Colorado 01 The Gamble (79 page)

I watched her go, having seen the look in
Max’s eyes and thinking for the first time since I met Kami that I
desired her continued presence.

Max’s hand curled around the back of my neck
then it used my neck to curl me to his front. I tipped my head back
to look at him and braced.

“
Forgot to tell you this, babe, with Jeff
and all and considerin’ this shit’s a onetime deal what I’m gonna
say won’t matter since this isn’t gonna happen to you again but…”
his face got closer, “anyone, a guy, a woman, a fuckin’
Martian
traps you against a car and
gets in your face and the first person you tell ain’t me and you
wait more than two seconds to tell me, it’s not gonna make me
happy.”

I started to defend myself, saying, “Max
–”

He cut me off. “No response required.”

I really wanted to make a response and
further I wanted to make a response about him telling me I couldn’t
make a response. However, he was, as usual, annoyingly right. I
should have told him. So I pressed my lips together and I pressed
them together tightly. Max watched me for several long seconds then
his eyes dropped to my mouth.

Then he asked, “You gonna explode?”

I unpressed my lips and answered,
“Maybe.”

It was at that moment Max burst out
laughing and at the same time my mother called. I decided a good
evasive maneuver was to answer my mobile which I did only to have
her shout on the phone at me for ten minutes about my disappearing
act, ending her tirade telling me she and Steve were at Drake’s and
would Max and I “grace us with your presence” (her words) for a
drink.

Since we were within walking distance, Max
and I met Mom and Steve at Drake’s. Then I calmed Mom and Steve
down when they saw my face. And, shortly after, Mom and I had a
heated discussion about the fact that Max and I weren’t going to
some fancy seafood restaurant a town over with her and Steve that
night.

“I don’t have anything to wear,” I’d finally
snapped.

“
Nina!” she’d snapped back in horrified
maternal affront (Mom style). “I taught you how to pack better,
surely. You
always
bring
something nice. I don’t care if you’re staying in a shack in the
Adirondacks. You come prepared for a nice night out!”

“I already used my fancy outfit when Max and
I went to The Rooster,” I informed her.

Mom had a ready answer which, by the way,
was also an oft-used answer to nearly all Mom’s problems. “Then
we’ll go shopping.”

“I’m tired Mom, I got beat up last night,” I
reminded her. “I want a cozy night in.”

She waved her hand around and stated, “Good
seafood will take your mind off all that. You love seafood.”

“
Mom, we’re in
Colorado
. You eat
steaks
here and buffalo
burgers and, I don’t know, elk or something. You don’t go
to a seafood restaurant.”

“I do,” Mom retorted.

I looked at Steve. Steve shrugged.

Mom caught my look at Steve and gave in but
the way she did made that Max Unhappy Shimmer fill the air. “Okay,
you’re tired then I’ll make you two dinner at Max’s house.”

I opened my mouth but luckily Steve, likely
noting the shimmer, intervened.

“Nellie, let Nina and Max have a quiet
night.”

“I can do quiet,” Mom replied.

Steve stared at her, brows raised and even
Mom knew she had no hope of making the case for being able to do
quiet.

Then Mom looked at me and her face fell
before she whispered, “I never see you.”

I sighed, leaned into her and took her hand.
“Yes, but soon I’ll be a short plane ride and a two hour car ride
away, not a continent and an ocean away.”

Mom’s face grew gentle, her eyes moved to
Max, naked gratitude filled them and she looked back to me.

“Right, tonight you and Max get a cozy
night, tomorrow I get you.” She looked back at Max and asked,
“Deal?”

“Deal,” Max replied in his gravelly
voice.

I started to release her hand but she held
on tight and gave my hand a rough shake. “And Nina, sweetie,
you
ever
run away
from Max again and get yourself beat up, you’ll answer to me. Is
that understood?”

Apparently I hadn’t calmed Mom down about my
face so in order to do that, I used my other hand to cup her cheek,
leaned even closer and I promised on a whisper, “Understood.”

She smiled at me, released my hand, I
dropped my other one, we finished our drinks without any further
drama and Max took me up the mountain.

Which brought me to now, tidying up the prep
dishes with Max, in his kitchen, a new drama, at least for me.

This was because, firstly, Max was helping
me tidy up. Niles could, if pressed (repeatedly), fill a dishwasher
but mostly he ignored the dishes until his cleaning lady did them
once a week. If I cooked for Niles, I did the clean up because
Niles’s efforts were halfhearted at best and, if I let him try, it
annoyed me so to avoid being annoyed, I just cleaned up.

Max was a natural.

Okay, so he didn’t wipe down the counters,
he was more a rinse and load man, but he also was capable of
putting away food which was a clear plus.

This drama was, secondly, because it dawned
on me that this was my future, making dinner and tidying up with
Max.

Why something this simple seemed
overwhelming in a weirdly spectacular way I had no idea, but it
did.

It was so spectacular, I was standing, the
sponge in my hand after wiping down the counter and staring
unseeing at Max, deep in my thoughts when he called, “Babe?”

My body jolted and I focused on him.

“What?”

“You all right?”

Yes I was all right. I was so all right, I
had the desire to fling the sponge aside and throw myself at him
bodily and show him how all right I was.

I didn’t do this. I just moved to him then
around him to get to the sink and rinsed the sponge, saying, “Yes,
just tired.”

Max moved in behind me, curling an arm
around my middle and using his other hand to shift the hair off my
shoulder. Then I felt his lips at my neck and his hand slid up to
my ribs.

“You haven’t been favorin’ this, Duchess,
that mean it feels okay?”

His hand, I realized, was over the boot
bruise, a location, I also realized, he’d clearly memorized for
he’d honed in on it with pinpoint accuracy.

My stomach melted yet again and I nodded,
admitting, “A twinge here and there, if I move too fast, but mostly
yes, I’m okay.”

“Good,” he muttered against my skin and then
moved away.

I sighed happily and squeezed out the
sponge, putting it on the edge of the sink.

Max got out plates, I got out the nachos. I
loaded up our plates and gunked the chips up with all the extras
while Max got us both a beer.

Then we took them into the living room where
Max had started a fire. Even though it was snug, we squeezed into
the chair together. I put my beer on the table and Max wedged his
between his thighs, his stocking feet resting on the ottoman,
ankles crossed. I curled facing him with my feet in the seat of the
chair, my calves pressed tight against his lounging hip and we ate
with plates in hand close to our faces.

“Do you think Shauna and Robert killed
Curtis and the PI?” I asked after swallowing a big, delectable bite
of loaded corn chip.

“No,” Max answered and I stared at him.

“You don’t?”

He shook his head and shoved nachos in his
mouth.

“Evidence is indicating it’s her,” I pointed
out.

Max swallowed then unwedged his beer and
took a pull.

Wedging it back, his eyes came to me.
“Believed it the other day, what you said. Now, the drywall dust?
That I don’t believe. Someone’s framin’ her.”

“Really?”

He lifted a chip heavy with meat, cheese and
fixings and replied, “Really.” Then he stuffed it in his mouth and
after chewing but before swallowing, he noted, “Your nachos are
better than your fish pie.”

“You think?”

“Absolutely,” he swallowed and finished,
“fuckin’ great.”

I smiled, pleased beyond reason that he
liked my nachos. It felt like he’d told me he thought I could rule
the world while carrying on a successful career as a
supermodel.

“Thanks,” I muttered, suddenly feeling timid
though still pleased and I looked at my plate and scooped up a
chip.

“Duchess,” he called and my eyes went from
my chip to him to see he was grinning at me. “Honey, you gotta know
you can cook.”

“Um…” I mumbled and he shook his head.

Then he turned his attention back to his
plate, murmured, “Cute,” and scooped up his own chip.

I decided, since he was being nice and I
still wasn’t used to that, to change the subject.

“So, why does the drywall put you off the
idea of Shauna doing the deed?” I asked and put my chip in my
mouth.

“Woman isn’t stupid,” Max muttered after
swallowing and while digging out another chip.

“You found out she was fooling around with
Curt while she was with you,” I reminded him.

“She wanted me to, thought it’d make me
jealous,” Max told me.

“Oh,” I whispered and picked up another
chip.

“Shauna wouldn’t be sloppy. That’s sloppy.
Clearin’ out her house and not cleanin’ away evidence?” Max shook
his head, grabbed his beer and muttered, “Sloppy.” He took a drink,
I twisted to get my beer and twisted back.

“So who did it?” I asked.

“Who knows? Someone who hated Curt, someone
who hated Shauna and town’s full of them.”

This was true and one could almost feel
sorry for the both of them.

But only almost.

I sipped beer then queried, “And Kami?”

Max looked at me. “Kami, I figure, got
fucked. For whatever reason, Shauna was ready to move on, maybe
with this Robert guy and, seein’ as he stands to lose everything he
hitches his star to hers, Shauna wouldn’t care who she ripped off
to keep livin’ the good life without workin’ for it, ‘cept on her
back.”

“Even Kami?”

“She’d take advantage of Harry, who isn’t my
most favorite person right now but he’s always been a good guy,
she’d take advantage of Kami.”

“But Kami’s her friend, has been for
years.”

“If you think about it so have I and so have
Bitsy and Harry, she fucked us all without blinkin’.”

“Did you ever give her money?” I blurted and
only his eyes sliced to me, his head still faced his plate and I
whispered, “Sorry, dumb question.”

“I ain’t stupid either, Duchess.”

“I know that,” I said quickly.

“I know you do.” He scooped another chip,
shoved it in his mouth, chewed, swallowed and continued, “Though,
we went out, she never reached for her wallet.”

I bit my lip and twisted to put back my
beer.

When I righted myself and studiously turned
my attention back to my plate, at the same time vowing the next
time we went out to dinner that I’d at least reach for wallet, Max
spoke.

“Different, babe, totally.”

My eyes went to him. “Sorry?”

What he said next told me he’d read my face
again.

“I was just fuckin’ her, you’re my woman,
totally different.”

“
I wasn’t your woman when we had buffalo
burgers… or steaks at The Rooster for that matter.”

“Yeah you were, for both. Especially The
Rooster, babe. We fought about you movin’ out here on the way
there.”

Okay, I had to give him that one.

“But I’d practically just met you when we
had buffalo burgers,” I pointed out.

“Yeah? So?”

“I wasn’t your woman.”

“Babe, you were.”

“How’s that?”

“You just were.”

I stared at him and he returned my stare.
Then he calmly turned back to his plate and dug out another
chip.

After he chewed and swallowed, I asked, “So,
you’d let a woman pay for dinner?”

“Nope,” he stated firmly. “But don’t mind
she goes for her wallet. She won’t use it but I don’t mind it.”

“So I should have gone for my wallet?” I
pushed and his eyes cut back to mine.

“Did you not get my earlier point?”

“Max –”

He turned slightly toward me and dropped his
plate to hold it at his thigh.

“
All right, we should talk about this
anyway and you’re obviously twistin’ this in that head of yours so
we’ll get this straight. This works out, babe, I’m not gonna give a
shit if a woman goes for her wallet because there won’t be another
one I take out, ‘cept you. And
you
never go for your wallet. How we work out the money shit,
we work it out private, at home. We go out, I pay, always. That
work for you or do we have to talk about it for half an
hour?”

“That isn’t the point, the point is –”

“
The point is, you’re worried you’ve been
rude when I’m sayin’, Duchess, it woulda pissed me off
you
went for your wallet. Shauna, I
didn’t give a fuck because she didn’t matter.
You
matter.”

This was a really good answer, so good I
wasn’t breathing properly so I kind of wheezed, “Okay.”

“You get my point?”

I was still wheezing when I said, “Yes.”

Max watched me wheeze awhile then when I
controlled it and turned my attention back to my nachos, he
queried, “How is it you can be irritating and adorable at the same
fuckin’ time?”

“Just me, I guess,” I quietly told my
nachos.

“Yeah,” he muttered and I looked at him to
see he’d brought his plate up and was digging back in but he was
doing it grinning.

“Max?” I called and he looked at me, chip
held suspended.