Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Mitch woke up sometime around two a.m., his body heavy from sleep, his brain fuzzy as three-week-gone cheese. Lord have mercy. He’d slept more than the clock around.
The girls had cuddled up into bed with him, turned on Inside Out number whatever, and he’d been out like a light.
Shit. He had to pee again, his belly felt like it was caving in he was so hungry, and he had no idea where his kids were.
Grunting, he tried to sit up, but pain shot up from his back to throb in his temples, and he moaned, easing back down.
He heard a grunt and someone cleared their throat from over on the threadbare recliner he’d put in his bedroom when he’d first gotten home from the hospital.
“Hey. You’re awake. You need to hit the head?”
“Uh.” He blinked, because why was Campbell Halley sleeping in his bedroom? “Yeah.” His voice sounded rough as a cob to his own ears, so he coughed to clear it. “Where are the kids?”
“Asleep. They’re having a slumber party in the front room, with a blanket fort and pillows. So many pillows.” Cam rose, stretching, making his back pop, which Mitch envied.
“Yeah, they like squishy things. Can you help me into my brace?”
Cam came to stand by the bed, staring at him. “You need it to pee?”
“Not just for that, but I’m starving, and I want to check on the girls. What did you feed them?”
“Pizza and a fruit salad. I called Momma and asked what I could do to make something healthy-ish to go with pizza, and she said to look for fruit cocktail or something.”
He snorted. “So you made fruit salad?”
“Yeah, you had some coconut flakes and some little marshmallows. So just a few of those, and they thought it was dessert.”
Mitch rolled his eyes. “Beginner’s luck.”
“God, yes.” Cam brought him the brace. “Thank God for your Bekka. She got them all bathed and in jammies while I went out and fed and all.”
He let Cam help him into the brace, even if it rankled. “What happened to the dog?”
“I got the vet out. She went to school with someone… Diana maybe.” Cam got him up and moving. “He had a wound on his side, and he was scared to death. She gave me some stress stuff for him, and treated the cut.”
“So he’s still here?” Mitch frowned, but it was dear to get the vet out. He guessed anyway.
“Yeah, he’s not mean. He’s just scared. He doesn’t know what to do, but he’ll be fine. Rosie’s a good dog.”
He stopped short on the way into the bathroom, blinking. “You didn’t let them name it—”
“He was named before I ever showed up.” Cam blinked at him, obviously confused.
“The girls know if we name it, we keep it.” Oh, those little nerds.
He went to pee, shaking his head as he tried to figure out how they were going to get rid of this dog.
Except he knew they weren’t going to get rid of this dog. He was going to end up with this dog, which wasn’t a bad deal except that he didn’t need a big dog right now and he didn’t need the trouble of a big dog he didn’t know.
But it wasn’t as if he could go “Okay, look, girls, I’m going to get you another dog and we’ll get rid of the current dog,” because that wasn’t how it worked with animals, and he spent his entire dad life going “You can’t replace one animal for another”.
Now he had a dog.
Fuck him sideways.
Mitch did his business and got himself cleaned up, then he headed out to find Cam still standing there with his teeth in his mouth like he just could not figure this out.
“Okay, so I got questions about this whole dog situation.”
He wasn’t sure if Cam was allowed to have questions.
He wasn’t sure Cam was allowed to be here in his house asking questions.
He wasn’t sure it was allowed because the man was a motherfucker and had called him a fuddy-duddy.
Which okay, he’d ended up getting married to a girl and having this terribly normal life and then losing said girl to a blood clot and now he had three daughters and a tiny ranch that he roofed to support, but that had nothing to do with anything. “Like what?”
“You said, they name it, they get to keep it. Wouldn’t they get to just name anything randomly they brought home?
Yo, Daddy, here’s an alpaca, I named him Frank.
Oh, Daddy, here’s a giant tarantula-skunk hybrid, I named him Bernie.
Look, Daddy, here’s a rattlesnake, I named him Bob.
Hey, Daddy, I found this badger in the middle of the road, his name is Harry. Is that not how this works?”
“No.” No, that wasn’t how it worked. That would be too silly. “Of course that isn’t how it works. You have to say the name too.”
“Pardon me?”
“If I don’t repeat the name back or another adult does not repeat the name back, then it doesn’t count. You have to have an adult’s verbal stamp of name approval. Also, why are all the animals boys?”
“Because your daughter named a huge male Rottweiler Rosie. Also, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”
He arched one eyebrow and leaned against the wall so it would support him. “Dumber than coming up with a giant tarantula-skunk creature and not only not calling it a tarantukunk, but not having that be your climax? Seriously, Sarah could totally teach you a thing or two.”
“I’m sure she could. She’s kind of terrifying.” Cam shook his head. “Come on, out to the kitchen. I’ll feed you. Do you like pizza? I can’t remember.”
“Are there people who don’t like pizza?” As long as it didn’t have broccoli on it, he could handle it. Broccoli he would draw the line at.
“You’d be surprised at how many rodeo guys don’t eat it.
It’s too carby, too greasy. Too something, something.
” Cam took his arm and steered him toward the main part of the house, toward the kitchen.
He reckoned it didn’t matter whether Cam could figure this out or not because the guy just kept moving.
That seemed to be his MO, though—just keep moving.
“Well, my girls love pizza. I’m sure you’ve heard all about it. Jalapenos and pepperoni for Sarah, sausage and onion and peppers for Bekka, and the baby wants mushroom.” Him? He liked green olives and pepperoni.
Cam nodded, eyes wide as saucers. “Oh, yeah. I’ve never met a little one who liked mushrooms.”
Mitch huffed out an amused little breath. “I have to tell you, there is nothing average about my girls. They’re all just personalities.”
And he adored them.
He wanted to be better for them, but he wasn’t.
Somehow it had been easier when there were two of them, to be young and stupid and in love and broke.
It was as if to do it with one baby was adorable. To do it with two babies was a challenge. To do it with three babies and no wife? Sucked.
“They really are. They told me what to get on your pizza, too, so I got it.” Cam got him down in a kitchen chair, gentle enough that he didn’t whack his brace on the back of it.
He groaned, feeling stiff all over but also somehow a lot better than he had earlier.
Cam moved around, pulling out a pizza box from the fridge, and putting his big skillet on the stove. He wasn’t sure how that was going to work, but who knew what Cam was up to? “Once you have supper, you could have a pill and then head back to bed to get another round of sleep.”
“I’ve done slept the clock all the way around, I think.”
“Only half the day.” Cam grinned. “And it is the middle of the night, so you don’t want to get all off your schedule.”
“Sure. You can head on out any time.”
“No, I really can’t.” Cam shook his head. “The girls asked me not to leave. And while I’ll probably stretch out on the couch this time instead of sitting next to your bed because I wasn’t sure whether we were going to wake up or not. I’ll hang out till at least morning.”
“You are being good to me, and I do appreciate it.” Mitch drank Cam up with his gaze.
He had to, didn’t he? The man was damn handsome, even still.
Fucker was lean and tall, and he still had all his fingers—weren’t ropers supposed to lose those?
He was pretty sure they were. Cam was the epitome of cowboy, though.
“I’m not sure why. I mean, God knows we didn’t split up nice. ”
Cam glanced over, those green eyes gleaming. “True. True, but that’s been quite a few years, hasn’t it? And well, we’ve both spent a lot of years apart, not particularly pining for each other.”
“Hey, I don’t know what I was supposed to do.
You had a life, and so did I, and I needed to figure out what to do.
” He’d loved his wife. Allison had been hilarious, genuinely funny, understanding, and caring.
She’d had a girlfriend about the time he had a boyfriend.
When both relationships had broken up, they’d turned to one another for a little peace, some succor.
“Well, Mitch, you seem to have done that. You got three babies out of the deal, and this place.”
He lifted his chin, firmed his lips. “I did. I mean, I know I look all broke-dick and everything, but I’ve been fighting hard.
I’m trying to keep the bills paid, keep them together, and keep the county from showing up here.
Hell, I’m fighting to keep this house. Not all of us have a support system.
Allison and I were each other’s support systems.”
Cam had the good grace to look down and look away. “Yeah, I am sorry to hear about that. That sucks. That’s a terrible way to lose somebody. Hell, anything is terrible, but that had to have been an awful shock.”
He didn’t want Cam to feel sorry for him. He didn’t want Cam to be all, “Oh, you know, life’s been hard.” He wanted everybody to be proud of him. Damn it, he just couldn’t quite manage it.
“Well, anyway, my girls are the most important thing in the world to me, and I appreciate you taking care of them today. I didn’t think I was as bad off as I was, and I just lost it. I was hurt so badly I just passed out.”