Page 52 of A Lot Like Forever
He stood and held out his hand. “Yes, Faith. You have the job.”
* * *
Nate was walking alongside Sam, dressed down in jeans and boots. He’d decided to work from home for the day, getting his assistant to reschedule a few things and e-mail through everything he needed, and he’d decided that Faith had been right about him catching up with her brother. He was on the ranch working horses with Ryder all day, and Nate had headed down to the round pens to talk to Sam before he started. Before this they’d never gone more than a week without chatting, and when Nate was home he was always making sure to spend a few minutes catching up with his friend.
“Are you booked in to do some handling with the yearlings?” Nate asked, stopping when Sam did to lean on the railings and look down to where the younger horses were grazing.
“Yeah, I’ll go over the basics again with them soon,” Sam said, hand raised to shield his eyes from the already bright sunshine. “One of the colts is a bit of a handful, but the others are fairly quiet this year.”
Nate nodded, scuffing his boot back and forth into the wood. He propped his elbows against the rail. “I appreciate the fact that you haven’t tried to give me a black eye yet again.”
Sam looked sideways, his expression suddenly fierce. “Don’t bring up my sister, Nate. Just don’t.”
“So you’d rather pretend like nothing was going on?” Nate asked, grimacing when Sam balled his fists.
“Whatever the hell is going on between the two of you, I don’t want to know about it. I’ve warned her away from you until I’m blue in the damn face, I’ve told you not to go near her, and look where it’s gotten me.” Sam groaned and leaned deeper into the fence, head down like he was trying to catch his breath after a run. “I just . . .” He pushed up and looked at Nate, eyes burning into him. “She’s my sister, Nate, and I’ve been the only one looking out for her for so goddamn long that it kills me to think I don’t have any control over protecting her right now. That I can’t tell her what to do.”
Nate nodded and held out his hand. “Sam, you know I never break a promise, and I’m telling you now that I will never, ever, hurt your sister. You’ve seen me be bad, so I get why me being with her scares the shit out of you, but it ain’t going to happen here. Aside from the fact that she’s got bigger aspirations that don’t involve her staying here with me, I’d never hurt her.”
Sam hesitated, then clasped his hands together like he was trying to stop them from smacking into Nate. “I don’t approve, okay? But I can’t exactly slam my fist into your head every time I see you, and I doubt Faith would like me to keep her on a leash and tell her what she can and can’t do.”
“So we’re good?” Nate asked. “Or as good as we can be given the circumstances?”
“Just don’t talk about her to me. I don’t even want to hear you say her name,” Sam muttered. “Ever.”
“Deal.” Nate slapped his friend on the shoulder and received a grimace in reply.
“Too soon, Nate. Way too soon.”
He backed off and held up his hands. “How about we stick to talking horses. And ranching,” Nate joked.
His phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket, pushing it straight back in when he saw the caller ID. When he glanced at Sam he knew he didn’t stand a chance of lying and saying it was just someone he couldn’t be bothered talking to.
“It was Faith, wasn’t it?”
Nate nodded. “Yes.”
“You suddenly think it’s okay to send my sister to voice mail?”
Damn. “Sam, man, I . . .” He was about to laugh, thinking it was a joke, when he saw the look on Sam’s face and wasn’t so sure he could read his friend after all.
“You know what, just give me a sec,” Nate muttered, wondering how the hell he could go from thinking of Sam like a brother and knowing exactly what he was thinking most of the time to feeling like he was treading water around the guy. “Hey, Faith,” Nate said when she picked up after a couple of rings. “I’m just hanging out with Sam.”
“I got the job,” she said, far too calmly and then screaming down the line so loudly he had to pull it away from his ear. “Nate, he hired me on the spot and he offered me a paid type of intern position. Just part-time, but I’m so excited.”
“Baby, I’m so proud of you,” Nate said, genuinely pleased for her. Then he saw the grimace Sam shot him and he wished he hadn’t called her that. He cleared his throat. “I knew they were going to love you. What time are you home?”
She nattered away for a bit, telling him blow by blow how she’d excelled when he’d asked her about specific paintings he had on display as they’d walked around after the formal interview, until Nate finally managed to say good-bye to her and turn his attention back to Sam.
“What was she so excited about?”
Nate grinned. “Her new job. I put the word out and she got an interview at a gallery about forty minutes from here.”
Sam groaned. “You helped her get the job she wanted?” he asked.
“Yeeesss,” Nate replied, saying the word so slowly so that it dragged on. “Is that a bad thing?” He honestly didn’t know what was going to annoy Sam right now.
“No, I just didn’t want her to owe you anything.”
