The Gamble (Colorado Mountain #1)(162)

“Mom!” Kami snapped and Linda turned to her, leaned forward and morphed into another woman altogether.

“What’d I say about this crap?” she hissed. “You two always fightin’ with you always startin’ it. Works my last flippin’ nerve. Max is here, what? Practically never. And instead of enjoyin’ the time you got, you get in his face. I’ve had it up to here, Kami.” She lifted a hand up to her neck and continued, “And I’ve had it up to here with talkin’ to you like you’re five when you’re thirty-five, dammit.”

“I see, as always, perfect f**kin’ Max,” Kami shot back.

“Yeah, darlin’, perfect f**kin’ Max.” Linda shot back. “Max comes over, fixes my sink and doesn’t whine at me for five hours. That’s pretty f**kin’ perfect.”

Kami flinched then her face shut down.

“Same old shit,” Kami grumbled.

“The same old shit is, Max has a new girlfriend and you bring his old one to his house, lyin’ to me about why and makin’ us look bad in front of Nina. That’s the same old shit, Kami, and I’m sick and tired of it.” Then Linda looked at me and mumbled, “Sorry Nina.”

“Um… that’s okay,” I told her.

“It isn’t,” Linda replied.

“Oh, so now it’s gonna be perfect f**kin’ Nina,” Kami bit out.

Linda turned back to her daughter but I moved in quickly with hopes of lightening the mood.

“I’m sorry, Linda, but I don’t know how to fix a sink.”

Linda looked at me, her eyes caught mine and she replied, “That’s okay, Nina. Talked to Barb. What you know how to fix is a whole lot more important than a sink.”

I stared at her, now understanding why she liked me and Max’s arm curled tighter around my neck.

“What’s this?” Kami asked.

“None of your business,” Linda said, her eyes going to her daughter then to Shauna and then she said, “You two are adults so you gotta do what you think you gotta do but I’ll tell you, you show up at Curtis Dodd’s funeral it’ll make me think less of you.” Her gaze hardened on Shauna and she finished, “It’ll make me think less of you both.”

Shauna’s eyes moved quickly away but Kami glared at her mother.

“Maybe we should leave,” Kami suggested.

“Since you’re my ride up here, that’d make it difficult for me to get down the mountain,” Linda replied.

“I’ll take you down, Mom,” Max put in smoothly.

“Perfect f**kin’ Max,” Kami shot at him.

“What is it with you?” Max shot back. “Seriously, Kami, I wanna know. Why are you such a bitch all the time?”

“I don’t know, Max, maybe it’s ‘cause you were Dad’s favorite and you’re Mom’s favorite and I could handle that if my nose wasn’t rubbed into it all the time,” Kami returned.

Jealous and juvenile, I thought, staring at her in amazement at her words for her behavior was the norm, as far as I knew it.

“Honest to God?” Max asked.

“I’m sure it’s hard for you to believe, seein’ as you have no clue how it feels,” Kami returned.

“Christ, I feel like I’m fifteen again,” Max muttered, “since we had this conversation when I was fifteen and fourteen and f**kin’ twenty-five.”

“Whatever,” Kami muttered back.

“The other thing, Nina,” Linda said to me, flipping the pancakes, “is all kids think a parent has a favorite. They don’t. It isn’t possible. You love your children, maybe not the same but always the same amount.”

“Right,” Kami said to her mother’s back.

“Though,” Linda said to me, “you can tell them that and tell them that but they’ll never believe you.”

“I’m an only child,” I informed Linda or at least I was now.

“That’s too bad,” Linda replied, reaching in the cupboard for plates. “I got a sister and brother, love ‘em both to bits. Wish my kids had that.”

“If Max’ll take you down the mountain, we’ll skip on the pancakes.” Kami again spoke to her mother’s back, clearly not allowing a single word her mother said to penetrate her rabid desire to be the martyr.

“All right, Kami,” Linda replied, not turning and Kami and Shauna both slid from their stools.

Then Linda continued with her pancakes and Max stayed still at my side, his arm around my shoulders as Kami and Shauna walked to the door.

“We’ll see ourselves out,” Kami called spitefully.

“All right, darlin’,” Linda called back and handed me a plate of pancakes.

The door closed and I offered the pancakes to Max.

“You eat, baby, I’ll wait for the next round,” Max said softly.

“And I’ll apologize for Kami,” Linda said as she put butter into the skillet. “She isn’t like this all the time, honestly. Curtis’s death has been tough on her.”

“Then maybe she shouldn’t be friends with Curt’s piece of ass,” Max muttered as I slid out from under Max’s arm and walked to the butter.

“Max,” Linda said quietly.