Page 11 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
He nodded. “And pretty much never left.”
It sounded like something between a confession and a warning. Clearly there were depths to Zach Miller she hadn’t appreciated during their admittedly very brief first meeting. “We’ll have to stop by sometime. It sounds like an intriguing place.” She glanced at Ben, wanting to draw him back into the conversation. “Have you been by there, Ben? To the general store?” She knew he’d had a wander through town yesterday.
Ben shook his head. “Not yet.”
“It’s on the outskirts of town, about half a mile past the church,” Zach told them. “You’re welcome to stop by anytime. And I meant what I said about helping.” He smiled at Ben. “As one gamer to another, I’d seriously love to see a place like this open in town.”
“What’s your username?” Ben asked abruptly.
Zach gave a grimacing sort of grin. “Zachanator.” He held up one hand. “I know, I know. All I can say is, I was young when I made it, and it sounded cool. And once you build up your stats, you don’t want to change, you know, and lose everything?”
A smile lurked about her son’s mouth. “Yeah, I get it.” He hesitated and then blurted uncertainly, “Maybe I’ll look you up.”
“Yeah, you should.” Zach glanced at Maggie, a question in his eyes. “Assuming that’s okay, of course…”
“You mean online?” she asked. “Um, okay.” She wasn’t entirely sure what the parenting protocol was meant to be here. Her rule had been that Ben could only play with people he knew, but it hadn’t ever been an issue because he so rarely gamed with anyone else. And she supposed he did know Zach Miller… sort of.
“When do you play?” Ben asked, and Zach shrugged.
“Evenings, mostly, from seven onwards, but not every day.”
“Okay.” Ben nodded, smiling, seeming both relieved and excited. “Great.”
“Well, I should go.” Zach glanced at Maggie, and she thought she saw another question in his blue-green eyes, this one more personal, but she didn’t know what it was or how she could possibly answer it. This whole conversation had bordered on the seriously surreal. “I guess I’ll see you around?” he asked, and she heard the same kind of hesitancy in his voice that she’d heard in her son, and she didn’t know what to make of it. Zach did not seem a hesitant kind of person.
“Yes.” She nodded. “I’m sure we’ll both see you around.”
He nodded back, waved to Ben, and then he was heading back out into the street.
“Well,” Maggie said once the door had closed behind him. “That was unexpected.”
“RainQuest is a really popular game,” Ben told her, somewhat reprovingly. “Lots of people play it.”
“I know. I just didn’t expect…” She wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence. “Anyway,” she remarked brightly, “nice to know there’s some interest in the community.”
“We can get this place going by February first,” Ben told her. “We just have to work at it.”
“Speaking of work…” She glanced at her watch. “You need to finish your chemistry.”
“Mom.” Ben rolled his eyes. “I want to work on this.” He gestured to the boxes of boardgames stacked in the stockroom. Ben had been in charge of ordering them all; Maggie wouldn’t have even known where to begin with all the different games that were available, but Ben seemed to know about every single one. So far the many boxes hadn’t been opened, never mind organized.
“We made a deal, Ben,” Maggie reminded him as gently as she could. “We’d do the boardgame café if you’d do your schoolwork.”
“It’s boring,” he muttered. “And stupid.”
“It’s school,” she replied, making sure to keep her tone light. “Sometimes it can be both of those things, but it’s still important. Why don’t you finish your chemistry and then you can get back to the games?”
“Fine.” With ill grace, dragging his feet, Ben headed for the stairs, closing the door behind him with a borderline slam.
Maggie sighed as she turned back to the box of small business software. A wave of loneliness was sweeping through her, and she’d learned to just let it happen rather than attempt to resist its pull. Life was hard. Moving to a town where you knew no one was harder still, especially when grief was still your main emotion, along with a treacherous helping of guilt. She wanted to believe it would get better, shedidbelieve it, she just wished she knewwhen. Or how.
She thought about calling Lynn, but she was afraid her sister would simply tell her to pack it in and head back to Greenwich, or even to Boston to be with her. Those weren’t solutions, Maggie knew. She needed to give Starr’s Fall a real chance, and to do that she needed to make an effort.
With determination, she picked up the software manual and started to open it. When Ben had first come up with the idea of opening a boardgame café—from his hospital bed back in May—they’d agreed he would be the gamer guy, organizing the games and the café space, while she would handle the financials and the food.
Fortunately, thanks to Matt’s generous life insurance policy as well as the proceeds from the sale of their house, money was not an issue, and wouldn’t be for some time. Maggie had a day-long barista course booked in Hartford in a few weeks’ time, although she was reluctant to leave Ben alone for an entire day. He’d insisted he’d be fine, but…
Maggie didn’t want a repeat of last spring. She didn’t think she could survive it, and there was a very real and frightening risk that Ben wouldn’t.
