She turned away.
“Christ, you’re cute,” Max muttered and I looked at him then caught Brody and Mindy both turning back from checking out Shauna, Mindy giggling, Brody grinning.
Our menus, at that point, arrived. Our drinks came not long after.
Kami came after we’d placed our food order and were enjoying a basket of fresh, warm, delicious bread.
She stood at the end of our table, her eyes were locked on Brody and she said not a word of greeting to her brother, Mindy or me.
“Brody, you’re home,” she announced as if Brody brought the black cloud of plague and death to Gnaw Bone upon his dastardly arrival.
“Yep,” Brody answered the obvious but shared no greeting either.
Her eyes came to me and she said, “Nina, congratulations, I see you’ve made it a week.”
I opened my mouth but Max got there before me.
On a sigh, he ordered, “Kami, tone it down.”
Kami’s eyes went to her brother and she asked in a way that stated she thought I shredded them then doused them with gasoline and set them afire, “Did Nina give you the papers?”
“Yep.”
“You talk to Trev?”
“Nope.”
“Max,” she hissed and in doing so got his full attention. Or I could say his full, scary attention. So scary I couldn’t help myself and partially shrunk away from him.
“Not gonna tell you again, Kami, that ain’t happenin’.”
“So, it’s up to me to take care of Mom all the time.”
“She’s not invalid.”
“She’s a pain in the ass.”
“So don’t give into her shit.”
“Easy for you to say, and do, not bein’ here hardly ever.”
“Maybe we can talk about this later when I’m not spendin’ time with Brody, who I rarely see.”
Kami didn’t feel like being generous and therefore asked, “You rarely see Mom and me either, Brody more important than family?”
“Yeah, Kami, if Brody walked up to my table at a nice restaurant, said shit to my woman and got in my face, he wouldn’t be too important. Seein’ as he don’t treat me like dirt then he is.”
Kami’s face got red, I took a hasty sip of my martini thinking I’d need it and my eyes slid to Mindy who looked pale, her eyes were wide but she still appeared to be trying hard not to laugh.
Kami appeared to have found a new direction for her ugliness because her eyes came to me and I was glad I took that sip of martini.
Then she looked back to Max and asked, “You gonna jerk her around like you did Shauna?”
Mindy gasped. Brody sucked in an audible breath and straightened. Max just straightened.
“Kami, careful, now you’re pissin’ me off,” Max stated in a tone that underlined his words unmistakably.
“She know?” Kami asked, either not processing or ignoring Max’s threat. “She know what you did to Shauna?”