The Gamble (Colorado Mountain #1)(132)
I let that go, it wasn’t easy but I did it and instead, asked, “Did you read my e-mail?”
“I scanned it, I didn’t have time –”
Max got even tenser at my side but I was concentrating on the fact that I was getting tense too. Very tense. Ultra tense.
“You scanned it?” I asked quietly but I wasn’t being quiet in an effort to be gentle. I was being quiet in an effort to control my temper.
“Nina, things are busy at work, you know that, that’s why I couldn’t come with you on your holiday,” Niles replied, sounding like he was getting irritated though only mildly so.
“Niles, I didn’t ask you to come with me. The whole point of a timeout is to be apart so you can think about whether or not you want to be together. I explained that to you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Niles returned and that dangerous film of red that boded bad things started to coat my vision.
“Fuckin’ hell,” Max muttered while I concentrated on trying to clear my vision so I didn’t end up screeching like my mother.
“You can stay out of it.” My father entered the conversation by speaking to Max.
“Sorry, Larry, I’m in it,” Max shot back and if things weren’t going so very, very poorly I might have laughed. Dad hated to be called Larry, hated it.
“And who are you?” Niles asked, scowling at Max.
“I’m Holden Maxwell,” Max answered immediately, in other words before I could. “I own the house Nina rented. There was a mix up, I had to be in town on personal business and Slim didn’t tell Nina. She showed up at the house and I was there. Lucky I was. She was sick as a dog, lapsed into a fever so bad she was delirious for two days and I was worried I’d have to take her to the hospital. The fever broke and since then things have advanced between us. We’ve gotten to know each other, we both like what we know and, bottom line, you didn’t take care of what was yours. Now, as Nina has explained, you’ve lost it, I found it and it’s mine.”
As usual, Max didn’t mince words and Niles was now scowling at him but doing it with his mouth hanging open.
Max ignored Niles’s scowl and, his head swinging between me, Mom and Steve, he asked, “We done here?”
I heard Steve chuckle.
However, Mom declared, “I’m not done.”
“Yeah you are, sweetheart,” Steve said, pulling her back a couple of feet.
“I’m not done, either,” Dad stated and finally stood.
“You got nothin’ to say. Far’s I can see, this ain’t your business,” Max told him.
“She’s my daughter,” Dad declared.
“You fathered her but that doesn’t make her your daughter,” Max retorted and Dad’s face got red.
“As far as I can see, this isn’t any of your business either,” Dad returned.
“Then seems to me you aren’t seein’ very well,” Max replied.
Dad didn’t continue because Niles spoke.
“I lost it and you found it and now it is yours?” Niles asked Max and Max looked to Niles.
“That’s what I said,” Max answered.
I decided to wade in. “Niles, please, listen to me –”
“This is unbelievable,” Niles snapped at me, definitely mildly irritated, maybe even more than that though that surprised me. I’d never heard him snap, not in all the years I’d known him. “I heard his voice over the phone and I couldn’t believe it, not even after Lawrence told me what was happening. I’m standing here looking at you now and I still can’t believe it.”
My patience waning, I explained, “I’m uncertain what you can’t believe since things haven’t been good between us for awhile, a long while, Niles. And I told you I was taking two weeks to think about our relationship. Then I wrote you an e-mail which, incidentally, it took me two hours to write, explaining we weren’t going to work and all the reasons why. Then I phoned you and told you we were over.”
“Perhaps, if you were feeling this way you could have spoken to me, face to face, not in an e-mail or over the phone,” Niles suggested patronizingly. “And you wouldn’t be acting like your mother, performing this drama which forced me to leave work and fly halfway around the world.”
That red film came back, this time with blinding white flashes, the anger so strong, pent up so long, I had to speak through my teeth in order not to scream.
“If you’ll remember, Niles, I did. I spoke with you about Charlie’s house and how I didn’t want to leave it and you didn’t listen. I spoke with you about how I was feeling about us, how I felt lonely even when I was with you and you didn’t listen. I spoke to you about how my father wasn’t a part of my life and here he stands.” Like my mother, I swept my arm out to indicate my father but I didn’t take my eyes from Niles as I continued. “I spoke with you about the fact we haven’t been intimate, not in months and months and how that concerned me but you didn’t seem to care.”
At these words, I felt Max’s hand convulse in mine but I ignored it and kept right on talking.
“I spoke to you about how all the times I spoke to you about all these things – and there have been lots of times I’ve spoken to you about all these things, Niles – I spoke with you about how that bothered me deeply. And I spoke with you about how it upset me nothing ever seemed to get through, no matter what it meant to me, how important it was. And, finally, I explained exactly what a timeout meant, hoping maybe you wouldn’t want me to go that maybe, in the end, you’d do something to save us, to show me you cared. But off I went and you didn’t even phone to see if I got here safely which, in the end, I did but, being as sick as I was, I actually didn’t.”