The Gamble (Colorado Mountain 1)

“Of course, she’s adorable and godmother duties include buying her ridiculously frilly dresses throughout childhood and then repeatedly explaining that men are idiots through her teen years and then she’s honor-bound to come visit me at the nursing home when I’m old and gray.”

One of his arms came from around me so he could cup my jaw in his hand and he was still smiling but his eyes were soft when he said, “Only you.”

“Sorry?”

“Only you,” he repeated.

“Only me what?”

“Only you would have some senior citizen swipin’ at me with his cane. You knew him a day, he knew I could break him in two and still, he thought I laid a hand on you and he came at me. And only you would have a Russian orphan goddaughter you buy frilly dresses.”

“It’s a godmother duty,” I reminded him.

His hand at my jaw tightened and he whispered, “It’s Nina.”

The way he said those two words made tears flood my eyes and my throat feel thick.

Okay so, again, Max had proved my fears moot. He wasn’t going to figure out I wasn’t cute because the fact of the matter was, he thought I was cute. And apparently there was no shaking that.

“Max,” I warned, my voice sounding as thick as my throat felt, “you’re being nice.”

“Yeah,” he agreed then tipped my face up, touched his lips to mine and when he was done he pulled back a bit, dropped his hand to curl around my neck and changed the subject. “How would you feel I was on that plane with you?”

I liked the lip touch and the heavy warmth of his hand at my neck and the fact that he was nice so much I was focused on those things and I wasn’t following.

“Sorry?”

“Could talk to Bitsy, Trev can keep things goin’ for awhile. I could go with you, see Charlie’s house, stay in England a couple of weeks.”

“Are you serious?” I breathed, my eyes wide.

He looked at my face a second then burst out laughing.

When he was done laughing but he was still smiling, he instructed, “Don’t bother answerin’ the question, babe.”

“Okay,” I whispered, too overcome with happiness that this meant another week with him in his A-Frame and two more with him in Charlie’s house.

I could show him pictures of Charlie!

“For once, I don’t know what you’re thinking,” he broke into my thoughts, his smile now a grin, “except it’s good.”

“I’m thinking, if you come to England I can show you pictures of Charlie,” I shared happily and watched with no small amount of fascination as his face got soft but his eyes grew warm.

“I’d like that,” he muttered.

“Nina!” Niles’s voice snapped from my left.

My head twisted to the side and Max’s hand moved from my neck as I stared in shock at Niles in tan, large whale corduroys, a navy pea coat with a navy turtleneck showing out of the collar, standing on the wooded sidewalk facing Max and I, his tan, leather glove-covered hands on the wooden railing. He was wearing this get up even though the weather had again turned and it had to be at least sixty degrees Fahrenheit.

The minute I looked at him, his face paled and his eyes grew huge.

Then, his voice almost shrill, he asked, “What happened to your face?”

“What are you still doing here?” I asked back.

“What happened to your face?” he shouted then his eyes went straight to Max and he demanded to know, “Did you do that to her?”

“I’m gettin’ tired of that shit,” Max murmured as his body got tight in my arms.

“No!” I answered Niles sharply, giving Max a squeeze. “I have a mountain man gone bad stalker.”

“A what?” Niles asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” I told him, reluctantly dropping one arm from Max and turning to face Niles and when I did, Max turned too, his arm going around my shoulders and my other arm dropped to his waist, my thumb hooking in his side belt loop as I went on, “I asked, what are you still doing here?”

“I called you four times yesterday,” Niles told me, not answering my question.

“And?”

“You didn’t take any of my calls.”

“And?”

“I’d like to speak to you,” Niles clipped.

I pointed out the obvious, “Niles, honestly, I think we’ve said all there is to say.”

Niles’s face went hard and he informed me, “And I think the least you could do is allow me a moment to speak to you,” his eyes went to Max before he finished, “privately.”

Unfortunately at this point, seeing as Niles had interrupted a nice moment between Max and me, and he was being kind of a jerk, I was starting to see red.

“The least I could do?” I asked irately.

“Duchess,” Max muttered at my side.

“The least you could do,” Niles affirmed.

“You’ve had two years of me talking with you privately and you never listened,” I reminded him.

“But –” Niles started.

I was moving forward taking Max with me, heading to the two step opening at the railing by the Police Station just down from Niles. I wasn’t going to get into this with him, not now, not ever. It wasn’t worth it, he wasn’t worth it.

Therefore, as I headed that way, I told Niles, “I need to go press charges.”

“Against who?” Niles asked.

I stopped, glared at him and answered impatiently, “Who else? Against my mountain man gone bad stalker!”

“Nina! Max!” I heard shouted and looked to the left to see Linda bearing down on our party, she got a good look at me, came to a juddering halt and kept shouting, “Oh my God! What on earth happened to you?”

“Damon,” Max answered without hesitation and my head snapped back to look at him.

“Max!” I hissed.

“Everyone’s gonna know,” Max told me.

“They will now,” I mumbled.

“Damon!” Linda yelled very loudly, proving my mumbled point.

“I’m fine,” I told Linda.

“Nina, that word I’d like to have privately…” Niles butted in.

“Babe, seriously, get rid of him,” Max’s voice was getting a little scary.

“Niles, go home,” I said to Niles.

“You don’t look fine,” Linda said to me, ignoring Niles.

“I am,” I promised her. “Really, it just feels a little bit tight.”