Savannah, the day before

Bette consulted the notes in the course overview again for the second hole they were playing, not quite believing what she read. She frowned and said underneath her breath, “I’d heard this is a grip and rip it course, but… wow!”

She turned to her companion, who seemed to be studying the drivers and woods in her bag. “So does every hole play long from the tees?”

The woman pursed her lips, and then pulled a driver out decisively. “You seem to be in shape, Bette.  And that first drive you hit indicates you’re a long ball hitter.  I think if you manage to avoid the traps, you’ll be fine.  Don’t sweat it.   Just the like the last time I played here, the course looks like it’s in excellent shape, immaculate today, even.  But the greens play fast, fair warning –and are tricky to read.”

Bette was still frowning as she looked down the fairway. “What was the condition of the rough back there when you played it?”

The woman grimaced. “Had to remind me, did you?  That I hit the rough?”

Bette smiled inwardly. Looked like the woman’s innate competitiveness could be easily provoked.   That was good – she didn’t seem to the type who’d let anyone put one over her.

She turned around to look at her: Lea was an interesting conundrum, starting with her physical appearance. She struck the ball powerfully, and her arm muscles looked tight.  No hint of flab there.  Yet the rest of her was more rounded than lean.  Little bulges showed around her middle area, and by her own admission, as she described it earlier while they bent to get their balls from the bottom of the cup of the first hole they’d played, that “I think I could stand to lose about 10 or 15 pounds, Bette.  Just can’t seem to lose them, though.  I don’t know how you can keep so fit and lean.  How do you find the time?”

Lea’s facial features and eyes betrayed her intriguing heritage.   They’d chatted about their mothers as they waited in the cart path, standing well behind the foursome teeing off ahead of them, Aerin, Rian, Cade, and Mark.  Bette had said hers was white and hailed from Illinois, while Lea said her mother was a Latina but her mother’s parents were a split of German and half-Argentinian.   Lea then explained her father was black but his parents were a split of a Ghanian who was of mixed heritage himself, and a white English mother.  “I think the only continent my genes don’t cover is Asia … which my ex-husband took care of, since he’s a Chinese American!”