The Gamble (Colorado Mountain 1)

“You wanna tell me why you’re here and not at work?” Max asked and I tipped my head back to look at him, following his gaze to see his eyes were on Kami.

“Day off, Curt’s funeral,” Kami replied.

“You gotta take a whole day off for Curt’s funeral?” Max asked.

“I’m grieving,” Kami returned.

“Jesus, Kami, I hope they don’t find out you’re full of shit like they did at your last job. Be hard to keep that Lexus when you don’t have a paycheck,” Max remarked.

“Don’t worry about me, got my Lexus and that’s it. Don’t have a barn full of stupid boys toys I wanna fill with even more boys toys,” Kami shot back, adding nastily, “maybe you’ll grow up in this century.”

Jealous, I thought but kept my mouth shut.

“Kami,” Linda said quietly, mixing batter.

“What?” Kami snapped but before Linda could say anything further, Max spoke again.

“Now you wanna tell me why you’re here at all?”

I looked up at him to see his eyes, cold and angry, resting on Shauna.

I’d never seen Max cold. I’d seen him angry but not cold and that cold was glacial. I took a sip of my coffee and looked at Shauna to see how she was handling it and noted she had her shields up and seemed perfectly at ease.

“Spending the day with Kami, we’re going to the funeral together,” Shauna answered.

I felt my eyes grow big and I also felt Max’s body turn to stone at my side. Further, again out of the corner of my eye, I saw Linda’s head twist around to look at Shauna.

“For obvious reasons, Shauna’s grieving too,” Kami put in.

“You have got to be f**kin’ shittin’ me,” Max growled.

“What?” Kami asked but Max ignored her and his eyes sliced to Shauna.

“You ain’t goin’ to that funeral, Shauna.”

“Why not?” Shauna enquired with what appeared to be genuine curiosity and I felt my lips part in astonishment, uncertain I’d ever seen anyone so inappropriately cavalier.

“I don’t know,” Max clipped sarcastically, “maybe because you were f**kin’ a married man and his wife, mother and father’ll be there?”

“I lost Curt too, just like Bitsy,” Shauna retorted.

“Yeah, but he loved her and was married to her for fifteen years. You were just convenient pu**y,” Max shot back.

I gasped, so did Linda. Kami and Shauna both glared at Max.

“Max.” Now Linda said Max’s name quietly.

“No Mom, she’s not goin’ to that funeral.” Max’s eyes went to his sister. “And you’ve spoken about a dozen civil words to Bitsy in the last decade so you shouldn’t either.”

“I’m not six, Max, you can’t tell me what to do,” Kami returned.

“No, you’re not, you act it a lot of the time, but you’re not. What you are is old enough to know better,” Max shot back.

“We’re goin’,” Kami declared.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Max muttered.

“I was under the impression,” Linda entered the conversation and I looked at her to see she was regarding Kami, “after all that talk I heard in town about what happened with you two at Max and Brody’s table at The Rooster, that we were here so you both could talk with Max and Nina about your behavior that night.” Kami opened her mouth to speak but Linda went on. “Not,” she cut her off sharply and with obvious practice, “so you two could bring attitude into Max’s house.”

“I’m sorry, Linda,” Shauna said readily and looked at me. “You know Max and I have history, Nina,” she reminded me unnecessarily. “I guess we rub each other the wrong way. I just wanted to spend some time with Kami today since it’s gonna be a rough day for me but I probably shouldn’t have come.”

I stared at her, shocked at how good she was in front of Max’s Mom. Even I almost believed her.

“In case you feel like visiting again, Shauna, you can take it as read you aren’t welcome,” Max told her.

“Just because you two have broken up doesn’t mean you can be an ass**le, Max,” Kami defended her friend.

“’Fraid it does, Kami,” Max returned.

I was now stunned. These shenanigans made my mother and me, even my father and me, seem tame. Though, my father, mother, Niles and me were still the worst, if you didn’t count me slapping my Dad during the Dad and me fiasco, of course.

“You know, Nina,” Linda said matter-of-factly as she poured batter into the melted butter in a skillet, “a mother gets to the point when her kids are kids that she looks forward to them being adults.” Her eyes came to mine as she set down the bowl. “I haven’t reached that part of motherhood yet.”

I didn’t want to say that Max wasn’t exactly acting like a kid, more like a pissed off mountain man whose bitch of a sister brought his ex-girlfriend to his house. So instead, I just smiled.

“Or at least I haven’t with Kami,” Max’s Mom went on, the twinkle came back to her eyes, it stayed there longer and my smile got wider.

“Mom!” Kami snapped and Linda turned to her, leaned forward and morphed into another woman altogether.

“What’d I say about this crap?” she hissed. “You two always fightin’ with you always startin’ it. Works my last flippin’ nerve. Max is here, what? Practically never. And instead of enjoyin’ the time you got, you get in his face. I’ve had it up to here, Kami.” She lifted a hand up to her neck and continued, “And I’ve had it up to here with talkin’ to you like you’re five when you’re thirty-five, dammit.”

“I see, as always, perfect f**kin’ Max,” Kami shot back.

“Yeah, darlin’, perfect f**kin’ Max.” Linda shot back. “Max comes over, fixes my sink and doesn’t whine at me for five hours. That’s pretty f**kin’ perfect.”

Kami flinched then her face shut down.

“Same old shit,” Kami grumbled.

“The same old shit is, Max has a new girlfriend and you bring his old one to his house, lyin’ to me about why and makin’ us look bad in front of Nina. That’s the same old shit, Kami, and I’m sick and tired of it.” Then Linda looked at me and mumbled, “Sorry Nina.”

“Um… that’s okay,” I told her.