As he focuses on lining up, she comes to stand next to me and lets out a sigh.

“You okay?” I ask her.

“Yeah, just tired.” She tips her head back to look at me from under the brim of her ball cap. “There are these windows in my apartment that let in the light off the street at night and the sun as soon as it breaks the horizon in the morning. And I can’t cover them, so it takes me forever to fall asleep, and no matter how exhausted I am, I’m up in the morning with the sun.”

“I have a spare room in my place with blackout blinds. You can crash there any time,” I tell her, and she rubs her lips together. I don’t know what she’s thinking, but she has the same look on her face that she had earlier when I gave her the ginger ale.

“I might take you up on that.” She turns to her dad when people start to clap.

“Billy, you’re up!” Barrett calls out, and I look over at my boss, who is standing near the golf cart and typing away on his phone, with obvious worry showing through each and every one of his features.

“Sorry.” He stalks forward with his club.

“Is everything all right?” Barrett asks him quietly, probably noticing like I have that he’s been distracted by his phone for most of the day.

“Yeah, but when we finish up here, I need to take off.”

“Do you need to go now?” Barrett questions.

“No, we only have one more hole.” He takes his shot, and when he’s done, he motions for me to come over. “Walk with me. I need to speak with you.”

“Sure.” I pass Franny my club. “We’ll meet up with you guys.”

“Okay,” she says quietly, glancing at Billy with concern before getting into the golf cart with her dad.

“What’s going on?” I ask Billy as the last golf cart passes us on the way to the next hole.

“Last night, an anonymous source sent a blind item to News 8, claiming that my mistress is working at the district attorney’s office with me,” he starts, and I press my lips together in order to keep my mouth shut. “I spoke to my lawyer, and there’s nothing he can do to prevent them from running with the story, so it will be going out tonight.” He slows to a stop. “I need a favor from you.”

“Billy.” There’s no missing the warning in my tone.

“I need you to pretend that you and Jamie are dating until this blows over.”

Anger and a feeling of powerlessness cause my hands to ball into fists. “I’m not comfortable doing that.”

“I’ll make it worth your while.”

“I don’t want anything from you, Billy, and I don’t want to be involved.” I start to walk off.