Page 38 of A Lot Like Forever
Chapter 9
Nate stretched out, smiling when he realized he wasn’t alone in bed. The night before came flooding back, the memories almost as good as the real thing. He rolled a little so he was facing Faith, her long dark hair splayed out on the pillow, lips full and slightly parted. He pressed a kiss to her cheek, wanting to wake her, desperate for her to stir so he could rouse her from sleep and make her beautiful body hum again, but he didn’t. She was living with him for Christ’s sake, which meant unless she changed her mind about what she wanted, she’d be in his bed again before long.
He stroked a strand of her hair, a mental picture of her sitting astride him while he fisted handfuls of inky dark silk around his wrists flashing through his mind. After years of imagining what it would be like to have Faith between the sheets, his curiosity had only just been piqued.
Nate rose, glancing back at Faith and wishing he could just crawl back under the covers and spend the entire day in bed with her. But he couldn’t. There was something he should have done the day after she arrived and he still hadn’t. He quietly opened his closet, retrieved a clean pair of jeans and a shirt, and headed for the bathroom with them. He showered quickly, pulled on his clothes, and grabbed an apple as he passed through the kitchen, his stomach growling in response. He collected his keys and headed straight out the door. Food could come later.
He pulled out of the garage slowly, checking his reversing camera the entire time, paranoid that a dog or his little niece might surprise him, then turned and drove down their long, seemingly endless driveway. Nate passed Chase as he was coming out of his house, coffee in hand still, work boots on.
“You’re heading out early!” Chase called out.
“Got a job to do,” Nate replied, window down and his hand hanging out the side as he smiled to his brother.
“Ranching never stops,” Chase said with a laugh, winking as he walked off. “I’ll see you around later on. If that little niece of ours doesn’t have me tied up attending a tea party or something in between Harrison tying me to a tree playing cowboy. For some reason I’m always the bad guy in that game.”
Nate drove off, chuckling at his brother as he glanced in the rearview mirror. Who would have thought that big, bad Chase would be shacked up and playing the role of doting fatheranduncle. He grinned again.Hewas just as doting, so he shouldn’t be laughing—the little girl had them all wrapped around her little finger. The only difference was that he was still a bachelor and he had no intentions of settling down. Ryder and Chase could produce plenty of kids between them for the ranch and business to be passed down to; his role was to make sure there was one hell of an empire to leave them as a legacy. Nate stopped a few yards down the road, got out, and surveyed the land to his left. It wouldn’t be long before the trucks and specialists would be rolling in, accessing part of the ranch from this exact part of road. He couldn’t wait for the moment they found oil there, knew in his bones it was going to be incredible. He just hoped his granddad was around to see it.
He got back in the car and settled in for the drive, glancing at his phone to make sure he had the address right. His memory rarely let him down, but he still wanted to double-check what the investigator had given him. What he was about to do now wasn’t something he wanted to do to the wrong person.
Nate slowed as he approached the street, making the turn, then scanning the numbers. Once he was close he dialed Sam through his voice command, listening to it ring, wishing his friend would just answer the damn phone. He ended up getting his voice mail.
“Sam, it’s me. I know you’re upset with me right now, and I get it. I shouldn’t have let her . . .” Nate sighed, deciding that telling Sam that his sister had been the one to kiss him probably wasn’t such a great idea. “Look, I just want you to know that I deserved the black eye. For the record, it’s a goddamn shiner. Anyway, I’m dealing with that other business now. By the time I’m finished with her asshole ex he’ll never even think about laying his hand on another woman again.”
He hung up and parked the car, jumping out and rolling up his shirtsleeves to his elbows, folding the fabric first so they were the same length and wouldn’t fall down. He debated grabbing the baseball bat out of the back but decided against it. He didn’t need a weapon—his grandfather had taught them all that. Weapons like guns were for cowards and criminals. A man could settle his issues with words and his fists, and Nate had chosen the latter. His granddad hadn’t been opposed to violence, just the kind that didn’t involve a man having to roll his sleeves up first.
He locked the truck, shoved his keys in his back pocket, and crossed the road. The houses were okay, fairly modest but tidy, and he didn’t want to cause a disturbance to anyone enjoying a lazy Saturday morning. In fact, he wished he wasn’t doing this at all, but then again there would be an element of satisfaction in beating the shit out of the guy who’d hurt Faith.
Nate knocked on the door, being careful not to pound too hard. He stood back, arms at his sides, not wanting to alert the guy to anything and stop him from answering the door. Nate knocked again, a little louder this time.
“Who is it?” a male voice sounded out.
“Nate King!” he called back.
The door opened a crack. “What the hell do you want?”
Nate smiled, shoving his boot in the opening before it could be slammed on him. “You know a young woman named Faith Mendes?”
The guy’s eyes widened, recognition dawning.
“And I take it you’re Cooper,” Nate said, forcing the door open.
“Get the hell out of here; this is my house and you can’t just--”
“What?” Nate asked, storming inside and slamming the door shut behind him, forcing Cooper to stagger backward. “You gonna say I just can’t come in here uninvited?” He laughed, his fist flying as grinned, slamming it into the side of the guy’s face. “That was for touching Faith,” Nate muttered, “and for being an asshole.”
Cooper fell back against the wall opposite them when Nate punched him a second time.
“You’re insane!” Cooper yelled. “What the hell are you on about?”
Nate wasn’t even breathing heavy yet, adrenaline surging through every vein in his body, but he kept himself in check, wouldn’t let himself lose even a shred of self-control. “You have anyone here? A woman?”
The change in Cooper’s face told him the answer.
“Get dressed and get out of here!” Nate yelled out. “This is between me and this douche bag, and if you saw the bruises he left on his last girlfriend, you’d be running.”
Nate waited, eyes never leaving Cooper. He folded his arms across his chest, listening to footsteps, then stepping back as a woman wearing not a lot rushed straight past them and out the front door. He waited until the door shut, then smiled again at Cooper.
“There’s two things I’m here for today,” he said.
