Page 46 of A Lot Like Forever
He stood, his plain grey T-shirt hugging his frame, faded jeans making him casual and sexy as hell. His worn boots were on but not laced up, he had more than a day’s worth of dark stubble, and his hair was messy, not to mention the dark shadow around his eye where Sam had punched him. Nate was so damn hot she didn’t even know what part of him to admire first.
He kissed her, stubble grazing her chin slightly as he pulled away. “See you soon, gorgeous.”
Faith watched him pull on a leather jacket that had been slung over a chair, collecting his keys on the way past. She was under no illusions about what they had—she knew that this was a fun part of her life that she’d never forget in a million years, but it was just fun. Nate was sexy and successful and everything she’d ever admire in a man, but he was also ruthless, and she doubted he’d ever be happy with a woman who wasn’t a perfect Stepford wife, at home and popping out his babies. If he ever admitted wanting someone permanent in his life.
Or maybe not. Maybe he’d like the idea of having a permanent girlfriend one day who didn’t expect a lot from him. Either way, it wasn’t going to be her. She was young now and fun was fine, especially after the relationship she’d just come out of. She’d thought Cooper was a nice guy—he managed the bar; he owned his own home; he’d had a plan. But in the end he’d just shown her why she needed to rely on herself and make her own plans. Nate was different, because she could trust him and she respected him. They might be having sex, but he’d agreed to help her before he knew that anything was going to be happening between them.
Faith reached for her iPhone and checked through her missed calls and texts, leaning against the cool marble of the counter. She’d neglected her girlfriends with everything going on and she owed them phone calls, plus she had to deal with Sam. But first she called her friend Rachel, who’d worked part-time at Joe’s with her.
“Hey, gorgeous,” Rachel answered after a few rings.
“Hey,” Faith replied, dropping into the sofa and making herself comfortable. “Sorry I’ve been MIA.”
“Rumor has it that Cooper’s black eyes and broken nose have something to do with you.”
Faith sat back up, pulling a cushion closer and hugging it against her. “You’ve seen him?”
“Um, yeah, we’ve seen him. He stormed in here about an hour ago, all pissed off and yelling orders, and said he wasn’t going to be back in for a while. He put Fran in charge.”
“Hmmm,” she mused out loud.
“ ‘Hmmm’? That’s all you’ve got to say? How about spilling the beans?” Rachel demanded. “You guys get in a row, you call it off and disappear, and then he turns up all beaten up. There’s definitely a juicy story there.”
Faith cleared her throat. “He hit me, Rach. He turned out to be an asshole, so I packed up and left. I don’t know what happened to him, but he sure as hell had it coming.”
She managed to steer Rachel onto a different topic, chatted for a bit, then said good-bye. When she looked down, her hands were shaking and she had to sit on them to stop it. Faith knew she shouldn’t have cared about Cooper being beaten up, hell, Nate had made it clear that he’d done something, but to know the man she was living up with could be so kind and gentle with her and so ruthless with another human being was kind of scary.
Her phone vibrated then and she glanced down to where she’d discarded it and saw it was Sam. She sighed, trying to decide whether to answer or not and deciding she’d be a bitch if she didn’t.
“Hi, Sam,” she answered.
“Hey. How are you?”
“Good. You?” He sounded way too normal, not anywhere near as angry as she’d expected.
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for losing the plot last night,” he said. “I was out of line, and I shouldn’t have--”
“Your girlfriend made you call me, didn’t she?” Faith asked, stifling her laugh. “What did she threaten you with?”
“Moving out,” he muttered.
“So you actually still want to kill Nate and you’re still upset with me, but you can’t say anything right now because she’s listening?”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Yep, pretty much.”
At this Faith laughed out loud. “Look, Sam, when I came to Nate, he was the perfect gentleman. Anything that has or hasn’t happened between us is because of me, because I’ve initiated it, so give him a break, okay?”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt. I’ve seen it all before, over and over. Why won’t you listen to me?”
“I’m a big girl now, Sam. I’m gonna be fine.” She paused. “And from the rumors I’m hearing, someone dealt with my ex. I’m guessing it was Nate, so don’t be too hard on him.”
“I’ll give him that. Someone hurts someone he cares about, he takes matters into his own hands, does his own dirty work.”
Faith reached for the TV remote. “I’m going now. Talk soon.”
Sam grumbled and said good-bye, and she curled up to flick through channels. She could catch up on all the other gossip from her friends tomorrow. Right now, she was tired and all she wanted to do was shut her eyes. She only hoped Nate would wake her when he got home, because she was still starving hungry and it was all his doing.
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