Colorado 01 The Gamble (24 page)

She nodded and repeated, “Okay.”

I pulled away and she got up and walked to
the stairs as I sat down at the computer.

“Neens?” she called, giving me a new
nickname that I instantly liked.

I looked to see she was halfway up the
stairs, standing in a curve and looking down at me.

“Yes, my lovely?” I answered.

“You told Max about… what happened to
you?”

“Sorry, it was bad timing. It just
happened.”

“I’m glad,” she said. “I’m glad you trusted
him with that and I’m glad that’s why he was the way he was because
he scared me but it doesn’t scare me now that he was that way for
you.”

It was me who was now shivering.

I ignored this and said, “You need anything
to wear, just dig in my suitcase.”

“We left all your shopping bags in my car,”
she reminded me then muttered, “bummer,” then walked up the
stairs.

I turned to the computer and as the shower
went on I held my breath and checked my e-mail.

Nothing from Niles.

Drat.

I looked up the stairs, I could hear the
noise of the shower but it was significantly muted and I suspected
I heard it because I was listening. Max built a quality house.

I leaned forward and pulled my phone out of
my back pocket. Then I called Niles. Then I held my breath while it
rang.

Then I got voicemail.

“
Niles?” I said into the phone after I
heard the beep. “This is Nina. I called because I thought we could
talk. We need to… finalize things.” God, I was
such
an idiot. “I’ll call back later.”

Then I touched the screen to end the call.
Then I called my mother.

“
Oh my
God!
” she said instead of hello. “I thought you’d
never
phone.”

“Hi Mom.”

“Get let out of Max Prison?” she asked, her
tone amused as I shut down my e-mail and headed across the house to
the coffee.

“I wasn’t in Max Prison.”

“He sounds interesting.” Her tone now
sounded nosy.

I changed the subject and informed her, “I
just called Niles.”

She was quiet a moment then asked,
“And?”

“Voicemail, I left a message.”

“Did you check your e-mail?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“Nothing.”

“That boy,” she muttered.

“It’s okay, we’ll have dinner or something
when I get home, talk it through, finish it up like two
adults.”

“Yes, it would be novel for you two to
actually speak to each other in the same room while you break off
an engagement. Not talk via e-mail and voicemail.”

“Mom.”

“Neenee, I’m just glad you’ve made your
decision and you’re moving on. And… speaking of moving on –”

While we were talking, I’d hit the coffeepot
and poured myself a cup. I put the milk back and closed the fridge
cutting her off, “Mom –”

“Honey, spill.”

I grabbed my mug, leaned a hip against the
counter, took a sip and stated, “I don’t want to talk about
Max.”

“Why not?”

“
Because I don’t want to
think
about Max.”

“Why?”

“
Because I don’t know
what
to think about him.”

“
Okay, you tell me
all
about Max and I’ll tell you what to think about
him.”

“Mom.”

“Nina.”

“Mom,” I said more firmly.

“
Nina.” She beat my firm by a mile. “Listen
to me, let me explain something to you. You’re my daughter, I love
you. I learned a
long
time ago
that I had to let you make your own decisions, your own mistakes
and then sit back and watch you learn from them. You’re like me,
honey, you don’t learn from people telling you stuff, you learn
from doing. But this is one place I want you to listen to me and
learn. Don’t make my same mistake. Don’t close yourself off from
something that might be good. Learn to take risks again, Neenee
Bean.”

I looked out Max’s windows at the vista and
I took another sip of coffee.

My mother didn’t open herself up to looking
for another man after my father. When she’d found out about three
weeks after she had me that he’d cheated on her and then he left
her for the other woman then left the other woman and left the
country, my mother had been devastated.

And bitter.

He’d been the love of her life, she’d adored
him and his betrayal had destroyed her.

It wasn’t until six years ago that she met
Steve. Steve, who for the first year she saw all the time but
insisted he was her “friend”. Then she gave in and for the next two
years she called him her “companion”. Now she called him her
husband and she’d never been happier, not ever that I could
remember.

“You don’t even know him,” I said softly
into the phone, staring at the mountains.

“I know he has an amazing voice.”

Max had an amazing everything pretty much or
at least as far as I could tell.

“Yes, well, he does have that.”

“And I know he’s got good enough manners to
answer the dratted phone when your mother calls.”

“Mom –”

Her voice got gentle when she finished, “And
I know he talks real quiet when he thinks you’re sleeping.”

My stomach melted and my eyes drifted
closed.

“Mom,” I whispered.

“Honey, life has enough obstacles planned
for you, stop putting up your own and just live it.”

I opened my eyes and blurted for no
reason
whatsoever
, “He built his own house.”

“What?”

“With his own hands.”

“Really?”

“On land his father gave him, land his
father always wanted to build on but he died before he could do it
so Max did.”

“Wow,” she whispered.

“I know,” I whispered back.

“Are you there now?”

“Yes.”

“Is it nice?”

“Oh yes.”

“Where’s he?”

“Taking care of some business in town.”

“So the place you rented is just sitting
there?”

“No, I rented his place. There was a mess up
with the reservation, I arrived and he was home but I had a really
bad flu and Max took care of me while I was sick and… well… then I
just –”

She interrupted me and asked, “You found
this on the internet?”

“Yes.”

“Give me the website,” she demanded.

“Sorry?”

“The website, Neenee Bean, I want to see
photos.”

I tried to decide if I wanted my mother to
see photos of Max’s A-Frame.

Then I decided I wanted my mother to see
photos of Max’s A-Frame.

I gave her the website but warned, “The
photos aren’t that good. The place is better.”

“Oh hogwash, the photos are always
better.”

“
Trust me, Mom,” I looked from the view
through the house, “they don’t do it justice.” Then I cried, “Oh!
And Jimmy Cotton lives in town and Max and I were out on his land,
Cotton ran into us and
took our picture
.”

“
You’re
kidding!
” she screeched,
excited since she took me to my first Cotton exhibition at The Met
and she loved his work nearly as much as me.

“I’m not!”

“You have to send me the picture. Send it to
Steve’s e-mail.”

Mom didn’t do the internet or e-mail or at
least she told everyone in a superior way that she didn’t do the
internet or e-mail. That said, she was on Steve’s e-mail all the
time if the many jokes and lessons on “sisterhood” and heartwarming
stories she forwarded were any indication.

I tried to decide if I wanted my mother to
see Cotton’s photo of Max and me.

Then I decided I wanted my mother to see
Cotton’s photo of Max and me.

“I’ll e-mail it in awhile.”

“Wonderful.”

I heard the door upstairs open and I said,
“Mindy’s out of the shower, I have to go.”

“Mindy?”

“Max’s best friend’s little sister. She’s
having some… um… difficulties and Max is helping her out. I
promised her a facial, I’ve got to go.”

“Okay, honey.”

“Love you, Mom.”

I heard the taps of fingers on a keyboard in
the background over the phone and she said distractedly, “Love you
too… erm, what’s the town you’re in called?”

“Gnaw Bone.”

A pause then, “
Gnaw Bone?
”

I laughed. “Why do you think I chose it? I
had to stay in a place called
Gnaw Bone.
”

“I love it!” she cried.

She’d love it more if she saw the shops.

“Neens?” Mindy called. “Do you want to do
the facial upstairs or down there?”

“Upstairs!” I called back then said to Mom,
“Now I really have to go.”

“Love you, sweetie.”

“Love you, bye.”

I touched the screen to end the call and
yelled to Mindy, “We’ll need a towel and washcloth!”

“Got it!” she yelled back.

“Do you want another cup of coffee?”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind!”

“Okay!”

Then I put my phone on the counter, poured
Mindy a cup of coffee and prayed that facials could induce
skip-dancing in recently raped, brokenhearted, twenty-four year old
girls and, I figured, I had my work cut out for me.

* * * * *

“What’s your Mom like?” Mindy asked, it was
post-facial and she was sitting in the rocking chair that she
pulled up next to the roll top while I fiddled with the card reader
I’d brought. I was sending my mother the Cotton picture of Max and
me as well as the photo of Max I surreptitiously took.

“She’s a nut,” I answered.

“Like you?”

Surprised, I turned my head to look at her
and stated, “I’m not a nut.”

“
You spent, like, a gazillion dollars on
clothes and all sorts of shit yesterday and then ate more pizza
than any girl I’ve ever met and then you laughed until you nearly
fell off your bar stool about, I don’t know, a
gazillion
times and then you got right in Damon’s
face and no one, except someone as big as Max, gets right in
Damon’s face, not even Arlene and Arlene’s ornery,” she replied
then, having stated her case, she summed up, “You’re a
nut.”

“Well, I’m on vacation,” I replied
haughtily, haughty and vacation being my only two defenses and
seeing the attachment had loaded on Mom’s e-mail I hit send.

“You’re not on vacation, you’re a nut,”
Mindy said and I could swear I heard a smile in her voice so I
looked at her and saw there was a smile on her face.

Maybe it was the facial that did it but I
was thinking it was more me being a nut. I didn’t care. Either way,
I was relieved.

“Then I guess I’m a nut,” I said, scanning
my inbox to see if Niles had written, he hadn’t, so I shut it
down.

“Goodie!” Mindy cried while I was clicking
the computer to turn it off, she jumped out of her chair and ran to
the window. “Max’s home for lunch. Brill!”

My heart skipped and my belly fluttered at
the thought of Max being home for lunch.

“Shit!” Mindy hissed suddenly and ran back
toward me.

Then I watched in shock as she threw herself
bodily on the floor on my side of the couch, she curled up so she
was as small as her tall body could be and she reached out a hand
to me as if she was in a foxhole, I was standing outside it and
bullets were flying.

“Hurry, get down here, maybe she won’t see
us!” she was still hissing.

My eyes went to the windows as I saw a
fancy, shining, black Lexus SUV slide next to my rental car.

“Who?”

“Kami!” Mindy whispered loudly. “Hurry!”

My eyes went to Mindy. “Kami? Max’s
sister?”

“
Yes. She’s
scary
. Hurry, before she sees you.”

With sudden intense curiosity, I looked back
to the window to see a woman getting out of the SUV. She closed the
door, turned and then looked up at the house.

“But –”

“Neens, get down here!”

Too late.

Kami looked into the house, did a quick
sweep and stopped, her face pointed in my direction and I was
pretty certain she saw me.

“She saw me.”

“Damn!”

I stood. “Get up, lovely, she’s Max’s
sister. How scary could she be?”

My point was not that Max wasn’t scary. He
was,
very
scary but
he was scary in a lot of different ways for a lot different
reasons, scary in a way women couldn’t be. Though I didn’t share
this with Mindy.

I was watching Max’s sister walk up the
steps as her eyes stayed locked on me. She had Max’s hair, longer,
the waves no less attractive. But she didn’t have his height and
she was carrying at least fifty (maybe more) extra pounds than her
frame found comfortable. She also looked like she was in a bad
mood.

“She looks like she’s in a bad mood,” I
muttered, trying not to let my lips move.

“Great,” Mindy muttered back.

I walked to the door as Kami walked
through.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hey Kami,” Mindy said from behind me and
Kami started when Mindy spoke then her eyes narrowed on a spot
behind me and I figured that Mindy just righted herself.

“Mindy,” Kami said severely then her eyes,
not clear gray but dark brown and not rimmed with fantastic lashes
but makeup-less and nowhere near as spectacular as her brother’s,
came to me. “You must be Nina.”

I smiled and stopped in front of her. “Word
travels fast, I’m learning.”

“
You
are
English, like they say,” Kami noted and she noted this like
she would note, “You
are
a
demon-from-hell, like they say.”