“Can I help you?” he asked as she stopped in front of him.
“Honestly,” she answered her voice pitched a little low, “I hope you can. I'm looking for the owner.”
“That would be me,” Mark answered. “What can I do for you?”
“Well,” she said slowly. “I actually just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed my experi
ence here. You’ve a really beautiful place. Lovely golf course. Perfect pars. The staff is wonderful.”
“That's very kind of you to say.” Mark smiled warmly at her. Maybe he could talk her into leaving a review on the website.
She laughed, dipping her head to look up through her lashes. “I'm sure that you hear things like that all the time.”
“I do hear good things, if I’m being honest,” Mark admitted, but grinned, playing the game to a T. “But not always from such lovely sources.”
The smile she gave him was obviously meant to be flirtatious, and Mark wondered if he should back off a little before he gave her the wrong idea. However, she was a paying customer, and it was his duty to make sure that she was having a good time. He didn't see any danger in a little harmless flirting. That’s why they called it harmless, right?
“Now who’s being kind?” she teased. “But I can't say that I object to flattery.”
“Just making sure you enjoy your experience to the fullest,” Mark said. “By the way, in case you don’t know, my name is Mark Reid. You can call me Mark.”
“Nice to meet you, Mark. I’m Anna Blake.”
“So, Ms. Blake, aside from accepting your compliments on my country club, what can I do for you?”
“Oh, please, call me Anna.”
“Anna, then,” Mark said, smiling at her and wondering oddly if she was a Miss or a Mrs. “Is there anything else that I can offer you?” A few hundred yards away, he could see Erica teaching another guest a golf swing. She didn't look up at them, but Mark suddenly felt as though he had done something wrong. Hadn't he just been annoyed at her the other day because men were flirting with her? How would she feel about the fact that he was obviously flirting with one of the female patrons?
“Mark?” Anna's voice was a little concerned. Her hand brushed against his arm and Mark started turning to look at her.
“My apologies,” Mark said. “I was just thinking.” He smiled at her. “There's a lot involved in running a place like this and sometimes I get distracted thinking about all the things that I still need to do.”
Anna giggled. “I'm sure you do. I get distracted often enough and I don't have a whole country club to run. It must be quite a job. Don't you ever get tired?”
For minute Mark wanted to confess that he did, in fact, get tired. That he was starting to wonder if he'd made the right choice in wanting to run the country club in the first place. He’d had no idea it would be quite so intense. He held back, realizing that telling her wouldn’t do either of them any good. And it might give her ideas that she was more intimate with him then he actually felt her to be.
When he looked back toward Erica, she was looking up at him. Even from where she stood, he could tell by her body language that she was less than pleased by his company. Mark gave her a little shrug, small enough that Anna, standing next to him, wouldn't notice unless she was looking for it. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't exactly ignore guests just because they were attractive women. Why was he even trying to justify it to himself?
He smiled again at Anna, keeping his tone completely friendly. “Oh, you know,” he said, “everyone gets tired sometimes, but it's a job that I really enjoy. I've wanted to run a country club since I was a kid. Who actually gets to live out their dreams? And hey, I get to play all the golf I want.”
The joke wasn't really that clever, or funny, but Anna laughed.
The sound of footsteps in the grass alerted Mark to Erica's presence. He turned to her, catching her scent and smiled nervously at her. She looked less pleased than he had expected. Almost as soon as he had noted that, however, her face shifted to an overly-sweet smile.
“Mark,” Erica said, “who is this?”
“Erica, this is Miss Anna Blake. She's one of our new club members. I was just showing her around and explaining some of the perks of being a member here.”
Erica’s smile looked sweet, but its edges were vicious as she turned it on Anna. “Nice to meet you Miss Blake,” she said. “I hope that you're enjoying your time at the country club so far.”
“Oh, absolutely.” Anna smiled a smile that was just as sharp as Erica's. “I'm enjoying it very much. Mark has been so kind. He really is an excellent host.”
Mark was beginning to get the feeling that he'd stepped into something he should have stayed out of. He didn't really understand the way women communicated. Sure, he could tell what they meant when they said it, but when they did that thing where they pretended to be happy and were obviously angry, he started to struggle. His ex-wife had done that. A lot.
“So, Miss Blake, are you here alone?” Erika pointedly asked, surprising Mark slightly.
Anna shook her head, her glossy dark hair spilling over her shoulders with the motion.” No, actually,” she replied. “I'm here with a friend.”