Jennifer Crusie - Manhunting

“Well, yes, of course.” Kate looked down at her list “Did I mention successful?”

“Several times.” Jessie took the paper back. “Okay, we have the animal defined. Now, what’s the next move? To find him, right?”

“Right.” Kate picked up her coffee cup, frowning when she saw it was empty. “Did you drink my coffee?”

“Yes. I was feeling aggressive. Now, your next step is to find a hunting ground.”

“Jessie, I don’t…”

Jessie held up her hand. “Which I have already found for you.” She carefully tore Kate’s list out of the paper and handed it to her. “Keep that.” Then she turned back to the Travel and Leisure section. “Look at this.”

Kate looked at the ad that Jessie shoved in front of her. A tall distinguished man in golfing clothes was posed on a golf course that looked hike it was built on a hillside in the middle of a woods. “Come to the wilds and face the danger of the toughest course in America,” the ad read. “Come to The Cabins.”

“A golf course?” She looked down at the bottom of the page. “In Kentucky?”

“Well, actually, there’s a lot more stuff,” Jessie said. “If you read on, it tells you about horseback riding and hiking trails and other outdoor stuff. There’s even a lake. You could go skinny-dipping.”

Kate looked at her with contempt.

Jessie shrugged. “Okay, you couldn’t, but somebody fun-loving and exciting could.” She leaned forward. “But the real killer is the golf course-even I’ve heard of it. Executives pay a fortune to play it. It’s like Outward Bound with martinis.” She sat back and grinned at Kate. “Personally, I wouldn’t be caught dead there, but I bet your Mr. Right is all over the place. Like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“Well, it does sound… interesting, I guess,” Kate said, frowning at the ad. “But, I…”

“It’s a goal and a plan,” Jessie said. “You’ve gotten everything else you’ve ever wanted in life. You can get this, too.”

“What makes you think I’ve gotten everything I’ve wanted?” Kate said, stung.

Jessie looked startled. “Well, you’ve…”

“If I have everything I want, why am I still running so hard?” Kate felt the resentment well up again. “Listen, I know I’m doing well-”

“Making four times your age with the same in blue chips,” Jessie murmured.

“But I’m not happy. I want…I want a partnership with a man.”

“A partnership is good,” Jessie said, nodding. “Go for it.”

Kate warmed to her fantasy, seeing herself beside that distinguished man, building an empire together while holding hands. “I want to work with my husband to build a business. I want…”

“A business!” Jessie was so disgusted she almost spat “Forget business. Think relationship.”

“I can’t,” Kate said. “Business is the only thing I know.”

“Wrong.” Jessie took a deep breath. “You’re warm and loving. You take care of people. Or at least you used to.” Jessie leaned over the table and grabbed Kate’s arm. “You’d love to work with real people full-time, but the pay for working with people sucks, so you work with a bunch of suits instead and you go home alone. It’s stupid, and you hate it.” Jessie let go and then leaned back in her chair and sighed again. “I can’t believe you’ve let money and success go to your head like this.”

“Well, it’s been lovely having breakfast with you,” Kate said. “Leaving soon?”

Jessie took a deep breath. “Kate, please listen to me. Go to The Cabins, find a nice guy who’s got all the things on your list and who can keep you with him forever, and be happy. All you have to do is choose to be happy. You can do it.”

Jessie was so obviously concerned that Kate relented. “That’s all,” Kate said. “All I have to do is choose.”

Jessie nodded once. “Yes.”

Kate looked back down at the ad. Of course, the man in the picture was a model, but he was perfect. And she was due for a vacation before the summer was over, and since it was August she was definitely running out of summer. And she hadn’t golfed in years.

And she was lonely. So lonely, sometimes she felt it in her bones.

“All right,” she heard herself saying. “All right. I’ll go.”

“Yes!” Jessie pointed to Kate’s French Provincial phone. “Go make your reservation now.”

“I’ll call later,” Kate said. “Let me think about it for a while.”

“No.” Jessie folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. “I’m not leaving here until you call.”

“I said I’m going,” Kate said. “Don’t you trust me?”

“No,” Jessie said. “I’m keeping my eye on you on this one, because if anybody can screw up a perfectly good shot at happiness, you can. Call. Now.”

Two hundred miles away, Jake Templeton sat in an Adirondack chair on the back veranda of his brother’s Kentucky resort with his feet propped on the rustic wooden rail, watching the sun rise over the lake and trying to feel content. Hell, he did feel content. There was the slight nagging feeling that he got sometimes that he might be missing something, but he was good at ignoring nagging-his long-ago marriage had taught him how to do that. And after all, he lived in God’s country; he was free, he had no responsibilities aside from keeping a hundred acres of resort land mowed and watered, and no real worries. True, in the best of all possible worlds, his over-achieving younger brother would not have built a rustic resort on perfectly good farmland and would not have lured some of the biggest snobs in the East to play golf there. But the snobs did bring in a lot of money that kept the local population in food and shelter, and in general Jake didn’t have to deal with them.

No. All in all, things were good. Jake pulled his big cream-colored cowboy hat down over his eyes and wallowed in his freedom. “I’ve got it made,” he said out loud.

His brother backed out the door to join him carrying two steaming coffee mugs. Will was already in a suit, ready to meet his guests as they streamed in through the big carved-wood double doors of The Cabins. He looked at Jake in his tattered jeans and worn flannel shirt, and rolled his eyes; Jake looked up at his brother’s dress-for-success tailoring and laughed.

“You’re disgusting,” Will said, looking down at him.

“What did I do now?” Jake asked, not caring.

“It’s what you don’t do.” Will passed him a mug of coffee and sat down beside him to stare out at the lake.

“Hey, I keep this place looking good,” Jake said, pushing his hat back with one hand while he balanced his mug in the other. He looked at his brother with a total lack of concern. “The grass is cut, the weeds are pulled, the golf courses look like artificial turf, the stables are-”

“I’m not talking about outdoor management,” Will said, shaking his head as he warmed his hands on his own coffee mug. “You are the king of the riding lawn mower. I’m talking about your life.”

“I like my life. Stay out of it.” Jake turned back to look at the lake and sipped the hot coffee carefully.

“You could be rich,” Will said, looking at him with disgust.

“I was rich,” Jake said. “Then I gave it all to you and you built this place.” He shook his head. “That’s the last fortune I give you.”

“If you gave it to me, why do you own half of this place?” Will asked.

“So you’ll be forced to support me in my old age,” Jake said, grinning. “I’m not as dumb as I look.”

Will shook his head again. “You’ve got a law degree. You were a tax attorney, for God’s sake. And you gave it all up to mow lawns for your little brother. You should be ashamed.”