“I can try.”
“Good.” Milo’s smile was as tight as my chest felt. After rising from his crouch, he followed me as I set my deck bag on the rear table. He lowered his voice to a bare whisper. “Give me your two easiest decks. Don’t want to exhaust the little guy further.”
“I can do that.” I picked the decks from the box and handed them over. “Pretty cool how you remembered his name.”
“He’s a hard kid to forget.”
Maybe I’d accidentally skipped lunch. It had to be the only reason for why I was suddenly all fluttery. Milo getting into the whole reason behind our cosplay should not have been enough to have my heart going all soft and gushy.
“You’re…” I swallowed, trying to get it together. “Give him a good game.”
“I’ll try.” Milo took the decks and headed over to a table with Chase and his dad.
Before I could find a game of my own, my mom wandered over from talking to one of the other dads. “I’m going to go grab a coffee. Long day today for me. Do you want anything?”
“A soda?” I asked hopefully, knowing full well her opinion on junk food. She worked from home in the accounting department for the college, and on days with more activities for April or family stuff, she often got up way early. Maybe she’d be too bleary-eyed to protest the soda.
“How about a nice refreshing water?” Laughing, she shook her head at me before her expression turned more somber. “And what’s up with you and Milo?”
I scratched behind my ear. Crap. Now I was picking up on Milo’s nervous habits. Next thing I’d be having sympathetic stomach issues. “Not sure I know what you mean.”
As usual, Mom saw right through me. Her whole face sagged. “Oh, Jasper…”
“He’s changed.” The assertion came quickly but so did the second-guessing. “I think.”
Shoulders slumping further, she blew the bangs off her forehead. “I hope you’re right. He used to be such a nice boy. I don’t know what happened there.”
I did, at least some of it, but I couldn’t share any of it with her. I’d promised, and my word meant something to me.
“I—”
“Jasper, will you play with me?” A little girl I had seen once before came over, balancing on her crutches and saving me from more Mom questions I didn’t have answers for.
“Sure thing.”
“I’ll be back.” Mom sent me a warning look as I grabbed two decks. The conversation would be revisited, I was sure, but at least I had a reprieve while she headed for coffee. I didn’t like her being all overprotective like this, but given my history with Milo, I could understand her not believing that he’d changed. Hell, I was struggling with it too. As much as I was enjoying spending time with him, a part of me was still cautious, putting up barricades around my heart and warning me against trusting too much too soon.
Grabbing a seat next to Milo and Chase, I smiled at Chase who was patiently explaining how to block a two-headed creature to Milo. I turned my attention to my own game, but every so often I spared a glance for them, my insides doing that weird flutter again as Milo fetched some water for Chase. Eventually, Chase declared himself too tired for a rematch.
“Okay, buddy. Another time?”
“Yeah.” Chase’s smile made all the work of talking Milo into cosplaying worth it.
“Come and play with Alexandra and me,” I offered. “We can teach you some tricks for multiplayer style.”
“Thanks.” Milo pulled up a chair, and we were all deep into the game when my mom returned.
“Here you go.” She slipped me a bottle of some organic soda I’d never heard of along with a cryptic look as her eyes darted back and forth between Milo and me. She settled in to talk with Alexandra’s mom on one of the nearby couches. Backing up some of his bragging, Milo turned out to have some good instincts—he was brash, quick to attack, willing to take risks. However, he kept forgetting to plan multiple turns in advance.
“You can’t go all in every time,” I advised, and Alexandra nodded. “Try to visualize your optimal board state a few turns from now.”
“But attacking is fun. I don’t like being on the defensive.”
“I know.” And boy, did I. Less than one game and I could already see Milo hated being exposed and open to attack. In keeping with his personality and our long history, he preferred to make quick, ill-advised attacks to avoid being a sitting duck. “You’re going to lose to Alex three turns from now, though, if you don’t sit tight. Trust me.”
Milo made a pained face like I was asking him to wax his eyebrows. “Nah. I better attack this turn, or I won’t be around in three turns because you’ll take me out.”