Page 22 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
“Okay, he’s been around,” Liz acknowledged. “But how could he not be, when he looks the way he does? What woman wouldn’t want to date him?”
“He’s dated every eligible woman under forty in the entire county,” Zoe declared. “If not the entire state. I should know, I went to high school with him. He was three years older than me, but even back then he was something of a legend, and I don’t mean that in a good way.” She grimaced, only partially apologetic. “Sorry, I know everyone thinks he’s charming, and I guess he can be, but back then he was kind of a jerk.”
“That was a long time ago,” Annie put in quietly, her tone gently admonishing. “Zach’s a good guy. I’ve known him since he was a little kid, and yes, he had his wild high school days, but hasn’t everyone, in one way or another?”
Zoe sighed in reluctant acknowledgment. “Guilty, I guess, but Zach was one of thosein-crowdguys. You know the type?” She glanced at Maggie. “The cocky jock who goes around flirting with all the girls and toeing up to all the guys? Andknowshow good-looking he is, and how it means he can get away with anything? I just don’t think that has changed.”
Yes, Maggie knew the type. She remembered those kinds of guys from high school, and then later on, when they all became the bankers and hedge fund managers who schmoozed with her husband. In fact, her husband had been one too, which had all been part of the problem…
Not that she wanted to think about that. Maggie managed a stiff smile as she nodded her acknowledgment. She knew she shouldn’t be surprised, and yet she realized she was. The Zach Miller she’d come to know, however briefly, the guy who had asked her if she was okay and what she needed, who gladly gamed with her son… he didn’t seem like that kind of jerk. But if he’d dated all the women in the entire county who were under forty…
Well, good thing she was forty-one, she supposed.
Their mimosas arrived, and Maggie reached for hers gladly. As she sipped the cocktail, she realized she felt disappointed, which was stupid, because it wasn’t as if she and Zach had even beenfriends. She hadn’t seen him in two weeks, after all. If anything, he was more Ben’s friend than hers, and he was almost closer in age to her son anyway, which was both humiliating and humbling considering the complicated nature of her thoughts.
Unable to help herself, she glanced over at the booth Zach had slid into, a cup of black coffee in front of him as he frowned down at his phone, his tousled hair sliding into his eyes. Wendy brought him over a plate of fried eggs and hash browns, and he tilted his head up, raking a hand through his hair as he smiled his thanks.
Goodness, but he really was ridiculously good-looking. That tousled, gold-tipped hair, eyes that glinted from all the way across the room, the hint of stubble on his lean jaw. He was wearing another plaid shirt over a t-shirt, navy blue this time, and the usual faded, well-molded jeans. Eek. She needed to stop looking.
Maggie glanced back at the table and saw that every single one of her new friends had followed her gaze, and judging from the smugly knowing expressions on their faces, had guessed the exact nature of her thoughts.
“Don’t worry, darling,” Liz said as she leaned over and patted her hand. “We all do it.”
“But he’s never dated any of us,” Elaine put in, and they all burst out laughing. This time Maggie couldn’t find it in herself to join in.
8
“I have a proposition for you.”
Zach propped his elbows on the counter of the boardgame café. It was a week since he’d seen Maggie in The Starr Light Diner. He’d waved to her from across the room, and enjoyed the way she had blushed… just as he was now enjoying the way her dark eyes widened and flared in awareness… That was, until her mouth pursed up like a prune and she folded her arms across her chest.
“Oh, really?” she remarked coolly. “And what would that be?”
She sounded like a schoolteacher. Zach slowly straightened, raking a hand through his hair. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize she must have heard some of the rumors about him, probably when she’d been brunching with some of Starr’s Fall coven of gossips.
“What do you think it is?” he remarked with the slightest edge to his voice. All right, it was true that they didn’t know each other very well, but he’d felt the flicker ofsomethingback in Laurie’s upstairs hallway, when he’d asked her if she was all right and she’d closed her eyes and practically swayed into him. It had been a small moment, but it had still been a moment. There had been chemistry, he was sure of it. He’d certainly felt it, anyway. But now Maggie was looking at him like she suspected him of being a serial killer… or maybe just a serial dater.
Which, he wondered sourly, was worse in her eyes?
“I don’t know,” Maggie replied pettishly. She took a deep breath and then added more levelly, “Maybe you could just tell me.”
They stared at each other for a beat that felt both laden and tense. Zach hadn’t meant for things to escalate so quickly; in fact, he’d come into the café full of optimism and excitement. Now he took a breath that matched Maggie’s as he decided to dial it down.
“It was about the boardgame café,” he told her. “But I thought maybe we could talk about it over a coffee, my treat at the diner?”
She hesitated and then replied, “There’s no need to go all the way to the diner. You can come upstairs and have a coffee there if you have something to discuss.” She still sounded stiffly formal. “Ben’s just finishing his schoolwork.”
Zach had no intention of dying on that particular hill. He didn’t really care where they had coffee. “Okay,” he said. “Great. Thanks.”
She paused as if she was going to say something else, and then turned on her heel and walked to the stairs that ran alongside the store. Zach followed her, unable to keep from noticing how her jeans emphasized the long slimness of her legs. She wore a quarter-zip fleece on top and her hair was pulled back with a clip, so tendrils fell about her face, including that one streak that was entirely silver. He liked it; it gave her both a vulnerability and a strength, a fragile Cruella de Vil vibe, if such a thing were possible.
He was being fanciful, he knew, but that was what happened to him when he met a woman he liked. He went into full fairy-tale mode, not that he’d ever admit such a thing to anyone. He’d rather be seen as a serial dater than a hopeless romantic. Well, maybe.
“I haven’t been up here before,” he remarked as Maggie led him into the living room. It was a comfortable space, similar in layout to Laurie’s place, but with a bit more flair. The living area was taken up with a big, squashy-looking leather sofa, and tucked into one corner was an antique armoire painted in bold yellow, holding rows of paperbacks as well as a few eclectic bits of pottery. A vase of dried flowers was on the windowsill, and a crocheted patchwork throw in every color of the rainbow—in fluorescent—was draped over a deep armchair of eggplant-colored velvet. Considering how Maggie had only worn shades of gray or brown since he’d met her, the splashes of vivid color were a pleasant surprise.
She led him into the adjoining kitchen, where Ben was seated at an antique desk pushed up under the window, a desktop computer in front of him. Open shelves above the countertops showcased a mix of cups and plates, each one looking like it had been selected from a different set. Maggie clearly had a funky aesthetic or was colorblind, but he liked the randomness of the assortment. It suggested a quirkiness to her personality that he hadn’t totally expected.
“Zach!” Ben exclaimed, his face lighting up as he turned to face them.
