Chapter 7
“Order up!” Luke called to Katya as he put the plates up on the window.
The insanity had slowed down, now that the rumor mill had done its job and all of Hawthorn Hills knew what had happened to Mom.
People he hadn’t seen since high school were still stopping him on the street, saying how good it was to see him, and asking after her.
It was nice that they cared, but he was sick of discussing it.
After the lunch rush was over, Maggie walked in. Right on time.
“Maggie!” Good thing he didn’t have any orders to fill right now. He hurried over to the punch clock. He’d had to take Mom to the hospital over in State College for a follow-up appointment so he hadn’t seen her since the oil spill. “How’s your arm?”
“It’s fine. I brought the burn cream back.” She pulled the white tube out of her purse.
“Keep it, I already replaced it.” Instead of going straight back to The Busy Bee, Luke had swung by the pharmacy first. He held his breath as she pulled her coat off, revealing an arm free of the speckled blisters he’d treated. The tightness in his chest eased.
“I’m so glad. That could have been really bad.”
“Thanks for your help.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “The flowers were a bit much, though.”
“Flowers?” What was she talking about?
Maggie’s delicate red brow lifted on her forehead. “The ones you had sent to the B&B this morning? It’s sweet but very unnecessary.”
Well, shit. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Or, maybe it was good he hadn’t, based on what she was telling her. “I, uh—”
“Hey, Luke, how are those fries coming?” Katya called from the door just as the timer for the fryer went off.
“Coming right up!” He hurried away from Maggie to the other side of the kitchen.
He plated the fries with the roast beef sandwich and handed it to Katya.
Maggie almost followed her through the swinging door, but he stopped her.
He hadn’t sent her flowers, but he still wanted to do something for her.
Luke was drawn to her, and something inside desperately wanted to spend more time with her.
“Maggie? Look, the offer for dinner still stands. We don’t have to go anywhere, you can come to my place and I can cook.” Mom would love the company. Not even a week in and she was starting to go stir crazy.
Maggie’s forehead scrunched as she considered his offer. Her thumb rubbed over her thick bottom lip. Luke’s gaze was drawn to that spot. Then she shook herself out of whatever rabbit hole she’d fallen down. “It’s not necessary, Luke. But thank you.” She patted his arm. “I need to get out there.”
Luke’s shoulders sagged, and he returned to his post to see another ticket hanging for him.
The curiosity burned. Who could have sent Maggie flowers?
Was someone else interested in her? Luke’s throat grew tight.
It shouldn’t matter. He didn’t plan to stay in Hawthorn Hills, and Maggie had just arrived.
If she had an admirer of sorts, he shouldn’t stand in the way. But he could be her friend.
As the shift wore on, they fell into that comfortable rhythm. When Luke had a minute, he texted Felix about adding another player to the Pathfinder campaign. Once he heard back, he had to wait for a lull in the Monday night dinner rush to talk to Maggie again.
“Hey, Mags!” He called into the pass-through.
“What’s up, Luke?” She lifted her chin to see him over the counter.
“What are you doing tomorrow?”
“I told you, I’m not going to dinner with you out of some—”
Luke shook his head. “Not that. Do you want to come with me to Underhill and play Pathfinder with us? My friend Felix runs the game.”
She tilted her head at him. “The bookstore?”
He answered with a nod. “Yup. Underhill Books and Games. He runs a tabletop role-playing game on Tuesday nights. I’m just getting into it, myself. Want to join me?”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“All you need is a decent imagination and some dice. And I have plenty, you can use some of mine.” He’d built quite the collection when he and Felix were teens.
She peered at him over the counter, like she was trying to decipher an ancient text. “Why?”
“It’s fun. Unless you’re not into fantasy stuff.”
“Oh.” She bit her lip and Luke swallowed a groan. Why did she have to abuse that poor piece of flesh? “That might be fun.” Then her scrutiny returned. “I never would have taken you for a nerd, Luke.” The tilt on her lips gave away her ruse, though. She was teasing.
He laughed and gave her a wink. “Don’t let the workout routine fool you. We were the nerdiest.” Luke had to keep fit for his job as an agent.
Her giggle was music to his ears. “What time?”
“Felix closes the shop at seven so we usually start around then. His friend Grace will be there, too.” Just in case she got the wrong idea about the situation, he wanted to let her know another woman would be there as well. “What do you think?”
“Okay. I’ll give it a try.” Luke wanted to crow with delight. Even if he couldn’t keep her, he was drawn to her, and wanted to get to know her outside of work.
But he just grinned and kept that to himself. “I’ll let Felix know you’re in.”
The next day was cool but clear, as Maggie walked across the town square after her shift at the diner. She’d stayed a bit later than normal, eating some of Shorty’s meatloaf so she wouldn’t be hungry for game night. Luke didn’t say anything about food or snacks.
Spring was on the way and she couldn’t help but feel that the longer days were symbolic of her coming out of a dark time in her life.
Underhill Books and Games had an interesting facade.
Unlike the rest of the stores in the square, it had faux stones along the first floor and dark timbers outlining the window.
Ironwork decorated the door, and the wrought-iron handle looked like a dragon.
When she opened it, she stifled a giggle.
The whole place had a renaissance fair vibe.
Forest green walls peeked behind dark wood bookcases.
Per Luke’s instructions, she headed for the staircase in the middle of the store and followed it down, immediately feeling like she’d walked into an ancient tavern.
More faux stone decorated these walls, an electric fireplace gave off heat in the corner, and … were those axes crossed above it?
“Maggie! You made it!” A familiar voice called. Turning around, she spied Luke rising from a chair sat at what looked like a dining table. “Let me introduce you to everyone.”
Luke pointed around the table. “This is Felix, my friend I was telling you about.”
Felix lifted his head from behind a screen, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Hi, Maggie. Thanks for coming.”
A woman sitting next to him waved. “I’m Grace. Thanks for coming, we need more estrogen around here.”
Maggie laughed. “Nice to meet you.”
“And this is Joe.”
A Black man in a polo shirt waved from the other end of the table. “Hello.”
She unzipped her coat and hung it over the back of the chair next to Luke and sat down.
“Have you ever played a game like this before?” Felix asked her.
“Nope. Luke said he’d loan me some dice, though.”
Luke had two pouches on the table in front of him. “Here.” He handed both of them to her. “Choose whichever one you like.”
One set was green, the other black. She poured the green set out and studied it. “These don’t look like the dice I’m used to.”
“I’ll show you which ones we need as we play.”
With that, Felix passed around some papers, explaining the story. “This is a new one-shot I just downloaded from Paizo. Everyone grab a character sheet.” Luke passed one to her, and she read over it. A halfling rogue?
“What’s a halfling?”
“Did you see The Lord of the Rings?” asked Grace.
“A long time ago,” Maggie answered.
“Think of a halfling like a hobbit.” She smiled. “I got the human wizard.”
“I’m an orc fighter,” laughed Luke. “So big, green, and ugly.”
Maggie had to bite back her response, which was to say that Luke could never be ugly. Nope, not going there.
“I’m the gnomish bard.”
“And I’m just going to run the campaign, for once.
” Felix said with a sigh. He looked over his screen at Maggie.
“Normally, we don’t have enough players for me to just focus on the campaign.
If you decide this is something you want to continue, we can roll you up a character and work you into our main campaign. But no pressure.”
“What do you do normally then?”
Grace shrugged. “Felix has his own campaign that he’s writing, or if we’re not feeling like it, then we play normal board games for three people. But with Luke back in town, and now you, maybe we can play some different games.”
Luke shifted in his seat. “I’m only back temporarily, Grace. I was supposed to be on leave for a month.” He turned to Felix. “Sure, Mom’s off her feet for three months, so I’ll be here a bit longer, but don’t make a long-term campaign with me in mind.”
Felix smiled sadly and adjusted his glasses. “I know.”
Grace pouted. “Damn, I thought it was going to be like old times again.”
“You’re on leave? Are you in the military?” Maggie turned to him, confused. Surely Deb would have mentioned her son was in the military.
“No, I work for the FBI. I just got done with a long-term undercover mission and needed a break.”
FBI? What was it with her and law enforcement officers? Couldn’t she be attracted to someone safe?
Those agents used guns just like Sean did.
A memory of Sean waving his sidearm around when he was drunk one night flashed through her mind, and she shut her eyes against it as her throat tightened.
The shiver running down her spine had nothing to do with the temperature in the basement, and everything to do with the crazed rant Sean had gone on that night.
Maggie bit her lip. Right. That had been the time federal agents took over his investigation. He’d hated the Feds for taking his case from him.
And took it out on her.