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Case in point, while her own chowder grew cold, Cindy held Summer so Chelsea and Kevin could eat.
Jace retrieved her bowl of soup. “I’ll warm it up when you’re ready for it.”
Her smile was a thing of pure beauty. “Oh, thank you.”
The bar filled up with a lot of the regulars and a few lingering tourists. They kept Jace busy all night, but he made a move on the checkerboard every time he went near Cindy’s seat. Judging by the stack of black checkers piled up next to her, she was about to beat him handily, but he didn’t mind. He’d challenge her to best two out of three to keep her there until they could talk privately.
It was nearly eleven before things died down to just a few patrons other than Cindy. When they were tended to, he returned to her, frowning as he examined the board she was once again dominating in their second game. “Are you some sort of secret checkers champion or something?”
“Nope. You’re just not very good at it.”
“I am, too!”
“No, you’re not,” she said, snorting. “You make dumb moves. Like this. See how you moved this guy here?”
“Yep.”
“That gives me an opening to do this.” She triple-jumped him. “King me.”
“Jeez. You’re merciless.”
She added his checkers to her stack. “You have to anticipate what the other player is going to do.”
“Who taught you that?”
“My father. It was one of the few things he taught me that’s done me any good in life.”
“He wasn’t a good guy, your dad?”
She shook her head.
Jace thought of the dimmer on his laptop and how it kicked in sometimes to save energy. That’s what happened to Cindy when she talked about her father. All her brightness faded.
“I’ve been thinking about the roommate situation,” she said.
“It’s okay if it doesn’t work for you. No pressure.”
“I want you to know that I appreciate how you were upfront with me about everything when you certainly didn’t have to be.”
“You deserved the truth if you were going to let me into your home.”
“A lot of people wouldn’t have been thinking about me. They’d only be thinking about themselves. You didn’t do that, and it matters to me. How would you feel about trying it for a month and seeing how it goes?”
“I can see why you’d want to do it that way, but the thing is, I need a sure thing. I want to spend the winter here so I can see my boys, and with everyone snapping up off-season housing this month, there won’t be anything left if you give me the boot after a month.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Listen, no hard feelings if you say no. I promise.”
“I’m not saying no.”
“Oh.”
She bit her bottom lip as she gazed at him with more affection than he deserved. “I guess I’ll have to just take you at your word that you’ll be a good roommate.”
“I will be. I’ll do all the cleaning.”
“Sold. I hate to clean.”
“See? I’m already the best roommate you’ve ever had.”
As he breathed a sigh of relief to know he’d found a place to live, he vowed to do everything he could to be the best roommate she’d ever have.
