by Carol Finch
Katy clasped her hands tightly in her lap, her head downcast. It wasn’t difficult for Nate to tell that the conversation had unearthed memories from her hellish marriage. “I wish I would have had the gumption to sneak out of the house and contact Fuzz when…I had to deal with Brad,” she said quietly. “But it’s difficult when you’ve been convinced that you deserve the abuse, when you’ve given up the battle and tiptoe around for fear of inviting more violence.”
Nate took her hand and brushed his lips over her whitened knuckles. “I would have borne your pain if I could, Katy. If I’d had any inkling—”
“Finding a way to help Jake and Chad and the other boys will heal my pain and erase the bad memories,” Katy interrupted. “I told Fuzz that I want to donate to the cause, in whatever manner he feels will be most effective. But no matter what, I want those kids as far away from the bad situations at home as they can get.”
When Tammy bounded off the porch and jogged to the car, her ponytail bouncing, Nate grinned. Tammy was bubbling with excitement about her duty as expert fashion consultant. Nate found himself caught up in her enthusiasm. For a few hours he was going to enjoy getting away from the hustle and bustle of overseeing the building construction, conducting business for the main office over the phone, and forgetting the frustration Lester Brown launched at him.
As it turned out, Tammy was a power shopper. Nate could barely keep up with Tammy and Katy as they zipped in and out of shops in the mall, chatting excitedly about their bargains and how the boys were going to become the trendsetters at Coyote Flats High School. Because of the Bates women’s superior skills in shopping, the boys ended up with twice as many articles of clothing as Nate originally intended. All at rock-bottom bargain prices, Katy insisted. But Nate wondered if Katy hadn’t paid more than half the cost and kept the fact to herself. He wouldn’t have put it past her.
During the drive back to Coyote Flats, Nate found it difficult to keep his eyes on the highway. His gaze and attention kept shifting to Katy. He wanted to top off this productive evening by cuddling up in Katy’s bed and rediscovering the pleasure they had shared. However, with Tammy underfoot Nate knew that was a bad plan.
Wanting Katy had become a constant, tangible thing. Nate told himself he should have been satisfied that their first intimate encounter in sixteen years had been mutually satisfying. But hell! Now that he knew exactly what he’d been missing, he wanted to invent even more ways to pleasure her. Once every couple of weeks just wasn’t going to cut it with Nate.
For damn sure, he was going to have to keep the proper protection on hand. He had been irresponsible that first time, and he wasn’t sure how Katy felt about having a child….
The thought sent a warm splinter of pleasure through Nate. His child. Although he was the first to admit that he didn’t know anything about raising a child, he knew the wrong way to do it. He had lived that nightmare. Nate made a pact with himself, there and then. If he ever brought a child into this world, that precious child would know he was loved, wanted, accepted and respected—all those things he had never known in his youth.
Whoa, back up the baby carriage, he told himself. You haven’t even considered marriage before. You never asked Katy how she felt about marriage after the hell she has been through. There is a huge difference between occasional lovemaking and married with children, pal. You can’t even consider the prospect until you have earned respect and credibility in this town. You can’t ask Katy to tie herself to a social outcast. You’ve already dragged her into the simmering cauldron of gossip Lester cooked up. Until you have this town’s respect you can’t have Katy and don’t you let yourself forget that.
Nate took his silent lecture to heart. He had an office to construct, a staff to hire, a ton of community service projects in the works, and a group of teenagers to guide and protect. If he failed to make a fresh start in town, he couldn’t link Katy to adverse gossip. She was just beginning to get her life together. She deserved the second chance he’d never had, because folks around here were convinced that he could never overcome his bad breeding, that he was up to something evil and illegal.
Deep down, Nate knew the turmoil caused by Lester Brown and John Jessup was working on his self-esteem. With each new incident, another corner of his confidence cracked. For the sake of Chad, Jake and the other boys, he had to keep trying…at least until he faced utter defeat in this community.
God, why did people have to continue judging him with the yardstick of the troubled kid he had been sixteen years ago? Why couldn’t folks measure him by the merits of the man he had become?
Because, he realized bleakly, that was what they knew, what they remembered. Lester Brown wasn’t about to let anyone forget the unruly, insolent, bitter teenager who had struck out against a rotten home life, against his frustration with the world. Lester refused to allow Nate to rise above Sonny’s level. In Lester’s mind that would cast a bad reflection on him, and Lester would have to admit that he had been a failure as a father.
Nate mulled over that thought after he dropped off Katy and Tammy. His high hopes of making a new life for himself in his hometown hinged on winning the respect of this community. And he’d better win folks over pretty damn quick, because it was becoming increasingly difficult by the day to ignore all the cold shoulders he encountered. Especially when he could return to Odessa and be accepted for the success he had made of his life. How long could a man stay where he wasn’t wanted without giving up the battle? Nate asked himself on his way home.
For the past two weeks Katy’s contact with Nate had been sporadic. He’d made fleeting pit stops at the library, and they’d shared hurried conversations over the phone. Although Katy practiced self-improvement daily, it seemed the reason—namely Nate—that she had changed her attitude toward life and altered her physical appearance didn’t have time for her. It was as if Nate were on a frantic, time-consuming crusade, and she couldn’t understand the sense of urgency driving him.
There were times when Katy wanted to come right out and ask Nate if she was as important to him as his juggling act of dozens of missions in life. Yet, she couldn’t work up the nerve to confront him with her feelings of neglect. Even when she mentally rehearsed the conversation several times a day, it came off sounding as if she were selfish and demanding.
No, Katy had decided, Nate’s community service, his work with the boys and the need to get Sunrise Oil’s branch office in full operation were more important. Nate was meeting himself coming and going. He was the walking cliché of a man who had entirely too many irons in his campfire.
Still, Nate was getting no respect or recognition from the citizens in Coyote Flats. Signs had been posted beside Nate’s driveway, ordering him to pack up and leave—or else. Garbage had been dumped in the middle of the road leading to his home, implying that he belonged with the discarded trash.
It infuriated Katy to the extreme. She hated the fact that Nate was treated like a menace, that he was ostracized and ignored. Even Alice Phelps had expressed concern to Katy that her son might become the innocent young victim of drug infiltration and that Nate was responsible.
Katy had lost her cool, right there on the sidewalk outside the pharmacy. She told Ali to pull her head out of wherever she’d stuck it and wise up to the fact that Lester Brown and John Jessup were carrying on a personal vendetta to make Nate look bad. Katy had recited every good deed Nate had done for this ungrateful town, and she’d asked Ali who had provided more community service, Lester or Nate.
Ali responded with the kind of mind-controlled thinking that did Lester proud. “Well, Nate could simply be trying to cover up his illegal drug activities behind smoke and mirrors, you know.”
That comment really got Katy’s dander up. “Lester has done a job on you and everyone else in this town,” she muttered at Ali. “Do me a favor and put a date to the last day you used your college-educated brain to do your own thinking and make reasonable decisions, rather than relying on the slanted version of
propaganda that’s come from Lester’s flapping jaws.”
The comment got Ali’s attention, thank goodness. She frowned pensively and said, “I guess I have been relying on gossip and hearsay. The rumors I’ve heard have been passed by several upstanding families in town, too. But I suppose it was Lester who initiated the talk.”
“Darn right he did, and people haven’t shown good sense by listening to his yammering. I would dearly like to know why you and everybody else consider Lester such an authority on the life and times of Nate Channing.”
Ali shrugged. “I guess it’s because Sonny Brown and Nate used to hang around together. Lester probably knows Nate better than the rest of us.”
That logic incensed Katy. “Nate has been away from this town for sixteen years,” she reminded Ali. “People can change in that length of time. Look how the incidents of the past ten years changed me. But thank God I got my act together, with the help of Nate’s kindness and encouragement.”
Ali stared pensively at Katy. “You do look and act more like your old self,” she agreed.
“And you are nothing like the bashful, timid, self-conscious young girl I went to high school with,” Katy quickly pointed out, then drove home her point. “You have changed for the better, Ali, and so has Nate Channing. I shudder to think that I will continue to be judged as the woman I became during my disastrous marriage to Brad. And I certainly don’t regard you in the same light as I did when you were in high school.
“Folks in this town, you included, are being unfair to Nate by judging him as if he were the same kid who left town years ago. The reason people aren’t being sensible about the positive changes in Nate is because of Lester Brown’s continuous, harsh criticism.”
“I guess you’re right,” Ali murmured thoughtfully. “I let Lester convince me that Nate is guilty of the accusations until he proves himself innocent.”
“Which is the exact opposite of the way our justice system is supposed to work,” Katy replied. “The truth is that I am surprised at Nate’s patience with this unforgiving town. If he throws up his hands and gives up on all of us, we are going to be thoroughly ashamed of the way we have treated a man who returned to give something positive to this community.
“We are being manipulated by a man who went bankrupt because he was too lazy to work. Now Lester spends his free time running off at the mouth, trying to drag Nate down to his level. Lester has done nothing except raise a son who turned hard-core criminal. Our taxes are paying Lester’s welfare pensions, and we are housing his son in a penitentiary. If we don’t involve ourselves in this community, it is going to dry up and blow away.”
Katy gave the same speech to several library patrons who wandered in from the street that afternoon. She pointed out the new tables and computers that had been generously donated by Nate. Slowly but surely, Katy hoped word would spread around town that Nate was making the kind of contributions that no one else had bothered with. Furthermore, it was Nate and his young charges who showed up at the charred remains of the grocery store to haul away the clutter and unload new building materials. Had anyone else taken time from their lives to lend a helping hand? No!
Of course, the patrons at the library had repeated Lester’s claim that Nate and his hoodlums had started that fire, so why shouldn’t they be the ones to clean up?
Katy had fumed over those foolish comments while Nate continued working double days, then painted and repaired neglected homes in an effort to improve the looks of the town. But Katy knew this ongoing fiasco was getting to Nate, even while he plodded determinedly ahead. Her smiles might have become brighter this past month, but Nate’s were flickering on dim wattage. The man needed a morale boost as badly as she once had.
There was a time, Katy recalled, that she had encouraged Nate to be the best he could be, urged him to ignore the condemning gossip swirling around town. It seemed the time had come once again for her to encourage him, to remind him of his special qualities and good deeds.
On that determined thought, Katy dressed carefully for the evening she had planned, then sent Tammy off for her Saturday night date with Chad. Katy checked all her restrictive inhibitions at her front door and drove off into the night. It was definitely time to return a little of that Nate Channing magic, she decided. Tonight was the night.
Nate channel-surfed through one-hundred-fifty stations, but none of the television programs appealed to his present mood—which was damn lousy. A real bitch of a mood, in case anybody cared to ask. Which no one in this deadbeat town did. And here he was trying to save this community before it disappeared from the map!
Waste of time, thought Nate. No one wanted to give this place an economical boost. No one wanted anything to do with him. When he walked down the street, heads turned in spectacular attempts to ignore him. Most recently, the post office clerk called to say that he needed to pick up his mail because the rural delivery driver couldn’t leave mail, on account of someone accidentally plowing over his mailbox. Sheesh! Would he ever see an end to this harassment?
Yeah, when he cleared out of town, he thought dejectedly.
Tonight Nate was sitting here wishing Fuzz had been home to provide companionship and distraction. Fuzz, however, had invited Mary Jane Calloway to a movie in Odessa. The two-some had become good friends. Nate was pleased about that, of course. Still, he was sitting here feeling sorry for himself, lonely as hell and frustrated that the construction crew hadn’t completed the finishing work at the branch office. Nate was anxious to get the business in operation and hire a staff. Of course, when the citizens realized he owned Sunrise Oil, they would probably refuse to work for him. Nothing like shooting themselves in the foot, Nate mused irritably.
When the doorbell buzzed, Nate expected to be greeted by carolers spouting “So long, farewell, good riddance, and get the hell out of town.” Or maybe there was a lynch mob in his driveway, ready to string him up to the nearest tree. He wouldn’t be surprised at that, either.
Nate’s eyebrows jackknifed, and he almost choked when he saw Katy leaning provocatively against the supporting beam of the porch, wearing a body-hugging knit dress that displayed about a mile of shapely, silk-clad legs. With the porch light serving as her spotlight, she struck a seductive pose and rested her hand on her cocked hip. When she smiled invitingly at him, his male body came to immediate attention.
“Hi there, handsome,” she purred playfully. “I’m a representative for the Katy Bates Feel Good Escort Service. Got time for a demonstration?”
Nate, his bad mood forgotten, burst out laughing when Katy batted her baby blues at him with grand exaggeration, then gave her best Mae West impression—puckered lips, swinging hips and all.
“By all means, come in, ma’am.” When he held open the door for her, she presented him with a rear view of her drum-roll walk. Nate’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“You home alone, sugar?” she drawled, tossing one of those come-hither glances over her practically bare shoulder.
Desire hit Nate like a runaway locomotive. Katy’s transformation was absolutely and totally complete, he realized. She had gained enough confidence in herself, and faith in him, to portray the role of vamp and seductress without feeling threatened.
At first glance, Nate’s male hormones had come to rigid attention. But with each hypnotic sway of her hips, each teasing smile and suggestive wink, Nate felt his temperature rising to full boil.
It was just that, he realized. Katy walked in, somehow knowing that he was desperately in need of being cheered up, and poof! She rocked his world.
“I brought along a bottle of wine,” she drawled as she reached into her oversize bag. The knit top to a two-piece swimsuit plunked to the floor. Katy bent over to pick it up, presenting Nate with an unobstructed view of cleavage.
Nate groaned. He was hard and aching and he hadn’t even touched her. “I don’t drink,” he reminded her.
“Neither do I, sugar.”
That exaggerated wink and knock-’e
m-for-a-loop smile came again.
Nate was a goner.
“But hey, sweetums,” she cooed, striking a Cleopatra pose. “What say we break all the rules tonight? Hmm? A relaxing swim, a glass of wine, a thorough massage, yadda, yadda.” Nate’s rioting male hormones applauded the yadda, yadda.
“Now then.” She slinked toward him, her hips swaying like a porch swing. “Let’s get you into something more comfortable. You are way too overdressed, sugarplum.”
Chapter Eleven
Nate stood there, mesmerized by Katy’s impish grin, while she unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it over the back of the nearest chair. When her hands coasted over his chest, his pulse leapfrogged. Muscles tightened in sensual anticipation. When her glossy lips grazed his male nipples, Nate swore his legs were about to fold up like lawn chairs.
“You do this sort of thing often, ma’am?” he wheezed as her hand tripped down his ribs, lingering to caress and sensitize.
“My first time, actually. How am I doing so far, handsome? I have to return my report card with your signature to Miss Katy. I’m hoping for straight As.”
“I’d have to say you’re a Rhodes scholar in the school of seduction,” Nate chirped when her adventurous hand skimmed the band of his jeans.
“Gosh, that should bump me up to the head of the class. I’ll be the highest-paid escort at Feel Good Services.”
When she kissed him, Nate definitely felt good all over. When she melted into him, as if he were the missing half of her soul, his arms banded around her. He savored the intoxicating taste of her kiss, absorbed the feel of her lush body gliding provocatively against his, burned with a fire that defied restraint.
Nate breathed her in, savored her, drew strength from her. She had become everything he needed tonight, because he did need her and she had somehow known it. For that, and so much more, he adored her.
