Secret Garden Read Online Free PDF Page A

probably.
    Colin didn’t like his options. Either go to Scotland and renew the relationships he had no interest in cultivating, or stay here and watch an opportunity to help his team slip away from him.
    If he lost the tour card, if he ended up back on the minors tour, or worse, working in obscurity as a club pro, knowing that he’d failed his talent and he wasn’t worth it, then he would need money for his support system. He loved them.
    “I’ll go,” he said quietly.
    “You will?” Daisie Lee asked.
    “Sure.” He would be responsible and bring home the income stream that would keep them all going. He would do it, but he wouldn’t like it.
    While Leonard nodded, Colin took another drink of water. Crushed the cup with all the fury he had inside him.
    Mack rose. With a quiet voice he said, “I’ll talk to Doc about hitching a ride on his plane. I know he’s going to a charity tournament in the Highlands this week.”
    “Thanks,” Colin said. “I appreciate it.”

CHAPTER THREE
    T WO DAYS LATER , Colin sat beside Mack on the large, comfortable seats of Doc Masters’s private plane, and prepared for takeoff.
    Back in the conference room at Sunny Times Golf Academy, the plan had seemed simple. Fly in. Meet Jessie and Jamie. Go to the funeral and collect his check, then fly home.
    But now... Wednesday morning was when Doc needed to leave for his charity tournament, so Colin would be arriving four full days before Sunday’s funeral. That meant spending more time in his grandparents’ company than Colin wanted. To make matters worse, he’d finally sucked it up and emailed his grandmother. She’d responded immediately with the address of a restaurant where she wanted to meet at six o’clock local time, after he landed.
    He had no idea what he was going to say. Whatever happened, he was determined not to let it get to him. He wouldn’t care too much about it. Keep everything light.
    The flight attendant stopped by, bringing Colin a drink from the bar service. Colin drank it gratefully and, without asking, she promptly brought another one. He finished that one, too. Colin wasn’t a big drinker—he was an athlete first—but the comfortable, mellow glow that the alcohol gave him helped dull the edge of his anger. He was even able to tolerate Doc and his small, sarcastic digs.
    He didn’t even mind too much when Doc sprang on them that they were making a detour to Iceland to pick up somebody’s wife or girlfriend—this wasn’t exactly clear to Colin. All he knew was that it added more than an hour to their flight time.
    Then, once they did finally land in Scotland at the small Highland airport, there was a short delay before they could disembark. Something about their plane’s manifest needed to be straightened out before they could clear customs, and that made the delay that much longer.
    By the time the pilots finished the formalities, it was a few minutes past the time Colin was supposed to meet his grandparents.
    “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us to St. Andrews?” Doc Masters asked Colin as he reached for his bag.
    Colin would have given anything to head off to the famous golf course. But it wasn’t possible with his schedule, and frankly, he was glad to get a break from Doc. “Thanks, but if you don’t mind, I’ll just hook a ride back with you on Sunday night.”
    “I’m sorry about your father,” Doc’s wife said.
    Colin thought about being truthful, telling her that he hadn’t really known his father well, but what was the point? So he just nodded silently and went through the motions of grabbing his stuff and disembarking from the plane.
    Once out on the tarmac, standing beside their pile of luggage, Colin realized this was the first time he’d been on Scottish soil since he was eight. All he kept thinking about was the way he’d felt that day. He’d been just a little kid, and he’d been scared and upset and ashamed. His whole world had blown apart, and his