Chapter 24

As Alicia was serving up chicken parmesan, one of Zach and Grace's favorite dinners, the doorbell rang. She glanced at the lock and when she realized that it read 6pm on the dot, she yelled to Zach. "Zach? Can you answer the door please?"

"I got it!" Grace yelled, racing her brother to the front door. She got to it first, and she and Zach were still laughing when they opened the door to find Will on the other side. "Hi, Will," Grace said tentatively, "Come on in. Mom's just serving up dinner."

"Well, it smells fabulous," Will commented as he walked into the kitchen. "Hello Alicia," he said with a smirk.

"Hi Will," Alicia replied, taking the six-pack of beer from him and setting it on the counter. "Should I open up two?"

"Only if you're joining me," Will replied.

"Oh, I'm joining you," Alicia assured him. She then realized that Zach and Grace were awkwardly standing at the edge of the kitchen, suspicious looks on their faces. She put her hands down on the table and asked, "Is the table ready? What about the games?"

"Oh, they're both ready. But can we eat first? We're both starving," Grace said, with Zach nodding in agreement.

"Sure," Alicia agreed, "Everyone grab a plate," she ordered politely, and Will followed Alicia and her kids to the dining table. They said cheers and Will couldn't help but grunt in satisfaction. "This is amazing," he complimented.

"Thank you," Alicia replied, "I'm glad I picked a good dish." She and Will smiled at each other, and Zach chose that moment to butt in with a question. "So, Will?"

"Yes?" Will replied.

"When did you and mom meet?" Zach asked.

"At Georgetown. In law school," Will replied, chuckling as he remembered all the fun memories from those years. "If I remember correctly, you took my blue Georgetown sweatshirt on the morning of graduation to borrow it and you never gave it back."

"The old blue Georgetown sweatshirt in your closet?" Grace asked in surprise, looking at her mom, and then back to Will. "That's yours, Will?"

"It was his until I decided to borrow it," Alicia replied, laughing.

"By borrow you mean keep?" Will teased. Grace and Zach laughed in amusement as Will asked, "What TV shows or movies do you guys like to watch?"

Zach didn't spare a moment before replying, "We all like to watch Game Of Thrones together. I was really happy when Joffrey died, but Grace got really mad."

"I liked him, he was a good evil character, if you know what I mean," Grace said, defending her love for the character.

Will took another sip of beer and said, "Well, I don't watch Game Of Thrones. Brooklyn-Nine Nine is more my type of show."

Alicia nearly choked on her beer. "Seriously? Chicago PD is way better."

"And don't forget Chicago Fire," Grace added. "Mom thinks that the two lieutenants are pretty hot."

"Grace!"

"Oh, come on, Mom!" Grace argued back. As Will observed that everyone was finished, he interrupted. "Why don't we clear these plates and get some games out? I brought one of my favorites."

"Sorry, Will, but Zach and Grace have already decided that we're playing Risk," Alicia replied with a hint of playfulness in her voice. "Oh really?" Will replied, turning to Zach and Grace. "And are we playing teams or every one for themselves?"

Zach and Grace flashed each other cheeky looks and said, "Us against you guys," Grace replied.

"And we're going to crush you and dominate the world," Zach asserted.

Two and a half hours later, Zach and Grace were just one battle away from beating Alicia and Will at Risk. The only land left to take?

New Zealand.

The game had started off with the land evenly split, Alicia and Will controlling Oceania, both Americas, and South Africa. Zach and Grace had ended up with North Africa, Europe, and Asia. Unfortunately, Zach and Grace had cracked many of the other team's defenses before they had a chance to build them up. And now, Alicia and Will only had three men left on New Zealand against Zach and Grace's two horses and five soldiers.

That meant fifteen versus three.

"We're doomed," Will whispered to Alicia as he prepared to roll against Grace. She was rolling with three dice and he was rolling with two. In two swift rolls, Grace had won both times, leaving only one man alive in New Zealand. Alicia volunteered to take the last roll against her son, who was rolling with three dice versus her one. They rolled the dice onto the table and Zach and Grace cheered and high-fived with joy as they kicked the last enemy soldier off the board.

"And that settles it," Will admitted, "You two rock at this game."

"Thanks," Zach replied, "It was fun beating you two. I don't know about you, Grace, but I'm tired now."

"I agree," Grace seconded. Will took that as his queue to get up and say, "Well, this was a lot of fun, but I should be getting back."

"Okay," Alicia said.

"Thank you for coming over, Will. This was a lot of fun," Zach said. Will, feeling flattered, replied, "Thank you, Zach, I had a lot of fun too. Goodnight, Grace."

"Night, Will," Grace replied politely before following her brother in the direction of their bedrooms. As Alicia walked Will to her front door, she handed him back his extra beer. "Here, take this," she insisted. "I don't need beer and wine in my fridge."

"Only since you insisted," Will fake-complained, taking the remaining two bottles of beer. "And thank you. You have two great kids."

"Thank you for coming. They seemed to have a really fun time with you," Alicia replied, grabbing Will's free hand. Will closed the distance between them and shared a passionate kiss with Alicia before opening the door. "Goodbye. See you soon."

"See you soon," Alicia repeated back, watching Will walk down the hallway and disappear around the corner. She sighed as she leaned against the inside of locked door, reminding herself that she would soon be single again.