Having Faith (24 page)

“How’s Matt handling all this?” Ian prodded.

Kieran took a long swig.  “Don’t know.” 

“What the hell?” Ian said, his voice low enough that the other customers didn’t hear him.  “You see the kid every day, don’t you?”

“Not anymore.  He quit.”

“Why?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Kieran said, slamming his beer down hard enough to earn a few curious glances from the other patrons.

“You have to do something, Kier.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”  Kieran lifted the bottle to his lips and drained it.  “Give me another, will you?”

“No.”  It was Lexi’s voice denying him, not Ian’s.  Kieran looked up and saw not the eyes of his brother’s wife, but those of the scrawny little girl he’d befriended and taken under his protective wing so many years ago. 

“Let it be, Lex,” he warned.

“I don’t think so.”  She stubbornly pulled herself up on the stool next to him.  “White,” she said, pointing at herself.  “Rice,” she said, poking him in the chest.  “That’s how I’m on you, Kier.  At least until you talk to me and say something that makes sense.”

Kieran looked pleadingly at Ian, who just put both hands up in the air and found something else to do at the other end of the bar.

“You’re not going to go away, are you?” he said with a martyred look.

“Nope.  So start talking.”

Kieran remembered how he used to bully her into telling him what was bothering her.  He liked it a lot better when he was the one pushing for info. 

“You’re a bully, anyone ever tell you that?”  He couldn’t completely stop the quirk at the corner of his lips.

“Ian tells me that all the time,” she said, waving her hand and completely unrepentant.  “And quit stalling.  Why aren’t you with your
croie
?”

Kieran clenched his teeth so hard he thought he might have cracked a few molars.  “I was wrong about that.”

He was met with stunned silence.  It was a few moments before Lexi could speak.  “Are you saying that Faith is not your
croie
?”

“Yes.”  It was a hiss, not a word.

Lexi exchanged a concerned glance with Ian.  He shook his head slightly.  A Callaghan man was never wrong about his
croie
. 

“So... Faith is not your
croie
,” she said slowly.

His jaw flexed.  “No.”

“And you aren’t missing her at all.”

His knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip around the bottle.  “No.”

“And it doesn’t bother you in the slightest that she’s leaving for Georgia tonight?”

“N-
what?!?
”

“Lacie said she and Matt are headed down to Georgia.”

“What the fuck for?”

She smirked.  “Thought you didn’t care.”

“I ... don’t.”

“Well, that’s probably good then,” she said, patting his forearm.  “Because Lacie also said she’s planning on meeting Matt’s father tomorrow morning, and if you did care, it would probably be driving you batshit crazy right about now.”

Kieran let a vile curse fly from his lips, and the next second he was on his feet.

“You are an evil woman,” Ian growled into her ear a moment before he nipped it.  “You make me so fucking hard.”

Lexi laughed as they watched Kieran’s fast-retreating form disappear toward the stairs that led to their private living area. 

––––––––

K
ieran fired up one of the computers in Ian’s “office”, his fingers working magic across the keyboard as he logged into the secure FAA site.  Ian might be the acclaimed digital genius, but Kieran had a few tricks of his own.  Within minutes he’d located Faith and Matt booked on a red-eye to Atlanta on one of the economy airlines.

He sat back and stared at the manifest as the strangest feeling came over him.  It began somewhere in the middle of his chest and rippled outward from there, an icy, tingling fire that was uncomfortable as hell.  Kieran shifted and rubbed at the spot right over his heart.

What the hell was she thinking, going down there like that?  If Lacie was right about the flight, then she was probably right about Faith meeting Nathan Longstreet as well.

The sensation flared from uncomfortable to downright painful.

Did Matt still want to meet his father?  Is that why she was doing this?  He could understand that.  Faith would do anything for her son, and if the kid really needed the closure, then hell, he was onboard with that plan.  Except he should be there, too.  Protecting Faith and being there when Matt learned what a piece of shit his father was.

No matter what Faith said.

Oh, yeah, Kieran had done his research.  He knew exactly the kind of man Nathan Longstreet was.  High school superstar with a rich daddy, lauded college athlete until he graduated and came back for an instant and unearned partnership in Daddy’s law firm.

But his privileged youth wasn’t what bothered Kieran.  It was the fact that Nathan Longstreet was still every bit the smarmy bastard he used to be.  Despite the fact that he was married, he had a long trail of mistresses.  No more illegitimate kids, though.  At least Nathan seemed to have learned the benefits of using a condom.

Did Faith still have feelings for Longstreet, Kieran wondered?  She’d obviously cared for him once. She’d said as much.  Faith was no liar, nor was she the kind of woman that would give herself freely.  He was willing to bet that Nathan Longstreet was the only one she’d ever given that particular gift to, and that alone was enough for Kieran to want to kill him.

At least until him.  Faith had offered herself to him, too, that night when he’d slid beside her in bed and held her in his arms.  And he’d turned her down, thinking he was doing something honorable.  He should have listened to his heart and accepted her gift.  He should have spent the entire night making love to her, showing her exactly what she was to him and what he was to her, erasing every doubt, every fear she had.

If he’d done that, the ring he’d purchased specifically for her would be comfortably ensconced on her finger instead of making time in his nightstand drawer.  Hell, maybe they’d even be married by now, and he’d be spending every night wrapping his body around her, inside her.  And – the pain reached a fever pitch at this point – a little brother or sister for Matt might already be growing inside her.

Faith was his
croie
.  He could try to deny it, bury it beneath layers of self-pity, but that didn’t change the truth. 

The sound that ripped out of him was of one of such power and torment that the desk lamp actually shook.

Two floors below, heads tilted toward the ceiling.  “Sounds like he’s finally ready,” Ian sighed.  “Didn’t take him nearly as long to figure it out as it took me.”

Lexi smiled.

Fifteen minutes later Kieran was racing down the steps with an overnight pack slung over his shoulder.  His hair was still wet from his shower, his face once again shaven boy-smooth.

“Hey, Ian, I’m heading over to Sean’s to see if he can - ”

He stopped, pulling up short when Sean stood up.  He grabbed the bag from Kieran and gave him a hard shove toward the door.  “About fucking time.  Move it, man.  Our flight plan says we leave in thirty, and I
hate
refiling flight plans.”

I
t was surreal; that was the thought that struck her as they were lifting into the air.  Her knuckles turned white as she gripped Matt’s hand tightly.  This was the first time either of them had been on a plane, but Matt was apparently handling it better than she was.  Faith said a silent prayer for having the foresight to pass on the greasy burgers at the fast food place they’d stopped at on the way to the airport.

“This is so cool,” she heard Matt remark from beside her.  Inside, she felt the same way, but apparently she had a fear of flying that she’d never known about.

Or maybe it wasn’t the flying at all.  Maybe it was the thought of where they were going and why that had her stomach feeling like it was filled with little squirmy creatures. 

A small smile graced her lips as she heard Kieran’s voice in her head, as clearly as if he was sitting beside her.  “Breathe, Faith,” he would command softly, not realizing that whenever he spoke to her like that it would take the rest of her breath away.  Then he would lace those long, sexy fingers through hers, giving her an anchor and a whole head full of nothing but Kieran Callaghan and fantasies of what it would be like to have the rest of their bodies as intertwined as their hands...

She missed him so much, more than she thought possible.  Missed seeing his boyish face and that cockeyed grin that never failed to make her weak in the knees.  Hearing his deep, rumbling laughter when she invariably did something that amused him.  Feeling the heat of his hard body when he was nearby.  Smelling that delicious scent that was uniquely his. 

It had been hard to keep her distance from him in Pine Ridge, but at least she had always known he was close, even if he wasn’t right there with her.  Now she was acutely aware of each mile between them as their flight headed into the unknown, making her feel increasingly alone and vulnerable and downright twitchy.

The plane leveled out and Faith relaxed a little, allowing her to take in her surroundings.  The seating was comfortable enough for her, but she felt bad for Matt when she saw how his long legs were scrunched up.  She tried to imagine Kieran or one of his brothers on a plane like this, and couldn’t.  Maybe that’s why they had one of their own.

And just how much money did you have to have to own your own plane, she wondered? 

She shook her head, stopping herself before she went down that road. 
Again
.  The bottom line was that Faith O’Connell and Kieran Callaghan came from completely different worlds. 

So
? her subconscious piped up.  She told it, in no uncertain terms, to shut the hell up, thank you very much.  She’d been over this same argument so many times even she was bored by it.  Kieran deserved more than she could give him.  Period.  End of story.

* * *

“W
hat the hell is she thinking?” Kieran muttered to himself, sitting in the copilot’s seat next to Sean.  “She shouldn’t be doing this alone.  The guy’s a complete poser,
and
he’s a lawyer.  That makes him doubly untrustworthy.”

“Don’t let Shane hear you say that,” Sean chuckled.

“You know what I mean,” Kieran said, shooting a disgusted look at Sean.  Sure, it was easy for him.  He had his
croie
.  He’d already been through his trial of fire. 

Kieran sighed. That’s what this was, he realized.  The test he and every other Callaghan man had to pass before they could claim their true life mates.  It was a complete pain in the ass and scary as hell, but the rewards were phenomenal.

“Yeah, I do.  And I know a fuck of a lot more than that, too.”

Kieran’s lips thinned as he braced himself.  With six older brothers, he knew the signs of a lecture coming on and braced himself for the torrent soon coming his way.

“Don’t fuck this up.”

Kieran sat quietly, waiting for more.  It didn’t come.  He felt strangely cheated. 

“That’s it?  That’s all you got?”

Sean smirked.  “Do I look like Dr. Phil to you?  That’s all you’ve got to know.  She’s your
croie
.  Your life is shit without her. 
Don’t fuck this up.
”

Well, duh
.

One of the many benefits to having your own plane and standing privileges at every U. S. military base was that you didn’t have to go through all the bullshit associated with a commercial flight.  It also meant that they arrived well before Faith and Matt did.

“You cool?” Sean asked, stepping out only long enough to talk to a couple of the guys and refuel.

“Yeah.”  There was no need to say thanks. It was understood.

“I’ll be back for you in two days.  And I’d better be picking up three, feel me?  ‘Cause if you think I’m coming all the way back down here just for your sorry ass, you’ll find yourself keeping a couple of gators fat and happy in the swamp.”  Sean punctuated that statement with an unnecessarily heavy hand to the shoulder.

Ah.  The joy of big brothers knew no bounds.

* * *

A
fter two layovers, they arrived in Atlanta just before dawn.  With only their carry-ons, they were able to bypass the baggage claim and head out into the hustle and bustle of the busy area.  A wall of warm, humid air filled with the fumes of the city hit them hard the moment they did.  Faith choked back a cough, thinking longingly of the cool, clean air of Pine Ridge.  And just when had she managed to become such a Yank, she wondered?

Faith checked the bus schedule posted outside the terminal and did a few mental calculations as she worked out the best way to get to where they needed to be.  It was an hour or so later when she finally worked up the courage to pull out her Go phone and make the call that just might change their lives forever.

With slightly trembling fingers, Faith punched in the number from the legal letterhead.  It took several attempts for her to press the buttons in the proper sequence and remain on the line while it rang.  A woman answered, her voice crisp and very business-like.

“Longstreet and Son.  This is Pamela.  How may I assist you?”

For several long moments, Faith forgot to breathe.  This was it.  She could still hang up right now and pretend they had just used up all of her savings and flown to Georgia for some other reason.

“Hello?” the woman said, efficiency now laced with annoyance.

Faith looked at Matt and summoned her courage.  “Uh, hello.  I would, um, like to speak with Nathan Longstreet, please.”

“Do you have an appointment?”  The question, crisp and efficient, came before Faith had even finished speaking.

“Uh, no, but - ”

“Then I would be happy to make one for you,” the woman said, cutting her off, sounding not very happy at all.  There was a brief pause with only the clicking sound of long nails on a keyboard audible over the connection.  “His first opening is a week from next Wednesday.  If you would give me the reason for your call, please.”