The Gamble

The sun was shining and the cold snap had completely disappeared. It had to be twenty, maybe even thirty degrees warmer that day and the snow was melting so fast the gutters in the streets had turned to streams. The sun glistening off the water and the snow made the clear day so much brighter it was cheerful, like the town had its own brand of magic.

Experiencing it, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Mindy had, indeed, lived an enchanted life prior, of course, to being raped.

When we walked out of the café, Mindy proclaimed, “All right, girl time! No boys allowed.”

“Like I’d wanna go shoppin’,” Max muttered, his arm sliding around my shoulders, pulling me into his side.

“Right, so, skedaddle,” Becca ordered.

Max grinned and said, “She’ll be right back.”

Then he walked me to the Jeep, shoved me into it with a hand in my belly, followed me in, slid his fingers in my hair, an arm low at my waist and then he made out with me right there on the street, in town, in broad daylight.

Yes, made out with me. Tongues and all.

I did not fight this mainly because I was focused on fighting my body’s reaction to his hands on me and his tongue in my mouth and, unfortunately, losing.

When his head lifted, I noted vaguely he didn’t let me go.

“You gonna be all right with the terrible twosome?” he asked and I found it unfair he seemed capable of breathing and standing erect. My knees had gone weak and my breath had gone funny.

“I think so.”

“Don’t let them get you into trouble.”

“Okay.”

His face came a few centimeters closer and he whispered, “Look out for her, yeah? She has…” he hesitated, “bad moments.”

At this open evidence of his concern for Mindy, something I liked a lot, my hand, moving of its own accord, slid from his hair to cup his jaw.

“I’ll look out for her,” I promised.

His beautiful eyes looked into mine for seconds that felt like minutes then he touched his mouth to mine in one of his sweet, swift kisses and he pulled me from the truck.

“I’ll see you at home later,” he said.“Okay.”

He chucked me under the chin and started to walk around the Cherokee.

I made a massive effort to pull myself together so I didn’t watch him like a love-struck idiot and headed back to Mindy and Becca. He tooted his horn as he drove passed us and I lifted my hand in a wave, hoping my wave didn’t make me look like a love-struck idiot.

“I think he likes you,” Becca said then she looked at Mindy who was watching me and they both giggled.

“I need to spend money,” I muttered.

“Yeah, me too,” Mindy said, linking her arm with mine and we took off.

There weren’t some great shops in town, there were some really great shops and considering I didn’t have to pay for a wedding anymore and I’d been saving since Niles asked me over a year ago, I went crazy. I bought so much stuff both Becca and Mindy had to help me carry my bags. I also found Sarah’s earrings and feeling generous I bought all three of us a pair even though they were more expensive than I was expecting mainly because they were heavy with silver and beautifully crafted. Becca and Mindy tried to protest but I wouldn’t let them. A girl who’d been raped and her friend who was looking out for her needed new, expensive, heavy, silver, beautifully crafted earrings. It should be a law.

We ran into practically everyone the girls knew it seemed since we were constantly stopped in shops and on the boardwalk. There were a lot of introductions and gabbing. I was a curiosity since some had heard of me already and it was evident Max was a popular person and anyone associated with him was automatically an object of fascination most especially an outsider with an English accent. Others, Becca and Mindy freely told, “Nina’s with Max” which then made me an object of fascination.

After the curiosity about me wore off, most of the talk was about Curtis Dodd and who might have done the deed. Most of this was liberally interspersed with open comments about how no one was really going to miss him. Some of it was catty talk about Shauna who, it was evident, was not a popular person. There were a lot of careful looks at Mindy who seemed to have trouble dealing with these indicated by the pink that would tinge her cheeks. When that happened either Becca or I would get close. Sometimes, if Mindy started shuffling her feet or chewing at her cuticles, I’d grab her hand. When I did this she held on tight and I’d feel the sting of tears behind my eyes but I just held her right back.

We walked by a photography shop that printed digital photos and I asked the girls if we could go in because I was dying to see the photo Cotton took printed out rather than small on the screen at the back of the camera. When we entered it appeared to be a Shrine to Jimmy Cotton, the walls were wallpapered with his pictures. We hung out while the photos were printing halfheartedly looking at photography stuff we had no interest in. When they were done, I paid for the photos and we stood a few feet from the counter looking through them.

I came upon Cotton’s photo and stared, stunned at what the man could do with a digital camera. The framing was magnificent, he managed to make the bluff, river and mountains most of the photo, Max and me at the side.

But regardless of the beauty of the vista, it was Max and me that took my full attention.

Not surprisingly, Max was incredibly photogenic, smiling natural and casual into the camera.

Surprisingly, even with his supreme male beauty, I looked natural and casual, smiling at his side. My cream cap, blonde hair and pale, wind-kissed skin was an attractive foil to his dark handsomeness. I liked the look of us together, maybe a bit too much.

And we didn’t look like we’d just met and barely knew each other. We looked like we’d known each other forever, comfortable in our close hold.

We looked even like we belonged together.

I hadn’t realized I’d put my hand to his stomach, my arm around his back and I noticed that I fitted into his side like God created me specifically to slot right there. And his hand curled at my neck, gloved fingers barely visible through the strands of my hair, had the weird look like he was claiming me. I was, just simply, his.

“I freaking love that picture!” Mindy cried, standing close, staring at the photo and Becca got close too.

“Wow, awesome shot,” she breathed. “Max is hot and you’ve got the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”

I started, tore my eyes from the photo and looked at Becca. “I’m sorry?”