“Goodie!” Mindy cried while I was clicking the computer to turn it off, she jumped out of her chair and ran to the window. “Max’s home for lunch. Brill!”
My heart skipped and my belly fluttered at the thought of Max being home for lunch.
“Shit!” Mindy hissed suddenly and ran back toward me.
Then I watched in shock as she threw herself bodily on the floor on my side of the couch, she curled up so she was as small as her tall body could be and she reached out a hand to me as if she was in a foxhole, I was standing outside it and bullets were flying.
“Hurry, get down here, maybe she won’t see us!” she was still hissing.
My eyes went to the windows as I saw a fancy, shining, black Lexus SUV slide next to my rental car.
“Who?”
“Kami!” Mindy whispered loudly. “Hurry!”
My eyes went to Mindy. “Kami? Max’s sister?”
“Yes. She’s scary. Hurry, before she sees you.”
With sudden intense curiosity, I looked back to the window to see a woman getting out of the SUV. She closed the door, turned and then looked up at the house.
“But –”
“Neens, get down here!”
Too late.
Kami looked into the house, did a quick sweep and stopped, her face pointed in my direction and I was pretty certain she saw me.
“She saw me.”
“Damn!”
I stood. “Get up, lovely, she’s Max’s sister. How scary could she be?”
My point was not that Max wasn’t scary. He was, very scary but he was scary in a lot of different ways for a lot different reasons, scary in a way women couldn’t be. Though I didn’t share this with Mindy.
I was watching Max’s sister walk up the steps as her eyes stayed locked on me. She had Max’s hair, longer, the waves no less attractive. But she didn’t have his height and she was carrying at least fifty (maybe more) extra pounds than her frame found comfortable. She also looked like she was in a bad mood.
“She looks like she’s in a bad mood,” I muttered, trying not to let my lips move.
“Great,” Mindy muttered back.
I walked to the door as Kami walked through.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey Kami,” Mindy said from behind me and Kami started when Mindy spoke then her eyes narrowed on a spot behind me and I figured that Mindy just righted herself.
“Mindy,” Kami said severely then her eyes, not clear gray but dark brown and not rimmed with fantastic lashes but makeup-less and nowhere near as spectacular as her brother’s, came to me. “You must be Nina.”
I smiled and stopped in front of her. “Word travels fast, I’m learning.”
“You are English, like they say,” Kami noted and she noted this like she would note, “You are a demon-from-hell, like they say.”
I felt my neck start to get tight. “Well, sort of –”
She cut me off, looking around. “Is Max here?”