Mind Games

He really had to think about replacing his Granny’s old, half-sprung sofa.

Open space, plenty of light. A kind of sitting room/library on one side, and …

“Wow, this is where you work.”

She’d given herself space—exactly what he wanted for himself, and what he’d given up in Philadelphia.

A good, solid workstation, one he assumed she needed for all the equipment. What he considered a thinking couch, and a wall of mirrors he couldn’t explain.

A wall rack holding three—count them, three—swords.

“You have more swords.”

“I do.”

And nunchucks, he noted, some sort of bamboo stick, and an actual spear. All, fortunately, up out of reach of his son.

“Expecting a war?”

“I do design them.”

“Yeah.” He scanned the sketches on her board, others in frames. “I didn’t realize you actually drew them. I figured you used the computer.”

“I do both.”

“It’s Tye, Daddy! Twink, Gwen, Zed, and Mila. It’s Mog. She’s bad!”

“She’s the worst,” Thea agreed.

“I like Tye. He’s brave and flies on a horse. But he’s grown-up. He’s little like me! Janey says he looks like me and everything.”

“He plays the kids’ version,” Ty explained. “Janey is Scott’s sister’s daughter. She babysits some. He likes to be Tye in the game, and the play set.”

“’Cause he looks like me, and he has a flying horse. Can I have the cookie?”

“You bet.”

She led them back to the kitchen with its open plan expanding to a lounge, a dining room, its wide glass doors leading to the porch, the gardens, the yard.

After setting the little vase on the island, she poured lemonade, plated some golden cookies.

“I’m mentally stealing some of your house design if I do anything with mine.”

“You’re welcome to.”

Bray downed his lemonade, then bit into a cookie. “This is yummy. Can I see the chickens?”

“I know they’d love to see you.”

“Go ahead. Just a few minutes,” Ty added as Bray and the rest of his cookie streaked out the door with Bunk beside him. “It looks like you were going out.”

“No. Oh.” She glanced down at her dress. “No, I had a family thing this morning, then had that urge to bake cookies. And now I feel a bigger urge to confess. There’s a reason Scott’s sister’s daughter says Tye Smith looks like Bray. The child version.”

Fascinated, Ty watched embarrassment flicker in her eyes.

“You see, when I had the idea to add his character to the second Endon game … It was right after my friend Maddy and I—the doctor?”

“Yeah, I’ve met her.”