Page 53 of Cowboy Stole My Heart
Sam didn’t doubt him. The King family dinners were big, and with three growing families to feed, they always went through a lot of food.
“You know, I think you’ve forgotten how to knock like a man,” Nate teased, leaning close like he was whispering a secret to him. “You’re supposed to actually make some noise on the timber. You’re lucky I even knew to let you in.”
“Fuck you,” Sam swore good-naturedly, wishing he could punch Nate, but there was the slight problem of the small child in the way.
“Hey, man, could you…”
Sam turned to listen to Nate, groaning when his friend passed him the baby. “Dammit, Nate!” he protested, awkwardly trying to reposition his niece.
“Hey, Sam.” Faith came past, with her long dark hair loose, barefoot and wearing jeans and a shirt. She looked like she had every time he’d seen her with Nate: relaxed,happy, barefoot and smiling. He hated to admit it, but Nate had been damn good for his little sister. “See you’ve got your arms full there.”
“Your goddamn husband seems to offload to me every time I’m here.” He kissed his sister’s cheek. “Why do I always feel like I’m going to break her or something?”
He stared down at the sleeping child in his arms, his blood pressure rising when she stretched and opened her eyes.Shit.
“You’re not going to break her,” Faith said easily, as if she had every confidence in him. “She’s way past the tiny limb breakable stage, okay? So long as you don’t drop her, you’ll be fine.”
Great. So all he had to do was not drop her when she started squirming. Easier said than done.
“I hear you’ve got it bad for one of the Ford girls?” Faith teased, her voice low as they walked outside where the others were. “I don’t think I’ve met her.”
Sam took a deep breath, fighting to keep a lid on his feelings. “I’ll kill Nate for that,” he muttered. “And no, I don’t have it bad. She’s a nice girl and I’m working there. That’s it.”
She was also damn beautiful and he’d thought of little else other than getting her back between the sheets since the night before, but he wasn’t about to tell his sister that. He also felt like shit for walking out on her so abruptly, but if he’d had to extract himself from her bed even later in the evening, it would have been worse trying to explain himself. He wasn’t staying the night with her, not now, not ever.
“So what’s she like?” Faith asked. “Come on, tell me!”
“She’s nice,” Sam said, knowing he had to give his sister something. If he didn’t, she’d be like a dog with a bone.
“And?”
Faith was staring up at him, and just when he pulled his gaze from hers, a tiny, chubby hand reached up and touched his jaw, little fingers playing across his skin. She had him then. His tiny, cherubic little niece, the one who could be so charming and other times cry her damn eyes out when he held her, was looking up at him with such a sweet expression on her face that it nearly choked him.
“And nothing,” he said quietly. “The only members of the opposite sex that I’ll be falling for, Faith, are these two girls. They can have me wrapped around their little fingers and I will love them forever, but there’s no room for anyone else. You know that.”
She shook her head, like she was disappointed in him, but he knew that wasn’t what she meant. Faith was happy and she wanted the same for him, she’d already told him as much.
“It doesn’t have to be that way forever,” she said, leaning into him and putting her head to his arm. “Just because you’ve been hurt once…”
Sam stiffened. “What you and Nate have is one in a million, and I couldn’t be happier for you. But it’s not going to happen to me, Faith, so stop pushing.”
She nodded and when she stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek he bent to let her and gave her a one-armed hug.
“I’m gonna find a seat in the shade so I can have a good chat with my niece,” Sam said, smiling, wishing Faith would stop worrying about him.
“If you ever want to invite her for dinner…”
Sam gave Faith a look that he hoped was full of enough fury to get her to back off, but she just laughed at him and disappeared back into the other room. Which left Sam still with a baby in his arms, who seemed to be drifting backoff to sleep, and a lineup of King brothers, beer bottles in hand, standing around talking shit and laughing.
Sam nodded when Nate plucked a beer from the ice bucket he had outside, walking closer to take it from him.
“Thanks. Just what I need.”
He smiled at Chase and then nodded to Nate’s youngest brother Ryder as he sank down into a chair and took a long pull of beer. For a moment he wondered what Mia was doing, whether she was out walking horses or relaxing poolside in the late afternoon sun.
“I hear you’re all bent out of shape about Mia Ford,” Chase said, grinning with his beer bottle hovering in front of his mouth.
“Oh, been there, done that,” Ryder said, shaking his head. “Poor bastard.”
