Dream Lake (Friday Harbor #3)(84)

Sam grinned. “This is Friday Harbor, Alex. A supportive close-knit community where we all live to know the sordid personal details of each other’s lives. It would be easier to list who hasn’t told me. You’ve been seen out with Zoë about a hundred times, you’ve been remodeling her cottage, your truck has been parked in her driveway overnight … I hope you didn’t think any of this was a secret.”

“No, but I didn’t figure on everyone being so damn interested in my private life.”

“Of course they are. It’s no fun to gossip about something that’s not private. So about you and Zoë—”

“I’m not talking about it,” Alex informed him. “Don’t ask me how the relationship is going, or where it’s headed.”

“I don’t care about that stuff. All I want to know is how hot the sex is.”

“Mind-blowing,” Alex said. “Orgasms on a cellular level.”

“Damn,” Sam said, looking impressed.

“All the more amazing in light of the fact that there’s usually an old lady in the house, and a cat howling outside the door.”

Sam laughed quietly. “Well, you’ll have a chance at some time alone with Zoë next week. I’m going to New York for a few days to help Lucy settle into her new apartment. So if you’ve moved your stuff here by then …”

“It’ll take me half a day at most,” Alex said. Hearing a text message alert from his phone, he pulled it from his back pocket. It was from his real estate broker, who had recently been approached with a potential offer for Alex’s Dream Lake parcel. Although Alex had said he wasn’t interested in selling—he wanted to develop the land himself—the Realtor had insisted that this offer was worth considering. The buyer, Jason Black, was a video game designer for Inari Enterprises. He was looking for a place to build some kind of a learning community retreat. The project would be huge, with several buildings and facilities. Whoever built it would make good money. “And here’s the interesting part,” the Realtor had told Alex. “Black wants it all built LEED certified, with all the latest environmental and energy-saving requirements. And when I told his broker that you were accredited and you’d had experience building green-certified homes … well, now they’re interested in talking to you. There’s a chance you could sell the property with the stipulation that you’d be hired as the builder.”

“I like working on my own,” Alex had said. “I don’t want to sell. And the idea of having to answer to a video game geek—how do I know he’s not a flake?”

“Just meet with him,” the Realtor had pleaded. “We’re not just talking good money, Alex. We’re talking sick money.”

Glancing at his brother, it occurred to Alex that Sam might be familiar with the game company. “Hey, do you know anything about Inari Enterprises?”

“Inari? They just came out with Skyrebels.”

“What’s that?”

“What rock have you been living under? Skyrebels is the fourth installment in the Dragon Spell Chronicles.”

“How could I have missed that?” Alex wondered aloud.

Sam continued with enthusiasm. “Skyrebels is the most played game out there. They sold over five million in the first week of release. It’s a role-playing open world format that features nonlinear emergent play, and it’s got this incredible graphic fidelity with self-shadowing and motion blur—”

“In English, Sam.”

“Let’s just say it’s the biggest, best, coolest time waster of a game ever known to man, and the only reason I don’t play it twenty-four hours a day is because I occasionally need to take a break for food or sex.”

“So have you heard of Jason Black?”

“One of the top game creators of all time. Kind of mysterious. Usually a guy in his position speaks at a lot of gaming industry events and award shows, but he keeps a low profile. He has a couple of front men to do appearances and speeches for him. Why are you asking?”

Alex shrugged and said vaguely, “Heard he might want to buy property on the island.”

“Jason Black could afford to buy the entire island,” Sam assured him. “If you have a chance to do anything associated with him or Inari, take it and run.”

“Is it a game like Angry Birds?” Zoë asked a few days later, when Alex told her about Skyrebels.

“No, this is an entire world, like a movie, where you can explore different cities, fight battles, hunt for dragons. There’s a potentially unlimited number of scenarios. Apparently you can take time out from the main quest to read books from a virtual bookshelf or cook virtual meals.”

“What is the main quest?”

“Damned if I know.”

Zoë smiled as she scraped cooled melted white chocolate from a small saucepan into a bowl. She and Alex were alone at the house on Rainshadow Road. Sam had gone to visit Lucy in New York, while Justine had volunteered to stay with Emma at the Dream Lake cottage. “I’m not doing it for Alex, I’m doing it for you,” she had told Zoë. “You should have an occasional night when you don’t have to worry about Emma.”

Setting aside the empty saucepan, Zoë said, “Why would anyone want to spend that much time in a virtual world instead of the real one? You could go to all the trouble of making a virtual meal, but you still wouldn’t have a real dinner to eat.”