The Gamble (Colorado Mountain 1)

“Come with us to get coffee,” Max ordered, obviously liking it too.

“I’m tellin’ you, Max, don’t have time,” Jeff replied.

“Then get it to go.”

“Max –” Jeff started but Max leaned further in and cut him off.

“A few days ago Nina told me, when a woman gets f**ked over by a dickhead, or a bunch of dickheads, she needs to learn there are good guys out there. You’re a good guy and you like her. She’s got serious shit to deal with now. She needs all the help she can get, especially from good guys who like her.” A muscle jumped in Jeff’s jaw but he stayed silent so Max finished, “Nothin’ worth havin’, it ain’t worth fightin’ for even if the thing you gotta fight is the thing you want. She don’t wanna see you right now because she’s embarrassed, thinks you think less of her because of what you saw and, I’m guessin’, the guys she’s picked in the past, maybe she thinks she’s not worthy. You want her, man, your job is to convince her she’s wrong.”

I’d stopped breathing and was staring at Max’s profile as he spoke to Jeff.

Every word he said about Mindy slid through me like an invisible blade shrouded in velvet, cutting me to the quick but doing it a way that felt like he was surgically removing a malignant tumor that I’d been carrying around for years. A tumor that had been eating away at my insides. A tumor that, with his words, suddenly was gone.

You love him, Charlie said in my head.

Yes, I replied to Charlie, scared at this sudden knowledge but, along with that fear, far stronger, I also felt joy.

There was no response from Charlie.

Do you think I’m crazy? I asked my dead brother.

Sweetheart, Charlie answered, not anymore.

“I’ll come with,” Jeff said and I forced my mind off my brief conversation with Charlie and my eyes away from Max to Jeff as he finished. “Get it to go.”

Max didn’t reply, just nodded and sat back in his chair and I leaned sideways until my shoulder hit his chest. His arm went over my head to curl around me, my head dropped to his shoulder and I gave his thigh another squeeze of my hand.

Then Jeff brought the matter back to hand and, looking at me and lifting his pen to the paper, he stated, “All right, let’s get this done.”

* * * * *

Seeing as it was sunny and warm, the snow again melting, Max and I, with Jeff trailing, walked through the café out to the back seating area and Linda saw us immediately.

She indicated us to Barb, Becca and Mindy with a nod of her head, all of them twisted in their chairs to look at us. Barb and Mindy’s eyes got wide when they saw my face but neither of them said a word when Max and I hit the table. I suspected this was because Linda and/or Becca had already told them about Damon and I hoped they’d done it sensitively for Mindy’s sake.

“Hey again,” Becca said to us and I smiled at her and looked between Mindy and Barb.

“Hi Mindy, Barb,” I greeted.

“Hi guys,” Barb greeted back.

“Hey Neens,” Mindy started then her eyes slid sideways, she caught sight of Jeff, pink hit her cheeks and she bit her lip before saying, “Max.”

Then she dropped her chin to look at her lap, ignoring Jeff completely. I looked at Barb who was studying her daughter and also biting her lip.

“Mindy,” Jeff rounded her chair and looked down at her.

“Jeff,” she said quietly to her lap.

Jeff looked at me and requested, “Could you order me a to go Americano?”

“Sure,” I replied.

Jeff looked back at Mindy. “Can I have a word?”

There was silence for several moments before Max stated softly, “Mins, babe, Jeff’s talkin’ to you.”

Mindy glanced at Max then her head swung to Jeff then she looked down and told the table as she started to rise. “I think I gotta –”

Jeff cut her off by grabbing her hand, pulling her fully to her feet, her head jerked to look at him and he said, “Five minutes.”

“But –” Mindy began and didn’t finish.

Jeff pulled her chair from behind her and walked toward the river, his hand firm in Mindy’s dragging her behind him.

I watched as he took her to the stairs that led off the back seating porch and they walked down a cleared footpath until he stopped them out of earshot and close to the river.

“What’s that all about?” Barb asked, her eyes on the couple by the river, as Max pulled a chair from an empty table and flipped it around behind me.

I sat in it, throwing a smile over my shoulder at Max and answered, “Jeff just needs to get a few things straight with Mindy.”

Max sat beside me as Barb, her gaze still on Jeff and Mindy, her expression uncertain, went on. “He’s come around every day but I don’t… is that…” She looked at me. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”

I looked from Barb to Mindy and Jeff and I watched them. Jeff was standing close and doing all the talking. Mindy had her head tipped back, holding her body stiff and she looked scared as a jackrabbit.

“Um…” I started to mumble my answer then watched Mindy’s head shake, Jeff got closer, Mindy prepared to retreat and Jeff’s hand came up to the side of her neck, halting her retreat and his face dipped close to hers. He was mostly in profile but I could see he was still doing the talking. Mindy stood frozen, staring up at him, then suddenly her eyes closed and her head bent. This placed Jeff’s lips close to her forehead but, instead of moving back, he leaned in and kept talking.

I knew what it felt like when a mountain man did that and I hoped Mindy felt it too.

Then I watched Mindy’s hand come up to curl around his wrist at her neck. At first I thought it was to pull away but then, as I watched, I saw it was to hold on and I knew she felt it, the same as me.

When she touched him, Jeff stopped talking, his hand at her neck slid into the back of her hair and he tipped her head down further in order to kiss the top of her head. When he pulled away and allowed Mindy to look at him again, she was no longer stiff, her face no longer scared. It was unsure but it was also soft and she’d leaned into him, just a bit but enough to tell the tale.

My stomach melted again and I turned to Barb and finished my answer.

“Yes.”

Barb’s eyes caught mine and her smile was tremulous but it was a smile all the same.

When I looked away, I caught Becca’s eyes and her smile wasn’t tremulous, it was wide and shining.