49. Nathan

When Halloween came around, the Pierce brothers and Kingsley sisters linked up and went out in downtown Honey Creek to celebrate. One thing about a small town was that we took our holidays to heart.

Everyone dressed up except for Evan. I wasn’t shocked about that, though. He wasn’t one to take part in costumes. I was almost certain he only come out because he knew whiskey would be involved.

My brothers and I walked into the bar before the Kingsley women showed up. Easton was dressed as Quailman from the cartoon Doug. River and Grant showed up dressed as Ken from Barbie. They didn’t plan to match costumes and didn’t even notice that they had until they arrived at the bar.

Identical twin behavior.

I, myself, was a tube of mustard.

When Willow, Yara, and Avery walked in, I couldn’t help but smile.

“For fuck’s sake,” Evan muttered. “Don’t tell me you and Avery agreed on being ketchup and mustard.”

Pride beamed through me as I saw Avery walk in dressed as a tube of ketchup. The most beautiful kind of ketchup, too.

“Part of me thought she wouldn’t follow through,” I said as I grinned ear-to-ear.

“That’s why I don’t fall in love. People do stupid shit when they fall in love,” Evan said.

I laughed. “We aren’t in love. We are?—”

“Just friends,” my four brothers echoed, rolling their eyes as if they didn’t believe me.

The women approached us, and Willow smiled brightly. “Hey, you guys. I see most of you went ahead and dressed up,” she said, eyeing Evan.

He grimaced yet didn’t say a word.

“Nice costumes, ladies,” Easton said, already having shots ready to hand out toward the three sisters. “Willow, you are…?”

Willow spun slightly, showcasing the leaves and flowers all over her body. “Mother Nature.”

“You look like a flower shop vomited on you,” Evan dryly remarked. Clearly, it was meant as an insult, but Willow’s eyes glistened with joy as she curtsied.

“Thank you,” she replied.

“No Alex tonight?” I asked Yara, who was dressed as a witch. That was comical, seeing how Yara Kingsley was one of the sweetest women alive.

“Are you kidding me? Socializing on a holiday when people are drunk, loud, and rowdy? He’d rather peel a million onions than be here. Mama’s having her first night off to party like wild!” she sang, downing the shot Easton passed over to her.

She shivered with disgust from the taste, making me chuckle. “Another one!” she cheered.

Avery smiled at her sister, then she smiled over at me. A shyness touched her cheeks as she slightly nodded. “Hey, Mustard.”

“Hey, Ketchup. Red looks good on you. Brings out your eyes,” I joked.

Evan rolled his eyes. “Fuck, you’re corny. I need air.” He pushed past us with his whiskey in his hand and headed outside.

The rest of us took more shots and partied even more.

After a while,I realized Evan never made it back inside. I took a break and went to check on him, only to find him sitting on a bench outside of the bar, staring down at his hands, which were gripped together. I knew my brother could be grumpy, but he seemed more than his normal grump that evening. He seemed troubled.

“Brother,” I called out.

He looked up and frowned. “Hey.”

I walked over and sat down beside him. “What’s up? What’s going on?”

“Nothing. A lot on my mind. Sorry. I don’t want to bother you. Go have fun.”

“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!”