“You’re not on vacation, you’re a nut,” Mindy said and I could swear I heard a smile in her voice so I looked at her and saw there was a smile on her face.

Maybe it was the facial that did it but I was thinking it was more me being a nut. I didn’t care. Either way, I was relieved.

“Then I guess I’m a nut,” I said, scanning my inbox to see if Niles had written, he hadn’t, so I shut it down.

“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?”

“No, he’s in town,” Mindy offered, coming to stand by me.

I tried to get things on the right track and lifted my hand. “You’re Kami, Max’s sister.”

She stared at my hand then at me then she sighed in a harassed way, took my hand, hers remained limp as a dead fish and she replied, “Yeah,” she dropped my hand and looked at Mindy. “When’s Max gonna be back?”

“Dunno,” Mindy answered.

“Well,” she began and walked to the dining room table, opening her enormous, well-made, designer leather purse. “Tell him I stopped by and brought the papers for him.” Then she yanked out some papers and slapped them down on the table.

“Papers?” Mindy asked as Kami turned back to us.

“Papers,” Kami repeated. “Curt might be dead but that doesn’t mean work stopped and Trev’s still lookin’ for a foreman and they still want Max. They’re offerin’ full benefits, have added a week on his vacation and another five thousand dollars. He’d be a fool not to take it and quit travellin’ around like he’s twenty-two and got no sense.”

I wasn’t sure I liked Max’s sister and found myself lamenting the fact I hadn’t thrown myself on the floor beside the couch like Mindy.

“Kami, Max ain’t gonna work for Dodd,” Mindy said softly and I looked at Mindy in surprise.

“Yeah? Well then it’s good he’s dead, Max doesn’t have that excuse anymore,” Kami shot back.

Now I was sure I didn’t like Max’s sister.

“Brody says he gets paid loads more on the jobs he takes out of town,” Mindy told her.

“They sweetened the pot.”

“I’m thinkin’ they’ll need to make it even sweeter for him to work for Dodd, even seein’ as Dodd’s dead. It’s still workin’ for Dodd,” Mindy pointed out.

Kami directed her gaze to the floor all the while shaking her head, walking toward the door and muttering, “Why am I having this conversation?”

“Would you…” I tried politeness again, “like to stay for a cup of coffee? We were just thinking about pulling together lunch.”

Kami stopped at the door and looked at me. “Thanks but… no.” She appeared to be fighting back a curl in her lip as her eyes travelled the length of me. “I’ll pass on having coffee with another one of Max’s women. We’ll see how long you last then we’ll think about coffee.”

“Kami!” Mindy snapped, her back up, her courage slotting into place, her anger apparent.

“You should be warned, he’s a player,” Kami said to me, ignoring Mindy.

“He is not!” Mindy defended.

Kami’s eyes went to her and she was definitely having trouble with her lip curling now. “Like you’d know.”

“Know him better than you.”

“Hardly,” Kami said derisively.