Colorado 01 The Gamble (53 page)

We exited the restaurant, Mom and Steve on
our heels, and I was still trying to come to terms with all that
was said and all I’d discovered inside. Max, however, had already
come to terms with it and the terms he’d come to was him being
annoyed
at
me
.

“Said it yesterday, babe, you didn’t
listen,” he muttered, dragging me down the wooden plank sidewalk
with Mom and Steve following.

“Sorry?” I asked, walking swiftly to keep
up.

“Said you ain’t goin’ to that showdown, them
fuckin’ with your head. Did you listen? Nope. Said you wanted to
go. Jesus,” Max explained tersely and I tugged on his hand to stop
him which he did, right outside The Mark.

“Are you insinuating that was my fault?” I
asked.

Max looked down at me and replied, “Babe, we
were all there because you wanted us to be.”

“
Oh my
God,
” I snapped and tried to yank my hand from his but this
effort failed so I gave up and went on. “Are you
serious?”

“You were gonna marry him, Nina, did that
scene surprise you?” Max asked.

“Yes!” I shot back. “Yes, it did. I’d never
seen Niles like that in my life.”

Max’s brows went up. “Honest to God?”

“
Honest to God!” I cried. “I’d never
marry
that.
” I looked
at Mom who was staring at me with a mixture of anger, shock and
distress and carried on, “I can’t even… I don’t even…” I stopped,
the entirety of what just happened hit me, I tilted my head back
then I shouted, “I almost
married
that man!”

“Honey –” Max murmured, pulling at my hand
but I yanked it away, successfully this time, and took a step
back.

“
I almost married
my father,
” I whispered aghast as I fully processed this
monstrous realization.

“Duchess, baby –”

“He offered you money,” I told Max.

“So did your father,” Mom put in
informatively.

“Nellie,” Steve said low.

“
I mean, who
acts
like that?” I screeched.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s over. You returned
the ring. Done,” Max stated, no longer annoyed, apparently now in
control-another-one-of-Nina’s-wild-hairs mode. He knew me enough by
now to know, he didn’t control me, I’d march back to that
restaurant and wring Niles’s neck and my father’s, for that
matter.

But Nina was not to be controlled.

“
Two years, two years I wasted on him. Oh.
My.
God.
” I threw my
hands out. “What a fool! I’ll never get that time back!”

Max looked over my shoulder then at me and
said quietly, “Babe, calm down, let’s go in, get food –”

I interrupted him, still ranting, “All that
time I kept thinking and thinking, was I doing the right thing?
Would I hurt him? How could I hurt him? He’s a good man. Wondering,
worried, my head filled with rubbish. I swear, I made myself sick
with it. I did!” I shouted. “You were there! I actually made myself
sick with it!”

Max caught my hips and pulled me closer to
him. “Nina, it’s done.”

“
I spent two hours writing an e-mail to
him, Max, making certain it didn’t hurt too much and he
didn’t even read
it.
”

Max’s hands gripped my hips harder and he
said softly, “This isn’t anything to be angry about.”

My eyes grew wide and I yelled,
“
You
didn’t waste two years of your
life on him.”

“
And
you
realized it was a mistake. You did the right thing, the
smart thing. You made the right decision and now you’re free to
move on with your life.”

I glared at Max because he was right and I
wanted to be loud and angry for at least a little while longer.

I mean, my God, I nearly married
my
father
. And I hated my
father!

“You know what’s annoying?” I asked Max and
his hands slid around my hips to the small of my back, pulling me
closer.

“What’s annoying?” he asked back but I saw
he was no longer in Control Nina Mode, now he looked amused.

“When you’re right and I want to be angry
and you being right means I can’t be angry anymore,” I informed
him.

“Baby,” he muttered through his grin.

Yes, amused. My eyes narrowed on his grin
and my stomach growled. I decided I could be annoyed at Max while I
ate.

Therefore I demanded, “Feed me.”

“I’m guessin’ about now if I told you that
you’re cute, you’d get pissed.”

“Absolutely,” I snapped.

“Then I won’t tell you you’re cute.”

I put my hand on his chest, gave an
ineffectual push and demanded again, “Feed me, Max. I need homemade
granola and you better hope they have yogurt or all hell’s going to
break loose.”

His grin turned into a smile, he bent his
neck, kissed my forehead and his lips still there, he murmured,
“Granola.”

Then he dropped his arms but caught my hand
and, glancing at a now-smiling Mom and Steve, he led us into The
Mark.

* * * * *

It was clearly past normal breakfast time
for mountain people because the restaurant was only a quarter
full.

There was no Sarah, it was Trudy who led us
back to the corner booth we’d had that first night and she did it
while chatting to us, especially me, like she’d known me my whole
life.

We sat, Max and I with our backs to the
wall, and barely got ourselves sorted before Arlene marched up to
our table, introduced herself to my mother and Steve and then
launched into a tirade about the proposed new plans for some strip
mall. This tirade was directed mostly at me in a way that made it
seem like Arlene and I had been in cahoots during a variety of
shenanigans and therefore Arlene thought I’d agree wholeheartedly
with her and together we’d start arranging meetings where we’d
create signs and banners and organize townsfolk to picket the
building site. Then she declared she needed to “get wrecked” and we
were to meet her at The Dog at eight o’clock that night. Then
without waiting for us to accept or decline this invitation she
marched away.

Trudy came back, took our orders (lucky for
Max, they had yogurt but no berries) and walked away but when she
did a woman approached. I remembered her from the night of Max
teaching Damon a lesson. She was the one who ran in to get Mindy
and my bags. She was also, I discovered, the designer who made my
earrings and ring and although we’d spoken less than a dozen words
to each other she chatted animatedly to me and Mom, Max and Steve
like we’d all been present when they’d taken the training wheels
off her bike. Then a mountain man across the room called her name
in much the same impatient tone as Max spoke to me before we left
his house. She smiled at us, gave us a finger wave and told me,
specifically, she’d see me at The Dog as if we met there frequently
for Girl’s Night Out then she left.

Everyone but Max watched her go.

Then Steve turned to me and said, “How long
you been here again? I thought it was a week.”

Max slid his arm along the back of the booth
and burst out laughing.

I ignored Max’s laughter and explained,
“People here are friendly.”

“I’ll say,” Mom muttered and I heard Max’s
phone ring.

He leaned forward, pulled it out of his back
pocket and looked at the display.

I did too, it said “Bitsy calling.”

“Sorry, gotta take this,” Max murmured and
slid out of the booth, flipping it open.

I sat in the booth watching him walk to the
entry as he put the phone to his ear and deciding I liked the way
he walked. He was tall, big, his body muscular but his gait wasn’t
lumbering. It was agile, fluid, almost graceful in a manly, macho
way.

“
Can I just say…” Mom started and I looked
at her to see she was also watching Max, “that I don’t like him.”
She looked back to me, leaned in, her eyes alight and she finished,
“I
love
him.”

“Mom –”

“
No, I
adore
him,” she amended.

“Mom –”

“
No, I want to
adopt
him. But if I did that might make it weird, seeing
as you’d be brother and sister, in a way, so I’ll just wait for him
to become my son-
in-law
.”

“Nellie,” Steve said through a smile,
“enough.”

“I’m moving to Colorado,” I blurted my
announcement and both Steve and Mom stared at me.

“Come again?” Steve asked.

“I’m moving to Colorado.”

Mom clapped loudly and cried,
“
Yay!
” even
louder.

I leaned forward and hissed, “Mom, be quiet!
Max has asked, kind of, in his Max way which means he told me I was
moving here but I haven’t agreed, yet. He doesn’t know I’ve
decided. I want to tell him, special if I can.”

Mom leaned forward too and whispered,
“Yay.”

I smiled at her, shook my head at Steve and
sat back.

“This is wonderful.” Mom was still
whispering. “Marvelous, sweetie. Perfect timing. We haven’t had a
chance to tell you, with all the things going on, but Steve and I
have bought an RV.”

My heart skipped and I stared at her,
knowing where this was going but I didn’t get a chance to say
anything before Mom carried on.

“We don’t have it yet, we’re getting it
customized so it’ll take some time but, you see, now we can come up
here for the summers!” she cried.

“Nellie –” Steve started.

“Mom –” I said.

“I just hope Steve can get it up that
mountain but if he can, we’ll hook it up to the side of Max’s
house. It’ll be perfect.”

“Nellie –” Steve started again.

“Mom –” I repeated.

Mom waved her hand in front of her face
and kept talking. “You’ll be close again. I just
love
this. It’s
perfect.
”

“Mom –” I said yet again.

“Nellie,” Steve said over me, “they’ll just
be starting out.”

“Pish posh. Starting out. They act like
they’ve been married for years and anyway, Max loves me,” she
declared. “And he’s a man’s man, like you. You can help him chop
wood for the winter and, I don’t know, other man stuff.”

Steve stared at Mom for several seconds then
looked back to me. “Don’t worry, doll. I saw a brochure at that
hotel for an RV park. We’ll haul the car up with us and hook up
there.”

“No we won’t,” Mom told Steve.

“Yes, Nellie, we will,” Steve told Mom.

“
No, darling, we
won’t
. I want to be close to my Neenee Bean,” Mom shot
back.

Jesus, I forgot how much I like
your Mom,
Charlie said
in my head, sounding amused, and I rolled my eyes.

“Mom –” I began but Steve again spoke over
me.

“We’re not, love. We’ll come up, we’ll stay
a few weeks but we’ll hook up at the park, give them privacy.”

“There’s enough privacy with us in the RV
outside Max’s house,” Mom retorted then looked at me. “Though,
we’ll probably use your bathroom and, maybe, your kitchen.”

I sighed.

Steve spoke. “Nellie, it’s not gonna
happen.”

“It is.”

“No,” Steve said in a firm way that couldn’t
be denied, even by my Mom, “it isn’t.”

Mom glared at Steve knowing, by Steve’s
tone, there was no way she was going to get her way. Steve calmly
accepted her glare. Trudy arrived with four coffees.

“Thank you,” I said to Trudy and tried not
to smile at the realization that Mom had her Max. I’d been happy
for her when she found Steve. Now, understanding, I was
ecstatic.

Max came back and slid into the booth beside
me while I poured milk in my coffee.

“Today’s plans have changed, babe,” he
announced before taking a sip of his and I looked at him.

“Plans?” I asked, not knowing we actually
had plans.

“Yeah, gotta be at George’s in an hour.”

“George’s?” I queried.

“Though, thinkin’ this is good, you can meet
him, feel him out.”

“Meet him? Feel him out?” I parroted.

Max turned fully to me and put his arm on
the back of the booth.

“Yeah, he’s the attorney I was tellin’ you
about,” Max reminded me and I stared because the phone call hadn’t
been from George, it had been from Bitsy.

“Why do you have to go there?”

Max’s easygoing nature vanished and his jaw
got tight before he answered, “Curt’s will is bein’ read and,
apparently, I’m mentioned.”

I leaned into him and put my hand on his
thigh before I breathed, “
Really?
”

“Yep,” Max answered, not looking happy.

“What’s this?” Steve asked.

I looked at Steve then at Mom. “Curt is the
man who was murdered.”

Mom’s eyes got wide, she leaned forward
again and breathed, “
Really?
”

“Jesus, it’s uncanny, like two peas in a
pod,” Max muttered, his eyes moving between Mom and me.

I decided to ignore that and told Max,
“That’s bad form, Max, informing you that you need to be at the
reading an hour before the actual reading.”

“Like I said,” Max told me, “George is busy.
Bitsy said he’s covered. He set up the reading, told her when and
called her awhile ago to get her help gathering everyone.”

I didn’t repeat it but this was bad form.
Perhaps this George person
did
need help. That was good considering I needed a
job.