The Gamble
“Your Mom wants to be carried to her car, I can carry her to her car, I’ll carry her to her car. Not a big deal,” Max replied, bending and pulling off his boots.
“Whatever,” I muttered and turned back to the fire.
I felt him come to me rather than heard him and then I scrunched to the side as he sat in the chair beside me and propped his feet up on the ottoman.
I was about to open my mouth to say something, what I had no idea, when Max slid an arm around my shoulders and spoke.
“Two miracles occurred today. My woman saved the girl I think of as a sister’s life and it’s eight o’clock, we’re alone and you’re not sick, drunk or asleep.”
“Max,” I whispered and he turned from gazing at the fire to look at me.
“Never, Nina, never in my f**kin’ life will I forget you racin’ down that incline, jumpin’ in the goddamned river and bent over, breathin’ life into Mindy.”
I closed my eyes but opened them again when Max’s hand came to my face and his mouth touched mine.
He pulled back an inch and murmured, “Thank you, baby.”
“Max –” I started softly and he cut me off.
“But, you ever even think of jumpin’ into a river again, I’ll tan your ass.”
I felt my brows snap together just as I felt my body jerk. “I’m sorry?”
Max’s arm dropped across my lap, his hand at my hip and he stated, “You scared the f**kin’ shit outta me.”
“Max –”
“Seriously, Nina, swear to God, I watched you go into that river, you didn’t f**kin’ hesitate, and my goddamned stomach dropped. I thought you’d both go.”
“Max –”
“There’d be nothin’ I could do, that river took you, it wanted you, it’d have you and I’d lose you both.”
“That didn’t happen,” I reminded him, trying to keep my patience.
“No, thank f**k, it didn’t. Coulda, but it didn’t.”
“I had to get to her.”
“I know you did.”
“So I got to her.”
“Yeah, you did, nearly lost your life doin’ it.”
“That isn’t true.”
“A river’s unpredictable, babe, you don’t know that but I do. Especially in spring. You shoulda waited for me.”
“Waiting wasn’t an option.”
“Not worth talkin’ about now, it’s done and thankfully everyone’s all right.”
“You brought it up.”
“I brought it up in case you get a wild hair which you seem to do a lot.”
I pulled back as far as I could which wasn’t very far and glared at him. “I’m not going to jump into rivers willy nilly, Max, I didn’t even jump in today. I just, kind of, walked in.” His brows went up and I gave an inch. “Okay, ran in.”
He shook his head then declared, “We’re done talkin’ about this.”
I continued to glare. Then I started to push up from the chair but his arms tightened around me and he pulled me back down to him.
“Max, I’m going to go read or something.”
“You’re pissed I laid it out and you’re gonna go nurse your snit.”
Seriously, he was so annoying.
“Okay, so I’m going to go nurse my snit.”
“No, you aren’t. You’re gonna sit here and we’re gonna enjoy the fact that we’re breathin’, alive and alone.”
“Has anyone told you you’re domineering?”
“Nope.”
“Well, let me be the first. You’re domineering.”
He turned more fully to me and ran his forearm down the backs of both my legs, hooking them at the knee and pulling them over his legs on the ottoman. If I hadn’t been in a snit I might have noticed, firstly, that he did this gently so as not to hurt my scraped up leg and, secondly, that I was far more comfortable in this position.
But I was in a snit and he was talking so I didn’t notice.
“First, babe, seriously?”
“Seriously what?” I asked.
“If I got somethin’ on my mind, you want me to keep it to myself?”
Well, it didn’t sound very good when he said it like that.
“No, but ��”
“Especially if it’s important?”
“Of course not.”
“Second, you get pissed at what I say, you want to go off in a huff rather than talkin’ shit out?”
That didn’t sound very good either.
“Well –”
“Yes or no.”
“Maybe, yes,” I snapped and his face grew dark.
“You’re shittin’ me.”
“If I go off in a huff, as you put it, I might have a chance to get my head together so we can talk it out, not argue about it.”
“Babe, you’re not kidding anyone. You want the chance to pull away, not get your head together.”
Why was he so annoying? I was angry enough to ask.
“Why are you so annoying?” I snapped again.
“Because I’m right, you’re wrong and you know it.”
I shouldn’t have asked.
I looked to the ceiling and told God, “God, next time I want an adventure, strike me with lightning. You have my permission.”
“You know what sucks?” Max broke into my conversation with God and I looked back at him.
“No, what sucks, Max?”
“It sucks you’re so f**kin’ cute even when I’m pissed at you.”
My eyes rounded, my temper flared even as my heartbeat spiked with a weird but palpable fear.
“You’re pissed at me?”
“Duchess, you ran into a raging goddamned river and gave me attitude when I called you on it.”
“Max, I ran in after Mindy who was trying to commit suicide like my brother did three years ago and I wasn’t going to let that happen again! Not to Mindy, not to Brody and not to you!”
His face gentled but I wasn’t done.
“And I don’t get a wild hair a lot.”
“Babe,” he said low, his gentled face now looked like it was desperately trying not to crack a smile.
“What?” I snapped.
“You flew out to Colorado, drivin’ into mountains you’ve never been to by yourself and harborin’ a flu. You were alone, in a snowstorm, in the middle of nowhere in a house with a man you’d never met and you got into it with me. And, I’ll just say, you might have a mouth on you, babe, but physically I can take you. Then you took on Shauna on what amounts to our first date. Then you took on Damon, who’s a dick, could also take you and, worse, would. Then you took on Kami and then Shauna again. You took one look at Jeff, decided he was a good guy and threw Mindy at his feet. You didn’t think for even a second before gettin’ into it with your Dad, just threw back the covers, blew from the loft, ran down the f**kin’ stairs and got right in his face. And this mornin’ you acted out a hilarious but obviously practiced head to head with your Mom.” I was back to glaring silently at him since his facts made a pretty damning case but he wasn’t done. “And we won’t get into you jumpin’ on the back of an ATV a coupla days after you shied away from a f**kin’ snowmobile then jumpin’ off it like you’re a Hollywood stuntwoman.”