a…dating show.” Travis rushed out in a mumble.

  “What was that? You’ll have to speak up son, I’m not as young as I once was,” Alfred yelled toward Travis, cupping one hand behind his ear.

  Travis sighed again, and spoke louder and slower. “It’s a dating show.”

  “And why are they following you and Riley around right now?” He sounded confused.

  “Riley agreed to help me weed though the girls,” Travis explained.

  Alfred looked between the two of us for a minute before speaking, “Huh. I always figured you two would end up together.” He shrugged and turned back to his cleaning. “Have fun out there!” He called out to us as we started climbing the stairs to the extreme course.

  “You know, it’s not the first time I’ve heard someone say that.” Travis broke the silence we had fallen into as we climbed the stairs.

  “Heard what?” I asked, lost in thought.

  “Us ending up together. I’ve heard a few people say that.” Travis stopped at the first hole, grabbed my yellow golf ball from my hand, and placed it on the green artificial grass.

  “What? Why have you never mentioned this before?” I lined myself up by the ball and mindlessly swung, letting the ball follow the path down to the hole. The ball came to a stop just shy of the hole. But my mind was elsewhere.

  “I just, I don’t know. I thought it was silly,” Travis said stepping up to the green and hitting his ball down the course. His settled right next to mine.

  “Huh, us together. That would be just…odd,” I muttered walking past him to my golf ball.

  “Yeah, odd,” he murmured following me down to the hole.

  We were approaching the eighteenth hole. I was currently losing—by one freaking stroke. To win this year, I had to sink this as a hole-in-one, and of course, it was probably the most difficult hole on the course. Since we had traded off on who went first, it was Travis’ turn. He crouched down, setting his ball down on the turf and trying to eye up the hole.

  This was one of the holes Alfred had changed. It used to just be a big drop to the hole, where it was all about luck sinking a hole-in-one. This new hole had a semi drop with another hill, then it slightly turned to the right, before dropping down another hill. The hole was on a plane right at the bottom of the last hill, in the center of the green. Of course it was possible to get a hole-in-one, but it would take either all the luck in the world or a lot of strategic planning—which was what Travis was currently doing.

  After about two minutes of eyeing the course and making adjustments to the placement of the ball at the starting line, Travis finally stood up and got into position. He adjusted his body slightly and lightly swung the club back and then forward to collide with the ball.

  The ball went soaring down the first drop and skipped over the hill, taking a wide right turn around the corner and dropping down the last hill. The ball had gained mom
entum going down the last hill and flew right to the hole. I held my breath, if Travis got this in one shot, I was screwed. The ball rolled right past the hole and settled next to the edge of the course.

  I exhaled and grinned at Travis’ frown.

  “I still have a chance!” I jumped excitedly toward the starting line.

  “Psht, you can’t sink this in one shot!” Travis rolled his eyes in my direction, pointing to the difficult course.

  I just shrugged my shoulders and turned my back on him. I had studied the course as Travis had been over analyzing his shot and I dropped the ball to my feet, positioning it with my shoe. I had one chance at this, and I just hoped I was right about what I thought I needed to do. Instead of swinging directly down the center, like Travis did, I hit the ball toward the right wall. My ball made the drop and rolled up the hill, hitting the right wall at the top of the hill and following the wall around the curve and down the hill, nowhere near the hole. The ball rolled to the back wall and bounced off it, sending it back into the direction of the hole. The ball had lost momentum when it hit the wall, so it was moving at a snail’s pace towards the hole.

  Once again, I held my breath watching the yellow ball inch towards the hole. Finally, after what felt like hours, the ball dropped into the hole and I heard the whirl of it as it fell down the pipe and rolled its way back to Alfred in the shack.

  I let out a squeal and jumped up and down. “I did it! Woohoo! I beat you!” I turned to Travis with a huge grin on my face.

  He didn’t look defeated. In fact, he looked happy. Or maybe entranced? He stood there with his sexy grin on as I jumped up and down cheering for myself. I was twirling around, making my dress float out around me, when I felt strong arms circle my waist and lift me off the ground and spin me in a circle. I looked up to see Travis’ face inches from mine. He wore a breathtaking smile and just stared down into my eyes. After another spin, he set me on my feet, but didn’t release me.

  I wasn’t sure if my heart was beating too fast because of the excitement of winning, or the fact that I was standing this close to Travis with his arms around me and could smell the mint of his breath. Travis moved one hand from my waist to my face and ran his thumb across my cheek. His other hand was still firmly on my waist and pulling me closer to him.

  Tingles flashed through my body at his touch. Which was…odd.

  “God you’re beautiful.” He breathed out causing my heart to escalate.

  I couldn’t say anything snarky back to him, like I usually would. I couldn’t do anything at all except gaze into those green-brown sunburst eyes.

  My eyes flicked down to his mouth when I saw him slowly moisten his lips. My body was acting on its own accord and I was slowly leaning up to Travis. I peeked up at him from under my eyelashes and saw his eyes flutter shut. I smiled and let my eyes close too, while my body kept moving towards his.

  My mouth was mere centimeters away from his when I heard someone shout, “Always bet on a beautiful woman!”

  Travis and I jumped back from each other, and turned toward the shack where Alfred was leaning against the back door, holding my yellow ball in the air. I smiled down at him and took a few deep breaths to try and relax my nerves.

  What just happened there?

  Travis gave me a look I couldn’t place and opened his mouth to say something, before quickly closing it, shaking his head and walking down the path towards the hole to finish off his game.

  We tallied up the scores and I won by one stroke, bringing us to a tie in the birthday mini golf standings. Saying our goodbyes to Alfred, we promised to come and see him anytime we were in the area. We walked slowly back to the car. As we walked, Travis’ arm would brush my arm and my hand would brush his hand, creating sparks in my stomach. I tried to hold my hands in front of me to keep from touching him, but his arm would always brush against mine, causing those flutters to linger.

  Travis opened my door when we got to the car and I slowly sank into the seat, as lady-like as I could in the dress. I leaned my head against the headrest and closed my eyes trying to once again calm my nerves. Travis slid into the driver’s seat and started the car, honking as we exited the parking lot.

  My left hand was resting on the seat next to me, and I glanced over to see Travis’ semi resting on the shifter. His thumb and forefinger were on the shifter, while the other three were dangling off, dangerously close to my hand. I felt my hand twitch at the closeness of his hand and watched as his hand slowly dropped off the shifter and rested right next to mine, with our pinkies overlapping.

  The butterflies returned at that simple touch.

  What the crap is going on?!

  Travis pulled into the driveway of the house. I glanced down at our hands which had become fully entwined during the hour drive. The fluttering in my stomach never slowed and I was positive I was about to throw up any moment.

  This has to be a dream. A weird freaky…fantastic dream.

  “So, as much as I want to hang out with you for the rest of the day, I’m due back at the guest house to meet with Jim. He really isn’t doing well with there being only six girls left.” He turned to me, releasing my hand. “But I will be back tonight for dinner with all of you ladies.”

  My smile faltered for a second. “Well thanks for hanging out with me today. I’m glad I could steal you away for a little while.”

  I opened my door, stepped out of the car and closed the door before my face could give me away. I started walking back to the house, tears forming in my eyes.

  Why am I crying?

  “Riles,” Travis called out to me, rolling down the window. I blinked back the stupid tears and turned to face his car. He was leaning across the passenger seat staring at me out the window. “This isn’t over.”

  Before I could even digest what he meant, he winked at me and drove off down the driveway. I turned back to the house more confused than ever.

  After heading into the house and being bombarded by the girls about our date, I decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing out by the pool. It was a beautiful day and I didn’t want to be stuck in the house with the other girls for the rest of the day. There was a light breeze coming off the lake, making sitting outside in the summer dress very comfortable.

  My mind went back to what Travis had said in the car when we got back to the house. For whatever reason, I had thought that what happened at Al’s would have maybe changed things for this stupid show. I mean, we almost kissed. Travis and I almost kissed. I’m going to assume those fluttery feelings I had every time he touched me today was because things were shifting between us. I thought maybe Travis would want to figure this out between us. Put the other girls to the side and figure us out. I was his freaking best friend after all. We had history! Clearly there was something there. Shouldn’t he want to be with me over the other girls? Or was I just hoping that’s what he wanted?

  Oh my goodness, was I the only one who felt the stupid flutters? Was I the one who almost kissed him?

  Groaning, I slammed my head back against the chair. This was getting way too confusing. I had no idea what I was feeling for him anyway, and I needed to stop over analyzing everything.

  Someone plopped down in the chair next to me. “Hey you.”

  I lifted my head up, shielding my eyes with my hand, and looked over at the culprit interrupting my thoughts. I found Taylor stretched out on the chair, with her head tilted up to the sun, drinking it in.

  I smiled over at her, glad it was Taylor and not any of the other girls. Taylor was the only girl I really got along well with. I would say in the last two weeks we had become friends—well, as much of friends as we could be, with me withholding information and all. I often wondered what would happen if she found out who I really was. Would she be pissed that I’ve been lying to her? Would she be happy I wasn’t actually competition? Would she just not really care either way? I guess I would find out when the show was over and she knew.

  “Hey Taylor.” I leaned my head back agai
nst my chair, soaking up the sun again.

  “I’m not sure if you wanted to be alone out here, but those girls were driving me crazy!” Taylor groaned from her seat.

  I started to laugh. “That’s exactly why I’m out here! I just didn’t want to deal with them today!”

  “Nicki has been complaining all day about you being the first individual date. She thinks she deserved it over anyone else in the house.” Taylor got up to grab two waters out of the outdoor fridge before returning to her seat and handing me one.

  “Thanks.” I took the water and gratefully took a drink. “Nicki is obnoxious. She thinks the world revolves around her. I have no idea what Travis sees in her.”

  “She flaunts herself around him. Have you seen how low cut her shirts are? Any guy would want to keep her around.” Taylor scowled, glaring up at the house.

  “But I thought Travis was different than that.” Even though I knew exactly how he was, and Nicki was the type of girl he usually went for. I just thought this show would maybe have changed his mind.

  “Maybe we just need to change his view on things. I see you’re wearing a dress today. That’s a first since we’ve gotten here.” Taylor mentioned it as casually as she could, though the giant smirk on her face gave her away.

  “Hey, it was a gift from… Um… It was a gift from a friend.” I stumbled over my almost give-away. I glanced over at her, but she still had her head back against the chair with her eyes closed.

  That was close.

  “Well, you look amazing in it. And I know Travis noticed.”

  “What do you mean, noticed?” I was curious. Maybe the chemistry between Travis and I wasn’t just all in my head.

  “Don’t hate me, but I glanced out the window when you left. I saw the way he looked at you when you walked out. And how you flew into his arms. I swear, if I wasn’t a part of this competition, you two make the cutest couple.” Taylor glanced over at me with a wicked grin.

  “Psht, please. He didn’t look at me any differently than he usually does.” I brushed it off like it meant nothing, but my heart was beating faster at the thought of Travis actually seeing me as something other than his best friend.