Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122219 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“Evan. Spill.”
He grumbled a bit before clearing his throat. “It’s about Priya.”
Worry filled me. “Is she okay? What’s going on?” I asked, my uncle protectiveness growing quickly.
He shook his head. “Not that Priya. Her mother, Priya.”
It was the first time I had heard Evan talk about that woman in years. Sixteen years, to be exact. After Priya surrendered parental rights to her daughter, Evan never spoke of her again. I knew the whole situation was hard for him, but he kept a lot of it to himself, not even sharing with his own twin, Easton.
“What’s going on?” I questioned.
“She’s pregnant again.”
My eyes widened. “By you?”
“No, you dipshit. I don’t know who she’s pregnant by. She stopped in the butcher shop. Thank goodness my Pri wasn’t working that day. She told me she was pregnant, and she didn’t want to keep it. She offered me the opportunity to adopt the baby once they were born, seeing how the kid would be Pri’s brother or sister.”
“Shit,” I muttered.
“You’re telling me,” he dryly replied. “What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”
“I have no idea. So the father isn’t in the picture?”
Evan shook his head. “I guess he overdosed. Passed away. The past sixteen years haven’t been kind to Priya. She doesn’t have any connection to her family or anything.”
“That’s crazy.”
“That’s life. Bad shit happens all the time.”
I grimaced and clasped my hands together. “So…what are you leaning toward?”
“Truthfully?”
“Yeah.”
“A big part of me wanted to tell her to piss off and never come back to this town.”
“But…the other part?”
He frowned and glanced into the streets sprinkled with people in costumes, living their lives. “The other part knows that Priya deserves a chance to know her little brother or sister. I grew up with my brothers. I couldn’t imagine my life any other way. I wouldn’t want to take that away from her.”
“Even if the kid isn’t yours?”
He paused for a moment, falling deeper into his thoughts. Then he shook his head. “If they are her family, they are mine, too. If that little baby came into my house, they’d be mine as much as I’d be theirs.”
And that, folks, was why Evan was the best father in the galaxy.
“Well,” I said, patting him on the shoulder. “If that baby comes to the farm, we know one thing for sure: they’ll be loved and cared for. If they don’t, we can’t be certain what will happen to them.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “And I don’t think I could risk that outcome.”
“Well, little brother, it’s about time I got another niece or nephew.”
He huffed and chuckled lightly. “This was probably the only way you’d get another one out of me.” He pushed himself to a standing position. “I better get home and tell Pri before it spreads around the farm too fast.”
“What? You think I can’t keep a secret?”
“I know you can, but I told Easton already. And you know he can’t keep a secret if his life depended on it.”
I laughed. “True.”
I stood and hugged him. “Proud of you, brother.”
“Take another shot for me,” he ordered as he glanced behind him and looked into the bar to see everyone else still having a good time. “Mother Nature, huh?” he mentioned, speaking of Willow’s costume. “That’s fucking stupid.”
I snickered and shoved Evan in the direction of the farm. “Night, brother.”
“Night.”
He walked off, and within a few seconds, my bottle of ketchup burst out of the bar. She looked in one direction before turning to find me. “Nathan, come on!” Avery said, her glassy eyes filled with drunkenness. She held a hand out toward me. “We’re taking cherry bombs!”
50
AVERY
NOVEMBER
We almost kissed on the pitcher’s mound in November.
We ate pumpkin pie cheesecake on the mound and talked about our hopes for next season. We talked about our hopes for our next lifetime.
We talked until we ran out of words. Until our stomachs were stuffed.
He fed me one last bite.
I leaned in.
He did, too.
Then his brothers came over, demanding some of the cheesecake.
That was when I realized how much I’d missed it.
I missed the taste of his lips against mine.
51
NATHAN
DECEMBER
The farmland was covered in snow when the holiday season rolled around. Like all the years prior, we hosted a big Christmas Eve party in the barn. Holiday music blasted through the speakers, and eggnog was poured at remarkable speeds as the spirit of the season took over in full force.
I wandered off to the horse stables to get a few breaths of air. For the most part, I did okay with Avery’s and my friendship. Over the past few months, we’d become professionals at taking it slow, but I had to admit, a big part of me wanted to pull her under some mistletoe and place my mouth against hers.
I missed her kisses.
I missed holding her.
I missed her.
The version of her when she was mine.