Page 79 of Cowboy Stole My Heart
Chapter 21
“LETme get this straight,” Nate said, brows furrowed as he gave Sam a hard stare. “You walked out on her and yet you’re the one all fucked up over it? What the hell did she do to you?”
Sam glowered. He didn’t want to be having this conversation. Faith had been at him, unrelenting, and now she’d officially released her attack dog on him. Nate was going to be like a dog with a goddamn bone.
“I’ve told Faith and now I’ll tell you, I don’t want to talk about it. What’s with you two tag-teaming me to try to get me to open up?”
Nate had the nerve to laugh. “No one likes admitting they’re a dickhead, but sometimes it has to be done. That’s why I’m here.”
Sam got up and walked away, not about to listen to Nate carrying on like he could walk the moral high ground.
“Hey, wait up!”
Sam didn’t. He walked fast, storming away from Nate, knowing he was so close to exploding and losing histemper, and his friend didn’t need to be on the other side of that.
“Sam!” He heard Nate breathing heavily, knew that even if he started to run he’d never manage to get away from him.
“Look,” Sam said, spinning around. “Do you have a horse you need me to look at, or was it all a ruse to get me here?”
He could tell from the way Nate hesitated that he was right, and of all the things Nate had done to him over the years, lying wasn’t one of them. He knew why his friend was staying silent.
“I goddamn knew it.”
“Hey, hold up,” Nate said, hand landing on his shoulder, his grip firm. Sam lashed out when Nate’s fingers dug into him, slamming his arm away and backing up a step. He didn’t want to fight him, but he’d goddamn punch him if he had to.
“Let me go, Nate,” Sam growled.
“You haven’t seen your sister since she stayed over, and the girls are missing you,” Nate said, holding up his hands, showing that he didn’t want to fight. Sam felt some of his tension drain away, the moment his sister and nieces were mentioned. “We just wanted to see you.”
“They’re not old enough to miss me and you know it,” Sam shot back.
Nate shrugged. “So what. Hell,Imiss you, and if I have to pretend like there’s an out of control mustang on the property just to get you here, then I’ll do it.”
Sam stared back at Nate, knew that he was just trying to help him. He was starting to get good at pushing away people that cared about him.
“I don’t want to talk about her, Nate. I can’t,” Sam said, forcing the words out. “So stop asking me, alright?”
Nate indicated with his head and started to walk, and Sam followed, falling into step beside him.
“Something I never told you, hell, I can’t even believe I am now, but,” Nate said, his voice low and gravelly as he paused, “when I was falling for Faith, the hardest part was knowing I couldn’t talk to you about it, that I had to deal with it on my own.”
Sam grunted. “Yeah, I just about ripped your head off for looking at her, huh?” He’d never meant to be so protective of his sister, but he’d also never believed Nate could change so much, had been so certain that he’d hurt her and leave her crushed.
“My brothers gave me so much shit about her, but you wouldn’t have, not if it had been any other girl I’d fallen for,” Nate said. “You would have listened to me and made me see reason.”
“You’re telling me I need to talk to you?” Sam asked. “Because you haven’t exactly convinced me with your sob story.”
“Look, I was there, Sam. I was there for you when you came back from Iraq, I lived under the same roof as you and listened to the nights you woke up howling in your sleep from whatever the hell you were still dealing with,” Nate said, stopping, hands shoved into his pockets as he leveled his gaze on him. Sam stood tall, stared straight back at his friend. “And I was there for you when Kelly ripped your damn heart out and you know it.”
Sam felt his jaw tighten, the familiar tick plaguing him when he clenched his teeth together.
“Look, she did something terrible to you, and I get that. But I did terrible things, too. I slept with married women and I broke hearts, but when I met Faith?”
Sam hated talking about his sister like that with Nate,but he was right. He had changed. “Yeah, I know, you changed,” Sam admitted. “But I can’t forget what she did to me,” he said, talking about his ex.
“You can and you will,” Nate insisted.
Sam stared into the distance, wished to hell he wasn’t about to say what he had to say. “Kelly was pregnant.” He spoke so low he wondered if Nate even heard him. “We’d talked about kids, and we found out she was pregnant. I was going to tell you, but she wanted to wait until three months or something, and then I found her in bed with him.”
