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He stepped over to the boy and helped him with his fly before they approached the sink to wash up. He had no idea what to say to Connor. He knew how to get a zipper up, though, and he knew he had enough money to buy the boy breakfast. Everything else, he’d have to learn one thing at a time.
Ward had told him to do exactly that.
I know you’ll feel inadequate. Heaven knows I do on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. But Nate, just take it one thing at a time. Just like you did in River Bay. One day at a time.
One hour. One minute.
Nate dried his hands and stepped into the hall to find Ginger hadn’t moved. “All good?” she asked, her eyes skating down to Connor.
“Yep.”
“You hungry, Connor?” he asked.
The boy looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. “A little.”
“Can we get a sandwich?” he asked Ginger, because he honestly didn’t know the rules at all.
“Sure,” she said. “We won’t want to take long, though. The funeral.”
He nodded and went around the corner to the line to order. No one looked at him. No one waved a book of tickets in his face and told him to keep his eyes forward or he’d get a citation. No one swore or jostled for a place or breathed threats if he didn’t give up his spot in line.
These people had no idea how good their lives were.
He ordered for all of them and got a bag of biscuits and muffins and hashbrowns a few minutes later. Back in the truck with everyone, he started handing things out.
“Thank you,” Ginger said, and Connor echoed her.
Nate took a moment before he bit into his bacon and egg biscuit to think back to the last time someone had thanked him. His friends did. Maybe Greg and Ellen had, in time.
It felt nice.
* * *
“Connor!”Another little boy came running down the hall toward Nate and Connor, who let go of Nate’s hand and ran toward him too.
Nate’s step slowed, and not only from the unfamiliar child. Right around that corner sat his family. All of Ward’s friends and associates. He really didn’t want to be there, but there was no way Nate could skip his brother’s funeral.
A woman came around the corner, her expression bordering on panic. “Milo,” she said. “Oh.” She came to a complete stop, and Nate did too.
He drank in the sight of his sister. Bethany was seven years younger than him, but they’d been good enough friends growing up. She’d been engaged when he’d gone into River Bay, and she hadn’t come to visit him more than a handful of times. Usually on Christmas or his birthday, and that was all.
He knew why. Her husband had suffered the loss of both of his legs in a motorcycle accident, and she had her hands full. She rushed toward him then, tears spilling down her face. “Nate,” she said, grabbing onto him and sobbing into his chest.
Nate clenched everything he had in order to keep his own emotions inside, but it sure did feel good to have a hug from someone he loved. Someone who loved him. For so long there, Nate had wondered if his family would even want to speak to him again. Everyone, seemingly, had abandoned him.
Except Ward.
“He must belong to you,” Nate finally said as she stepped back. He wiped quickly at his own eyes before he looked to the two little boys. Her son showed Connor a toy car, and it was clear Connor wanted it.
“Yes,” Bethany said. “My son Milo.”
“And you have a daughter too,” Nate said, not sure if he should introduce himself to his nephew or not.
“Yes,” his sister said again. “Ella just turned two.” She linked her arm through his. “Come on. Momma’s been asking about you for at least an hour.” She glanced at Ginger, who’d come into the church with them. She’d been wearing jeans and a blouse when she’d picked him up at the facility, and he’d been waiting for her outside the women’s restroom when Milo had come sprinting around the corner.
She wore a denim skirt now, and she stepped forward to greet Bethany. “I’m Ginger Talbot.”
“Of course,” Bethany said. “The—at Hope Eternal Ranch, right?”
