Renee not only hugged her pro/boyfriend when he holed out, she kissed him on national television and didn’t care who was watching. Nor did her handsome, younger boyfriend who picked up her, kissed her back, and twirled her around.
“I’ve heard about his May-December romance, of sorts,” one of the commentators said after witnessing the kiss, “but I wasn’t sure it was real. I’d say this is all the evidence anyone needs.”
Another said, “With all that’s going on in the world, a little romance is just what we need–May-December or otherwise.”
The other man and the woman who interviewed players during the tournament all chimed in about what a very attractive couple they made, and now everyone who followed golf in America, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, and even Japan, also knew.
But the biggest cheer of all came from Tyler who watched every shot on every hole every minute the tournament was on TV. He’d been off the booze for several days and felt better than he had in a long time, and now his brother was back in the money. And while he wasn’t the romantic type, Tyler was happy for his younger sibling, because it was obvious he’d already fallen in love with this older woman who’d taken his place as his brother’s caddy.
Marc called his brother the first time he had a spare moment after the end of the tournament, and for the first time in his life, Marc heard Tyler choking up as he thanked him for pushing him to get sober. Nearly doing the same thing, Marc told his brother he was proud of him for getting sober and reassured him he’d get his cut of the prize money.
“No. No way, bro. Renee earned that money. It’s hers.”
This was also a side of Tyler Marc had never seen, and altruism looked even better on him than sobriety.
“She’s getting twice what you are, so no worries, okay?” Marc replied with a laugh.
Tyler actually did choke up when he heard that and needed a minute to compose himself.
“This not drinking business is hard. Not the quitting part so much, but the having to face my feelings thing. I’m definitely not used to that.”
“I uh, I kinda like the new you, bro,” Marc said with a chuckle which made his brother feel better.
After hanging up, he then called his parents who also heartily congratulated him. Marc thanked them both then let them know they were heading home.
“You and Renee?” his mother asked.
“Yes. Me and Renee,” he said, using the incorrect word order because it just sounded better to him.
“Honey? Your father and I don’t really understand, but it’s obvious you really like this…woman, so we just wanted to say we support you in whatever you do.”
“I…I think I might love her, Mom,” her son said rather quietly. “I know how long I’ve known her, but I also know I’ve never met anyone like her before, and she…she’s pretty amazing.”
His mom told him they’d talk more when he got him and congratulated him again.
An hour later he and Renee were on the way back to Columbia.
“You were awesome,” she told him once they got on the freeway.
“Me? You totally called the approach shot on six. I was gonna go a club higher and you talked me out of it. That let me land the ball 15 feet from the hole and thanks to the backspin, the ball ended up five feet away.”
Renee smiled at him and said, “We make a pretty good team, don’t we?”
It wasn’t really a question, it was more a statement of fact.
Marc held out his right hand and Renee happily took it.
“We really do.”
She could tell he had more to say, so she asked what that might be.
He glanced over at her then said, “I’d love for us to be a team off the golf course, too.”
Renee was so happy she wanted to yelp but held back as she said, “Why Marc, are you asking me to go steady?”
He saw her bat her eyes and feign being a southern belle, and that made him laugh.
“I think I am, Betty Lou,” he replied as seriously as he could.
“Well, then, good suh,” she began, using a heavy southern drawl, “I welcome your desires to both court me and woo me.”
Marc couldn’t help but laugh and did so loudly as Renee joined him.
He squeezed her hand then said, “I feel like the luckiest man alive.”
“Huh. I feel like the luckiest woman alive,” Renee told him with a little smile.
He smiled back then said, “I love golf. And winning some money is great. But I didn’t realize there was something missing from my life until just recently.”
“Oh? And what that might be?” Renee asked as her heart pounded in her chest.
He looked her way again for a moment then told her, “Uh, that would be…you.”
“Huh,” she replied again. “Another coincidence because I had no idea anything was missing from mine until I met…you.”
“I know I’m on a post-tournament high, but I also know this is what I feel independent of how well we did.”
Renee’s heart was thumping as she waited, her hand still in his.
“Renee? I’m falling for you. Hard. Like I’ve never fallen before.”
“That makes me very happy, Marc, because I’ve fallen for you, too.”
Renee never once thought about the money he’d made or what he intended to pay her, but Marc’s winnings were just a shade under $350,000 before taxes. He’d be netting around $210,000, give or take, and while he still planned on giving a good chunk to charitable causes, he was now giving real thought to buying a home. A home where he’d have room for a family; a family that consisted of a wife and daughter, and one that could hold maybe one or two more children down the road. He wasn’t ready to share those thoughts with Renee just yet, but they were now in the forefront of his mind as he held the hand of the woman he loved.
When he dropped her off at her place a couple of hours later, he walked her to the door then held her hands in his.
“If it’s too early just tell me,” he began.
Knowing what he was about to say, Renee told him it wasn’t.
“It’s not too early at all,” she replied, a warm smile on her beautiful face.
Marc put his hand on her cheek and said, “I love you, Renee Roberts.”
“I love you, too, Marc Hardison,” she told him before their lips pressed together in a long, soft kiss that cemented their feelings even more.
“See you tomorrow?” he asked when it ended.
“Definitely,” she told him before going inside to see her little girl.
“Mommy! Where’s Marc?” Lexi asked immediately.
“Hold on!” she said as she ran back outside.
“Marc! Can you come in for a little while at least? Someone is very anxious to see you!” she called out.
“You better believe it!” he called back as he trotted to the door where a little girl was waiting to give him a hug, a hug he wanted as much as anything he’d ever wanted.
No one was surprised when Marc qualified for the PGA’s next tournament or that Renee caddied for him, because Tyler was still in a cast. But the following week, after it came off, and he was given the okay to walk, it was a mild surprise when he insisted she continue caddying in his place.
The shocker came when, two weeks later, and another decent cash for his brother, Tyler told everyone at the first gathering of both his and Renee’s family that he wasn’t interested in caddying anymore.
“Why? You love golf,” his mother said as his father shook his head.
“What are you gonna do? Go on welfare?” his father snorted.
“No. I…I’m going to seminary.”
There was a deafening silence at their table as every head turned and stared at him and waited for him to explain.
“I don’t expect anyone to understand, but getting off of alcohol changed my life.”
He looked at Marc and said, “Thank you for that.”
Marc tried to say it wasn’t him when Tyler continued.
“I can’t explain this to you. Heck, I don’t even understand it myself. But what I do know is that I feel…called.”
“Called? You sound…nuts!” his father exclaimed a little too loudly.
“Well I think it’s wonderful!” his mother said, surprising her sons and especially her husband. “I may not go to church, but I have my beliefs, and I think this is amazing.”
“You know I’ll support you,” Marc quietly told him. “In any way I can.”
For the first time in their lives Tyler told his brother he loved him.
Marc teared up immediately as did his mother who was looking at Renee who did the same. Renee’s parents were also getting emotional leaving only Tyler’s father shaking his head.
Tyler then turned toward Renee, too, and said to his brother, a smile on his face, “And I know you love, Renee, too Marco. And it sure seems to me like she loves you.”
“I do. Very much,” Renee said as she took Marc’s hand.
“I have no idea how you ever snagged a woman as smart and as beautiful as her, let alone someone who knows golf like she does, but she’s a keeper, little brother. Don’t mess it up, okay?”
Everyone, less one unhappy father, laughed and told the unusual couple how happy they were for them.
“I don’t know, either,” Marc admitted as he looked at the beautiful, older woman sitting next to him.
“Hold on,” Renee said. “I’m the lucky one, here.”
“Ha!” Tyler said with a laugh and a smile.
“No. I am,” Renee insisted. “I never thought I would ever find anyone I could love again let alone love me back. I was just desperate for work when I got the chance to go on TV and let people know I was available to caddy.”
She looked at Marc, smiled, then said, “Let alone that I’d find that kind of love…with you.”
Marc leaned over and kissed her, and when he did, Lexi giggled.
“I still think I’m the lucky one, honey,” he told Renee. “After all, I’m getting two for the price of one here, right?”
Renee laughed as she looked at Lexi and told him he was correct.
“Does that mean me?” Lexi asked, making everyone, including Tyler’s less-grumpy dad, laugh.
“Yes, it does, sweetie.”
“Marc?” she asked.
“Uh-huh?”
“Can I sit in your lap?”
Marc let go of her mother’s hand and pushed back from the table as Lexi walked over to him. He pulled her up, put his arms around her and said, “I love your mom very much.”
“I know,” the little girl told him.
“Did you know I love you, too?”
Lexi turned around and put her arms around Marc’s neck, and when she did, Renee leaned over and put hers around them both. Lexi nearly made Marc cry when she said this was their new family, because that’s exactly what he and her mom were thinking.
“So…when’s the wedding?” Tyler asked, caused everyone to turn his way. “Hey, it’s inevitable, folks. I was just hoping I could be the one to marry them.”
“You don’t need a degree from a seminary to perform a marriage anymore,” his dad said, now less agitated than before. “You can just order one online and that’s it.”
“I haven’t even asked this beautiful woman to marry me yet,” Marc said as the family-to-be let go of each other. “But you’ll be the second to know.”
There were some more laughs before Tyler suggested they finish their meals.
Three months later, Marc won his first-ever tournament, and as he was being interviewed by a female golf pro on national TV, he said there was one more thing he’d like to do.
“We have a few extra seconds, so the floor is yours,” the woman said.
Marc beckoned to Renee who reluctantly joined him.
“I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for my caddy. Who is also my girlfriend and the love of my life.”
Renee was smiling nervously until Marc pulled a small box from his pocket and got down on one knee.
“Renee Roberts? I love you more than I can put into words, and you would make me the happiest man alive if you’d be wife. Will you m….”
Before he could finish asking, Renee was nearly screaming, “YES!!!! Yes, I will marry you!”
Marc slid the large, four-carat diamond onto her left hand, stood up, and kissed her for all the world to see as the female commentator wiped her eyes and said, “Well, there you have it, folks. Marc Hardison is our tournament champion, and as you can see, an even bigger winner in the arena of love. Guys, back to you.”
******
The wedding was set for the following summer when Tyler would be home. He still wasn’t an ordained minister, but he did have his ‘online credentials’ and was able to perform the wedding ceremony. But more importantly, he’d finally found happiness in his life in the most unlikely place after chasing after it for years and never finding it in a case of beer.
He was now able to be genuinely happy for his younger brother when he said, “I do,” and married the woman who’d made Marc just as happy but for very different reasons.
Even their father had finally accepted both of his sons’ decisions and was asked to be Marc’s best man.
Renee was a beautiful woman even in her ‘caddy clothes’, but Marc’s breath was taken away when he saw her in her white wedding gown as her father walked her down the aisle.
“You’re seriously marrying up, little brother,” Tyler teased as Renee took her place beside her future husband.
“You ain’t kidding,” he replied, unable to take his eyes of his bride and the mother of their future children.
There were two of them, or more accurately, two more of them, as Marc gladly adopted Lexi who loved him as her own father. Renee gave birth to fraternal twins one year and a half dozen more tournament cashes later.
By the time their twins were born, Marc had made well over two million dollars. Renee sold her house, and together with Marc, they bought her the house of her dreams which, more importantly, included the man of her dreams, and two beautiful babies she loved just as dearly.
One morning as Marc got ready to go play another 18 holes with his new caddy, Renee Hardison couldn’t help but think of the TV interview and the phone call that changed her life. She didn’t mention it to her gorgeous, younger husband, but she teared up as she looked at their three children and realized she really was the luckiest woman on earth.