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“I’m not a dog,” he grumped. “It’s Christmas day. ”
“Here are Ray and Maria. ” Rowdy opened the door, and Ray stepped inside, beaming.
The others knew the surprise coming, just as they knew how hard it had been for Timothy to arrange it. But he had come through, just as he had promised he would.
She looked down the dock again, feeling her hands sweating. They were getting closer.
“Natches?” She turned to him.
“Can I turn around yet?” There was a grin in his voice.
“Not yet. ” She wiped her hands down the sides of her jeans and looked around at the others helplessly. Maybe she had gone about this the wrong way.
Ray winked at her. “Grandsons are good things to have,” he told her.
“Yeah, and you get three of them. ” Natches laughed. “Come on, Chay. Let me turn around. ”
The other two guests stepped onto the deck of the boat as Chaya slid the door open to let them in.
Timothy stood beside the young man Natches had been trying so hard to get out of Iraq. Faisal was older now, twenty, but his smile was still bright, if a little nervous.
He was wearing jeans and a white shirt beneath the leather jacket Chaya had asked Timothy to get him. His eyes glittered with warmth and excitement as he stared around the room at everyone.
“Chaya. ” Natches’s voice was a warning now as he felt the tension gathering in the room. “Who’s visiting?”
She smiled at Faisal before moving in front of Natches.
“I love you,” she told him, staring up at him. “I’ve loved you forever. ”
“I’ll love you past forever, baby,” he said shamelessly. “Now what the hell is going on?”
She breathed in, then nodded to Faisal.
His smile lit up the room. “I wish to you, Natchie, a merry Christmas. ”
Natches froze. His eyes widened, shock spreading over his face as he turned slowly.
He stared at the young man and saw the boy he remembered. Courage and strength still lined Faisal’s face and filled his eyes, and his smile was still wide, friendly. He was a man now, but Natches saw the boy who had aided Chaya’s rescue in Iraq. The kid who had risked his own life to protect an American.
“Mr. Cranston. He says I’m an American now. ” Faisal stared at Natches, that hint of nervousness back. “That you wanted me here. ”
There was a hint of question in Faisal’s voice when Natches didn’t speak. He couldn’t; his throat was tight, so many emotions tearing through him now. Chaya would have died if this young man hadn’t gotten a message out that she had been captured. She and Natches would have both died if Faisal hadn’t covered them, if he hadn’t helped Natches rescue her.
There would be no light in his world if it hadn’t been for this boy. No Chaya, no life growing within her. There would have been nothing but the killer he had been slowly turning into.
Natches blinked back the moisture in his eyes, then moved to the boy. Before he knew his own intentions, he wrapped his arms around the kid and hugged him quickly and tightly before grasping his shoulders and pushing him back.
“Hell, Faisal, you grew up on me, kid,” he said huskily. “Why the hell did you go and do that?”
Faisal’s grin was filled with warmth. “Timothy Cranston. He says you have a baby coming. Maybe a little girl that will need a brother such as I. I could be a very good brother, Natchie. ”
A little girl. Natches felt his stomach clench in fear.
“Nah, a boy. You’ll have to help me teach him how to fight. ”
“This I can do. ” Faisal nodded, clapping Natches on the shoulder, his nerves receding. “I will do this, Natchie. I . . . ” He looked around. “This is your family that you told me of? Damned Dawg and Fucking Rowdy?”
Dawg and Rowdy glared at Natches as he cleared his throat. “Just Dawg. ” Natches almost laughed as he nodded to his cousin. “His wife, Crista. Rowdy and his wife, Kelly. And Uncle Ray and Aunt Maria. ”
