Peggy shivered again as a cold breeze passed over her bare legs and she ignored the goosebumps crawling across her skin while lining up her shot.

“Do you want my sweater?” Becca wondered for the umpteenth time. Peggy hadn’t complained about being cold but it was obvious to the other girls that she wasn’t overly comfortable in the small amount of clothes that were covering her.

“No, I’m fine!” Peggy refused as she headed back to the cart with her club.

Amy rolled her eyes and pulled at the sleeve of her cousin’s polo shirt. “Are you just that anxious to show off how much money you’re spending on clothes now? I’ve never known you to wear $200 golf shirts before.”

“I didn’t buy it,” Peggy defended. “It was a gift from Nick. I don’t want him to think I don’t like it by covering up with a jacket.”

“Nick is wearing a jacket,” Becca pointed out, “and pants.”

“Ok, fine!” Peggy relented, snatching the cream-coloured cardigan out of her friend’s hands.

“Speaking of Nick,” Amy began as the three women watched the fourth of their foursome take her shot. “What’s the deal with you guys? Must be pretty serious?”

Peggy had a feeling she knew what her cousin was getting at. It was the same thing her mother had been getting at ever since she had announced that she and Nick would be moving in together. Everyone assumed that once they started living in sin it was only a matter of time before she would have a ring on her finger and would be popping out babies.

“Of course it’s serious,” she shook her head at the audacity of the line of questioning. “We bought a house together!”

“You mean he bought a house by himself and you live in it,” Amy chuckled and girls hopped into their respective golf carts to take off to head down the fairway.

Peggy thoughts were stuck on that comment as they made their way across the bright green grass, the cool wind whipping against their faces. She hoped that other people didn’t think of her and Nick’s relationship that way, especially his fans and her family.

She tried to concentrate on the picturesque golf course, the red-yellow leaves painting a stereotypical autumn scene as they drifted to the ground, but it was no use. Not even the joy of her favourite season could take her mind off the fact that her cousin had essentially just accused her of being a gold digger. As soon as the carts had stopped next to where their balls had landed on the fairway Peggy was out of her seat.

“That’s not at all how it is, you know,” she proclaimed.

Amy gave her younger cousin a confused look, not sure what she meant. After encouraging her to elaborate Peggy continued with a heavy sigh.

“With Nick. It’s a partnership. It’s not about him buying me things. We share expenses.”

“Right,” Amy nodded her head obnoxiously slow, making it obvious that she doubted the statement. “I’m sorry but what money do you use to share his expenses with?”

Flustered, Peggy rolled her eyes and threw her hands out in frustration. “I know I don’t have much to contribute right now but I’m going to be working! Nick made it clear that he doesn’t want me sitting at home eating bon-bons and watching television all day forever. I’m going to be helping him out with some of his day-to-day stuff.”

Becca’s interest was suddenly piqued as she listened in on the conversation and she didn’t hesitate to interject. “You are? Since when?”

“His personal assistant was California-based so he doesn’t have one right now. He said I would make a great personal assistant,” she said, flustered and feeling slightly like she was under a broiling hot interrogation light instead of the cool autumn breeze. “I’m sure it’s because he wants me to be able to come with him when he goes on tour.”

Both women seemed to be satisfied with the answer and got back to concentrating on their game so they wouldn’t fall behind and have the boys catching up to them before they got to the putting green. It wasn’t long though before Amy was back asking more questions about her relationship with Nick and Peggy couldn’t help but wonder why she was so curious.

“So when you said things were serious did you mean put-a-ring-on-it serious? You must know that your mother is anxiously waiting for you to tell them you guys are getting married. It wasn’t a good day at my house when they found out you were shacking up with some guy they’d never met. Everyone, of course, assumed there was a shotgun wedding on the horizon.”

Peggy rolled her eyes dramatically. She had definitely heard that story before. After she and Dustin had broken up her mother had acted like Peggy’s love-life was over, that she would never have a grandchild or attend her daughter’s wedding. Being in her early 20’s it seemed ridiculous that her mother would write her off so quickly so she imagined her being ecstatic when she started dating Nick, someone mature, established and successful in his career and able to provide for her. Quite to the contrary though, her mother was was put off by the fact that he wasn’t around for them to approve of and even more annoyed by the way Peggy would jet off around the country to rendezvous with this man who she felt was far too old and too experienced for her young girl.

“I’m not pregnant,” Peggy reiterated, feeling as though she had repeated that statement far too many times. “There won’t be a shotgun wedding. Nick and I have only been together for a year. Moving in together is the next step and once we’re settled we can start thinking more about things like marriage and babies.”

“Peg,” Becca interjected cautiously, not wanting to upset her friend. “I thought I saw something somewhere about the fact that Nick doesn’t believe in marriage and would rather have a career over kids?”

Peggy kept smiling but inside her heart was pounding. She and Nick had never had a conversation about what the future meant to them but she had assumed when he suggested they move in together and even went so far as to cross the country to be with her that it was an indication he planned on their relationship being long-term. During all of that she hadn’t considered that long-term might have a very different meaning to Nick than it did to her.

In the vision she often daydreamed about they would live together for about six months before he would pop the question, they would bask in the glow of being engaged for another year before they got married and quickly started a family. She had replayed the scene over in her head so many times it almost seemed like a movie.

“Not you, too,” she laughed nervously. “Seems like everyone is looking Nick up on the internet! Even my Dad got all of his information from Google. You really can’t believe everything you read.”

“It was for television, he said it...”

“Okay,” she interrupted, “but he was with Elizabeth then so things were different.”

If it wouldn’t have seemed out of place she would have crossed her fingers behind her back as she spoke the words. She couldn’t get the image of her perfect future with Nick out of her head and didn’t have much interest in altering it to include a lifetime of just having a live-in boyfriend and some fur kids that she didn’t even like all that much.

~*~

Nick had never considered himself to be a particularly skilled golfer. He wasn’t terrible - he had taken lessons from a professional golfer who had more than one Masters Championship jacket in his closet, after all - but he wasn’t as good as most of his friends who golfed regularly.

His advantage against the three men he was golfing with was that he had better clubs, better training and more time spent on the course, meaning he was winning with ease. He wouldn’t have minded losing to his cousin Peter or even to Tommy but there was no way he was going to let himself lose to Dustin.

The neanderthal had been goading him the entire morning, trying to get him riled up enough to say something stupid but Nick wasn’t taking the bait. What Dustin didn’t realize was that Nick had spent countless hours going through media training with some of the best publicists in the country and was better at avoiding a topic he didn’t want to talk about than he was at golfing.

Nick grinned at the familiar ping of his driver squarely hitting the ball off the tee, sending it arching up and down the fairway with an ideal break to the right. He adjusted his hat on his head as he watched it go, satisfied at the result of the swing. As he walked back to the cart to join the other men he wiped a bit of dirt and grass off the head of the club, bringing the shining chrome back to its original condition.

“These are really nice clubs,” Tommy commented as he looked through Nick’s golf bag, occasionally taking one club out to get a better look. “How much did these run you?”

Nick let out a steady stream of breath as he thought, his eyebrows scrunched together. “To be honest, I don’t really look at prices. I want to say that all together they were around two-grand.”

Pete whistled in appreciation, joining Tommy by the bag. “Shit, dude. My birthday is coming up you know,” he joked.

Nick laughed then shrugged, not wanting to waste an opportunity to show Dustin up a little bit, “Pick a set out, man. We can go shopping some day and get them.”

“Oh how cute, you can go shopping together like girlfriends,” Dustin laughed obnoxiously. “You just buy expensive golf clubs for guys you’ve just met?” he added with a snort as he put his own driver back into his bag. “You can’t do much to dispel all those gay rumours by buying other guys fancy presents.”

Both Pete and Tommy quieted down as soon as Nick’s friendly demeanor turned savage and the blonde quickly turned to the other man. Dustin had hit a soft-spot with his comment and Nick was doing everything he could to keep himself composed. He had no issue with homosexuals but he had gone through far too much questioning in his life regarding his sexual orientation and the topic really got on his last nerve.

“I’m not gay,” he stated firmly. “Pete and I didn’t just meet, I held him days after he was born. We’re cousins. You’re really the last person in the world who should be talking about ways to dispel rumours, by the way.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dustin asked and the two innocent bystanders shared a glance that spoke volumes, both thinking that they were likely about to witness the blow-up that had been brewing the entire morning.

“Oh, I dunno,” Nick laughed sarcastically. “How about the fact that you started a vicious rumour that destroyed my girlfriend’s reputation in college that every single one of her friends still thinks is true to this day?”

“What rumour?” Dustin questioned, raising one eyebrow in the older man’s direction though all of them knew that he was aware of which rumour Nick was referring to.

Nick had hoped he would never have to repeat this to anyone but clearly Dustin’s level of intelligence was well below the average man’s and he was going to make him spell it out.

“You know which rumour,” he spoke aggressively. “The one where you told everyone she was a slut because you’re a controlling asshole.”

Dustin gasped, acting shocked by the accusation. “I never started any rumours! She did that all on her own when she went around cheating on me. Sorry, but in my books that kind of sex is just the same as any others. You can’t blame me for being mad.”

“No, but I can blame you for making it up!” Nick could feel his arms starting to shake with every decibel that his voice increased and he wasn’t able to hold back his anger any longer. “She didn’t have that kind of sex with anyone. You were just pissed because she wouldn’t have it with you.”

“How would you know that? You weren’t there.”

Nick rolled his eyes and laughed at the enormous idiot standing in front of him. “She told me and I believe her over you because she’s got an ounce of credibility and you don’t. For your information, since you’re so curious about my sex life, I was the first guy to ever go there. It’s a bit of specialty of mine, to tell you the truth. I’m one of the few men skilled enough to make even the most prudish woman beg for it. The real difference between you and me beyond the fact that you’re a lousy golfer and not all that successful financially is that I’m an amazing lover and you... you’re just a big dick.”

Without another word Nick headed back towards his golf cart, the silence only broken by the solitary sound of Tommy clapping slowly to show his appreciation for the scene he’d just witnessed.

Just before Nick peeled away in the cart to head down the course Tommy jumped into the passenger seat and clapped the blonde on the shoulder soundly.

“You’re a God among men.”

“Thank you,” Nick replied with a chuckle. “I just hate that guy so much. His bullshit has lead to so many fights between me and Peggy. I probably shouldn’t have said that, actually. I have a feeling it’ll get back to her and she’ll end up pissed again.”

“It won’t come from me,” Tommy assured him.

“No, it’ll come from him through Amy. Which, by the way, what the hell was she thinking when she brought him? Why would she think we would want him here?”

Tommy became strangely quiet and Nick glanced back-and-forth between the other man and the course in front of him, trying not to ditch the cart.

“You know something,” he pointed out. “What is it?”

Tommy sighed and pulled his hat as low over his face as he could, “I’m not supposed to say, so if you let anyone know you found this out from me I’m dead meat with the misses. She’s trying to patch things up between him and everyone else because... well... she’s going to tell Peggy that they’re getting married.”

Nick was thankful they had just pulled up alongside their golf balls on the fairway because otherwise he was certain his shock would have lead them straight into a hazard.