I picked up the nine iron golf club and held it between my hands. I touched the end to the floor and held the rubber grip exactly like I had been taught. I looked around for people and when no one was near I swung the club around my body and hit the invisible ball on the invisible tee. “Fore!” I called out jokingly. I rested the club back on the floor and closed my eyes, picturing the fairway, the soft grass a light green underneath my shoes, the flag indicating the hole a few hundred yards away. I heard the slice of the club as it swung through the air, hitting the ball as close to the green as I could possibly get it. No splashes from the water and no spray of the sand trap adding strokes onto my card.
“Taylor, you look like a pro,” my wife’s voice said, integrating into my fantasy.
I opened my eyes and glanced up at her. “Interesting,” I confirmed.
“What?” She asked.
I broke my stance and stood up straight. “Did you know I used to play golf?” I
bounced the club from hand to hand.
“No, I didn’t,” Clare said honestly, a slight grin across her mouth. She started to laugh and took a step closer. “With the funny pants, the shoes, and the sweater over your shoulders?”
I kissed her smiling mouth and smiled myself, it was catching. “Yeah,” I laughed. “Once in awhile.” I put the golf club back in the rack and put my arm around my wife’s waist. “You know, I’m thinking about joining the country club. I mean, I have to brush up on my game, a lot actually, but it could be a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll get Jim to join me.”
“Maybe,” Clare encouraged. “And maybe I’ll join you once in awhile.”
“You play?” I asked, shocked.
“Well, no,” she admitted. “But if you let me try I bet I could hit a ball or two.”
“Are you kidding me?” I kissed her forehead. “You’d be great.”
We walked around the store for a bit, looking for my brothers. We had come to Modell’s looking for a baseball set for Isaac’s twins. The two of them were really getting into the sport and my brother thought, what better place to get one than New York, home of the Mets (oh yeah, and those Yankees).
“Who did you used to play with?” Clare asked.
“Hm?”
“Who did you used to play golf with?”
“Oh, my brothers.”
“Zac? Ike?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “We also liked to play pool.”
“Well I knew that part,” Clare said. “Mr. ‘when will Zoë be older so we can get a pool table in the basement’.” She raised her eyebrows at me.
“Well it’s true,” I insisted. “Pool kicks butt.” I smiled and pulled her closer. “Plus, how else do you think I could afford that engagement ring?”
Clare jokingly hit my arm. “Oh yeah, mister hustler?”
I laughed. “We have to put our kids through college somehow.” I winked at Clare.
She sighed and put her head on my shoulder. Isaac and Zac were in the baseball aisle playing catch. They quickly dropped the ball when they saw someone approaching but restarted the game once they realized it was us.
“Find what you were looking for?” I asked Isaac.
He reached up and caught a ball that Zac horribly threw. “Yep.”
“I can’t believe you’re actually playing catch with him,” I said, shaking my head at my older brother.
“What’s wrong with that?” Clare questioned.
“Zac sucks at baseball,” I told her. “He can barely catch, let alone throw a baseball. This kid’s broken his nose so many times in his life and many of them have been because he never remembers ‘dur, I can’t catch a ball.’”
“You’re so mean,” Clare teased.
“I try anyway,” I said with a wink.
“Enough Zac bashing,” my younger brother announced. “I want to play some pool. Any pool halls around here that are cheap? And I’m emphasizing the word ‘cheap’ here.”
“I think I know of a place,” I told him. “It’s called...” I thought for a second and then pointed towards the opposite end of the store, “Aisle 12.”