Page 100 of Faith
Montgomery nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking we could walk around the city a little, go to the Falls, then get lunch and maybe talk her into a tattoo.”
“Really?” Zeke asked.
Mont shrugged. “I figured I have one that matches my brother, it would be nice to match my sister, too. If you’re okay with that.”
Zeke nodded, choking back the emotion in his throat. Fuck, he’d been feeling too many of those lately. “I think she’ll be open to that.”
“Hey,” Mont said. His voice was softer and closer, and when Zeke turned, Mont was only a few feet behind him. “I can’t thank you enough for watching out for her this last month. I haven’t handled all of this very well, and knowing you were here for Nina gave me the space to get my head in order.”
“You okay?” Zeke asked.
Mont nodded. “Yeah, I’m getting there. I just… Knowing what she went through makes me feel like even more of an asshole. What if we’d been able to find her? What if I never left?”
“You can’t think about that. She said she doesn’t blame either of us.”
“I know, but shit, she was right here in Niagara Falls. She was here.”
“Yeah.” Zeke thought about the same thing every night since Nina came back. He drove himself crazy with regret and guilt. Especially when he laughed and teased and loved her. He didn’t deserve to be happy to have her back when she had so many painful memories.
“This is why we do what we do,” Mont said. “Why we started Rose Protection Agency. No one else should go through what we did. But having my brother with me through all of this made it bearable.”
“Same, Mont.”
Montgomery grabbed Zeke’s hand and jerked him in for a hug, slapping Zeke’s back. Zeke returned the gesture, grateful he’d always have Montgomery in his life. Zeke’s days of dreaming Mont would be more than just his brother by choice were gone, but they always had that.
“What’s going on?” Nina asked from behind Mont.
Mont and Zeke pulled apart, both sniffing and wiping their eyes while pretending not to.
“Just thanking Zeke for being here for you the last month and for me my whole life. He’s one of the good ones.” Mont cupped Zeke’s neck and squeezed.
“He is,” Nina whispered. She met his gaze, and he saw a glimpse of what they shared in her eyes.
He turned back to the stove. “Food’s about ready. You guys hungry?”
“Always,” Mont said.
The rest of the morning was a combination of food and laughter and teasing, but Zeke stayed mostly quiet. He wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her, so he said nothing at all. And when Mont and Nina left to go on their adventure, Zeke resisted the urge to punch a hole in his wall.
Nina laughedat Monty when he made a funny face for their picture. He wanted to document their day, something about needing new pictures of her, and she was on board.
It was a good day. She felt uncomfortable being out in the open at first, but if Monty thought it was okay, Nina was not going to argue. She’d missed the fresh air and the wide open spaces around Niagara Falls.
Even though she’d never left the city, she hadn’t seen the iconic and masterful waterfall since she was a teenager. “It’s still so beautiful.”
Monty leaned against the metal railing between them and the rushing water and nodded. “It is. I don’t come here often, but it’s stunning.”
“Why don’t you come here?”
“Busy.” Monty shrugged. “Mostly work, but I always thought of you when I would come here. It wasn’t easy.”
“I’m sorry I left.”
He shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize. Not to me. You did what you thought was best, and I appreciate you doing that. I hate the outcome for you, but I’m moving forward.”
“Me, too.”
Monty was quiet for several minutes, staring out at the water with Nina. When he turned to face her, she matched his pose. “What do you think you might want to do with your life?”
