The Gamble (Colorado Mountain #1)(40)

“I’ve got a brother,” Mindy shared. “We’re close but he lives in Seattle now, which is a bummer sometimes and not a bummer others ‘cause he can be kinda, in my life. YouknowhatImean?”

Yes, I knew what she meant. I knew if her brother knew that she was carrying on with a mountain man Lothario who was old enough to be her much older brother, then her real, Seattle dwelling brother would be in her life.

I didn’t say this, instead I said, “Of course.”

“You close with your brother?” she asked.

I poured granola on my berries then set the box down and answered, “I moved to England permanently because of him.”

“Yeah?” Mindy prompted.

“Yes,” I said, spooning out my yogurt and not measuring my words, not even knowing why I was speaking at all. “He was in the Army, sent to Afghanistan. When he was there, a bomb blew his legs off.” I heard Mindy gasp and I felt something coming from Max but I was impervious, like I was in a different world. “My father, who is not a nice man, turned his back on his golden boy when he felt he was no longer…” I hesitated then said, “Golden.” I shook my head at the still painful memory and put the top on the yogurt. “His fiancée broke things off with him and he was having trouble adjusting. So I moved to England to help.”

There was silence as I mixed my fruit, granola and yogurt and I turned to face the kitchen. When I did I saw they were both staring at me. Well, Mindy was, it was more like Max was watching me, closely.

Mindy broke the silence, saying quietly, “Jeez, Nina, I’m sorry. He okay now?”

“No,” I told her bluntly, looking right at her. “Charlie never adjusted. He committed suicide three years ago.”

“Holy crap,” Mindy breathed and I watched the color drain out of her face.

“That pretty much sums it up,” I told her.

“Mins, do me a favor. Go upstairs, get yourself one of my t-shirts to wear into town, yeah?” Max said and Mindy’s eyes moved to him.

She also saw him watching me, how he was watching me, her body jolted and she hopped off the stool.

“Yeah, right, um… a shirt…” she hesitated, her eyes going back and forth between Max and me.

“Just lose yourself for awhile, okay?” Max ordered, not taking his eyes off me.

She didn’t answer or maybe her answer was her skip-dancing away.

I looked at Max and took a bite of my breakfast.

“What was that about?” Max asked, not moving toward me.

“What?” I asked back, my mouth full, well beyond thinking it rude to speak with my mouth full.

“Closed up tight for two days, you share a tragedy and you do it like that?” Max asked and it dawned on me that he looked angry. “What’s that about?” he demanded to know.

“Mindy was asking,” I explained after I swallowed.

“You didn’t have to tell her like that,” Max returned.

“Oh, sorry, Max,” I said, my voice tinged with sarcasm. “Does she have a delicate disposition? Should I have shielded her from that?”

“Yeah, considerin’ she was raped three weeks ago and her boyfriend’s bein’ a f**kin’ dickhead that would have been good.”

I felt every cell in my body cease moving and I stared at him.

Then I whispered, “What?”

“Mindy was raped three weeks ago. She was in Denver with Becca. They were out clubbin’ or whatever the f**k they do these days and got separated. Mindy was raped. She went through that, they haven’t found the guy, she gets home, her boyfriend who she lives with starts actin’ like an ass**le. Then more of an ass**le. Brody, her brother and my best friend who lives in Seattle, asked me to come home and look out for her seein’ as he can’t.”

Oh my God.

Mindy and her baby blue socks with darker blue hearts, skip-dancing, jumping up and down when she met me was raped.

“So, Nina,” Max cut into my thoughts, “I’ll ask again, what the f**k was that?”

“I thought…” I shook my head and looked away, closing my eyes, feeling like a bitch because I’d been a bitch then I looked back and whispered, “It doesn’t matter.”

“Well, yeah, it does, considerin’ she’s like my sister too and she and Brody talk and you didn’t make a very good impression. This’ll be all over town and to Seattle and people’ll think I got another Shauna in my bed.”

“I –”

He cut me off. “I don’t care what people think but I do care what Mindy thinks and I care what Brody thinks.”

“I –”

“Jesus,” he muttered, looking away and I noticed he’d taken the bacon off the burner and it was sitting in its grease then he went on as if talking to himself, “was I wrong about you?”

There it was. My opening.

“Yes,” I told him and he looked back at me. “I’m a screaming bitch.” He stared at me and I went on, “It was jetlag, I think, making you think I was cute… or… whatever. Really, I’m like this. I act like this all the time.” He didn’t speak just kept staring at me so unwisely I went on. “I’m over my jetlag. I’ll probably be bitchy willy nilly to just about everyone.”