Page 10 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
Ben’s face lit up. “Me too!”
“I mean, you want more than a couple of clicks, right? And they clearly hadn’t done enough with the woodland maze. Way too easy, and the treasure boxes were, like, seriously disappointing.” Zach grinned, and Ben grinned back. Watching them share a moment of gaming solidarity almost made Maggie laugh. This was so very unexpected… and wonderful.
“So… you play RainQuest?” she asked Zach, which was not only a painfully obvious question, but it also had the effect of pouring cold water all over their conversation.
He turned, managing to look amused, knowing, gorgeous, and slightly embarrassed all at once. “Yeah.” He nodded toward the banner in the window. “And you’re opening a boardgame café?”
Maggie looked around the empty room, at the box of small business software she’d only just started to sort through. “Hopefully,” she replied.
“Mom.” Ben sounded both exasperated and a little hurt. “Weare. That’s why we moved here.”
“Right.” Maggie decided a formal introduction was needed, and she stuck out her hand. “I’m Maggie Parker, and this is my son Ben.”
“And you both eat black olive and pineapple pizza,” Zach added. “Zach Miller.” He shook her hand, his palm warm and dry, his grip firm and sure. And she didnotfeel any tingles from his touch. That pleasurable awareness rippling along her skin was something else entirely. It had to be, because Zach Miller was atleastten years younger than her, and she wasn’t looking for romance of any kind anyway.
Zach glanced at her, a smile lurking in his eyes, as if he could sense her reaction, which was a truly mortifying thought. Maggie slipped her hand from his and he turned back to Ben. “So, where did you move from?”
“Greenwich.” Ben ducked his head, his bangs sliding into his face, as if just the memory of where they’d come from and what had happened there was enough to have him slipping back into his old ways, hiding behind his hair, trying to disappear.
“Cool.” Zach nodded, jamming his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he rocked back on his heels. Maggie noticed the way the taut denim stretched across his powerful thighs and quickly jerked her mortified gaze away. “Do you play RQ in person,” he asked Ben, “or just online?”
“Just online,” Ben half-mumbled. Maggie knew what he was thinking—that everyone in high school had thought he was a major geek for being into the fantasy game—and had made sure he’d known it. The fact that Zach, of all people, was into it too was, in its own way, an unexpected blessing. She was grateful, but she still felt blindsided by the whole notion. Mr. Extra Spicy was not quite who she’d assumed he was.
“Me too,” Zach replied. “Hard to find real-life gamers, but it would be awesome if you got a club or something going here. Do you play solo or in a team?”
“Solo, usually.” Ben’s expression became animated again. “I was in a team with a human and an elf for a while, but I was seriously carrying them. And the human was, like, atotalbot.”
Zach nodded knowingly. “Sometimes it’s better on your own.”
That was, Maggie thought, an achingly prescient remark, because Ben had been on his own friendship-wise for most of his life, and certainly since middle school.
Zach looked around the empty room. “So, looks like early days for this place,” he remarked with a friendly smile. “When are you hoping to have that grand opening?” He nodded toward the banner plastered to the window.
“Well…” Maggie began, before Ben interjected firmly.
“February first.”
Maggie gaped at him for a second. “Ben,” she protested weakly, “that’s only two weeks away.”
“We can do it, Mom.” His tone was truculent, but his eyes pleaded with her. Heaven knew, she wanted to agree with him. She wanted to make this happen for her son, but… there was so much todo, and she didn’t know how to do pretty much any of it.
“We can try,” she finally replied, knowing she sounded unconvinced, and Ben’s pleading gaze turned to something like a glare. As much as Maggie wanted to wave a magic wand and make it all happen, she knew she had to be realistic… for both their sakes. March seemed much more likely.
“Well, if you need any help, let me know,” Zach told her. “My sister and I manage Miller’s General Store, so we know a thing or two about starting a business in this town.”
“Oh…” Maggie had no idea if the offer was offhand or genuine, and so she couldn’t think of how to respond.
“I mean it,” Zach continued, an earnestness to his tone she hadn’t expected. “It can be hard, knowing where to begin with this kind of stuff.”
“Did you start the store from the ground up?” she asked curiously. She was trying to envision him as an entrepreneur; she realized, somewhat to her shame, that she hadn’t been imagining him as anything more than eye candy.
“My parents did,” he replied. “About forty years ago. Bought an old barn and turned it to a general store, offering an eclectic mix of the necessary and the unique.” He sounded like he was quoting from the store’s sign. “They retired four years ago, and by that time the store was pretty much just kind of sputtering along. It was an everything-and-nothing store, if you know what I mean. They made a living out of it, just, but we’re trying to repurpose it for the twenty-first century.”
Intrigued, Maggie asked, “So what does that look like?”
Zach’s smile was wry as he gave a little shrug. “My sister and I disagree on that point somewhat, so we’re still trying to figure it out. But we’ll get there.”
Did she detect thetiniestnote of bitterness in his voice? “You grew up here, then,” she surmised.
