Page 16 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
“Umm… MusicMan15.” Joshua smiled, clearly embarrassed. “I mean, it’s been a while…”
“Has it?” Zach raised his eyebrows. “You know we can check the last time you played?”
“Busted,” Joshua conceded with a wry grin. “Fine, full disclosure, I played last week. You?”
“Lastnight,” Zach replied, in the unlikely manner of a boast, and Joshua chuckled.
“You got me beat, man,” he said. “Thistime.”
Emboldened, Zach held out his fist for a bump, and sheepishly, Joshua lightly bumped it. Then Zach turned to Ben, who did the same with a shy awkwardness that tore at his heart. The kid clearly needed friends.
“All these secret players!” Laurie exclaimed. “RainQuest. That’s such an interesting name. Ben, you’ll have to tell me all about it.” And with an ease that came from an innate warmth and friendliness, she began ushering everyone toward the table. “Maggie, you’re on the left with Ben there,” she instructed, “and Joshua and Jenna on the other side… Zach, you can go on the end, next to Maggie.”
Laurie beamed at them all as she brought over the lasagna, its golden top bubbling with melted cheese. “I’m so glad you all came!”
Zach slid into his seat as Maggie sat down in hers and fumbled with her napkin. Her head was bent, and he had the feeling that she was deliberately choosing not to look at him. Interesting.
Laurie cut into the lasagna and started serving out portions as Joshua poured the wine and Jenna got a Coke for Ben.
“So tell us about yourself, Maggie,” Jenna invited in a way that was both typically friendly and forthright. “What made you choose Starr’s Fall as the place to open your boardgame café?”
Maggie’s dark blue eyes widened as she froze, her napkin clenched in one hand. It was almost as if Jenna’s friendly-sounding question had been akin to asking her to strip naked. Either she was a very private person, he reflected, or she had secrets to hide. Either way, it was intriguing. She was.
Zach lounged back in his seat, reaching for his wine as he waited for her answer.
6
This was a disaster.Shewas a disaster. It had been so long since she’d been to a social occasion that Maggie had completely forgotten how to behave like a normal, well-adjusted,saneperson. She was sitting here like the proverbial deer in the headlights, frozen in terror simply because a perfectly nice, well-meaning woman had asked her why she’d moved to Starr’s Fall. What waswrongwith her?
It didn’t help her struggling sense of composure that Zach was sitting next to her, looking amazing and smelling like a pine tree. He was wearing an unbuttoned plaid shirt layered over a forest-green t-shirt, with faded jeans tucked into well-used hiking boots, and the casual ensemble suited him perfectly. Since she’d arrived, he’d slid her several simmering sort of looks that made everything in her turn both hot and watery. Her physical reaction to him was both overwhelming and alarming, and she wasn’t sure she could just chalk it up to the fact that he was gorgeous. She felt his presence on a visceral level… But no. She was being ridiculous. It was just that it had been so long since she’d had any male attention. So long since she’d felt that inward yearning for a look, a touch… Far longer, she knew, than since Matt’s death.
Stop, Maggie. She really needed to say somethingnow.
“Umm…” Her voice wobbled, which was seriously embarrassing. “That’s a really good question, actually.”
Jenna raised her eyebrows, seeming a bit bemused by Maggie’s obvious nerves. She glanced at Ben, who was looking guarded. Maggie knew she could not put him on the spot by explaining everything, but she felt she had to say at least some of it. “My husband, Ben’s dad, he died a little over a year ago.” She rushed on, over the expected murmur of sympathies. “Ben and I were up for a change, and we really liked Starr’s Fall,” she stated as firmly as she could. “We went here on vacation a couple of times, and it just seemed like such a… great town. And we thought it would be a good place to start a boardgame café. So… we decided to move.”
A short silence followed this fairly anodyne statement, full of generic ideas and no real information besides the fact that she was a widow, and now everyone was going to feel sorry for them both, which was something she knew neither she nor Ben had wanted.
“Well, I certainly understand about wanting a change,” Laurie finally said and handed her a plate with a piece of lasagna.
“Thanks,” Maggie mumbled and took it before looking down at her lap. She needed to get a grip, but the truth was she just wasn’t sure how. Then she felt a touch against her ankle, gentle yet purposeful, sending sparks all the way up her leg, and she glimpsed Zach’s work boot nudging her own under the table. Was he playingfootsiewith her?
She looked up and saw him smiling at her, his blue-green eyes full of warmth rather than the expected flirtatious amusement. No, not footsie, she realized, just a little nudge of solidarity. She smiled, or tried to, but she still felt like a jumble of rusted parts rather than anything sensible or even sentient. She really needed to remember how to operate in the land of the living, and quickly. And yes, her leg was still tingling from that little nudge of Zach’s. Her reaction to this man was seriously unsettling.
A silence stretched on for a few uncomfortable seconds before Jenna asked Joshua something about the bookstore he ran, and whether he was getting in the latest thriller, and they bantered good-naturedly about the merits of him stocking it. Maggie and her awkwardness had been forgotten, which was a good thing, even if she felt semi-abandoned and was desperately wishing she was capable of handling this whole evening better.
“So,” Zach asked her as the others continued their spirited debate, “that must have been some vacation, for you to up and move here.”
She blinked at him, having to reorient herself because frankly he was simply too dazzling to look at. Who had hair that movie star shade of dirty blond, bright gold at the tips? Or eyes the color of the Caribbean? Or…
Talk, Maggie.
“Yes, it was,” she told him with the same tone of manic brightness that she often used with Ben. “We first visited about five years ago and had a great time. Ben didn’t want to leave, and I promised we’d come back, and so we did two years ago.” For a second, she recalled Ben sitting by the lakeside, his head bent, his hands on his elbows.Mom, can we stay here forever?So much sadness in his voice, instead of the playful, little-boy wistfulness of before. She would have given him just about anything in that moment, and it turned out that she had.
“Where did you stay?” Zach asked, startling her out of her thoughts.
“Oh… we rented the same place each time. A little converted barn on the outskirts of town.” It had been cozy and sweet, almost like living in a dollhouse, compared to the huge house Matt had just bought for them that had felt so echoing and empty. “I think it was called Maple something,” she told Zach.
