Page 88 of Second Chances at the Board Game Café

‘So she had them both made for you, Emily? But then you gave the Scrabble one to the hospice shop?’

‘Yeah, Kate asked you to make the Scrabble one for the launch of my first café – The Little Board Game Café. I probably shouldn’t have given it away, but I was in a bit of a state.’ Emily sighed. ‘The landlord sold the building for development. It was bulldozed. There’s a block of flats there now.’

‘Thanks to Tarquin.’ Jo practically spat the name out.

‘Anyway,’ said Emily. ‘I didn’t want to see another board game as long as I lived after that, so I gave the dress to the hospice shop in Hebbleswick. I thought I’d better not give it to Oxfam in Essendale in case Kate saw it.’

‘And I bought it,’ said Jo. ‘In fact, I came to live here because I saw that dress in the shop window. I’m mad about Scrabble and I thought it was a sign.’

Harry suppressed a laugh. Did people really believe in that stuff? He glanced at Ludek who rolled his eyes.

‘And then when I reopened the café in its new location on the high street, Kate had this one made for my opening night. And I love it, Taylor. I really do. Even more now I know you made it.’

‘If it weren’t for the Scrabble pinafore, I wouldn’t be working here and I wouldn’t have met Razz,’ said Jo. ‘I love this dress almost as much as I love Scrabble. Max, you’re joining our school on Monday, aren’t you? Did you know we have an after-school Scrabble club? You’d be very welcome to join.’

Max wrinkled his nose. ‘What about other board games?’

‘It’s only Scrabble at the moment, but I suppose we could think about doing a general board games club too.’ Jo glanced at Emily. ‘Would we be encroaching on your business if we did?’

‘Nope,’ said Emily. ‘The more the merrier. Tell you what, you get kids really hooked on board games from an early age, and when they leave school they’ll become my customers.’

‘So my after-school club would be a kind of gateway drug to the world of board games?’

‘Yep.’ Emily laughed. ‘I could even lend you a few games to get you started.’

Harry cleared his throat. ‘I could lend some too.’

‘Ticket to Ride?’ Max looked at Harry hopefully. ‘I could teach it to the other kids.’

‘Sure,’ said Harry.

Emily and Jo eventually drifted away, taking Ludek and Razz with them, and Harry finally had Taylor and Max to himself.

‘I didn’t know you were moving schools, young man,’ he said.

‘Yeah, Sod’s law, isn’t it?’ said Taylor. ‘We move back to Essendale and he starts school in Hebbleswick, so I’m landed with a long school run every day again. But I couldn’t leave you there, could I, Max? Not with the other kids being so mean to you.’

‘So you’re going to take the train each day from Essendale to Hebbleswick, drop Max at school then come back to mine to work in the dining room?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I won’t be able to wave at you or hold up signs from the platform,’ said Max, ‘but we might be on the same train, then we could all sit together.’

‘That’d be great,’ said Harry. He liked the thought of them all getting the train together. They’d look like a family. Though when Taylor was so short of time and worked such long hours, it really didn’t make sense. He knew she liked her independence, and that he was supposed to be focusing on romancing her not helping her out, but he’d had an idea that might save her some time.

‘Why don’t you bring Max to mine on the days I’m in the office?’ he said. ‘I’ll take the train to Hebbleswick and drop him off, then get the next train through to Halifax. I could bring him back again too, depending on the time. If you trust me with him, that is.’

‘Trust you with him? Course I trust you. It seems a lot to ask though.’

‘You weren’t asking. I was offering.’

‘Can I, Mum? Can I get the train with Harry?’

Harry felt all warm and fuzzy when he heard how keen Max was. In fact, he felt almost as warm and fuzzy as he had when Taylor had said, ‘Harry, my Harry,’ as she’d stood on that catwalk, holding his hand.

The little grain of hope that one day he might be something more than a friend to Taylor, that he might even be Max’s stepdad, was beginning to grow that little bit bigger.

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