Page 71 of A Lot Like Forever
“We?” Nate asked, eyebrows shooting up.
“Hey, I’m not leaving you alone to f—”--He paused, checked himself and grinned--“stuff this up.”
“When do I ever stuff up?” Nate demanded, already sick of being the one getting advice.
“Never,” Ryder told him, pushing his boot on top of the wooden rail and leaning farther forward. “Which is why I’m looking forward to actually being able to help you for once.”
Nate mimicked his brother’s stance, staring into the distance again. “I think I need to just let her go. She’s young, she wants to travel and make a career for herself, and . . .”--he swallowed, hard--“she’s Sam’s sister, which means I shouldn’t have gone there in the first place. Besides, she walked out on me. I can’t exactly chase her when she’s made it clear that she’s done with me.”
Ryder made a grunting sound. “All excuses. You can travel with her, you can give her all the freedom she needs because you like having your own space anyway, and screw Sam. If you love her, you’re gonna treat her right, and what the hell more could someone want for his sister?” He sighed. “And let’s not forget that my gorgeous yet infuriating wife walked out on me, too. When she left I thought I’d never see her again, let alone get her back in my bed.”
Nate nodded. “You really think Sam would forgive me? Hell, I’ve avoided him like the plague since the day she left.”
“He just wants her to be happy, to know she’s gonna be looked after and protected even if he’s not around. That’s all.”
“Says the guy who has no idea what it’s like to have a sister.”
“Hey, I’ve got a daughter,” Ryder countered, moving closer to Rose. She slung her arm around his shoulders, cute as a button. “And anyway, you could always propose. Look at how well it worked out for me.”
“I’m not asking Faith to marry me.” Nate thought about it, about how he could do it, what she’d say. It wasn’t that he definitely didn’t want to marry her, she was the only woman he’d ever been with he could say that about, but he doubted it was what she wanted. If it was, though . . . He cleared his throat. “Nope, no way am I going to ask the woman who walked out on me to marry me. If I ever decide to be crazy enough to propose, I’d have to be damn sure that she was going to say yes.”
Rose clapped her hands together, giggling. “I wanna pretty dress for the wedding!”
Nate and Ryder both laughed, Rose managing to soothe Nate when for the first time in his life he didn’t know what the hell he was doing, what his plan was.
“I need to do something big, though, don’t I? I mean, if I can’t suck it up and forget she ever existed, I have to do something to get her attention. Show her that she was crazy to walk away from what we had, right?”
“Yeah, you do,” Ryder replied, lifting Rose down from the top rail of the wooden fence and placing her back on his shoulders. “If I were you, I’d take her somewhere in the plane.”
“I don’t want to impress her with money,” Nate disagreed, rolling his shoulders in a futile attempt to ease the tension in his neck. “It’s not the kind of thing she’d be won over with. You know how it is. I bet Chloe was the same.”
“Then impress her withwhereyou take her. Make it special. Take her where only you would think to take her.”
Nate went to answer, then clamped his mouth shut.
“You know where, don’t you?” Ryder asked.
Nate slapped his brother on the back. “You’re a genius,” he told him, “a goddamn genius.”
“Here to help,” Ryder said with a laugh.
Nate grinned and blew Rose a kiss before calling out good-bye and leaving them. He was going to do it. There was no way he was going to let Faith be the one to walk away from him without at least showing her that he gave a damn about her and telling her how he felt. Ryder was right, he did love her, and it was the first time he’d ever felt like that about a woman. For him, it was usually all about the chase, but with Faith it was different. Once he’d had her in his bed, his house,his life,he wanted her to himself all the time. Hell, he didn’t even have any desire to be with other women, and that was saying a hell of a lot.
But he knew what to do, to show her that he’d listened when she’d been talking about her dreams, to prove to her that he was the right man for her, that he wasn’t’ going to hurt her or lose interest in her. And if he stood any chance of winning her back, he needed to do it now.
Nate had walked fast and now that he was closer to the house he checked the reception on his phone, seeing two bars now instead of one or none. He dialed his assistant, pleased when she picked up on the first ring.
“It’s me; I need you to--”
“Nathaniel, where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for the last hour.”
His back bristled at his being asked where he’d been when it was no damn business of hers; then he realized that he needed to ease the hell up a bit. If he was going to ask Faith to be part of his life, he had to get used to being accountable to someone other than himself.
“Where the hell I’ve been is--” he started before he was interrupted.
“It’s your grandfather,” she said in a low voice. “The doctor wants you all there now, which is why I’ve been trying to get hold of you.”
Nate swallowed, his heart pounding, blood running so fast through his body that he felt like he was about to keel straight over if he tried to walk. But he needed to run, to get Ryder and then make the fastest trip of their lives into the hospital.
