Page 36 of Playing for Keeps in Starr's Fall
“We’ve got ten minutes until they’re done,” he told her. “Why don’t you show off your new skills and make me an espresso?”
“What, now?” Maggie looked at him, startled.
“No time like the present.”
“Yes, but…”
“Don’t make excuses, Mom,” Ben chimed in, sounding excited. “Go show off your mad skillz.”
“Oh, please.” She shook her head, laughing, but then under Ben and Zach’s challenging gazes, she gave a little shrug and said, “Fine. It might take a few minutes to fire up the machine, but… okay. One espresso coming up.”
“I want to see how it’s done,” Zach told her as he started following her to the stairs.
“Ben?” Maggie called back. “You coming?”
Her son shook his head. “I’m good. I don’t even like coffee.” He settled into the seat in front of the computer, while Maggie hesitated. She really hoped Ben was not trying to give her and Zach some sort ofalone time.
“I’ll let you know how this goes,” she muttered under her breath as she headed downstairs. She could feel the heat of Zach’s body as he followed behind her, and a not-unpleasant prickle of awareness ran through her. She really reacted to this man, but maybe any red-blooded woman did.
Downstairs, the café was shrouded in darkness and Maggie flipped on the lights before heading over to the shelves to inspect the finished product.
“Wow,” she said, heartfelt. “Zach, these look amazing.” He’d finished the carvings on each joint and they were both intricate and whimsical, adding a classy yet fun vibe to the whole place.
Zach came to stand behind her. “Thanks,” he said. “I really enjoyed working on them. I’ve always liked woodworking, but I didn’t realize how much until I started a bigger project.”
“And the wood is beautiful, too.” She ran her hand over the burnished oak, the light catching the gleam of gold in its grain.
“Reclaimed from some old wardrobes we had in the barn. My parents collected antiques, but not the valuable kind. They’ve just been gathering dust for years. Decades, even, so I thought I might as well put them to use.”
“Very good use,” she replied, and turned around, drawing her breath in sharply as she realized how close he was. Close enough that when she stumbled a little, he put his hands on her shoulders to steady her.
“Easy there.” His voice was a lazy murmur, his breath tickling her hair. Maggie’s heart rate soared as she breathed in his woody scent and, by some superhuman effort, managed to take a step back.
“Sorry,” she mumbled as she headed back to the kitchen. She shook her head as if to clear it, determined to get back on track. “I think you might have higher expectations of my abilities than is reasonable,” she called over her shoulder as she turned on the espresso machine and it began to hum as it preheated. “Considering I have literally one day of training.”
“I have faith in you,” Zach replied as he came to stand in the doorway of the kitchen area, watching her start up the machine. Maggie felt both self-conscious and proud as she familiarized herself with the gleaming beast of Zach’s description. Espresso machines were intimidating at the best of times, especially industrialized-sized ones made for a coffee shop, and her hyper-awareness of Zach wasn’t helping her nerves, by any means.
“First I have to grind the beans,” she told him as she opened a bag of fresh coffee beans and poured some into the built-in grinder. Zach had taken a few steps into the kitchen and she was very conscious of him standing so close that his shoulder was nearly brushing hers. “Thank you for looking after Ben today,” she continued, raising her voice over the sound of the grinder. “I really appreciate it.”
“It was fun.” Zach hesitated, and she had the sense that he was about to say something else. She slid him a sideways glance, curious and a little apprehensive, but he just smiled. Maggie flipped the switch on the grinder, and the kitchen was plunged into a sudden, expectant silence.
“Well, I still appreciate it,” she said, a little too loudly, as she poured the ground coffee into the portafilter and tamped it down. She turned to face him, something in her jolting at the sleepy yet intent look on his face, lids half-lowered, lips slowly curving. He took a step toward her, and her heart felt as if it had flung itself against her chest. “We—we’ll need to wait a few minutes for the water to heat up,” she said, sounding even louder. A blush was already rising to her cheeks which made her feel like some giggly teenager, and yet Zach had looked… he’d looked as if he’d almost been about to kiss her. Surely not. And yet… she knew how much she would like it if he did.
“Mmm—maybe you should check on the pizzas,” Maggie stuttered.
“Okay…” Zach gave her a bemused look, as if he suspected she was suggesting such a thing simply because she was unsettled by his closeness, as well as by the fact that they were alone, and that would indeed be the truth. Maggie gave him what she hoped was a breezy smile as he headed upstairs, and her breath came out in a relieved gust.
What was going on with her? Withthem? Not that there evenwasa them… although when he’d been standing so close to her, it had almost felt like there was. Was she wildly delusional, thinking for so much as a nanosecond that he was going to kiss her? He might have said he liked her, and asked her out on a date, and touched her cheek… but it still felt so hard to believe that he was doing anything but amusing himself. Biding his time till something better came along, maybe.
She needed, Maggie thought, to give herself a hard mental shake. She’d already decided she wasn’t ready for romance, and certainly not with a thirty-one-year-old semi-reformed player, and she wasn’t interested in anything casual, so…
You don’t swipe right for the love of your life.
Maggie closed her eyes. If Zach Miller was really looking for the love of his life, it surely wasn’t her. It couldn’t be. She couldn’t let it be, because she wasn’t ready and he was too young and then there was Ben…
So many reasons to be sensible about this.
“Pizzas are just about done. I turned the oven down.”
