8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Kit

"Welcome to Harrington's," Ryan greeted us as we walked in. "Morning, Nate, Kit. What can I do for you?"

"I'm taking Kit out to the lake to do some fishing on Grandad's boat and thought it'd be nice if he had his own pole and tackle box instead of having to use my old ones."

I'd told Nate I was more than okay with that, but he insisted and pulled the Daddy card. If it made him happy to do this then so be it.

"Well, Nate, you know where everything is. Holler, if you have any questions." Ryan got back to stocking the shelf he was doing.

"Will do, Ryan." Nate led me to the aisle where the poles and tackle were. I'd never seen so much fishing equipment in one place. I'd imagined a couple poles and worms but nothing more. They had two full aisles dedicated to fishing.

Nate held up a couple of poles beside me. Not sure what he was checking for, but I let him do his thing. Obviously he was in his element and the pole itself had something to do with my height. Who knew. "What's your favorite color, Kit?"

"Blue."

He grabbed a couple of blue ones and finally settled on one and then picked a tackle box to match it. He loaded it up with all kinds of crazy looking lures. Sad part was I was more interested in playing with them than hooking any fish, but I wasn't about to say that. I'd play along as long as it made him happy. He pulled a container of earthworms from the mini fridge, and then we headed to the register.

We'd already loaded up a bunch of stuff in the truck including the ice chest back at the house and I thought we were good to go before we came in here, but I guess I was wrong. Nate hurriedly slid his card through the machine before I could see the total and Ryan laughed.

"All right, you two, have fun out there and be safe," Ryan said as he handed us the bags.

Nate tapped his knuckles on the countertop. "Will do. See you later, Ryan."

We added the bags to the back seat with what we'd packed and hit the road.

"I've wanted to take you out here for a while now, but we've been so busy we haven't had a chance. I used to go to the lake with my father and grandfather, like I told you. It was our Zen, a way to get out of town and I guess, be one with Mother Nature. Even if we didn't catch anything, it was a good day and I just wanted to share that with you."

Times like this when he said the right things, it made me all ooey, gooey inside.

"I'm glad you chose me to share it with." Nate took my hand in his and kept them that way for the remainder of the drive. We'd driven by the lake before when we were on our way to the next town over to pick up my phone and go shopping but this was the first time I'd get to see it up close. I loved the water, there was something so calm and soothing about it. We drove into the paved entrance then took a dirt path around one side of the lake where Nate stored the boat his granddad left him .

Between the two of us, we got the boat in the water and loaded it up fairly quickly. Once we had our life vests on, Nate started the motor and we were on our way.

"There's an alcove around the bend that's a great fishing spot. I thought we'd try it out first." The closer we got to it, the more nervous Nate seemed.

"You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?" He didn't answer right away and I wasn't about to let this go. Nate was the epitome of calm and right now he was shaking. "Nate, should we turn back around? I don't know much about water or boats but if you sense something is off we should go back."

"Absolutely nothing's wrong, baby. Please, just trust me."

Trusting him I did without question but even by Nate's standards this was off.

Once we were situated the way he wanted us to be, he sat back and assembled my new pole. He slid the line through the eyelets and then attached the hook and a lure on the end. Fear and dread filled me as I watched him struggle to tie it with shaky hands.

"Nate, you're starting to scare me. You're shaking pretty bad. I think we need to go see the doctor like, now." I wasn't bending on this. Our health and wellbeing came way before any damn fish did .

"No, baby, I'm okay, I swear." He shook his head. " I just, well, I need to talk to you about something. More like ask you something. Ugh, I'm fucking this up."

He made no sense at all. My initial thought wasn't a good one. He was either having a seizure of some sort, I don't know, but it wasn't good, and we were far from medical help.

Nate took a deep breath, scrubbed his hands over his face then finally turned and faced me. "Are you one hundred percent sure you want to take my last name?"

"Yes. Did you change your mind about it?" Fuck, fuck, fuck.

"No. But it comes with a caveat."

"A caveat?"

Nate reached into his pocket and dropped down on one knee.

Oh. My. God.

"Kit, you came into my life and from the moment we met I knew my heart would never be the same. Would you do me the honor of being my husband and taking my last name for real? I mean, I know on the paperwork it's for real, but like, for real, the way most couples do it, for real. As in marriage. "

With every word he babbled, my grin widened. He was nervous, not sick, thank fuck. "Yes, I absolutely will marry you. But I have a caveat as well."

"Oh, you do, do you? And what is that?"

"We get to plan our own damn wedding."

Nate's boisterous laughter echoed through the canyon, and I swear I heard it roll across the water. "I couldn't agree with you more and I'll personally make sure everybody knows, including our mothers."

Nate slid a simple silver band on my finger. Nothing flashy or over the top and so perfectly me, and we sealed the deal with a kiss.

"Now, let's do some fishing."

"Wait. Give me a sec." I held his hand in mine, made sure the ring was visible and snapped a picture, then fired it off to both our mothers. Not two seconds later both our phones rang.

Nate stared at his screen. "Lord, boy, what have you done?"

"Let's just say I got the ball rolling Mother style."

We put those two on speakerphone so they could talk to each other instead of through us as they initially were. Unfortunately, they were yelling to be heard and Nate determined they were scaring the fish away. In a bright moment of wisdom, we texted them each other's numbers so they could talk like normal humans. My mom hadn't had any friends outside of the compound and I figured it might be good for her and Joanne to get to know one another. Who knew? Maybe my mom would sprout wings and actually leave the compound and visit Foggy.

"Well, my love," Nate said, as we finished up our sandwiches. "I think fishing is a bust. We didn't catch a damn thing. Let's head back, get showered and open the bar."

"Sounds like a plan, husband of mine to be." Nate's wide grin was filled with pride. He was proud to have me as his boy, his friend, and very soon his husband. I'd never felt more loved and cherished than I had since I met him.

On the way back home, Nate got another call. "Hey, Brock, what's up? What do you mean someone broke into Eddy's room? How did they get in? Well, I'm glad nothing was stolen but it sounds like a mess. All right, Kit and I are on our way back to town. We're about fifteen minutes out. We'll see you in a few."

"What was that about?"

"Someone broke into Eddy's room above the bar, and it sounds like they destroyed it."

"Did they mess with the bar? Is everything okay?"

"Great questions, but all that Brock mentioned was Eddy's room. "

We parked behind the bar in the RV lot instead of the driveway at the house since it was closer and took the stairs two at a time. The door had been jimmied open and the lock was destroyed. When we got inside we found Eddy's room was much the same.

"Don't touch anything. We need to call the police," Nate told Brock and Eddy, who were picking stuff up.

"No!" Eddy freaked out and threw his hands in the air. "They're not going to believe me."

"I believe you, Eddy. They will, too. I mean, look at this." Brock pointed around the room. The bedding was on the floor, the desk was pulled away from the wall and the chair was turned over. There were clothes everywhere. I didn't know if he was messy and it was already like that before they got here, or if that happened when whoever broke in searched for whatever it was they were looking for.

"That doesn't prove anything. And what if I need proof?" Eddy was a mess. I wasn't sure what was going on, but it seemed like there was a lot more to this than what Eddy was willing to share.

"I'm calling the sheriff, guys." Nate was pissed and I didn't blame him. "Fuckers broke my lock. That's going to cost me time and money." He slid his phone out and put it to his ear. "Hey, it's Nate from Pints ‘n Pool. Someone broke into one of my rooms." Nate stepped out into the hall to finish the call. Brock stood there and watched Eddy pack. I wasn't sure he should be doing that, but I kind of didn't feel it was my place to say anything. Thankfully, I didn't have to because Brock stopped him.

"Stop, Eddy, please. Clay is the best sheriff. He'll help us."

"I don't care. I can't do this without having proof. Making a police report isn't going to do anything." Eddy panicked. "I have to go." But before he could leave, a guy I met once with red hair, I think his name was Jackie, walked in. He nodded to me and headed over to Brock who introduced him to Eddy.

Nate came back in the room. "Clay is sending a car over."

"I'm not sticking around." This guy Eddy was up to something, I mean, why else would he be afraid to talk to the cops? Jackie grabbed a suitcase, and I could tell Nate was about to throw down. Something was going on and Nate knew it, too, and he was not about to let him get away with this. Before Nate could unleash the beast, though, I stepped in.

"Hey, I get it. You don't trust the cops, but these folks are trying to help you. Everyone needs help now and then," I told Eddy, but my words fell on deaf ears .

"I'm sorry, Nate, but I'm checking out effective immediately." Eddy headed for the door with his stuff.

Brock walked up next to him and took a suitcase. "Come on, I've got this." And then the three of them left Nate and I to deal with the cops and the cleanup.

Nate and I didn't have to wait long before a uniformed officer came in. "Afternoon, Jesse, how you doing?" Nate greeted him.

"Well, from the looks of it, better than you. You don't happen to have camera footage of any of this, do you?" Jesse asked him.

"No, only the downstairs bar area has cameras. Felt like an invasion of privacy when I considered putting them up here. Now I'm second guessing my second guessing."

"Understood. Given the fact that we have little to no crimes in Foggy Basin, it doesn't make any sense to have them. Let me snap a few pictures and write up a report. Is anything missing?" Jesse opened his iPad and snapped some pictures. Most of the mess left with Eddy, all that was left was overturned furniture.

"From the sounds of it, only what Eddy and Brock just took with them. Eddy was the guy renting the room and I'm guessing he's hooking up with Brock from Books and Beans. They packed up Eddy's stuff and left. Not sure they should have done that. Isn't this considered a crime scene?" For being as frustrated as he was, Nate handled this well.

"Yes, sir, it is and I'll be having a word with Brock about that once I leave here."

It didn't take Jesse long to do what he needed. He emailed Nate a copy of the report for the insurance claim, if he felt like filing one.

"Why don't I clean up the mess and get the bed made and the room back in order while you get the locks replaced on the back door?" Standing around while others worked wasn't my thing and now that Nate and I would be in this together, it was time to step up my game and be a true partner.

"I hate to leave you with this, but it's gonna eat me alive if I don't get that door secured." Nate leaned over and kissed me. "I'll be back as soon as possible. Gonna head over to Nuts and Bolts for a heavy duty lock and a couple more cameras."

The chair was a goner, so I hauled it out to the dumpster, and replaced it with one from downstairs. Reset the desk, flipped the mattress back over and put fresh linens on it. Got the floors mopped and by the time I'd finished, Nate had, too .

"Didn't look like anything downstairs was messed with." I'd thoroughly checked out the bar area when I grabbed a new chair.

"No, thankfully. The app would have alerted me to any intruders. I put a camera above this door both inside and outside and tied them into the system we have downstairs. That app is loaded on your phone, too. I set it up when I did your phone but hadn't had the time to run through it with you. Let me show you now, and here is the keypad code for the door." He keyed it in, and I heard it beep and unlock, then he shut it and had me do it. "All right, let's shower and get the bar open."

I guessed this was adulthood. No time to celebrate our engagement. Or so I thought…

Merle, of course, was the first patron in. He took one look at the ring on my finger and that was all it took for the entire town to know. In no time, the bar was packed. Townies kept buying Nate and I shots, but he swapped mine for soda, so I didn't have to drink any. Nothing better than a man who knew how to take care of you.

Nate had a couple of shots with them, then after that he switched to soda. I felt kind of bad because most of the patrons thought they were doing shots with us, only theirs weren't mock. Nate didn't charge them for any of ours, of course, but it was funnier than hell to watch them wobble out of the bar. Back to that whole small-town thing and nobody having to drive around town, thank fuck. There were no Ubers here to call for them. We checked and made sure everyone made it home safely then called it a night.

"I'm beat," I told Nate as I started the dishwasher. "I just wanna shower and pass out."

"You and me, both." Which was exactly what we did. We had to get up earlier than normal in the morning with the delivery truck coming.

The rumor mill rolled around back to us that Joanne put an end to any townie thinking they were wedding planners. Merle came in grumbling about it first thing.

"Jo threatened me with bodily harm if I so much as considered helping with the wedding. I'd like to see her try and do it."

Nate's brows rose. "Merle, do you really think testing my mom is wise?" Merle groaned and refused to reply. "We've got this under control. Kit and I aren't fancy people or over the top. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, and provided Kit agrees, we're just gonna get married here at the bar."

"Kit agrees," I said as I set the case of supplies I carried behind the bar. "I think this is the perfect place to have the wedding because it's where we first met. Not to mention the fact it has plenty of room. You and I both know every abled townie will be here and this is probably the only building big enough to accommodate that. Nate, we should consider using one of the local restaurants for the catering so we don't have to do any cooking."

"Good idea. You seem to be Mom's favorite son now so why don't you fire that off to her? She and Dad are on their way back from South America. It will be a couple weeks before they get here, but it'll be after you go to court, so we can set a date for the wedding when we're ready."

Things were moving fast, considering we'd only been engaged for twenty-four hours, but I had no one but myself to blame for that. After sending the picture of our entwined hands with my ring showing to the moms yesterday, it spiraled from there. Even so, the wedding was probably still a couple months away. I guess we'd know for sure when the moms told us. Ha-ha.