Page 18 of A Farmer’s Guide To Gamers

Kai started to open his mouth to speak but a grunt told me Dean kicked him under the table to stop him.

Meaning I had to answer.

I cleared my throat. “We all met in school. We shared a programming class. Actually, Dean made us all nervous.”

“He can look intimidating, right?” she fake whispered, side-eyeing the alpha beside her.

“I’m not intimidating,” he protested, but his eyes were still bright and happy. He hadn’t lost that look since she walked in.

“Oh, so you don’t have resting dick face?” she teased, mimicking his concentration face perfectly. The way his eyebrows always creased, his arms crossed, the works.

“She has you figured out, doesn’t she?” Kai teased, laughing along with her as she lost it.

Then her eyes found mine again, waiting for more of the story.

“We got paired up for a group project and we all just kind of clicked into place. We’re all into gaming and started out modding one of our mutual favorites, and it kind of snowballed from there.”

“Now the old man is stuck with us,” Kai shot at Dean, who picked up a chip and launched it at the beta. Kai easily caught it shooting a wink at the alpha who just rolled his eyes.

“Are they always like this?” she asked me.

“Worse,” I said, not missing a beat. “They’re on good behavior tonight.”

“Tillie!” Jade called, stealing her attention. I sucked in a shaky breath, Kai’s hand squeezing gently. People always made me nervous, but this was different.

I didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought.

Tillie, though? I needed her to like me. That thought only made my anxiety spike all over again. She was going to think I was a mess.

“Did you hear that they are all successful game developers, now?” She barely knew us and Dean’s mom was so proud she was practically bursting with it.

“Really?” Tillie asked, looking at each of us in turn. “What game?”

“Well, I wouldn’t really say—” Dean started.

“Are you saying I’m wrong, son?” Jade countered, everyone falling silent until Dean held up his hands.

“No, ma’am. I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Correct answer,” she nodded, her twinkling eyes looking at him before settling on Kai and I. “Go ahead and tell her because I can tell Sabrina isn’t letting Jack go just yet.”

“Gnome Meadows,” Dean said, looking in Tillie’s direction as her smile grew into a full grin. “We got a contract to help them polish and finish off the game, plus follow through with support with hotfixes and whatnot.”

“Oh, wow, that’s awesome!”

She looked so confused but happy at the same time it pulled a small smile from me.

“You’ve never heard of it, have you?” I asked.

“No,” she shook her head. “I’m not really a big gamer, to be honest. Not that I have an issue with games just, I don’t have a ton of free time for that.”

“Wait, wait— what’s the last game you ever played?” Dean asked, holding up a hand.

“Let me guess,” Kai jumped in, his hand leaving my knee as he started to talk with his hands, showing just how exciting the conversation had become. “Baulder’s Gate 3? Stardew Valley? Harvest Moon?”

“Never heard of them,” she replied, bursting out into laughter as Kai choked mid-sip. I slapped him on the back a few times just to fuck with him.

“Super Mario Brothers?” Jack called out, a bit too eager to avoid Sabrina’s questions.