Page 142 of The Seven Rings
“We don’t need matchy-matchy. We don’t want everything to look all staged and set, but fun, comfortable. It’ll go so well, and it’s just right for what I have in mind.”
“It’s pretty big,” Trey pointed out. “And the game room’s one of the smaller spaces in the manor.”
“You’re right.” Before she deflated, inspiration struck. “But there are bigger spaces down a level. We’ve got the gym, the movie theater down there already. It’s a better place for a real game room.”
“So down, let’s see.” Tapping his fingers, Owen pretended to calculate. “Four flights of stairs. I want to book hernia surgery in advance.”
“Book mine while you’re at it.”
Sonya just patted Trey’s hand because she could see it—how it could look, how it could be used and appreciated.
“Video games—we move a couch down there, a couple of comfortable chairs. Poker, that gorgeous old table, more chairs. The display for the games. A pool table, unless you fear us—an old one. And a vintage pinball machine.”
“Pinball.” Trey stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Damn it, hit a weak spot.”
“A bigger weak spot with vintage,” Owen agreed.
“Now you’re caught in my web. But you can see it, right? Obviously, it can’t be this minute, but it’d be great. Collin made good use of the spaces he opened up down there. But there’s so much more. We shift the game room down there, expand it. And we do something else with the current game room.”
“Such as?” Trey wondered.
“I don’t know yet.” She waved a hand in the air. “We’ll figure it out.”
Plan in place, to her mind, she put a sticky note on the bookcase.
“You know what this house is missing?” Trey asked.
Owen answered, “A freight elevator.”
Grinning, Trey pointed at him. “Great minds.”
After a productive weekend—with a spontaneous poker game on the table in the ballroom, the bliss of a Sunday sail—Sonya rose on Monday early enough to find Owen in the kitchen.
“About to head out. I got a workout in.”
“I’m about to do that myself.”
“That folding card table, the chairs we found, the backbreaker bookcase?”
“Yeah, yeah.” She headed for coffee. “We’ll enlist more muscle for that.”
“You don’t need to, seeing as it’s already down there. The table, chairs, the bookcase.”
“You and Trey already got it down there?”
Owen just looked at her. “Take a couple hits of coffee, think again.”
She did, then her eyes cleared. And widened. “Oh. Ohhh!”
“Yeah. You got a hell of a team around here.” He grabbed his go-cup, turned as Trey came in. “I canceled the hernia surgery.”
“Huh?”
“Some of the residents already moved the future game room stuff down there. Catch you later.” He went out the back, gave a whistle. Jones peeled off from his companions and fell into step with Owen.
“Huh?” Trey said again.
Sonya handed him her coffee, made another cup.
