Page 13 of Love & Lattes at The Mermaid Cafe
“Tie game. Next to score wins.” Penny retrieves the puck and pushes it across the table toward the brown and black tabby. “Now, for the riddle… What kind of coin never jingles?”
“There are two answers to this,” Lena blurts. Her eyes widen. “Oops.”
“No hints.” Penny frowns at Lena. “We don’t go soft on the tour.”
“Sorry.” Lena moves to peer at the fortune teller machine.
“Your answer?” Penny asks me. “Lena is right though. You’ll need two answers.”
“The most obvious answer is a wooden nickel.” At Penny’s nod, I glance around the arcade once more, searching for inspiration for the second answer. “Aren’t you going to tell me the history of your arcade? Has it been here for generations?” Like the other businesses we’ve been to on the tour.
“Yes, of course.” Penny beams at me. “My family has been here for six generations. It began as a vaudeville theater.”
“It’s not very large for a theater.” I’d seen larger footprints at a pizza take-away shop in downtown Berkeley.
“People were smaller back then.” Penny sniffs as if I’ve offended her. “Your answer.”
One of the cats thwacks the air hockey puck into the goal.
“Winner, winner. Chicken dinner.” Penny lifts the felines off the table. “Congratulations, Laurel. The tour participant can play now. You’ll need coins.” She nods toward the change machine, which only takes dollars, not ATM cards.
How much more old school can this place get?
An old man enters with a pair of young children. “Hello, Penny. My grandkids helped me clean house. I paid them in dimes.”
Each child has a small, red velvet bag bulging with what I assume are coins. The little girl is cradling hers to her chest but the boy is banging his against his thigh. The bag sounds more like Scrabble tiles than coins.
“Dimes,” I mutter. “Dimes don’t jingle like sleigh bells.”
“That’s right. They’re too small.” Lena smiles at me. It’s a sad smile.
“He had help solving the riddle,” Penny gripes. She presses a small wooden coin into my palm. “This is for later. If you make it to the end.”
“Let’s have that game,” Lena says quickly, almost as if she believes Penny has spilled too much herself.
“I’d rather pay for the kids to play.” I can be a bit cutthroat and I don’t want to compete with Lena. I want us to be on the same team.
Strike that. Ineedus to be on the same team.
But given we’re of different minds about what’s best for Mermaid Bay long-term, that wish will probably never come true.
Chapter Nine
Lena
“You’re nice,” I tell Cade as we leave the Penny & Dime.
“Did you think otherwise?”
“There have been plenty of real estate developers to come through here and none of them would waste a dime on making kids happy.” A particularly strong gust of wind challenges my equilibrium and has my hip bumping into his. “Sorry.”
“I’m not. Hang on to me.” Cade takes my hand. “This wind can get aggressive, can’t it? Like life sometimes.”
“I agree.” I don’t slip my hand free.
Cade has a nice hand. Strong. Warm. It curls around mine and draws me closer, until our hips brush again.
“Why didn’t your marriages work out?” Cade’s question comes out of the blue.
