“Are we talking about a petite brunette?” Stephanie asked abruptly. “Pretty blue-green eyes? Owns the golf course?”
“She owns it?” he asked with surprise. He’d just assumed she was an employee there.
“Oh my God.” Stephanie’s voice was full of irritation. “You’ve been golfing there for three months and don’t know her name is Natalie, or that she owns the golf course? How is that even possible?”
“It’s possible because I never met her until tonight,” Valerian said with irritation. “I book and pay for my tee time online. The only person I’ve ever met before tonight was Roy, the old guy who supplies me with a golf cart when I get here and takes the keys from me when I’m done.”
“Be still my beating heart, an old fart immortal who actually knows about computers and how to use them,” Stephanie said with wonder.
“I’m not old,” Valerian growled as he reached the end of the walkway and started across the large parking lot toward his silver pickup truck. “In fact, by immortal standards I’m considered practically a child.”
“Yeah, well, by mortal standards you’re freaking ancient,” Stephanie informed him. “And few immortals over one hundred even deign to look at computers, let alone know how to work them.”
“That’s not true either,” Valerian assured her. “My parents . . .” His words died as the sound of women’s voices had him glancing back the way he’d come. Natalie and the redhead were coming around the building, chattering away. Valerian stopped to watch them, his gaze focused wholly on the petite brunette.
“Valerian?”
“Hmm?” he murmured, watching the women separate with the tall redhead walking his way, while Natalie headed for the large outbuilding where the golf carts were kept. Probably getting gas to take out to the cart, he thought, his gaze following her until she disappeared into the large, barnlike building. He then glanced toward the redhead to see she’d gone to the smaller parking lot next to the clubhouse with an Employee Parking sign at the entrance. She was getting into a silver SUV. There was also an older-looking Corolla, and an even older white pickup truck parked there, and he wondered which if either belonged to his woman.
“Natalie,” he murmured the name, testing it out. “Natalie. Nat. Nattie. No, Nattie is just—”
“Valerian?” Stephanie repeated, sounding a little exasperated.
Valerian grunted in response, but asked, “Natalie what?”
“Moncreif,” Stephanie said with exasperation, before bursting out, “I can’t believe you didn’t at least ask her name! I don’t know if it’s because you’re all so old, or because you’re used to just taking control of mortals to get what you want, but you boys are seriously lacking in game.”
“I have game,” he protested at once. “And I don’t just control mortal women to ‘get what I want’ as you put it. I haven’t even been interested in sex in a good seventy years, but when I was, I didn’t control women to get it.”
“No?” Stephanie asked with interest. “What did you do?”
“I wooed them,” he said firmly.
“Wooed?” Stephanie snorted at the thought. “You mean you let those extra-supercharged pheromones the nanos send out of you do all the work and caught the women when they fell in your lap.”
“No, I—” Valerian paused, and then sighed as he realized he had pretty much let those supercharged nanos do all the work. There was very little wooing needed when the women were drawn to you like moths to a flame.
Shaking his head, he changed tactics and instead explained, “I didn’t exactly walk into the golf club thinking I’d meet my life mate, Stephanie. And once I realized I couldn’t read her, I was too stunned to think to ask her name. Speaking of which,” he added grimly, “a heads-up would have been nice. Why didn’t you tell me you thought you’d encountered my life mate and that I’d find her at the golf club? Christ, she’s been down the road from me for three months and the only reason I met her tonight was because my golf cart ran out of gas, forcing me to go into the clubhouse to let them know that and where it was. Otherwise, we might never have met at all,” Valerian finished with a combination of anger and horror as he realized that was more than possible. If the golf cart hadn’t run out of gas he could have continued booking online, and golfing here for years without encountering his life mate.
“Well, then I guess it was lucky that you ran out of gas,” Stephanie said mildly.
Valerian scowled at that response. “Why the hell didn’t you give me a heads-up?”
“Because if I’d been wrong about her being a possible life mate, it would have been devastating to you. Whereas if I was right, it would be a nice surprise. It is a nice surprise, isn’t it?” she asked pointedly.
Valerian released a deep sigh, allowing his anger to flow out with his breath. Yes. It was a nice surprise. It was like a lifetime of Christmases wrapped up in one moment of time. He just wished he’d known and met her sooner. They might already be mated by now. But he supposed he should be grateful Stephanie had steered him in this direction to begin with. After all, if she hadn’t encouraged him to buy the farmhouse, they definitely would have never met.
“Isn’t it?” Stephanie prodded.
“Yes. It is,” he acknowledged, and then added a gruff, “Thank you, Stephanie.”
“No need to thank me. I’m just glad you finally met her.”
“Yeah,” Valerian murmured, and turned to continue walking to his truck as a small frown started to pull his lips and eyebrows down. “Now I just have to figure out how to woo her.”
“Yeah.”
Something in her voice had his footsteps slowing and wariness creeping over him.
“What?” he asked with concern.
“I—It’s nothing. Except . . .” A long sigh slid down the line. “Valerian, she won’t be easy to claim. Expect to have to put in some effort.”
Pausing beside his pickup, Valerian began to search for his keys as he said, “It’s never really easy, though, is it, Steph? Or are you suggesting it will be harder than usual? Is there something in her background I should know about?”
“Yes, there is something both in her past and her present that might make it harder than most. But she should be the one to tell you about that,” Stephanie said solemnly, and then advised, “Just step lightly and expect some resistance.”
“Resistance, huh? Can you at least give me a hint or—ah, hell,” he muttered when searching his pockets didn’t turn up his keys and Valerian suddenly recalled where he last saw them.
“What?” Stephanie asked. “Is something wrong?”
“Yeah. No,” Valerian answered, contradicting himself as he slung his golf bag off his shoulder and set it in the back of the pickup. He then turned on his heel to head back the way he’d come as he explained, “I just realized I left my keys on the dash of the golf cart and have to go back for them.”
“Good,” Stephanie said with satisfaction.
“What’s good about it?” he asked with irritation.