Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body (A Page Turners Novel) (34 page)

“That’s what I’m calling about, actually. I’ve had a little excitement since I saw you last.”

“Since yesterday?”

“Oh, yes. But I hoped to get the whole group together and tell you all at once. Edna and I can pick you up, and we can head to Maggie’s. She said she was working at home this weekend, so she’s probably holed up in her office and would appreciate the break. Can you and Piper get away for an hour or so?”

“Hold on.” Cassie stuck her finger to her mouth and licked off the silky chocolate frosting as she looked across the kitchen to where Piper sat. She was curled into the chair by the fireplace, her ears plugged with the headphones from her Ipod. Cassie had to smile as she marveled at the changes in the young girl. Tara had convinced her that her natural blond
e
color was “ultra-fabulous” and had helped her to bleach it back.

Ever since the Luau party Tara had hosted at the beginning of the summer, the girls had become fast friends, and Tara could be found seated at Cassie’s dinner table several nights a week. They swapped music and clothes, and Piper could regularly be seen now in a whole rainbow of colors. The dark black eye makeup was gone, and so was the look of sadness that Cassie was afraid would be permanently etched on Piper’s face.

Cassie came around the center island and tugged on Piper’s foot as it dangled over the side of the chair, tapping along to the music being pumped into Piper’s ear.

Piper pulled one earphone loose as she looked up at Cassie. “What’s up?” she asked.

“Sunny’s on the phone. She’s coming to pick us up. Do you wanna go over to Maggie’s with us for a little bit?”

“Is Drew back?” Piper asked and eagerly leaned forward.

“No. It’s just the girls.”

“Oh,” she sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I guess I’ll come.”

“Count us in,” Cassie said into the mouthpiece of the phone.

“Okay, see you in ten.”

* * *

“Hey, Maggie,” Sunny called thirty minutes later, as the group walked into Maggie’s office at the front of her house. The front door had been ajar, and they heard music playing, so after they knocked, Edna, Cassie, Piper and Sunny traipsed in.

“Aaahhh!” Maggie shrieked. “What are you guys doing here?”

Sunny looked at the computer screen Maggie had been frantically tapping away at, expecting to see boring word documents full of legal jargon, like heretofore and whereas. But instead of the black and white lines of wording, her screen glowed with the bright blues, greens, and purples of a magical world filled with elves and dwarves and two-
handled weapons.

“
I think the question is,
what are
you
doing here?” Sunny asked with a grin as she stepped closer to the computer.

Maggie’s hands fluttered across the desk, and she reached for the mouse to close the screen. Her hair was disheveled on one side of her head, and Sunny didn’t think she’d ever seen her so flustered.

Before Maggie closed the screen, Sunny spied the beautiful blond
e
-haired character of Kynsya, and her huge white tiger, Chaos, prowled the screen behind her.

“Maggie, you’re Kynsya!” Sunny gasped. “You’re the magical hunter who helped me.”

Maggie put her head in her hands in a gesture of defeat.

“Wait. Who’s Kynsya?” Cassie looked from Maggie to Sunny and back again. “What’s going on?”

“And what the hell is a magical hunter?” Edna asked.

“It’s a character in World of Warcraft,” Sunny explained. “Remember my date with Jeremy?”

“The cute Clark Kent dark-hair and glasses guy?” Cassie asked at the same time that Edna nodded and said, “Mabel’s grandson.”

“Right, on both accounts,” Sunny said. “Well, remember our date was a whole group of people playing an online video game together?”

“The game where you sucked and got everyone killed?” Piper asked.

“That’s the one,” Sunny answered. “And I would have sucked worse if I wouldn’t have had this other player come in and help me all the time. She was like my guardian angel in the game. Her name was Kynsya, and she was a magical human hunter. I thought she was just a really nice person who could tell I was a beginner. Or in my fantasies, I thought Jake may have signed on and was protecting me in the game. But all along, it was really Maggie.”

Maggie looked at Sunny, dumbfounded. “You really thought Jake would go create a character in some obscure game just to protect you from a pretend dragon
?
You are such a nerd.”

“Me
?
You are the one who actually did that, so you are the nerd
.
But how did you know I would be playing that game, and how could you be good enough to help me out?”

“All right
!
All right!” Maggie threw up her hands and stared at the group in defiance. “I know when I’m busted. So, I’m actually a closet video gamer. The boys used to play this game, and one day I sat down at their computer and got sucked into this world of dragons and magic and elves. So I secretly set up my own accounts and created my character, and I play at night when the boys have gone to bed.”

“Cool,” Piper said and gained a small grin from Maggie.

“Why is it such a secret?” Edna asked.

“Because I am a grown woman who has a successful career. I am a partner in a prestigious law firm, and I waste tons of hours in a fantasy land playing a video game,” Maggie cried. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“Oh, Maggie.” Sunny put her arm around her friend’s shoulder and patted her arm. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Plenty of women play that game, and I think it’s great you found a fun outlet to escape into. We all need that sometimes.”

“Heck, yeah
,” Edna said. “I escape into Springfield every afternoon when I watch Guiding Light on the boob-tube. If I had a way to get in there and hang out with the Spaulding’s and the Bauer’s, I sure would. Well, maybe not Alan, he’s kind of a crabby old guy, but I sure wouldn’t mind hangin’ out with those Lewis boys.”

“Ewww,” Piper said. She wrinkled her nose in an ‘old people talking about sex’ kind of disgust.

“So, I’m still confused,” Cassie said. “How did you get into the game Sunny was playing on her date
?
Is everybody who plays that game all in it together?”

“Oh no, there are thousands of people who play and several separate worlds. You have to get invited into a raid,” Maggie paused as she watched their eyes glaze over in confusion. “It’s complicated to explain, but I was over at Sunny’s the night of that date, and I met Jeremy. Remember how Sunny spent twenty minutes in the yard with Jake watching her dog puke up her panties?”

They all nodded, and Sunny cringed at the memory, not only out of embarrassment, but at the loss of a pair of eighteen dollar lace panties to her dog’s digestive tract.

“Well, while they were outside, Jeremy and I got to talking, and he told me what you were doing that night. How he was taking you to play World of Warcraft. I don’t know what came over me, but I found myself telling him how I was a closet Warcrafter myself. We got to talking about the game and our characters, and realized we had been playing together on and off for the last year. He told me where you would be playing that night and invited me to join the raid. But I made him swear not to tell Sunny it was me.”

“Well, he kept his word because he never said anything about you to me,” Sunny assured her.

Suddenly, the sound of the back sliding door being opened had the group all turn toward the kitchen.

Their eyes widened in collective surprise as the sound of a male voice called out, “The steaks are ready, babe.”

Shocked, they looked from the office door to Maggie, then like horses released from the gate, they all sprang into action pushing each other out of the way to see who belonged to this male voice and why he was calling their friend, ‘babe’?

They barreled into the kitchen as one unit to see the back side of a dark-haired man wearing khaki shorts and a black polo shirt reach into Maggie’s cabinet for some plates. A platter holding three thick juicy steaks sat on the counter in front of him, and Sunny wasn’t sure if they began salivating at the delicious scent of grilled meat or at the view of said backside.

The man turned, and his eyes widened in shock at the sight of five women gawking at him from the other side of the kitchen island.

“You must be the Pleasant Valley Page Turners,” he said, grinning. His eyes sparkled behind his glasses, and his hair poked up from a cowlick above his right eyebrow. “Hi, Sunny,” he said.

“Hey, Jeremy,” Sunny said, a smile breaking out on her face as she leaned her hip against the kitchen counter.

“Jeremy?” Edna asked. “Mabel’s grandson?”

“I’m really glad to finally meet you all. I’ve heard so much about you,” he said.

“Well, we haven’t heard anything about you.” Edna folded her arms across her bony chest. “So, somebody better start talking.”  She looked at Maggie with one eyebrow raised.

“We’ve already established this is Jeremy,” Maggie said, and had the nerve to act pissed at them. “What else do you want to know?”

They stood silent for a moment and looked from Maggie’s sullen frown to Jeremy’s open-faced grin, and then Cassie stepped forward, her hand outstretched.

“Hi, Jeremy.” She reached across the island to shake his hand. “I’m Cassie. I’m so glad to meet you. And this is my niece, Piper.” She gestured toward the younger girl.

“Hi.” Piper gave a little wave.

He came around the island and extended a hand to Edna
.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Allen. My grandmother speaks very highly of you.”

“Well, don’t believe a thing that old bat tells you,” Edna said as she shook Jeremy’s hand.

“She said you were a good friend to her, but she didn’t tell me how lovely you were,” he said, pouring on the charm.

“See what I mean
?
She’s always leaving out the good stuff.”

Sunny turned and watched Maggie as this interchange took place. She saw a look of amusement and pride on her face as Jeremy worked to charm Cassie and Edna. Maggie’s face then reddened as Jeremy moved to stand beside her and wrap his long arm around her waist.

“I didn’t know they were coming,” she whispered to him, though they could all hear her plainly.

“I think it’s great,” Jeremy said, addressing them all as a group. “I want to meet your friends.”  He reached down and tilted Maggie’s chin up so he could look into her eyes. “I plan on being in your life for a long time.”

Sunny swallowed around the lump in her throat and looked at Cassie, whose eyes brimmed with tears.
What a bunch of saps we are.

“That’s fine and dandy,” Edna snapped, “but how did you end up in her life in the first place
?
How did you all get from some magical computer
game to cooking steaks
at Miss
Maggie-I’ve-Never-Seen-Her-Hair-Messed-Up-Like-That-Before’s?”

Maggie blushed again and self-consciously raised a hand to flatten her mussed hair at the same time Jeremy slid his hand up and re-mussed her dark tresses.

“I had known Maggie before, as Kynsya in the game. When I met her in person, she took my breath away.”  He turned to Sunny and shrugged as he said, “No offense.”

“None taken,” Sunny replied. “Our Mags is a stunning beauty.”

Maggie glared at her as Jeremy continued his story. “I found out that night that she was a lawyer, and it didn’t take much digging to find her firm and her email address. I
am
fairly skilled with a computer.”

“Yes, we know you somehow eke out a living playing little games on your computer,” Edna scoffed.

“He doesn’t just play the games,” Maggie spoke up in Jeremy’s defense. “He designs the games and runs his own company. As a matter of fact, he designed and patented
Call To Action
.”

“Really
?
I love that game,” Piper said, finally interjecting into the conversation. “All the kids at my school play it.”

“Thank you.” Jeremy nodded to Piper. “It’s always good to know when one of my games is well-received.”

“One of?” Cassie asked.

“He’s designed several popular games,” Maggie said proudly. “He’s really quite brilliant.”

“So that still doesn’t explain…” Sunny said and gestured to the two of them.

“Right,” Jeremy said. “So I started to email her at work, then that progressed to a lot of text-messaging, then nightly phone calls. After a few weeks, she finally agreed to go to lunch with me.”

“So that’s why you’ve been so devoted to that Blackberry lately.” Sunny grinned. “Here we thought you were working on a big case.”

“A big case of tall, dark and handsome,” Edna said.

“It was just lunch,” Maggie said and pulled a face at Edna. “But then that lunch led to some dinners and then to a movie…”

“And then your boys go out of town, and you plan a special date, and four of your closest friends show up in the middle of it,” Cassie finished. “Oh, Mags, we’re sorry. We had no idea.”