Page 29 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
Even if that almost certainly spelled trouble.
10
“So when is the café opening?” Laurie asked, her elbows propped on the counter. Maggie had, on impulse, popped into Max’s Place to have a quick catchup with her friend and neighbor.
The last two weeks had been so busy she felt as if she was in constant motion. She, Ben, and Zach had been using every spare minute to get the café up and running—Maggie had worked on organizing the kitchen, Ben the games, and Zach had been the maintenance man. He’d suggested built-in shelves to line the walls for the games, and somewhat to Maggie’s amazement, had even offered to build them himself.
“You’re a man of hidden talents,” she’d told him as he’d spent several days setting up a workshop in the café area, sanding and sawing and generally looking very sexy and capable.
“I am indeed,” he’d replied with a rakish grin, his eyes glinting with humor. “I’ve picked up a good bit of woodworking through the store, and I actually found I liked it, more than I expected. It’ll be great to have a bigger project.”
Zach had been as good as his word and kept things very much friends-only, but Maggie still felt the undercurrents between them, like an electrical wire pulsing with every word either of them said. She watched him discreetly when he was working, and thought he probably noticed. Sometimes, with a thrill of wonder, she saw him doing the same thing, watchingher. Their gaze often met, slid away, and met again. All of it made her tingle. She hadn’t felt this much physical awareness of another person since she’d started dating Matt.
Matt. She found herself thinking of him less, missing him less, and that made her feel both relieved and guilty. Surely she should still be mourning her husband,longingfor him every day, after just a little over a year? It was, she knew, what her mother-in-law expected,demanded, after telling Maggie at the funeral, in icy tones, that she was “at least partially responsible” for Matt’s death.
“He’d been distracted by things between you,” her mother-in-law had insisted. “If you’d been a better wife…”
Maggie had not dignified that with an answer, but it had hurt her deeply. She should have been a better wife, she knew. But something she was starting to understand more and more now that he was gone was… Matt should have been a better husband.
And yet those kinds of thoughts were receding the more time she spent with Zach. Matt had retreated to the background of her mind, her memory, as she focused on the present… as well as the future. Zach, she thought, was both a friend and a welcome distraction… and what an appealing distraction he was.
“Next week,” she told Laurie now. “The first Saturday in March is the grand opening. I’m waiving the fee for booking tables for the day and offering a free coffee with every boardgame purchase.” Buying the boardgames was one of the ways she hoped the café would eventually turn a profit, along with the coffee and baked goods she’d ordered from The Rolling Pin, as a way to encourage another local business.
Eventually she hoped to offer a full menu of snacks and treats, but at the moment she relied on the Harpers at The Rolling Pin; they’d been friendly and welcoming when she’d worked up the nerve to stop in their bakery, and had seemed thrilled with the prospect of supplying Your Turn Next.
“Wow.” Laurie looked admiring. “It sounds like you have everything in hand.”
“It doesn’t feel that way to me,” Maggie confessed. “And it’s all taken a lot longer than Ben hoped, but at least it’s coming together.”
She was fortunate, Maggie knew, that at the moment, thanks to Matt’s life insurance and the sale of the house in Greenwich, money was not an issue for them… but she supposed it would be eventually. In the meantime, she wanted to make sure she paid it forward and made Your Turn Next as charitable an enterprise as she could.
“Are you excited?” Laurie asked. “I know what it’s like, working so hard and then the big day comes—it’s both wonderful and pretty nerve-racking. It almost feels surreal.”
“Yes, I can imagine that’s exactly how it will feel.” Maggie had definitely had alotof nerves already. Most nights she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as she thought about all she had to do and all the ways this venture could go so horribly wrong. “That’s it, exactly,” she told Laurie. “And there’s still so much to do before the big opening. I still have to learn how to foam milk and master latte art in Hartford this week, for a start!” She gave a grimacing little laugh. She was nervous about leaving Ben to go all the way to Hartford, but she knew she had to get it done if they wanted to offer café service. The food inspection was next week, and she had to have her certification before then, just to be able to offer lattes and espressos.
“You’ll be amazing at both,” Laurie reassured her. “What’s Ben doing for the day while you’re in Hartford? He’s welcome to come here, if he wants.”
“Oh, ah… he’s okay, actually,” Maggie replied, hedging a little, and blushing too, before she felt compelled to admit, “He and Zach are hanging out. Zach will be working in the café, anyway, finishing the shelves. They’ve got a whole day planned, apparently, of doing guy stuff and probably playing some RainQuest.”
“Do they?” Laurie’s eyes gleamed with this insider knowledge. Zach’s presence at the café hadn’t, Maggie knew, gone atallunnoticed by the residents of Starr’s Fall. It was hard for it not to be noticed, when he was right there in front of the window, sawing and hammering and working away most days. The shelves were really coming along nicely; Zach had been modest about his woodworking skills. He’d even whittled figures to decorate each joint of the shelves, including several characters from RainQuest that even Maggie had been able to recognize.
She hoped Ben’s presence kept the gossip mill from churningtoorelentlessly about Zach’s presence at the café, because she knew she wasn’t ready for people to start speculating about a relationship between her and Zach. Not that they even would; in fact, in some ways, a greater worry was that such a prospect was so ludicrous it wouldn’t even cross people’s minds.
“So, is anything going on between you and Zach?” Laurie asked, putting paid to the idea that peopleweren’tthinking about it, which filled Maggie with equal parts alarm and, damningly, pleasure. “Because, I have to say, he’s certainly spending a lot of time at your place.”
“He’s just helping out at the café,” Maggie replied quickly. “You know he’s into games. And I get the idea that he’s a little frustrated by what’s happening at the general store.” She hoped she wasn’t being disloyal by sharing that with Laurie; although Zach didn’t talk about it much, she could feel the frustration with his sister rolling off him in waves whenever the subject of the store came up. He’d usually quickly change the subject and Maggie let him, because heaven knew she wasn’t one for confrontation, but she felt it from him all the same.
“He is?” Laurie exclaimed, frowning. “I didn’t realize that. I’ve talked to Jenna about the store, but I have to say, I don’t know Zach in the same way. He always seems so laid-back, everyone kind of assumes he just rolls with whatever. And I suppose you know about his reputation with the ladies.”
“I know he’s dated a lot,” Maggie replied, unable to keep from sounding a little prim as she squirmed inwardly at the very mention of Zach’s romantic life. “But Zach and I don’t talk about that kind of stuff.” At least, not since that day in the café when he’d mentioned that you didn’t swipe right for the love of your life, a line that had stubbornly and inconveniently stuck in Maggie’s head. “And I think he does roll with whatever,” she added, realizing how true it was. Zach was practically thedefinitionof laid-back… but that attitude, Maggie thought, took a certain kind of strength. “But even if he does,” she finished slowly, “that doesn’t mean things don’t bother him.”
Laurie’s smile turned impish. “Sounds like you’ve gotten to know him pretty well there,” she remarked.
“Not like that,” Maggie said quickly, and then blushed. “I mean… we’re just friends. Obviously.”
Laurie raised her eyebrows, clearly enjoying their exchange. “Obviously?”
“I’m ten years older than him,” Maggie explained a little stiffly. “It would be kind of ridiculous if somethingweregoing on.” Even if she thought about just that more than she wanted to admit or was comfortable with herself.
