Quiet Angel Read Online Free PDF Page B

Gage. He liked that she was terrible. The more strokes it took her, the more chances he had to see her stand over the ball in her sundress, bend over, and shake her ass a little. He was certain he had the best view in all of Georgia. Stone Mountain and Centennial Olympic Park had nothing on Layla preparing to hit a golf ball.
    This time, Layla narrowed her eyes to line up her putt then jerked her hands forward—hard, fast, on the verge of sending the ball into orbit—but completely whiffed and spun around in a pirouette. When she stopped spinning, her whole face lit up, and she cracked up in a fit of laughter. Gage did the same.
    “What’s the score?” she asked.
    He looked down at the score card. “It’s close,” he said, though he’d stopped recording numbers on the third hole.
    “If I get a hole-in-one, then I win, OK?” She set herself for another swing.
    “Sure,” he said, “but I’m not too worried.”
    She raised an eyebrow towards him. “Let’s not forget who the Scrabble queen is.”
    “Just putt,” he said.
    Layla lined up again and pulled her club back. When she came forward this time, the club flew out of her hands and onto an adjacent hole. “Oh God!” They looked at each other for a second before laughing together again. “I’m so bad.”
    “But you are so cute.” He scooped up her club then took her hand. “Let’s get out of here before you hurt someone.” Gage led her to a little bench before returning their clubs to the front desk. He returned with a cold can of soda and found her twirling her angel wing pendent fixed to the leather cord.
    “You wear that necklace everyday,” Gage said, handing her the soda and taking a seat beside her.
    “My father gave it to me years ago,” Layla said and took a sip. “He told me it’s bad luck to take it off unless you give it to someone you love, like he gave it to me.”
    “He’s back in Houston with your mom and brother?”
    “Half-brother,” Layla said, placing the soda on the bench between them. “We don’t really get along.”
    “Families can be a pain. I got a long lecture from my dad this morning.”
    “About?”
    He smiled. “You.”
    “Me? I don’t want to cause problems!”
    “It’s not that,” he said. “They like you. It’s just, uh, the usual stuff.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    His mouth suddenly dry, Gage eyed the soda between them. He didn’t think he could take a sip, not after she had. He’d be fine with it, but she might not. He wasn’t sure they were at that stage in their relationship yet. “I broke up with someone a month or so before graduation, and they don’t want me getting attached before I have to go off to school.”
    “That was the big lecture?”
    “Yeah, they don’t get it at all.”
    Layla rolled her eyes. “They’re just watching out for you.”
    “It’s more than that. I’m about to go off to college, do exactly what my dad has wanted me to do. I won’t know a single person. The work is going to be crazy—physically and mentally. The next 10 years of my life are planned out, and they want to talk about dating.”
    “How long were you with your girlfriend?”
    “About a year,” he said.
    “Did you love her?”
    “No,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “I liked her, though.”
    “Then why did you break up?”
    “Just wasn’t working out.”
    “Sounds mysterious,” she teased. “Did you cheat?”
    “No, of course not.”
    “Did she?”
    “No, there was no cheating,” Gage said and looked down at his feet. “There wasn’t much of anything .” He closed his eyes after completing the sentence, wishing he could have it back.
    “Not much of anything physical , you mean?”
    “I don’t want to talk about this.”
    “You broke up with the girl because she wouldn’t have sex with you?” she asked, her tone not quite as playful as before.
    “You make it sound so horrible.”
    “Because it is.”
    “It really wasn’t like that. We