The Gamble
“You didn’t know she was also sleeping with Curtis?”
“That was part of gettin’ off not bein’ worth puttin’ up with her, when I found out she was playin’ me and Curt at the same time.”
“So you don’t like to share?” I asked and his arms, which were resting around me lightly, tightened.
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“Shauna, I didn’t give a f**k. Even when we were together it was casual. It’s casual, I don’t care.” His hand slid up my back bringing my torso close to his and I watched his eyes grow intense when he said, “It ain’t casual, Duchess, like us, no, I absolutely do not like to share.”
I bit my lip, liking his answer then I enquired, “So, if you didn’t mind –?”
Max cut me off, explaining, “It was Curt.”
“And you didn’t like Curt.”
“Nope, didn’t like him, didn’t like a woman sharin’ his bed and mine and didn’t like why she was doin’ it.”
“How long were you with her?”
“I work outta town most of the time so it lasted a year. Probably would have figured it out a lot sooner if I’d been around. Don’t know exactly but the time I was in town and with her probably was around a coupla months.”
“When did Harry enter the picture?”
“Awhile ago, some time after I scraped her off and she figured out she wasn’t gettin’ back in. A year ago, bit more.”
“How did they hook up?” I asked and Max’s face changed, his eyes grew distant.
“That’s the f**k of it,” he murmured.
“Sorry?”
His eyes focused and he looked at me. “Harry’s always had a thing for Bitsy, always. Never had a thing for Shauna. Surprised everyone when they got together.”
This was news, interesting news.
“Bitsy?”
“Yeah. The day she married Curt he got so loaded, he tore The Dog apart. Mick had to put him in a cell to keep an eye on him and dry him out.”
“Wow,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” Max said. “After Curt, Bitsy and Harry drifted apart, after she lost her legs, they became friends again, got close. Still are.”
My mother was right, this was the Rocky Mountain Peyton Place.
“So Kami was with Curt before he was with Bitsy and Harry has always had a crush on Bitsy –”
“No, honey, Kami was with Curt until Bitsy broke up with Harry. Brody and I stopped hangin’ with him in high school but that didn’t mean we weren’t still friends. We were. And Bitsy dated him through high school and after, until somethin’ happened, she broke it off and Curt wasted no time. He ended things with Kami and went after Bitsy.”
I blinked at him. “So, Harry and Bitsy were together?”
“Yeah, six, seven years, at least.”
“Oh my God.”
“Long time ago.”
“Motive for murder?”
Max burst out laughing and rolled again so we were on our sides but he came up with his elbow in the bed and his head in his hand and I moved to my back so I could look up at him.
“Harry wouldn’t hurt a fly, doesn’t have it in him. He’s never even been huntin’, doesn’t own a gun, far’s I know,” Max told me. “His folks left him a trust fund but he still opened his own lumber store, does all right for himself on top of that stash. And even if he would go after Curt, he’d never go after Bitsy, not even threaten it.”
“Oh.”
He grinned. “Though, few months, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him standin’ on her front step, carrying flowers.”
I liked this idea so I smiled.
Max’s eyes drifted over my face and then his head dipped close.
“That answer your question?” he asked quietly, I nodded and Max moved on to a different subject. “So what are we gonna do today?”
I thought staying in bed watching movies (or doing other things) held merit but I didn’t suggest that.
Instead, I said, “I vote no brawls.”
He grinned before he suggested, “I thought I’d take you out shootin’.”
“Shooting?”
“Teach you to use a gun.”
I closed my eyes, my eyebrows went up then slowly I opened them. “A gun?”
“Yeah, you’re in a house with one, you should know how to use it.”
“How about I just ignore its existence?”
“How about you wrap up warm and I take you out and teach you how to shoot?”
“Um…”
His face dipped even closer. “Baby, guns are dangerous in the hands of people who don’t know how to use them and people who do who mean for them to be dangerous.”
“But –”
“I’m out on a job, you’re here by yourself, it’ll make me feel better you know where the gun is, how to get to it and how to use it.”
“Out on a job?”
“Yeah?”
“What do you mean, out on a job?”
“I work contract, take three month jobs, sometimes six. Sometimes I take jobs and work fourteen hour days, six days a week, three months on, one month off. Builds. Mostly in state, sometimes out. Thought you knew that.”
“Well, kind of, but –”
“So, I’m gone, you’re here, I’ll –”
I cut him off. “Fourteen hour days?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that even legal?”
“When they pay you a shitload to do it, yeah.”
I pointed out what I thought was the obvious, “But, that’s insane.”
“You get used to it.”
I didn’t like that he worked fourteen hour days that was a brutal schedule. I also didn’t like the idea of him being gone for three months straight, sometimes six. That would be brutal for me.
However, the current subject was a golden opportunity and I thought if I was careful, I could use it to suggest helping out financially.
So being cautious, I waded in. “Um, Max, after awhile, if I move in –”
Then I stopped talking when I realized I hadn’t been cautious enough and I hadn’t even gotten to the meat of the matter.
I knew this because his eyes narrowed dangerously and he cut me off. “After awhile?”
“Well, yes, I thought once I moved here I’d get an apartment in town, maybe a condo –”
“Those go on year leases,” he informed me.