Colorado Mountain series by Kristen Ashley

My gaze slid to Jeff to see he was staring at Arlene in disbelief or, I should say, somewhat angry disbelief as Arlene kept sharing her story.

“This’s where it gets really interesting. See, last time, when the wife took him back, she made him sign everything over in her name. She owns it all, the houses, the businesses, even the bank accounts are in her name, she’s got control of the whole enchilada.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered, now I was staring at Arlene.

“How do you know all this shit?” Jeff asked.

“Everyone’s talkin’,” Arlene answered.

“Not cops and this is confidential information,” Jeff returned. “You aren’t hearin’ this stuff on the grapevine or on your police band, Arlene.”

“I got my sources,” Arlene replied.

“They local?” Jeff returned.

“Not sayin’,” Arlene muttered.

“Arlene, are they local?” Jeff repeated.

“Nope,” Arlene answered quickly and Jeff stared at her.

Then he muttered, “Chantelle.” His eyes went intense and he asked, “Your niece works reception at Chantelle PD, doesn’t she?”

“Uh… she might,” Arlene replied, Max grunted (whether this was an amused or knowing grunt, I had no idea), Jeff looked annoyed and the rest of us glanced at each other as Arlene carried on, her eyes on Jeff.

“Anyway, Jeff, seems to me, unless this Winston fella finds himself a sugar mama, his wife gets pissed, which she is, she takes it all.”

It was then Mindy entered the conversation and suggested to Jeff, “Maybe a sugar mama who thought she was going to inherit some, or all, of a local big man’s construction empire because she told him she was pregnant with his child?”

My gaze snapped to Max who was watching Mindy then his eyes turned to me.

“That’s what I’m thinkin’,” Arlene responded to Mindy then looked to Jeff. “That what the boys at the Station are thinkin’, Jeff?”

At this point Fran hit our table carrying a tray filled with coffees and Jeff stood, fishing his wallet out of the back of his jeans.

“What the boys at the Station are gonna be thinkin’ in about ten minutes, Arlene,” Jeff said, flipping open his wallet and pulling out some bills, “is that the shit you shared at this table better stay at this table or someone’s niece is gonna be out of a job.” Jeff threw the money on the table and took his coffee from Fran before he concluded, eyes back on Arlene. “Yeah?”

I looked at Jeff’s angry eyes and set face and realized, when he was being macho mountain man police officer, he was even more attractive than normal, in fact, as Becca would put it, he was downright hot.

Then I looked at Mindy and saw her gazing up at him with an expression on her face that said she thought much the same thing.

Arlene visibly ground her teeth at having her gossip curtailed and then she muttered, “Yeah.”

“Right,” Jeff stated then his eyes went to Mindy and his set face changed entirely before he said softly, “See you tomorrow night.”

“Okay,” Mindy replied back, just as softly, the pink again tingeing her cheeks.

“Kami’s comin’ to the Station from work,” Max told Jeff, stopping to look at his watch before finishing, “in about half an hour, that good?”

“Yeah,” Jeff replied on a nod. “I’ll tell Mick.” Then Jeff looked at the table at large and said, “Later,” and he moved away.

I watched him go then twisted back and leaned clean across Max toward Mindy.

“Tomorrow night?” I asked and watched Mindy’s cheeks get even pinker.

“He asked me out,” Mindy whispered, leaning into me and my hand reached out and snatched hers.

“That’s great!” I whispered back but my whisper was excited and kind of loud.

Mindy looked at me a second then leaned in further and queried, “Do you really think so, Neens?”

I nodded effusively.

“Seriously?” she pushed.

I squeezed her hand. “Yes, sweetheart.”

Mindy bit her lip then released it and stated, “I don’t know.”

“Why not?” I enquired and she got closer, her eyes going to the side to take in the table and mine did too.

Everyone, except Max, who was forced to be a silent part of it due to the conversation happening pretty much in his lap, and Becca, who was watching us and grinning, was studiously avoiding our exchange.

I looked back to Mindy when she asked, “I think… don’t you think it’s, uh… too soon?”

I leaned further over Max and squeezed Mindy’s hand again before answering. “My lovely, you can decide to start living your life in a month, or two, or six, or next year and that’d be perfectly all right, it’s up to you.” She nodded and I continued, “But my question to you would be, why wait?” I watched her swallow and finished, “Life’s short, Mins, but you need time, you take it. Jeff will understand.”

“Uh… I don’t know if he will. He was kind of…” She paused, searching for a word, then found it and shared, “Determined when he asked me.”

I noted that the way she said this was far from an objection. My eyes slid to the side and up and I saw Max watching us, his lips pressed together and my eyes slid back to Mindy.

“I’ve noticed macho mountain men can be that way,” I told her.

She leaned closer to me, her eyes doing a quick glance to Max then she whispered very low, “Even though I felt funny… you know, talkin’ to him seein’ as, you know, he was there… but…” She hesitated and I could barely hear her when she finished, “It was kinda hot.”

“I bet it was,” I replied, she tipped her head to the side in question and I went on. “Been there, sweetheart, done that.”

Max started chuckling and Mindy and I both jerked back and looked at him.

“You want me to move?” he asked.

“Would you, darling?” I asked back.

Max hooked a hand around my neck, pulled my temple to his mouth, kissed it and got up which was obviously his answer.

I got up too, grabbed my latte mug and scooted Max’s chair back a bit before I sat in it. Mindy scooted hers back too. Becca got up suddenly, walked around the table and sat in Jeff’s vacated chair.

“What’s goin’ on?” she asked.

I looked from Becca to Mindy and both Becca and I leaned into Mindy as I demanded, “All right, sweetheart, tell us everything.”