She kissed me lightly, just brushing her lips on mine. “Sufficient for the day are the evils thereof.”

“Huh?”

Mai smiled at me. “Let’s worry about things tomorrow. We’re here together tonight.”

So I tried to forget about my troubles. I even succeeded—for a while.

I was awakened by the phone’s buzzing. I cracked one eye open and saw that Mai was sleeping soundly, peacefully curled up beside me.

“Audio only,” I told the phone.

Sam’s freckled face sprang up on the phone’s screen, grinning lopsidedly.

“Mai, I’ve got the medical reports here,” he began.

“Quiet,” I whispered urgently. “Mai’s still asleep.”

“Charlie?” Sam lowered his voice a notch. “So that’s where you are. I called you at your place. We’ve gotta talk about financial arrangements.”

Severance pay, I knew.

“Come over to my office around eleven thirty. Then we’ll go to lunch.”

“Mai’s flight—”

“Plenty of time for that. My office. Eleven thirty. Both of you.”

They say that today is the first day of the rest of your life. I went through the morning like a man facing a firing squad. The rest of my life, I knew, was going to be miserable and lonely. Mai seemed sad, too. Her usual cheerful smile was nowhere in sight.

We got to Sam’s office precisely at eleven thirty and settled glumly onto the sawed-off chairs in front of his desk. Sam beamed down at us like he hadn’t a care in the world. Or two worlds, for that matter.

“First,” he began, “the radiation badges we all wore show that the nanosuits protected us just as well as the standard suits protected everybody else.”

“Dr. Cardenas will be pleased,” Mai said listlessly.

“You bet she is,” Sam replied. “We’re having dinner together over at Selene this evening.”

Dr. Cardenas was a handsome woman, from what I’d heard of her. Was Sam on the hunt again? Does a parrot have feathers?

“Okay,” he said, rubbing his hands together briskly, “now let’s get down to business.”

The firing squad was aiming at me.

“Charlie, you don’t have much experience in business administration, do you?”

Puzzled by his question, I answered, “Hardly any.”

“That’s okay. I can tell you everything you need to know.”

“Need to know for what?”

Sam looked surprised. “To manage the golf course, naturally.”

“Manage it?” My voice squeaked two octaves higher than normal.

“Sure, what else? I’ll be too busy to do it myself.”

Mai gripped my arm. “That’s wonderful!”

“And you, oh beauteous one, will be our pro, of course.” Sam announced, chuckling at his little pun.

“Me?”

Nodding, Sam replied, “Sure, you. This way the two of you can stay together. Sort of a wedding present.” Then he fixed me with a stern gaze. “You do intend to marry the lady, don’t you?”

I blurted, “If she’ll have me!”

Mai squeezed my hand so hard I thought bones would break. I hadn’t realized how strong playing golf had made her.

“Okay, that’s it,” Sam said happily. “You’ll manage the course, Charlie, and Mai, you’ll be the pro.”

“And what will you do, Sam?” Mai asked.

“Me? I’ve got to set up the company that’ll manufacture and sell nanosuits. Kris Cardenas is going to be my partner.”

I felt my jaw drop open. “You mean this whole tournament was just a way of advertising the nanosuits?”

With a laugh, Sam answered, “Got a lot of publicity for the suits, didn’t it? I’m already getting queries from the rock rats, out in the Asteroid Belt. And the university consortium that’s running the Mars exploration team.”

I shook my head in admiration for the man. Sam just sat there grinning down at us. The little devil had opened up a new sport for lunar residents and tourists, solved my legal problem, created a career for me, and found a way for Mai and me to marry. Plus, he was starting a new industry that would revolutionize the spacesuit business.

Before I could find words to thank Sam, Mai asked him, “Will you answer a question for me?”

“Sure,” he said breezily. “Fire away.”

“How did you learn to putt like that, Sam? Some of your putts were nothing short of miraculous.”

Sam pursed his lips, looked up at the ceiling, swiveled back and forth on his chair.

“Come on, Sam,” Mai insisted. “The truth. It won’t go farther than these four walls.”

With a crooked, crafty grin, Sam replied, “You’d be surprised at how much electronics you can pack into a golf ball.”

“Electronics?” I gasped.

“A transmitter in the cups and a receiver in the ball,” Mai said. “Your putts were guided into the cups.”