Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Cam shouldered a square bale of hay into place in the barn so he could break it open and do some work in the stalls.
Mitch let his animals mostly self-shelter, which was fine. He would leave the stall doors open. But they needed straw and water and such. And Fire needed a more formal setup. He only got to free-range for part of the day.
That gelding was just smart enough to get himself into big trouble if Cam let him. He would find apples to eat, or pick up a giant stone, or get hoof rot or something if left to his own devices.
He was about done spreading straw in Fire’s stall, so he could grab his gelding and stick him in there and keep the wild bastard out of trouble, when Sarah came strolling into the barn, a black lace parasol over one shoulder, a book in the other hand, and a frowny face plastered all over herself.
“Well, hello there, Miss Sarah. How is the little black thundercloud today?”
“Daddy had to go to the doctor. He left Bekka in charge.” Her lower lip pooched out, and she slumped down onto another bale of hay he had yet to break open. He’d had to spend a bit of his own money buying some bales because when he had broken into a couple of Mitch’s, he’d found mold.
Holy shit, he was alone here on this little place with Mitch’s girls.
What the fuck? The man could have at least texted him and told him.
They’d gotten into a routine for the last three days or so, but that didn’t mean he wanted to have to watch those kids all alone, even if Mitch was asleep in the bed.
At least he was there in case Cam had some sort of questions.
He took a deep breath, because he knew he could never let Sarah see him sweat. “I reckon that means he actually left me in charge,” he said. “Don’t you think?”
“Uh-huh. But you were out here, so he told Bekka to watch over us, and I didn’t want to be watched.”
She neatly folded her parasol and put it to one side, then curled her feet up under her and opened her book, ignoring him completely.
It was like some sort of movie about one of those Jane Austen books. Study of a girl with a parasol, black tutu, and some old tome.
Cam shrugged and went back to work. If Rachel or Bekka needed him, one of them would come out.
If they needed to know where Sarah was, they’d come looking for him.
He had quite a bit of work to do. This place needed some shoring up before it was really even safe for Fire to be out here, let alone all the other animals they had on this place.
And he needed to doctor Rosie today. Speaking of which, he could hear a tail thumping against the wall of the stall Rosie was in, and he knew that that big ol’ boofy dog had heard Miss Sarah come in.
“You want to say hi to Rosie?”
Her eyes lit up. “Yeah, I totally do. I was hoping you’d ask.”
She stood up and carefully put her book on the haybale, then she went right over to the stall and peeked over. “Hey, Rosie Posie. Mr. Snozy, how you doing? Hey, Rosie.”
The massive beast jumped right up, staring her down, and she rolled her eyes.
“I don’t think you can be grumpy at me. Daddy told me about eye contact and stuff.
We’re gonna be buddies. You just don’t know it yet.
I need a friend, okay, and that’s gonna be your job. Your job is to be my only friend.”
All right, that was sad as hell. “Your sister’s not your friend?”
“No, my sister is my sister. If you met her, would you be her friend? And the baby’s just a baby. We have to figure out if she’s going to be friend material at this point. She looks like she’s totally just gonna be bubblegum pop.”
He didn’t even know what to say to that. “Bubblegum pop, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m more like industrial alt grunge-type stuff. Like I should have been born in the nineties.”
God help him, he didn’t know what to do. It was all he could do to keep his face straight. “You think so huh?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh. Daddy told me all about it—about flannel shirts and stompy boots. I like the music; it’s so cool. Music now is all ‘Oh, I love him’ and ‘I can rhyme a word with boy.’ So stupid, right?”
Rosie plopped down on his butt and wagged like he was agreeing.
This little girl was something else. He wasn’t sure what to say. “Explain to me how your father ended up with three little girls, none of whom are cowboys…”
One of her eyebrows arched. “Well, did you know my momma?”
“I’d met her once or twice, yes.” He’d known Allison—she was a lot like Mitch in that she didn’t have a lot of family, she didn’t have a lot of support, and she managed to keep her chin above water anyway.
“All right, so she wasn’t a cowboy. She was like a momma, I mean, just a momma.
And so that’s sort of what Bekka is, just a momma.
I read a lot, and I don’t like wearing sparkly hats or jeans with sparkles on the butt or great big belt buckles.
I just like animals and reading. And nobody knows what the baby’s going to be yet.
She’s just a sister. So would you like her if she was a cowgirl? ”
This was fascinating. And he didn’t have to answer. She just went on.
“No one cares. She doesn’t care if I’m a goth. Nobody cares if sister’s whatever the hell sister is.” She kind of winced and looked at him when she said the curse word, and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say anything about that or not.
“You probably shouldn’t say that.”
“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry.” She didn’t look particularly sorry, but he got that.
Most of the time he wasn’t sorry either.
“Did they even make goth cowboys? You know, like goth cowboys.”
Cam pondered that for a second, then he nodded. “Sure they do. You see guys out all the time with dark jeans and black hats who scowl a lot. They wear lots of black shirts that have silver liners, and they’ve never even seen a horse.”
“Well, then I’m a step ahead of them because I have seen a horse, and I’m nice to dogs. I wear black all the time, and I know how to be a good sister, and I don’t cry when Daddy gets hurt. So I am a better cowboy than any of your fake goth cowboys!”
Cam wasn’t sure where this was going. In fact, he wasn’t really sure what was going on at all except that now Sarah seemed pissed as hell.
Shit, he had no idea what was happening here. Maybe she needed to vent.
Rosie whined, worried that she was angry at him, Cam thought, so he dug out a training treat. “Here, honey. You give this to him. No pulling back if he looks toothy. He has to learn to not bite, and sometimes that hurts.”
“Yeah, I know how good he can bite.” To that little girl’s credit, Sarah put the treat in her hand, held her hand out, and just stared Rosie down.
Rosie was so good. That sweet baby took the treat with his gentle mouth, wagging hard.
“Can I love on him now?”
“You can totally love on him now, yeah. I’m sorry that you’re mad.”
She stared at him for a long second and rolled her eyes. “I’m always mad.”
“Oh.” He didn’t even know what to say. “Oh” seemed to work, so he just went back to the hay, and Sarah loved on Rosie, and they coexisted for a moment.
His phone rang, startling the hell out of him, and it was a number he didn’t recognize. Weird.
Still, it was a five-oh-five area code, so he answered it. “‘lo?”
“Is this Cam?”
“It is. Who’s this?” Sounded like Mitch.
“It’s Mitch.”
That explained everything. “What’s up, man?”
“They want to do surgery.”
“What?” He didn’t follow.
“You heard me. I need somebody to come pick me up so that I can come home.”
He shook his head. “Hold up, hold up. I need a second.” He took a deep breath, let it out. “What’s up?”
“They say that one of the vertebrae is shattering and they want to surge on it. I can’t do this. I’ve got my girls, I’ve got to get back to work. I need a ride, they won’t let me drive home.”
“Yeah, that sounded like a really good idea. That don’t drive part.” He closed his eyes for half a second. “All right, let me call my mom. I don’t feel comfortable leaving the girls here by themselves. It’s weird.”
“The girls are fine for—”
“I’m not leaving an angry storm cloud and a little bubblegum pop baby in the hands of another scared little girl. That’s ridiculous.”
“Would you stop it? Look, I am asking for a favor, and then you can get the fuck out.”
“Nope. You chill. I’ll call back in two shakes.” He hung up his phone.
“What’s wrong?” Sarah glared at him. “Something’s wrong. I can tell.”
“I need to talk to my mom.”
She blinked at him, and it was super still for a second, and then she nodded. “I get that. Can I stay in here with Rosie?”
“For right now, sure. If I have to leave, I’m gonna need you to go be inside with your sisters so I know where everyone is.
” He tugged his phone out. “Don’t go in the stall with him yet though.
Love on him over the top of it, okay? I don’t want him to get nervous because he’s starting to think of that stall as his territory. ”
“I’ll be good. I promise.” She nodded, her little chin and mouth firmed up tight, and he knew she had to be freaking out. But he couldn’t tell her what was going on just yet.
“Good girl. Thank you.” He headed outside, moving far enough away between the barn and the house that no one could hear him, but if the girls needed him, he would be right where they could see him.
Then he dialed his mom.
“Hello, honey, I see you’re spending the night out there and moved Fire over to Mitch’s place.”
Good Lord. Her gossip machine mind was already hard at work.
He tried not to roll his eyes, cause sure enough she’d hear it and scold him for it.
“Momma, I don’t have time for that right now.
Mitch collapsed and he had to spend some time in bed, but I guess he went to the doctor today and they want to surge on him. ”
“What?” That got her attention, and her voice was snapping out. “What happened?”