Page 79 of Holiday Home 4

His freed bishop flew across the board, ending up directly diagonal to her freed knight.

Victoria pushed her corner pawn up one space, threatening his bishop.

The last time this had occurred, he’d backed his bishop up, saving it for the time being—and then Victoria had freed her other knight.

He didn’t do that this time. His bishop slid over and struck down her knight. Her queen’s pawn moved over and equalized the total number of pieces on the board. He moved his queen’s pawn up by two spaces. The original pawn that Victoria had moved forward took his pawn.

Liam’s queen zoomed forward and captured it. Victoria’s queen did the same to his queen. And then Liam’s freed knight took her queen. And Victoria moved her leftmost bishop forward two diagonal spaces, cleaning up a straight line that had momentarily existed in the board.

Liam’s heart pounded; his fingers felt uncharacteristically tense. There’d been almost no downtime between their moves; everything progressed rapidly, like someone was fast-forwarding through their least favorite part of a movie. Yet, this had felt nothing like that. The adrenaline coursing through him left him almost winded from the pressure he felt on his chest.

They’d each taken only seven moves, and he already felt staggered by the frenetic pace of it all. He hadn’t even freed his other knight or castled his king, which he knew he needed to do next.

“It’s your turn, Liam,” Victoria whispered, drawing his attention back to the present—and the future. His next move, her next move, his next move, her next move.

He wanted towin.

Chapter Thirty-Three

A Matter of Inches

Liam almost didn’t believe it. Mouth hanging, he almost knuckled his eyes, then looked again, sure that he must have made a mistake in announcing that one word—that one word he’d been hoping he’d finally be able to say. But if he had, Victoria didn’t call him on it. She didn’t say anything. She merely nodded, placed her forefinger on the top of her king, then knocked it over.

For a little bit, Liam just sat there, absorbing the meaning of that act. If he’d been a little more focused on the future, he might have spent that time relivinghowhe’d made it here. That might have improved his chances of further wins, not just this one-off. Hindsight was twenty-twenty, and putting his brainpower toward examining his victory didn’t happen.

“Congratulations,” Victoria said, extending her hand across the board.

Blinking, Liam returned to the present. Staring at Victoria’s hand momentarily, he pulled himself out of his stupor and shook it. During and immediately after, he examined her reaction.

Per usual, he was left without much to hang onto. Victoria appeared neither frustrated nor amused by his achievement—one win among seventy or eighty losses, a smattering of draws, and three or four times that if they included their online matches. He could only guess at her emotions and thoughts on this unexpected turn of events.

“Maybe we should put a chalkboard or whiteboard somewhere so we can physically mark down how many times each of us has won,” Liam said lightly. He mimicked making a single tally mark, then placed his invisible piece of chalk on the table, its singular duty done.

Victoria shook her head, allowing the briefest of smiles to flit across her face. “If we did that, my wrist might get sore from tallying all our previous matches. How about we just do it with numbers? I can get us a board.”

He’d been mostly joking, but he didn’t mind her running with his idea. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take another month before he could update his half of the board.

“Do we still have time to play another match or two?” Liam asked, checking the sky. It was transitioning into soft, warm oranges, especially when he looked westward. “We’ve got next week too.”

“Don’t you want to claim your prize?”

“I do,” Liam said. He wanted itsobadly. “But what if I win another match? That’ll mean I get two pictures.”

Staring at him for a moment, Victoria lurched into motion and began rebuilding her side of the board. Liam did the same,unable to hide a mirthful smile. They wereallso competitive. Even Anna, in her own way.

In what must have been the shock of the century, Liam didnotwin another chess match. He got four more chances, which translated into four more vicious defeats. And they were undoubtedly vicious. Victoria played these games more relentlessly than earlier, and his defensive tactics proved too brittle and inflexible to stave her advances off.

It felt a bit like getting an unexpected punch in on a far better fighter, who then rubbed their thumb across the bruise, nodded, and proceeded to spend the rest of the fight pummeling you like a punching bag. But he’d gotten thatoneblow in, and that was all that mattered. His goal had been met, meaning he could collect his prize.

Victoria surely didn’t forget about that, even if she got to work out any “stress” that her unexpected defeat might have caused. If it had, Liam felt it was probably mainly about the loss itself, not what would be coming about because of it. And that left him in a good mood, even after four successive defeats.

“Are you comfortable stopping here?” Victoria asked, following that fourth crushing defeat. “Or would you like to keep trying your luck?”

“I think I used all my luck up, unfortunately,” he said, reaching across to offer her one final handshake on the night.

Next, he needed to outline the minor change he had in mind for his prize—and pray, pray, and pray that she was willing.

After laying their pieces to bed inside the board, he and Victoria shared a long look. She spoke up before he’d finished deciding on how he wanted to approach the alteration he wanted.

---