The Gamble (Colorado Mountain 1)

“Yes?” I answered, looking from the side window to the front but not at him.

“What’s on your mind, honey?” His voice was soft and he’d pulled my hand to rest the back of it against his hard thigh.

I hadn’t felt his thigh until just then but of course it, too, was hard, inviting touch. I decided this was most irritating even though my brain registered the feel was totally amazing.

I also decided not to fight at that juncture and leave my hand in his while I somewhat lied, though I thought of it more as not telling the full truth, “Bitsy.”

His fingers gave me a squeeze as he said, “She’ll be okay.”

“She loved him.”

“Yeah.”

I bit my lip then pointed out the obvious because he more than anyone knew. “That means she won’t be okay.”

This was as good a time as any, in fact, better than most, for Max to share about his dead wife.

He didn’t.

He just repeated, “Yeah.”

Jerk!

“I’ll talk with her later, after the funeral, maybe in a few weeks,” he went on. “Get her to sell that house. Too many memories, too big for her, hell, it was too big for them when Curt was alive.”

“Mm hmm,” I mumbled.

He gave my hand a squeeze before he let it go to downshift in order to make a turn. He left it resting on his thigh and I moved it away, linking it with my other one in my lap, hoping he wouldn’t re-initiate the contact as he said, “We’ll look out for her. She’ll make it through.”

“Mm hmm,” I repeated, hoping he meant “we” as in Wonder Max and the Townsfolk of Gnaw Bone, not him and me, something which would never be.

This was another decision I’d come to and I’d come to it in the silence over lunch thus me knowing that being alone with my thoughts was not fun.

I couldn’t live a life like the one I led with Niles.

I also couldn’t live a life knowing the length of it, even if it was good, that I was second best.

No, there wouldn’t even be a length to it because eventually, like everything else I’d risked, it would end in disaster. I’d had enough disaster with jerks, thieves, cheaters and beaters. I didn’t need the heartbreaking disaster that was all Max.

I needed to be the love of someone’s life, like Mom was for Steve. They’d both waited a long time, Mom after a short marriage that ended in heartbreak, Steve after a long, loveless marriage that ended with his wife dying of a heart attack two years before he met Mom. I hoped I didn’t have to wait as long as Mom but I also knew down deep in my soul I needed to wait for that special person who felt that way for me, just me and only me so I could feel safe giving that feeling back to him.

Max was silent through my thoughts then, before he made the next turn, he asked, “You still thinkin’ about your Dad?”

“No,” I replied truthfully this time. My father was the last thing on my mind, which was the only fortunate thing that came from the vicious twists and turns of my day.

“That Niles guy?” Max pressed.

“No,” I replied, again truthfully.

Max was silent again while he made the next turn and he noted, “Somethin’ else is eatin’ you, babe,” but before I could comment, he pulled in a sharp breath.

I looked at him then followed his eyes. Then I pulled in a sharp breath too.

Firstly, there was a Subaru parked in front of the A-Frame. Mindy and a tall man, the sun shining on their hair and both of them were leaning their backs against the Subaru’s hatchback. Secondly, there was my rental car at the edge of Max’s front clearing, obviously, and quite liberally, having been vandalized.

“What the f**k?” Max clipped as he turned into the lane, drove down it and parked behind the rental.

He didn’t glance at me when he got out. I followed him, my eyes also glued to the rental.

It had been nearly covered in spray paint including the windows. The brake lights had been busted out, their plastic shards in the gravel of Max’s drive. The tires were flat, all four of them. The wing mirrors were hanging drunkenly by wires, the mirrors shattered.

“Appears you got an enemy,” the tall man said, he and Mindy walking up to us.

I glanced at him. He had dark red-brown hair, somewhat familiar blue eyes and tanned skin. He was nearly as handsome as Max and, now that I was becoming somewhat of an expert at identifying them, I noted he was also total Mountain Man wearing a thermal under a jeans jacket, faded jeans and boots. His eyes were attached to me.

“I –” I began.

“I’m so sorry, Neens,” Mindy interrupted me, coming to his side, she was biting her lip, looking worried, her eyes appeared red rimmed as if she’d been crying.

It was the red-rimmed eyes that took my attention therefore I forgot about my unknown new acquaintance and asked, “Are you okay?”

She shook her head and announced, “Damon did this.”

“Did what?” I asked stupidly, feeling my heart start beating faster and my palms start itching.

“Your car, honey,” Max answered and I looked to him.

“My car?” I repeated, my mind stuck on thoughts of Damon getting to Mindy in town, doing something to make her cry and wondering where Max kept his gun.

He tipped his head to the rental and his arm slid around my shoulders. “Damon, he did that to your car.”

I glanced at my car then my gaze went back to Mindy.

“Did you see him do this?” I asked.

“No,” she answered.

My voice was softer when I went on, “Have you seen him at all, darling?”

“No,” she replied.

“Did he call you?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know he did it?”

“That’s just,” she flicked a hand to the rental, her breath hitched then she pulled in a deep one to cover it before she went on, “what he’d do.” Then tears gathered in her eyes and she concluded, “I’m so sorry, Neens.”

Then she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.

I pulled out from under Max’s arm and swiftly walked forward, gathering Mindy in my embrace.

“Sweetheart,” I cooed to her, “I have full coverage on that rental. It’s no big deal.”

Well, it was since I really now couldn’t escape Max unless I somehow managed to make off with his Cherokee in the dead of night but I couldn’t tell Mindy that.

I’d worry about that later, though hopefully not too much later. I had to worry about Mindy now as she was hiccoughing and still hadn’t taken her hands from her face even though I was holding her.