After dinner, Jasmine followed Charlene back to the Ross family’s place.
That night, her phone buzzed. It was Darius.
“Hey,” he said, “how about you and Stewart join me for a round of golf tomorrow morning?”
Charlene agreed without thinking much about it. But when Darius texted her the address, she paused.
The course he picked just happened to belong to the Henderson family.
She’d been there before.
But she’d already said yes, so it was too late to back out.
On Saturday, Charlene got up early, grabbed some coffee and a bagel on her way out, and drove to the club with Stewart.
When they arrived, Darius was already there with Abelard Ramirez and Hickey Watson, both guys she’d met at previous get-togethers.
Darius grinned when he saw them. “Hey, you made it!”
“Yep,” Charlene replied, smiling.
“Ever played golf before?” Darius asked, tossing her a club.
“I’ve taken a few lessons,” she said, “I know the basics.”
They made small talk as they played, trading stories between swings.
After a while, as Charlene was lining up a shot, she noticed two people walking over from the other side of the green.
It was Thorne and Vesta.
Usually, whenever Thorne and Vesta were around, they’d have Granger and Moran with them too. But today, it was just the two of them.
Darius, trying to keep things light, asked, “So, how’s the partnership between PrimeStar and Henderson Tech going?”
Stewart shrugged, not hiding his annoyance. “It’s early days. Still figuring each other out.”
Thorne smiled, his tone easy. “I thought things were going pretty smoothly. If there’s anything the Henderson Group isn’t doing right, I hope you’ll let me know, Mr. Ferguson.”
Stewart shot him a look. “No complaints about the rest of your team. But Mr. Henderson tends to let his personal feelings interfere at work. That’s been a bit of a problem for us. I think you know what I mean, right?”
Thorne just nodded, not rising to the bait. Vesta said nothing, but her eyes flicked between them, clearly aware of the tension.
Stewart didn’t want to drag their personal drama out in front of everyone, especially not with Darius watching. “Let’s not talk business today,” he said. “We can set up a meeting for that.”
“Of course,” Thorne agreed.
Darius could sense things were a little strained, but since no one wanted to get into it, he smoothly switched the subject, and the group moved on, letting the matter drop—for now.
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