The Gamble
His mouth broke from mine and he was spared the edge of my tongue as the waitress returned and asked, “Get you some drinks?”
“Vodka martini, up with an olive and lose the vermouth, please,” I ordered, she nodded, bent her head and scribbled and Max gave me a squeeze, gaining my attention.
“Duchess, you’re in altitude.”
“And?”
“And you had a glass of wine at home. You gotta be careful with booze when you’re not used to altitude.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“You weren’t fine when you had a bottle of wine last night. You were out like a light.”
“I was tired. It was late. Now, it’s six thirty.”
“It wasn’t late, it was nine at night.”
My brows drew together and I asked, “It was?”
“Yeah, honey, it was.”
That was news; it seemed a whole lot later.
“Oh,” I muttered.
“Take it easy, all I’m askin’,” Max said on a squeeze of my shoulder.
“All right,” I agreed and Max turned to the waitress.
“Coors,” he ordered, she nodded and wandered away.
“Lucky man, Max, seein’ as Nina’s silent treatment lasts about two seconds. Most women I know can hold onto it for days,” Brody told Max but his eyes were on me and I could tell he was teasing.
“Not quite, she was silent most of the drive here,” Max shared.
“I could never do the silent treatment, I get too wound up,” Mindy added.
“What are you two fightin’ about anyway?” Brody asked nosily.
“Nothing,” I replied immediately.
“Nina movin’ here,” Max said over my word.
“Max!” I snapped, twisting my neck to look at him.
“You’re moving here! Awesome!” Mindy screeched very, very loudly and many of the other patrons turned to look.
In fact, when I swept my eyes self-consciously across the restaurant, I spotted Shauna who, from the look in her eyes which were glaring ice daggers at me, heard every word.
As embarrassed as I was, since she was with another man thus rubbing Harry’s nose into her betrayal further, I forced an expression of surprised delight on my face, lifted my hand and gave her a happy, “Hey, I know you!” wave.
She turned away.
“Christ, you’re cute,” Max muttered and I looked at him then caught Brody and Mindy both turning back from checking out Shauna, Mindy giggling, Brody grinning.
Our menus, at that point, arrived. Our drinks came not long after.
Kami came after we’d placed our food order and were enjoying a basket of fresh, warm, delicious bread.
She stood at the end of our table, her eyes were locked on Brody and she said not a word of greeting to her brother, Mindy or me.
“Brody, you’re home,” she announced as if Brody brought the black cloud of plague and death to Gnaw Bone upon his dastardly arrival.
“Yep,” Brody answered the obvious but shared no greeting either.
Her eyes came to me and she said, “Nina, congratulations, I see you’ve made it a week.”
I opened my mouth but Max got there before me.
On a sigh, he ordered, “Kami, tone it down.”
Kami’s eyes went to her brother and she asked in a way that stated she thought I shredded them then doused them with gasoline and set them afire, “Did Nina give you the papers?”
“Yep.”
“You talk to Trev?”
“Nope.”
“Max,” she hissed and in doing so got his full attention. Or I could say his full, scary attention. So scary I couldn’t help myself and partially shrunk away from him.
“Not gonna tell you again, Kami, that ain’t happenin’.”
“So, it’s up to me to take care of Mom all the time.”
“She’s not invalid.”
“She’s a pain in the ass.”
“So don’t give into her shit.”
“Easy for you to say, and do, not bein’ here hardly ever.”
“Maybe we can talk about this later when I’m not spendin’ time with Brody, who I rarely see.”
Kami didn’t feel like being generous and therefore asked, “You rarely see Mom and me either, Brody more important than family?”
“Yeah, Kami, if Brody walked up to my table at a nice restaurant, said shit to my woman and got in my face, he wouldn’t be too important. Seein’ as he don’t treat me like dirt then he is.”
Kami’s face got red, I took a hasty sip of my martini thinking I’d need it and my eyes slid to Mindy who looked pale, her eyes were wide but she still appeared to be trying hard not to laugh.
Kami appeared to have found a new direction for her ugliness because her eyes came to me and I was glad I took that sip of martini.
Then she looked back to Max and asked, “You gonna jerk her around like you did Shauna?”
Mindy gasped. Brody sucked in an audible breath and straightened. Max just straightened.
“Kami, careful, now you’re pissin’ me off,” Max stated in a tone that underlined his words unmistakably.
“She know?” Kami asked, either not processing or ignoring Max’s threat. “She know what you did to Shauna?”
“She knows we were together, she knows now we’re not,” Max returned. “You wanna carry on this conversation, we’ll do it outside.”
“You don’t want her to know,” Kami shot back and Max slid out of the booth but Kami’s eyes came to me. “Led her on, took her ring shoppin’ then scraped her off, givin’ her no reason whatsoever. Just ended it,” and she lifted up her hand and gave a loud snap with her fingers.
“Where’d you hear that shit?” Brody asked, his tone scathing.
“Shauna told me,” Kami answered.
“Shauna lied,” Max stated, his hand on Kami’s arm. “We’re finishin’ this elsewhere.”
She pulled her arm out of his hold and took a step back, accusing, “Shauna and I have been friends since forever and you treat her like that?”
Well that explained the attitude about Max and his supposed player status. Shauna had fed Kami lies and Kami, being what I knew of Kami, lapped it up.
My eyes went to Mindy and she bugged hers out at me in a “See!” look.
“Kami –” Max began but she kept talking.
“That’d be like me messin’ with Brody’s head.”
“Like that’d happen,” Brody muttered, visibly shivering in revulsion at the thought and it was my turn to fight back a laugh and I did so by taking another healthy sip of my martini.