Too Far 05 - Simple Perfection

couldn’t see me.
    On a piece of paper I wrote:
    I will never forget you. Thank you for everything but it’s time I move on. I want to see the world. This life isn’t for me. It doesn’t fit. It isn’t what I dreamed of. Don’t come after me, just let me go. I hope you find the happiness you deserve.
    I’m sorry,
    Della

Woods
    I ended the strange phone call from Tripp and stared down at my phone for a few minutes. Nothing about that conversation had made sense. He’d asked me how life was. I’d told him it was good. He had said I should strive for great. I told him it was perfect and he had gone silent. Then he’d said, Sometimes what we think is perfect is royally fucked up . I had asked him what he meant and he said he was just checking in and hoped I’d figure life out soon.
    What the hell had all that meant? Was he drinking before lunch? Glancing at my clock, I realized it was my tee time with Jace. When Della had turned me down for lunch I’d let her because she wanted to work. I couldn’t keep making her feel like she wasn’t important. So to keep myself from begging her to have lunch with me, I’d called Jace and set up a tee time for us.
    I had a meeting with my new lawyer at three, then after that I would hunt her down. I thought she’d be ready to take a break then. Smiling, I let Tripp’s weird phone call go and I headed down to the golf course.
    Jace was standing at Bethy’s golf cart with his hands on the roof as he leaned in, flirting with her. I never would have guessed those two would have made it so long. Bethy had been the wild local girl who lived in the next town over. She slept with the rich boys and they acted like they didn’t know her in public. Until Jace. He’d decided that she was worth it. He had seen something more.
    “You gonna stop making out with my employee long enough to play a round?” I asked as I approached them.
    Jace grinned over at me, then flipped his middle finger. “Suck it, Kerrington.”
    “You two need me to get y’all a caddy?” Bethy asked.
    “We’re real men, baby. We don’t need a caddy,” Jace said, winking at her.
    “Let’s do this. I have a three o’clock appointment,” I informed Jace.
    The cart I’d ordered was brought around with my clubs. Jace said his good-byes to Bethy and put his clubs in the back of the cart. “It’s been a while since we played a round,” Jace said. “Boss man never has any time.”
    “Della has taken a lot off me. I need to give her a raise.”
    Jace chuckled and propped his feet up on the dash of the cart. “You told your momma about the new-board idea?”
    “I won’t be telling her. It isn’t her business. I’m meeting with the lawyer today to make sure this is handled the correct way. The lawyer will make sure the board knows they’ve been terminated.”
    “You know, I always thought the board, like, owned a portion of the club,” Jace said.
    “My grandfather forbade it in his will. He wanted the club to always be under the Kerrington name. He didn’t allow investors unless they were family. That was one of the reasons my father wanted me to marry Angelina. She would become family and he would merge her father’s clubs with the Kerrington Club. My grandfather wouldn’t have wanted that. I’ve looked over his business plan. I know his dream for this place. My father had other ideas and he was going to use me to accomplish them.”
    Jace let out a low whistle as we pulled up to the first tee. “Damn, no wonder your dad was ready to marry you off to a psycho. So, you really own it all now. You make the decisions. That board was just so your father had people to help him build and make decisions.”
    “I think he had promised them a piece of the pie once the Kerrington Club was part of the Greystone empire. Everything would have changed then. He also paid them well. I looked over the payroll.”
    Jace jumped out and pulled his driver from the bag before heading over to the tee. “So you’re saying I’m gonna get a nice fat paycheck for being on this new board,” Jace drawled.
    “Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” I replied, pulling the driver from my bag.
    “Good. Because I’m gonna propose to Bethy and my family is gonna shit a brick. I can kiss my monthly income good-bye. I need to start using this education my father paid so handsomely for.”
    I stopped walking. Had I just heard him right? “Did you just say propose ?”
    Jace looked up from his stance over the ball and