Fall Too Well (Cozy Creek Collection)

Chapter 20

Nash

O n my way back to town, I stopped at a pumpkin stand on the side of the road and picked up three good-sized pumpkins and put them in the back of my truck. I want to make everything on their bucket list happen. I wave at the owner as my mind drifts back to when Everly and I were thirteen and fifteen. Everly had the biggest crush on me back then, but she tried to hide it. I chose to redirect her as much as possible. As Hayley’s best friend, I never wanted to make it awkward for any of us. We had a good thing going, and I couldn’t handle not having her in our life. Hayley, Kincaid, Everly, and I were inseparable. We would go big and get into every holiday, and fall was no exception. We carved pumpkins, went to the fall festival in town, and snuck beer behind the beer tent. We all decided that beer tasted and smelled like pee and opted for apple cider instead from the antique apple cider press. We tried to play it cool, but we just weren’t. We would prank and scare each other at the corn maze and ride the floats in the fall parade and throw candy to the kids. The fall carnival was a favorite too. I don’t have many memories without Everly in them. When her dad was home from long-haul trucking, he would be at the pub every chance he got, so she’d end up with us most of the time anyway. I never did like her dad. Most people didn’t, and he wasn’t missed around here when he moved. But Everly has always been loved by just about everyone. A lot of people were happy when she moved back.

I remember Everly telling me when we were about twelve and fourteen that I’d be her boyfriend someday when we were swinging on the big tire out back behind the barn. It was hot, and we were all in bathing suits. Kincaid and I had made a makeshift swimming pool out of the water holes for the cattle. We would swing and try to land in the water. We were eating our Popsicles as fast as we could because they were melting.