by Carol Finch
“We’ll work around your Dallas trip,” Katy assured her niece.
“Thanks, Aunt Katy! You’re the best…and is it okay if Chad and I borrow your car? We want to cruise down to Coyote Grill for an hour or so.”
“The keys are on the kitchen table. Don’t lay rubber. I prefer to keep it on my tires.”
When Tammy bounded off, Katy sank into the tub. Alone at last! She was going to vegetate until every ache and pain caused from standing on her feet, serving sloppy joes, chili dogs and hamburgers at the church food booth, eased off. Her gimpy leg was killing her, and it had been for hours on end.
A faint smile pursed her lips, recalling the stunned expression on Nate’s face when she stamped onto the stage and grabbed the microphone. The truth was that she had been nervous as all get-out. She had planned that entire scene and had been waiting for Lester to open his big mouth. Even though she had rehearsed what she wanted to say, her heart had pounded ninety miles a minute while she stared at the crowd that focused full attention on her.
After so many years of skulking around, making very little social contact and doing no public speaking whatsoever, Katy figured her legs would fold up and her voice would crack in mid-speech. But all it had taken was one glance at Nate sitting there in his wheelchair, and her courage was fortified instantly. The words she wanted to say came pouring out.
That moment had been worth all her preliminary apprehension. When she saw the citizens of Coyote Flats gather around Nate, her heart nearly burst from her chest. She had succeeded in her campaign to put Nate’s bad reputation behind him. At long last, he had earned respect and had been recognized as the honorable, generous man he had become. People had extended their hands in acceptance—the one thing Nate desperately needed.
Right about now, if she knew Nate—and she had come to know and understand him exceptionally well—he was feeling elated, yet disappointed in himself.
As well he should, thought Katy. After he turned her life around for her, he should have realized that she felt the need to come to his rescue at the lowest moment in his life. But he hadn’t trusted her to handle his duties while he was laid up. He hadn’t had faith in her to protect and provide for him, just as he protected and provided for her.
Until today, Nate had played the role of protector. He had provided strength, encouragement and inspiration for Katy. The moment Nate had been injured had become a turning point in their relationship. Katy needed to show her strength of character, and Nate needed to know that he could count on her when he was down and out. She wanted to be on equal footing with him, to prove to him, and to herself, that she was worthy of his love.
Katy suspected that Nate was feeling ashamed of himself for ordering her out of his life and giving up the fight. Of course, he wouldn’t come crawling back, begging for forgiveness. He couldn’t, not with his sprained knee and cracked ribs. That would be too painful. She did, however, expect to hear from him in a day or two. The man loved her, after all. It was in the sound of his voice, his deeds and actions, his incomparable gentleness. Katy had suspected it when Nate showed up in town and began spending his time trying to reconstruct her self-confidence and enthusiasm.
Yet, until today, Katy hadn’t felt she was equal to the remarkable man he had become. Now she could stand beside him as his partner…provided she hadn’t become overly optimistic about his feelings for her. In which case, she was going to feel like a complete idiot if she had misjudged Nate.
The negative thought made Katy squirm in her bath. Nate did love her…didn’t he?
With Tammy, Chad and Fuzz’s help, Nate was situated at the foot of the steps that led to Katy’s upstairs bedroom. The engagement ring that he and Fuzz had purchased at the jewelry store that morning was burning a hole in Nate’s pocket. All day, Nate had tried to single out Katy, but she had been busy serving food and drinks to festival-goers and dashing off to replenish supplies.
Although Fuzz had suggested that Nate put his plans on hold until tomorrow, he refused to wait. Tired though he was, he needed to get things settled between Katy and him. His guilty conscience was gnawing at him, and he couldn’t tolerate much more of it.
When Tammy, Chad and Fuzz filed out the door, Nate stared at the staircase. He couldn’t walk up the steps, but he was determined to catch Katy’s attention. Nate threw back his head and howled at the top of his lungs.
Katy sat straight up in the bathtub when a strange howling noise floated toward her, then faded into silence. She waited a moment, then resumed bathing.
The howling sound erupted again.
“Now, what?” Katy grumbled as she came to her feet, then grabbed a towel.
The unidentified sound grew louder and louder. Muttering about the interruption of her long-awaited bath, Katy donned her bathrobe and strode down the hall. She stumbled to a halt and stared down at Nate, who was positioned at the foot of the steps. His head was tipped back and he was howling like a dying coyote.
“You could have rung the doorbell,” she yelled over his howls.
Nate grinned at her. “Yeah, but this is more appropriate.” His gaze ran the full length of her. “I must have interrupted your bath.”
“Yes, but there will be other baths,” Katy said as she descended the steps. She sank down in front of Nate to appraise the broad grin that affected every handsome feature on his face. “Did you come by to chew me out for exposing all your carefully guarded secrets to the folks in Coyote Flats?”
“Nope. That was some speech you gave, Katy,” Nate complimented her. “I wish I had it on tape.”
Katy lounged on the staircase, grinning smugly. “I was pretty darn good, wasn’t I?”
“You were terrific. The best.”
“Thank you.” She beamed at him. “So…I assume you came by to apologize.”
Nate shifted awkwardly in his wheelchair. “I behaved like an ass,” he admitted. “If I had been able to stand up, I would have been kicking myself repeatedly for sending you away, for not having the kind of faith in you that you’ve had in me. I guess I convinced myself years ago that I had to make it on my own, that relying on someone else would end in disappointment, because my parents disappointed me time and time again.”
“Oh, Nate…” Katy’s eyes clouded with tears when she realized what he was trying not to say. He was still trying to spare her feelings, still trying to protect her. He hadn’t asked for her assistance, wouldn’t let himself expect it, because he didn’t want to be disappointed in her, in case she failed him the way his parents had. He hadn’t wanted her to come to his rescue, because he refused to let her take a chance on letting him down. He’d cared enough to ensure that didn’t happen by shooing her away, refusing to let her stand in his stead.
His heart was in the right place, she supposed. But because of his disappointments in childhood, his methods were distorted. God love him, he had only been trying to spare her, and him.
Nate stared at the air over her left shoulder, then shifted awkwardly. “The truth is that I’ve always wanted to be your knight in shining armor. I wasn’t there to rescue you from your hellish marriage. When I ended up flat on my back, defeated by a drunk, who was just like my own father, I figured I had failed miserably again.”
“You have always been my hero, Nate,” Katy told him, “even when you were flat on your back. Maybe you haven’t realized it yet, but I needed you to rely on me when you were down and out. I need to be needed, too, Nate. We both do.”
He looked directly at her then. “I’m so damn sorry that I sent you away, Katy, sorry that I didn’t offer you the confidence and faith you needed. But never doubt that I want and need you. That’s been the one constant in my life. Whether or not I thought I deserved you didn’t matter. I still wanted you.
“Then, like a fool, I struck out at Lester and John and all the people in Coyote Flats who rejected me, and I ended up taking out my pain and frustration on you. You’re the very last person on Earth that I wanted to hurt.”
“I
know,” she said simply.
He did a double take. “You do?”
“You said you were crazy about me, remember?”
“Well, that wasn’t entirely correct,” Nate amended, smiling. “It goes a lot deeper than that.” He reached for her hand, bringing it to his lips. “It goes heart-deep, soul-deep. Maybe I did come from bad breeding and a bad background, but you taught me to have pride in myself, to live up to my potential, to make something of myself.”
“You certainly did that,” she assured him. “You are the best thing that ever happened to this town. And most certainly, you are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“I’m truly sorry about the other night,” Nate apologized again. “If I could retract what I said, I would—a dozen times over.”
She smiled adoringly at him. “It’s already forgotten. People often say a lot of things they don’t really mean when their spirits are deflated and they are in excruciating pain. I know, because I have been there and done that.”
Nate knew she understood completely because she had suffered heartache and injuries far worse than his. She understood everything he had lived through because she loved him….
Suddenly, Nate realized that no matter how deep his anger, despair and pain, the knowledge that Katy loved him had been there with him all week. He had never doubted Katy’s affection. She had proved it with her words and deeds. Even when he turned his back on her and stumbled in defeat, he had known that she still cared about him.
“Katy, there’s something I need to tell you,” Nate whispered as he held her hand in his. He met her gaze, hypnotized by that twinkle of spirit in her eyes, the way her smile cut a dimple in her left cheek. “I love you. I never stopped loving you, either. Will you give me a second chance to prove that you have all my faith, my trust and my love?”
“Oh, Nate!” Katy launched herself at him, her arms twining around his neck.
“Ouch!” Nate grimaced when she collided with his tender ribs. “Uh-oh…” He knew they were in trouble when he felt the wheelchair rear back. He shouldn’t have set the brake when he positioned himself at the bottom of the stairs. Big mistake. Katy’s forward momentum set the chair off balance and Nate was flat on his back before he could brace himself for the blow.
“Ow, that really hurts!” he squawked.
“Oh, God, I’m sorry!” Katy bounded off him before she caused further injury. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay,” Nate wheezed as he rolled carefully to his side, then climbed from the overturned chair. “I’m not going to be okay until you accept this.” He steadied himself on his good knee, reached into his pocket for the jewelry case, then presented it to Katy. “Marry me, sweetheart. I want the right to hold you, to love you for all the days of my life, because there is a place in my heart where you’ve always been, where you’ll always be.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her hands trembled as she opened the velvet case to see diamonds winking up at her. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed raggedly.
He slipped the ring on her finger, watching the stones glitter with promises of their future—save one. Katy had yet to promise that she would marry him. He wondered if she was hesitant because her first marriage had been pure hell.
“Katy? You will marry me, won’t you?”
Katy stared at him through a mist of tears, then broke into a dazzling smile. “Of course I’ll marry you. I have to marry you.”
His mouth dropped open. “Are you pregnant?”
“I don’t know about that yet, but Fuzz and I made arrangements to convert this house into a combination of community foster home and safe house for abused and neglected children. Millie agreed to be a part-time house mother and Mary Jane is going to do the cooking. I could live with my brother, but I was sort of hoping I could live with you instead.”
“You made all the arrangements while you were juggling my business dealings, working at the library and helping plan the Festival of the Coyote?” Nate stared at her in astonishment. “When did you have time to do that?”
“I made time,” Katy clarified. “The boys in your crew need a place that feels like home, a place where they are surrounded by people who care about them. As soon as I find a replacement at the library, I plan to manage the house.”
She smiled wryly. “It seemed only right that my father’s home should become a haven for kids he considered beneath the Bates’s social status, don’t you agree?”
Nate nodded his head. “You are something else, woman.”
“No,” she contradicted. “I’m someone much better because of you. And so are those boys who are going to have the chance in life they deserve.”
“I’m hoping there will be some boys and girls in our future. Our children,” Nate murmured. “I may not know how to be the world’s greatest father, but I promise you that I will be totally committed to you and our babies, Katy.”
When Katy pressed her lips to his and told Nate she would marry him any day of the week, Nate forgot about the dull pain in his ribs, the throbbing ache in his knee. And there, at the foot of the steps, on the plush carpet, he took Katy in his arms and communicated his love for her. In turn, she thoroughly expressed her love for him.
Nate had never experienced such tenderness, desire and completeness. It seemed he had waited all his life to know what it felt like to be well and truly loved, to be loved in return, to be wanted, needed and appreciated.
Katy convinced him that he made all her dreams come true with each heated kiss, each sizzling caress. And when they came together, one heart beating for another, he knew without question that all the heartache and pain of his past had taught him to recognize and appreciate the true gift of life. Every obstacle he had overcome had made him the kind of man who was worthy to receive Katy’s unconditional love.
That bitter, defiant kid who had left Coyote Flats had returned as a man. It was his love for Katy that had caused him to be sent away, but it was that same enduring love that had brought him back to stay.
Nate was convinced that the right kind of love had come along at the wrong time in his life. He and Katy had been too young the first time around. But what they shared, what they felt for each other, refused to fade with the passage of time. If not for second chances, Nate wouldn’t have known such pleasure, such incredible happiness.
He had become exceptionally fond of second chances and was convinced that everybody deserved them.
“Nate?” Katy murmured a long while later.
“Mmm” was about all he could get out, so sated and content was he.
“Tammy and Chad are going to be back soon. I don’t think we would be setting a good example if they found us naked in the dining room.”
Nate opened his eyes and stared up at the steps, then shifted his attention to the formal dining room suite to his left. “Probably not,” he agreed.
“Do you think you can get up?”
He grinned at her concerned expression. “Because of you, Katy Marie, I’m pretty sure I could fly if I needed to.”
She returned his grin, then reached for the pile of discarded clothes beside them. “I thought we just did.”
He chuckled as she helped him back into his clothes. “You know, Katy Marie, I think we’re going to be doing a lot of flying the next hundred years or so.”
“You can count on it, Nathan Daniel.” She glanced toward the window. “But you better get out of your holding pattern and put down your landing gear, because the kids just pulled into the driveway.”
“Well, hell,” Nate grumbled as he hurriedly fastened his jeans, then wrestled with his shirt.
By the time Tammy and Chad, with Fuzz Havern on their heels, came through the front door, Nate and Katy managed to sit upright on the steps. The dreamy-eyed teenagers might not have realized what had occurred during their absence, but nothing escaped Fuzz’s observant gaze. He grinned in wry amusement as he and Chad maneuvered Nate into the wheelchair he’d fallen from.
Fuzz
glanced deliberately at the engagement ring that he had helped Nate select that morning. “Katy must’ve said yes to you more than once tonight,” Fuzz murmured confidentially.
Nate flushed with embarrassment. “Er…she did agree to marry me. Will you be my best man, Fuzz?”
“I’ll be proud to stand up with you, son,” Fuzz replied. “But as far as I’m concerned, you are the best man I’ve ever met.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” The smile that blossomed on Katy’s face took Nate’s breath away. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life loving the very best man I ever met. That’s a given.”
When Katy bent to brush her lips over his, Nate knew that the past was truly behind him. He and Katy had survived the worst, tested their strengths to the limits and proved to themselves, and to each other, that they had earned the right to happiness, earned the right to share this special kind of enduring love.
Epilogue
Fuzz Havern sat on the porch swing, holding a baby girl in one arm and cuddling a little boy on his lap. The mutt called Taz nudged his nose under the boy’s arm, begging for attention. Taz was absolutely crazy about these two kids.
A wide grin spread across Fuzz’s lips as he watched Katy and Nate stroll down the hill toward the spring-fed pond that glistened with the spectacular colors of sunset.
Damn but life was good, thought Fuzz. He had two babies who called him Grandpa and a young couple who called him Dad. Fuzz hadn’t been blessed with children and grandchildren until Nate Channing made him a part of his family.
Yes siree, things had changed in this Podunk town, he mused. These days, Katy and Nate were the heart and soul of Coyote Flats. Katy’s safe house for abused and neglected children was a godsend to the community. Nate’s oil business provided better career opportunities and higher incomes for citizens who had been struggling to make ends meet. New businesses were springing up in town, and the place was jumping with optimism.
