She blushed. He’d bought her a small cedar box and more vibrators than one woman could use in a lifetime.
“Later,” she promised, ducking around him to stare out of the door to where two figures were making their way along the dock to the houseboat.
She checked Rowdy’s and Dawg’s boats. The men were coming out, their wives with them.
Dawg was still in shock that Crista was pregnant and had kept that news from him for over a week before Chaya had unintentionally dropped the bomb. He barely let Crista walk on her own now. The other woman swore it was all she could do to keep him from carrying her every step she needed to make.
Rowdy wasn’t much better. It seemed all of the women who belonged to the Nauti Boys were pregnant within weeks of one another. And each one of their men would go pale at the mention of having daughters.
“Now, remember, keep your back turned.” Chaya opened the door, the cold wind swirling in as Dawg, Crista, Rowdy, and Kelly stepped inside.
“He looks impatient, Chaya.” Kelly laughed, her gray eyes twinkling as she looked at Natches’s back.
“Why are they here?” Natches almost turned around, but Chaya was ready for him. She pushed his shoulder back.
“Stay,” she ordered laughingly.
“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.”
“Your uncle Ray, too, son.” Ray stepped forward and shook the boy’s hand before patting him on the back. “We’re all your family.”
Faisal’s expression clenched then, emotion working through him as it was through Natches. Hell, Natches’d come to think of Faisal as an adopted cousin, or even a son. He hadn’t imagined the young man he had turned into, but that would work, too.
“My family?” Faisal asked, turning back to Natches to be certain. “They are my family as well?”
“Adoption papers.” Timothy slapped them into Natches’s hand. “We began the process when you first started harassing me for it. I’m on suspended leave, I’ll have you know, for pushing this through.”
“For this and several rules he broke in a certain arrest.” Chaya glared at him. “Timothy, you need to settle down and stop making everyone crazy.”
Timothy’s smile was all teeth. “Maybe I’ll move to Somerset. Fine little town. I could have a hell of a lot of fun here.”
Natches ignored the sniping as he stared at the papers.
“Faisal Mackay,” he said, looking up at the boy. “This works for you?”
Faisal’s smile was filled with excitement. “Mackay, it is a good name. Strong. And filled with family.” There was hunger in the boy’s eyes as he stared around the room. The hunger for family, for roots. “If it pleases you, Natchie, it pleases me.”
“Hell, I got a nephew.” Dawg grinned. “He can work at the lumber store.”
“The marina would be better,” Ray argued. “He’ll like the lake.”
“He can make up his own mind.” Natches clasped the boy’s arm and felt Faisal’s fingers curl around his, too, as he grinned down at him. “But he gets to work in a garage first.”
Natches turned to Chaya, pulled her to his side, and felt the warmth of family surround him. Even Timothy, the rabid little fucker, was grinning.
“I hid your presents in the back,” Chaya told Faisal. “Both of your presents.” She looked to Timothy. “Merry Christmas, Timothy.”
He scratched his cheek and frowned at her. “I didn’t get you anything.” Out of sorts, that was Timothy, clear to the bone.
“Yeah, you did.” She smiled softly and looked around the room at the family she had. “You gave me everything, Timothy.”
She surprised him with a kiss to his cheek, then moved from the room to the back of the boat, where she had hidden the other presents from Natches. The rest of the family’s were beneath the tree, and now it was time to add to that family.
She turned back when she reached the hall, a grin touching her lips as the cousins began to argue around Faisal again about where he could work. The young man looked ecstatic, excited, nervous, and filled with hope.
With hope. That was what they all had now, what Timothy had given to them.
As the agent turned to her helplessly, she winked at him and smiled before entering the room that held the presents.
Life was exceptionally good. Natches’s sister would be here within the hour to open presents, then they would move to Dawg’s and Rowdy’s boats, and eventually to Ray and Maria’s for a family dinner and more presents.
Janey was settling in slowly, finally finding a balance, and Faisal was now safe and where he belonged. With the family that would ensure his future. She and Natches had a life now. Warmth. Family.
Finally, Chaya had found home.