“Max –” he suddenly let me go and stepped away, glaring at me and I stopped speaking.
“So, you knew the shit’s been goin’ on in my head this past week.”
I shook my head again, those short, sharp, confused shakes. “No.”
“You know how she died?”
“I… I know Curt killed her.”
“So you knew the shit’s been goin’ on in my head this past week.”
“Max –”
“Curt killed her and the week he dies, the week that shit comes back up after years of it stayin’ buried is the week I fall in love with another woman.”
A jolt of electricity bolted through me and all I could do was stare.
Max didn’t seem to notice. “When Mick came to my door that night to tell me about the accident, to tell me Bitsy had to be cut clear and would probably never walk again, to tell me Curt walked away without even a fuckin’ scratch, to tell me Anna was dead at the scene, I knew never again, I’d never let it happen to me again. Then you drove up to my house in a goddamned snowstorm.”
“Max –” I whispered, my breath coming fast, almost in pants but he talked over me.
“Then Curt gets murdered while I’m fallin’ for you and this week it’s been like lettin’ her go again but I could deal with that, long’s I had you, your body in my bed, you bein’ so cute all the time, you sparrin’ with me, all that remindin’ me life could be good. And I had your shit to occupy my mind, sort you out, get you to take a gamble on me and you fuckin’ knew and you let me deal with your shit and you didn’t ask that first fuckin’ question. You didn’t think once what I might be goin’ through.”
He was right, so right and I hated when he was right.
Especially this time.
I didn’t think, I even figured it out but I never thought of him. I was so wrapped up in my own drama, my neuroses, I didn’t give it a single thought. Not once, not even when Curt wrote whatever he wrote in his letter to the man whose wife he killed obviously in a car wreck and Max went so strange. Bitsy had even told me to take care of Max but did I?
No. I just thought about me.
I took a step forward but this time Max moved back and I stopped, actually feeling the blood draining from my face.
“Max, darling –”
“Nope, Nina, no way. Don’t give me that fuckin’ ‘darling’ shit now.” He shook his head. “You were so busy worryin’ about yourself, you didn’t think to worry about me. So that shit with Shauna that first night at The Mark, you cuddlin’ up to me, havin’ my back… fuck.” He ended on a snarl, so overcome with fury and mountain man betrayal he couldn’t go on.
“Max, let me –”
He cut me off again. “You know where I been this morning, babe?”
“I…” I shook my head, “no, I… where have you been?”
“Talkin’ to Bitsy,” he replied, his voice terse. “See yesterday, durin’ our conversation, I realized I was askin’ you to give up everything for me, slot into my life. And I thought, you movin’ all the way out here only to have me be gone, seein’ you on weekends or not for months, you make your sacrifice and what? That’s what you get? So I told Bitsy I’d take the job, I’d take over Curt’s business, I’d stay in town, I’d do that shit for you.”
I felt my chest moving rapidly, the tears welling in my eyes, I couldn’t believe it. Max didn’t want anything to do with that job. He hated Curt’s business. He hated Curt. Curt had killed his wife.
“Please, Max, let me explain.”
He shook his head and started to the door. “Figure this’ll be good, babe, but too fuckin’ late.”
I followed him, calling, “Max.”
He turned to me with his hand on the handle of the door and I stopped at the coldness I saw in his eyes, a coldness I’d only seen once before. Coldness he’d aimed at Shauna.
“Told you, somethin’s good, it’s worth fightin’ for but not if you’re the only one fightin’.”
Then he opened the door, slamming it behind him and stalked out.
My feet were bare so I ran up the stairs, pulled on boots then ran down, threw open the door, jumped down the steps but when I got to the drive I saw his Cherokee disappear behind the green pine and white aspen of his mountain.
Chapter Twelve
Norm and Gladys
It was starting to get dark, I was frozen nearly stiff but I sat watching and listening to the rushing river by my cabin.
After Max left that morning, his parting shot so final, I knew I only had one choice and having only that choice, in my head I broke down the problems facing me then I tackled them one by one.
I called Thrifty’s and luckily got someone other than Arlene who answered the phone. This person had clearly not been informed of the ban on taxis to Max’s house therefore when I ordered a taxi he told me they’d send one and it’d be there in half an hour.