Colorado 01 The Gamble (18 page)

I did not fight this mainly because I was
focused on fighting my body’s reaction to his hands on me and his
tongue in my mouth and, unfortunately, losing.

When his head lifted, I noted vaguely he
didn’t let me go.

“You gonna be all right with the terrible
twosome?” he asked and I found it unfair he seemed capable of
breathing and standing erect. My knees had gone weak and my breath
had gone funny.

“I think so.”

“Don’t let them get you into trouble.”

“Okay.”

His face came a few centimeters closer and
he whispered, “Look out for her, yeah? She has…” he hesitated, “bad
moments.”

At this open evidence of his concern for
Mindy, something I liked a lot, my hand, moving of its own accord,
slid from his hair to cup his jaw.

“I’ll look out for her,” I promised.

His beautiful eyes looked into mine for
seconds that felt like minutes then he touched his mouth to mine in
one of his sweet, swift kisses and he pulled me from the truck.

“I’ll see you at home later,” he
said.“Okay.”

He chucked me under the chin and started to
walk around the Cherokee.

I made a massive effort to pull myself
together so I didn’t watch him like a love-struck idiot and headed
back to Mindy and Becca. He tooted his horn as he drove passed us
and I lifted my hand in a wave, hoping my wave didn’t make me look
like a love-struck idiot.

“I think he likes you,” Becca said then she
looked at Mindy who was watching me and they both giggled.

“I need to spend money,” I muttered.

“Yeah, me too,” Mindy said, linking her arm
with mine and we took off.

There weren’t some great shops in town,
there were some
really
great
shops and considering I didn’t have to pay for a wedding anymore
and I’d been saving since Niles asked me over a year ago, I went
crazy. I bought so much stuff both Becca and Mindy had to help me
carry my bags. I also found Sarah’s earrings and feeling generous I
bought all three of us a pair even though they were more expensive
than I was expecting mainly because they were heavy with silver and
beautifully crafted. Becca and Mindy tried to protest but I
wouldn’t let them. A girl who’d been raped and her friend who was
looking out for her needed new, expensive, heavy, silver,
beautifully crafted earrings. It should be a law.

We ran into practically everyone the girls
knew it seemed since we were constantly stopped in shops and on the
boardwalk. There were a lot of introductions and gabbing. I was a
curiosity since some had heard of me already and it was evident Max
was a popular person and anyone associated with him was
automatically an object of fascination most especially an outsider
with an English accent. Others, Becca and Mindy freely told,
“Nina’s with Max” which
then
made me an object of fascination.

After the curiosity about me wore off,
most of the talk was about Curtis Dodd and who might have done the
deed. Most of this was liberally interspersed with open comments
about how no one was really going to miss him. Some of it was catty
talk about Shauna who, it was evident, was
not
a popular person. There were a lot of careful
looks at Mindy who seemed to have trouble dealing with these
indicated by the pink that would tinge her cheeks. When that
happened either Becca or I would get close. Sometimes, if Mindy
started shuffling her feet or chewing at her cuticles, I’d grab her
hand. When I did this she held on tight and I’d feel the sting of
tears behind my eyes but I just held her right back.

We walked by a photography shop that
printed digital photos and I asked the girls if we could go in
because I was dying to see the photo Cotton took printed out rather
than small on the screen at the back of the camera. When we entered
it appeared to be a Shrine to Jimmy Cotton, the walls were
wallpapered with his pictures. We hung out while the photos were
printing halfheartedly looking at photography stuff we had no
interest in. When they were done, I paid for the photos and we
stood a few feet from the counter looking through them.

I came upon Cotton’s photo and stared,
stunned at what the man could do with a digital camera. The framing
was magnificent, he managed to make the bluff, river and mountains
most of the photo, Max and me at the side.

But regardless of the beauty of the vista,
it was Max and me that took my full attention.

Not surprisingly, Max was incredibly
photogenic, smiling natural and casual into the camera.

Surprisingly, even with his supreme male
beauty, I looked natural and casual, smiling at his side. My cream
cap, blonde hair and pale, wind-kissed skin was an attractive foil
to his dark handsomeness. I liked the look of us together, maybe a
bit too much.

And we didn’t look like we’d just met and
barely knew each other. We looked like we’d known each other
forever, comfortable in our close hold.

We looked even like we belonged
together.

I hadn’t realized I’d put my hand to his
stomach, my arm around his back and I noticed that I fitted into
his side like God created me specifically to slot right there. And
his hand curled at my neck, gloved fingers barely visible through
the strands of my hair, had the weird look like he was claiming me.
I was, just simply,
his.

“
I freaking
love
that picture!” Mindy cried, standing close, staring at the
photo and Becca got close too.

“Wow, awesome shot,” she breathed. “Max is
hot and you’ve got the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”

I started, tore my eyes from the photo and
looked at Becca. “I’m sorry?”

Becca’s gaze came to my face. “Prettiest
eyes, Max said it too.”

I blinked and felt my eyebrows go up just as
I felt a pleasant warmth wash through me.

“I’m sorry?” I repeated.

“Max said you’ve got the prettiest eyes he’s
ever seen.”

Oh my
God.

“He said that?” I whispered and Becca
grinned.

“Yeah, the other day, when, um…” Her gaze
slid to Mindy who was listening then came back to me. “He said it
the other day when we were talkin’ ‘bout you. He said you were cute
when you were pissed and you’ve got the prettiest eyes he’d ever
seen.”

Oh. My.
God.

I looked back to the photo and examined, for
the first time in my life with any great attention, my eyes. You
couldn’t see it really in the photo but I knew they were deep set
and hazel, more brown than green. I’d never thought much of them
except wishing they were bigger, wider so I could use more flair
with eye shadow and, even focusing on them, I didn’t think much of
them now.

“You do have really pretty eyes,” Mindy said
to me softly. “I noticed them right off the bat.”

“I… they’re… um…” I stammered.

“Really unusual, striking, eye-catching, no
pun intended,” Becca said on a grin.

“Can I have a copy of that photo?” Mindy
asked, still speaking softly and I looked closely at her.

She was gazing at the photo and her face was
soft like her voice.

“Sure, darling,” I said softly back and her
eyes skittered to me.

“Thanks,” she whispered.

I walked to the counter, handed my memory
card to the clerk as well as the photo and asked for another
copy.

Then I turned to Mindy and told her, “Best
part about it, outside the view, is that Jimmy Cotton took it.”

“
Jimmy Cotton does
not
take snapshots,” the clerk said to me, his voice
filled with unmistakable outrage.

I turned back to him, surprised at his entry
into our conversation and the tone of it, and asked, “I’m
sorry?”

“
Jimmy Cotton…” he waved my photo at me,
“does
not
take
snapshots.” He indicated the walls of his shop with a wave of his
hand. “He’s a
master.
”

“Yes, I agree, but he happened onto us at
the bluff yesterday and he took our photo.”

“With a digital camera?” the clerk shot
back, now his tone was filled with derision as if digital cameras
were the invention of the devil.

“Um…” I looked at the memory card then
answered, “yes.”

“
Jimmy doesn’t
do
digital.”

“Um…” I started but I heard Mindy whisper
from beside me. “The bluff?”

I turned to her and said, “Yes.”

She snatched the photo out of the clerk’s
hand and looked closely at it.

“God, I was lookin’ at you and Max, I didn’t
notice you were at the bluff.”

“We were. Max took me there yesterday,” I
said and her eyes moved quickly to me.

Then she breathed, “Wow.”

“Sorry?”

“Wow,” she said louder.

“Wow, what?”

“Wow, Max took you to the bluff.” The
strange wonder slid out of her face and it brightened then she
smiled, blinding and huge. “He took you to the bluff.”

“Yes,” I said, drawing out the word because
I was confused.

“What’s the big deal?” Becca asked, getting
close.

“The bluff is Max’s favorite place in the
world,” Mindy answered.

“He seemed rather fond of it,” I remarked
and Mindy giggled.

“
Yeah, you could say he’s ‘rather fond of
it’,” Mindy replied through her continuing giggles. “Brody told me
he’s
seriously
rather
fond of it. It’s his special place and he doesn’t share it
with
just
anybody
. He didn’t take
Brody there for years. He didn’t take me there until my sixteenth
birthday and he’s known me
since I was born
.”

I had the strange sensation of not getting
a good feeling about this information at the same time I
was
getting a good feeling about
it.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Mindy said through a smile.

“Wow,” Becca whispered.

Wow was right.

“I don’t know what to do with that
information,” I told Mindy and Becca.

“I’ll ask Brody what you should do with that
information,” Mindy offered helpfully and I felt my lungs
seize.

“No, don’t do that.”

“
Oh yeah,
do
that,
”
Becca encouraged. “I wanna know too.”

“No, don’t,” I repeated.

“
You gotta,” Becca said. “This could
be
huge.
”

“Yeah,” Mindy’s eyes were bright with
excitement and happiness. “Lovin’ this, Brody’ll love it too.” Her
bright, happy eyes came to me. “Maybe even enough to come home and
check you out.”

This was a nightmare.

“Um… that kind of scares me,” I told her and
she laughed, linked her arm with mine and put her forehead to my
shoulder.

“
My big bro is cool, you’ll
adore
him. He’s
awesome,
” she said when she lifted her
head.

I looked into her carefree eyes and I didn’t
have the heart to burst her bubble.

“Brilliant,” I muttered and she grinned.

“That’ll be a quarter,” the clerk said from
behind us, waving the print.

“A quarter for a Jimmy Cotton print?
Bargain!” Becca exclaimed, I thought mostly to annoy the clerk.

If this was her intention, she succeeded
magnificently and the three of us walked out of the shop together
under the weight of his irate scowl, Becca and Mindy gulping back
giggles.

Me?

I found it funny, their giggles were
infectious and I definitely laughed.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t quaking in my
boots.

* * * * *

We were sitting at a red and white checked
table clothed table in the center of which was an enormous
pepperoni and mushroom pizza that a family of five could assist us
with consuming and everyone would be sated when Mindy started the
conversation.

“Okay, it’s none of my business, really, but
it kind of is because I’ve known Max since I was born.”

I looked at her around my beer knowing I
wasn’t going to like this.

I lowered my beer and asked, “What’s none of
your business?”

Her head tipped to my hand. “That diamond on
your finger.”

I was right, I didn’t like this.

“Mindy –” I started.

“I know you’ve known him, like, real brief,
but sometimes shit happens fast when you know it’s right and you
guys seem solid,” she said softly. “Still, it isn’t Max’s.”

Max and me seemed solid? Shit happens fast
when you know it’s right?

I ignored both of those and said softly
back, “No, it isn’t Max’s.”

“So, is it an heirloom or something?” she
asked and I pulled in a deep breath.

“No,” I said on the exhale.

“So, whose is it?” she pressed.

I looked at Becca who had a slice of pizza
in her hand, her hand to her mouth, her teeth in the slice but her
eyeballs were wandering around the room looking at anything but
Mindy and me and, if she didn’t have the pizza in her mouth, I knew
she would have been whistling.

Then I looked at Mindy and made a decision.
“His name is Niles.”

“Niles?” she asked and I could tell she
didn’t much like his name.

Niles was a perfectly fine name, of course,
however it didn’t ring American Mountain Man like “Max” or “Brody”
or “Damon”.

“Niles,” I repeated.

“Okay, so,” Mindy went on and I could see
she was pulling up the courage to do so and I wished she wouldn’t
but I understood why she did, considering it was obvious she was
close to Max and cared about him. “You’re wearin’ Niles’s ring, why
are you up at the A-Frame with Max?”