“It’s okay,”Isaid. “We’reokay.Wecan talk about the other stuff later, if you want.Ijust needed you to hear that.”
The others came around the van then.JackandMorganwalked hand-in-hand,Philheld a carrier bag with a delightful smell wafting from it, andFatimaandAmycarried a cooler between them that looked heavy, based on the way theystruggledwith it.Igreeted each of them, butIcould see out of the corner of my eyeChloestaring at me, biting her lower lip between her teeth as if deep in thought.Itwasn’t untilJackaddressed her directly, draping his arm over her shoulder for a hug, that her gaze broke away from me.
I put on my best hosting smile, pushing down whatever conversationChloeandIhad been about to have, and picked up the boxI’ddiscarded.
“Welcome toGwenynenHollow,”Isaid, a hint of showmanship in my voice, grateful to have something to focus on other than the soft look of surprise still lingering onChloe’sface.
* * *
Speakingof being right where we needed to be,Chloewas spending more and more days at the farm.Shesaid she liked getting more spontaneous content in addition to her planned stuff, and whileIcould have done without her phone in my face quite so much, it was nice to have her around more, especially since things seemed to have eased between us since the artisan market.Itseemed to make her planning easier, too; she had suppliers and partners over to the farm all the time to go through things for the festival.She’deven stepped in to helpJenwith one of the workshops;Iusually dreaded those days, not wanting the barrage of questions enthusiastic amateurs had, butChloeexpertly steered them away and answered what she could.
She’d been spending so much time at the farm, in fact, thatMaggieandIhad taken it upon ourselves to clear out theshepherd’shut for her, a long overdue chore.Itwas hardly the place to store everything we’d piled in there, but it also meantChloedidn’t have to spend hours of each day on the bus if she didn’t want to, andIdidn’t have to feel bad about not offering to drive her every day.Icouldn’t handle a repeat of what had happened the last timeI’ddone that.
Not that it made those lingering feelings any easier, having her stay at the farm a couple of nights a week.Thefirst time we’d bumped into each other in the farmhouse kitchen in the morning, it had taken me a good minute to realise it definitely wasn’t a dream, and it was probably weird thatIhad stood in the doorway for so long just watching her make beans on toast.
On the third or fourth night she spent at the farm,Iwas walking past the shepherd’s hut on the way in from the garden whenIsaw her struggling to open a box.Shewas sitting in the doorway, her feet on the step, clenching the red and white cardboard between her knees.
“Do you have a knife or scissors on you?” she asked me.Itook out my multi-tool and handed it to her, and she sliced through the packaging easily before handing the blade back to me. “Thanks.”
“Getting mail here now?”Iasked.
“No, it’s my new gaming console,” she said, pulling smaller boxes out of the bigger one. “It’llgive me something to do whenI’min the hut at night.”
“You bought a gaming console to avoid spending time withJenand me?”Iteased.Sherolled her eyes at me.
“I pre-ordered this months ago, thank you very much.”
“What is it?”Istepped forward, and she moved her feet to the side, gesturing for me to sit on the step below her.
“A handheld console, but it can connect to theTV, too.SoIcan play the same games here thatI’mplaying at home.”
I racked my brain for the name of literally any video game; it had never been my thing.I’dplayed some skateboarding one at a friend’s house a few times whenIwas a kid, andIwas pretty sure my college roommate had played something involving guns, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
“What do you play?”Iasked. “Like, what’s that one where you shoot people a bunch?”
Chloe laughed. “You’dhave to be more specific.Butno,Idon’t do first person shooters usually.”
“Okay, then, what kinds of games?”
Chloe paused, looking out at the farm with a frown on her face.Ifelt my cheeks flush;Imust have sounded like an idiot.
“Sorry, you don’t have to tell me,”Isaid. “Idon’t know whatI’mtalking about.”
“No, no, it’s okay,” she said, smiling at me, the evening sunlight glinting off her hazel eyes, making them look almost green. “Ijust have never had to explain types of video games to anyone, and every categoryIcan think of seems unhelpful to someone who’s never played before.”
“Sorry,”Isaid again, not sure what else to say, butChloecarried on.
“I like adventure andRPGgames mostly.So, things where you’re playing a character, and you have to figure out how to progress the story.Solvingpuzzles, fighting enemies, that sort of thing.”
“So, likeD&D,”Isaid, thinking it sounded an awful lot like what we were doing onThursdaynights.Italso sounded interesting, hearing her describe it; though, maybe it was less that the video games were interesting and more that she herself was.
She shrugged. “Mostvideo games are faster paced than that.Someare similar, though.Iplay one game pretty often that’s actually based onD&D.”
“Can you show me?”Iasked, nodding at the console.Iexpected her to laugh, or to just brush me off, but instead she smiled.
“Yeah, let me get it set up, and we can play something.”
My eyes went wide. “Oh,Ididn’t mean?—”
