Page 25 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
“You don’t swipe right for the love of your life,” he explained with a shrug. “It took me a while to realize that.”
“Is that what you’re looking for?” she asked, sounding both surprised and a little too incredulous. “The love of your life?”
“Isn’t everybody?” Zach returned lightly. He wasn’t going to get into it more than that; he’d had quite enough of baring his soul for one afternoon. “Anyway. Maybe we should talk about the café.”
Maggie stared at him for a moment, and then she surprised him by saying, “Maybe we should start over.”
9
Clearly she still needed some catchup sessions on how to have a normal conversation. This one with Zach had gotten seriously out of control, and in ways that were still making Maggie’s heart somersault and her mind race. He was looking at her bemusedly now, his hair sticking up where he’d raked his hand through it, in agitation at her admittedly spurious accusations. Maggie had thrown that line about influence over Ben at him mainly because she didn’t want him thinking she was inquiring about his dating life on her own account. It had been stupid and thoughtless, and she was sorry for it now.
“Start over,” Zach repeated neutrally, his eyes narrowing.
“With this conversation.” She tried for a jokey tone, although in truth she felt like she was grasping at straws. “How about you come in again and tell me you have a proposition for me? And I respond like a normal, well-adjusted person, and then we take it from there?”
His mouth quirked up at the corner, which, she had to face it, was very sexy. Not that she should be thinking that way atall. “Sounds like a plan,” he remarked. “So, should I go all the way downstairs, come in the door again? Is this a full retake?”
This was starting to feel a little ridiculous, but Maggie decided to roll with it. “Sure, why not? And I will, too. Let’s have a complete re-do.” She needed it… in all sorts of ways.
Feeling more than a little silly at perpetuating this charade, she followed Zach downstairs. He gamely went outside while she took her position behind the counter. She could practically hear an imaginary director calling, “Take two…”
Zach opened the door. He stood there for a moment, bracing one arm against the doorframe as he gave her a slow, sexy smile, which he definitelyhadn’tdone before. His eyes glinted and the curve of his mouth was knowing and lingering, full of sensual promise. While Maggie watched, he started a slow swagger toward her, making her stomach flip and her knees go weak. Yowzers. When Zach Miller put on the charm, he was… irresistible. And that was more than a little alarming.
“Hey there,” he said in a low, meaningful, bedroom type of voice. He was clearly rewriting the script, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she did know her heart was starting to thud hard, and she felt tingly in all sorts of places. “I have a…propositionfor you, Maggie Parker.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, a smile still lurking about his mouth as he came to stand before her, his thumbs hooked through his belt loops, that sexy smile still curving his mouth.
It was all so clearly, deliberately over-the-top that suddenly Maggie had to bite her lip to keep from laughing as she folded her arms and attempted to stare him and his gorgeous bedroom eyes down. She was still affected, definitely, but she was also, surprisingly, having fun. “And when you say it like that,” she told him with mock sternness, “is it any wonder I jumped to conclusions?”
He burst out laughing, and gratified by his reaction, she smiled. Were they flirting, she wondered, or were they just pretending to flirt? Did it even make a difference? Maybe it was just Zach’s MO; it certainly wasn’t hers… but she realized she was enjoying it. A lot.
“Okay, for real, now,” he told her, dropping the languorous look and the innuendo-laced tone to gaze at her with an endearing earnestness. “The truth is, like I said, I’d love to help you set up the café. I absolutely believe you could do it by yourself, but, full disclosure, you’d actually be doingmea favor. My sister doesn’t think I can manage so much as an ant farm, and I want to prove her wrong.”
Maggie raised her eyebrows. “That’swhat this is about?”
He shrugged, unrepentant but also seeming slightly embarrassed. “In part, yes.”
Maggie realized she admired him more for his honesty. And she felt reassured that his offer wasn’t made out of pity… or some other, murkier motivation. “So what would this look like?” she asked. “You helping out here?”
“It can look however you want it to look,” Zach told her. He glanced around the empty room. “I could start by moving those sofas if you wanted.” He nodded toward the furniture stacked against the wall.
“That would be great, actually.” Somewhat to her own surprise, Maggie found herself warming to the idea of Zach helping out around the café. She could certainly use another pair of hands, but beyond that, she could do with a friend. She’d asked Zach to be Ben’s friend, more or less, but was she willing for him to be her own? Washe? “First, though,” she said impulsively, knowing there was still more air to be cleared, “let’s finish our coffee before it gets cold. And… based on what you said before, I think I should probably explain some things.”
Zach’s eyebrows rose briefly but then he nodded in acceptance. “Lead the way.”
Upstairs, Maggie heated their mugs of coffee in the microwave, more to have something to do and to stall for time. She’d already decided she was going to fill Zach in on some of her and Ben’s history, because she’d realized it wasn’t fair to leave him in the dark when he was befriending her son. But how much did she really want to share?Not muchwas the obvious and overwhelming answer, but if he was going to be part of her life—and, more importantly, Ben’s life—then she knew she needed to level with him, at least a little bit. Even if part of her would prefer stripping naked than sharing her painful past… and Ben’s.
Well, not quite, she realized. It had been a long time since she’d been naked in front of anyone.
“So, I told you that my husband died,” she stated quietly as she returned to the table with their reheated mugs and sat down across from him.
Zach’s expression was somber but alert as he nodded. “Yes, and I know it was in a car accident. That much traveled through the Starr’s Fall grapevine. I’m very sorry.”
“It was hard,” Maggie replied, her gaze downcast. “And obviously very sudden. He was driving home from the train station after a day working in the city—a trucker fell asleep at the wheel and veered into his lane.”
“I’m so sorry,” Zach said again quietly.
Maggie waved her hand, the gesture not quite dismissive, but almost. “That’s not actually what I want to talk about. I mean, yes. It was hard. Very hard, of course. But… it could have been harder.” Zach’s eyebrows rose in surprise and belatedly Maggie realized how that sounded. But she couldn’t explain any of that now, not that she would even know how, because she hadn’t been meaning to talk about herself.
“I wanted to tell you about Ben,” she stated quietly. “I don’t want to violate his privacy, but as his mother, and with you being his—his friend, I think you need to understand just how vulnerable he’s been, and why I seem so protective.”
