Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Mitch was fairly sure he hated Campbell Halley.
Hated the smug bastard with the fiery burning passion of a thousand suns, in fact.
But as he sat in his front room, six hours after having his vertebroplasty with his pain already backing off some?
He reckoned he could live with that.
He sat in his recliner, blinking and dopey. He guessed that meant the pain meds were decent.
One way or the other, the doctor said the surgery was an absolute success. She’d shot concrete into his bones, and he was going to be okay.
Couldn’t work for six weeks. Couldn’t lift anything for four. Had zero idea about what the hell he was going to do to pay his bills.
But he was already considering staying alive.
The girls were sitting right in front of his chair, staring at him with their great big eyes.
“I’m fine, girls,” he told them. “The doctor fixed me right up.”
“We missed you last night,” Little Rachel started.
Bekka shook her head. “Miz Halley was nice and spent the night and—”
Sarah poked his foot, hard. “But it was weird, you not being here. I didn’t like it.”
“No, I didn’t like it either. Being in the hospital is no fun.”
That was the understatement of the century. Although they had drugged him up, and he had slept like the dead. It had felt so good. Nobody had bothered him at all, which was damn unusual.
The food had kinda sucked, but all in all, it was a tiny and super-expensive vacation.
He tried to grin at the girls, hoping he didn’t look like he was some kind of horror movie clown.
“Did you know that Mr. Cam was still here?” Sarah asked. “He’s out in the barns again.”
Did he know? Why yes, yes he knew. Cam had driven him home. Cam had been there when he woke up from surgery. Cam was still here.
It was very confusing, not only in his mind, but in the pit of his belly, if only for no other reason than he was really getting used to having another adult to help.
And everyone knew help wasn’t his only reason.
“He’s helping. Isn’t that sweet?”
Sarah looked at him, leaned in, and asked, “Are you sure he’s not like an alien or something? Maybe a homonuncoloco.”
“A whatawhosa?” Surely…surely Sarah didn’t mean a homosexual.
He swung that way and so did Cam, but really, she knew the term gay. He wasn’t sure that she knew the term homosexual. And even if she did, why would she use it? She knew queer, too.
“No! homo-nunk-o-lung-cos.”
“Huh. Did you read it in a book?”
She nodded, obviously pleased with herself.
“Can you bring me the book?” Whatever it was, that was too long a word for an eight-year-old.
She ran off, and Bekka shook her head. “She’s going to give herself nightmares reading those scary books.”
“She’s doing fine. I think she gives you nightmares reading those scary books.” He winked at her.
“Maybe. You look much better, Daddy.”
“Thanks, I feel better. Thank goodness. How about you, little one?” He smiled at Rachel. “You glad I’m home?”
She nodded, her eyes wide. “Yes! You have to tuck me in at night. I had to sleep with Bekka last night.”
“Oh dear, did she kick you, Bekka?” he asked, because everybody knew that Rachel was like a wild monster in the bed, kicking and hitting and wiggling. It was impossible to sleep when she was sleeping with you.
Sarah came back with a thin chapter book that looked like something out of Nightmare on Sesame Street.
“Okay, show me the word.”
She pointed and he chuckled, “Homunculus. I think those are supposed to be really small. Cam is not very small. He’s not a homunculus. He’s a cowboy.”
“Oh, darn it.”
“I know. I’m disappointed too.” He winked at her.
She sighed. “No one is ever the monster I want them to be.”
Out of the mouths of babes. People could be monsters. Just rarely fun ones. But Cam was being a good guy.
Why, he wasn’t sure.
“Cowboys can have monstrous pride, baby girl.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” She stood, took her book back from him, and said, “I’m gonna go upstairs and read. I love you, Daddy. I’m glad you’re home.”
“I love you too, baby girl. I’m glad to be home.”
Rachel stared at him. “Can I sit in your lap?”
Cam came through the back door as she spoke, and Cam shook his head. “No, he’s just been out of surgery, like seventeen seconds. He’s not supposed to pick anything up for twenty-four hours. So you can sit in his lap if he feels up to it tomorrow night.”
Bekka shot Cam a glare. “You don’t have to be mean. She’s just a little girl.”
“Hey, it’s okay guys. I’ll let you go play for a little while.”
Bekka rolled her eyes and stood up. “Come on, Rachel, I’ll get you set up at the TV or something.” She shot Mitch a glare. “I don’t play anymore. You can’t just send me off to play.”
He didn’t answer because he didn’t have anything to say. He didn’t even know if eleven-year-olds were supposed to play. He thought he did when he was eleven. But then he hadn’t had to worry about paying bills or his two younger sisters or any of the things that Bekka had to worry about.
Cam walked over to him, face serious, “I’m sorry, that was out of line.”
Suddenly he was so fucking tired. He couldn’t even move, much less make words or try to make anybody feel better.
For fuck’s sake, wasn’t he the one who was supposed to be able to sit here and be quiet? “No worries. They’re all just stressed out.”
Hopefully that was good enough.
“If you want to close your eyes, you can. They said it was probably more comfortable for you to sit up and sleep tonight in the recliner.” Cam handed him an ice pack to put on the back of his neck where they’d drilled for oil.
“I wasn’t sure what you want to eat. I figured nothing too spicy and nothing too hard to eat, so you didn’t have to bend your neck. ”
“Yeah, I think there’s probably some chicken noodle soup in a can in there somewhere. The girls all like ramen. We could just make three packets of ramen noodles and split it between them.”
“Oh, I was thinking like a burrito. I know how to do that.”
“Since when?”
“Since I was on my own, and I didn’t have Mom to cook for me, and I didn’t want to starve, and I didn’t have enough money to eat out for every single meal. Yeah, that was when.”
He didn’t laugh, because laughing would jostle things, and jostling things hurt.
And he wasn’t in a hurting space, so Mitch sort of almost smiled. “I can see that.”
“So did you ever learn how to cook, or do you just feed them everything out of a can?”
He almost snarled. In fact, he was going to almost snarl and possibly get up in Cam’s face when he saw the teasing little grin.
Motherfucker. “I’ll have you know that I can make spaghetti and meatballs.
I can make grape jelly meatballs. Swedish ones.
Hot honey. Basically, if it involves meatballs, I can make it. ”
“Meatballs?”
“For two years the only thing Rachel would eat was meatballs. So we ate a lot of meatballs. Let me tell you, when you pull out the bag of frozen meatballs, Sarah just goes to her room and cries.”
Cam pursed his lips. “That explains a lot about the deep freezer in the laundry room.”
Yeah, it was sort of filled with basic food he could feed a child that they would eat and not starve — meatballs, chicken nuggets. Tater tots. There was a Stouffer’s lasagna, and a bunch of jalapeno poppers for when he and Sarah were going to get on the spicy wagon train together.
“I don’t know what to tell you. It sucks to be a single dad.”
“I bet it does. I am sorry to hear about Allison. That sucks.” Cam didn’t seem as though he was making fun, so Mitch didn’t get his back up. Not that he could.
“She was a good woman, and I loved her. I miss her every goddamn day.”
“I have to admit I was surprised to find out that you hooked up with her.”
He glanced over to make sure the girls were otherwise occupied, then lowered his voice, “Bisexuality is a thing. Since we both were, it worked out perfectly. She called it quits with her girlfriend about the same time you and I broke up, and we kind of fell into each other’s arms.”
“Hey, I might sound like I’m judging, but I’m not.” Cam’s posture did look a bit defensive though. His chin was up, and his arms were crossed over his chest. “It just surprised me.”
Mitch wasn’t going to indulge in some sort of weird dick-measuring contest over whoever was butthurt about what. Cam was the one who’d left. While Mitch didn’t really understand in his heart, in his brain, he got it.
“I was ready to settle down, and you weren’t.” He shrugged. “So I settled down with Allison, and it worked. We had kids. I loved her to death—literally until death do us part. And that’s that.”
“Sure.” Cam shook his head. “I get it.”
He had to grin at that, because it was bullshit.
“No, you don’t. You’re as queer as a three-dollar bill, and you always have been.
You don’t get the idea of being able to be with a woman at all, but we both got what we wanted out of it.
” He glanced at his kids again. “I wouldn’t trade my girls for anything. Not anything.”
“You should get some sleep while the girls are willing to let you rest.” Cam turned on his heel and headed for the kitchen. “I’m going to figure out what to cook.”
Mitch blew out a breath. Shit. Now Cam was mad at him. Or at least frustrated or something. He didn’t know.
And it wasn’t like he could get up and follow the guy to the kitchen. It was probably just as well. They both needed to take a step back.
Rachel wandered over to him, patted his leg, then sat at the foot of his chair, head leaning against his leg.
She was always incredibly sensitive to his moods, though.
Cam came back in with a Sprite to hand him, giving him a quirky smile. Maybe the son of a bitch was plotting his demise. “Sorry if I got my underwear in a wad. I got over it pretty quick, I think.”
“The past has a way of rearing its head and surprising a guy sometimes,” Mitch said, taking the peace offering and praying there wasn’t rat poison in it. “It’s okay.”
“Cool. I don’t want to be weird about stuff.
I’m glad the two of you had a good life while it lasted.
She really was great.” Cam plopped down on the couch, and he could see tight lines around Cam’s mouth and eyes that came from being tired.
He wondered when Cam’s last good night’s sleep was.
Had it started happening after he came here, or was it hard to get rest on the road?
“Is your horse settling in okay out there?”
Cam scoffed. “Are you kidding me? He is lording it over all the other animals. He’s taken over the herd. He is the leader of the pack.”
“They say animals start to take on personality traits of their owners.” He managed the tease without quirking his lips, and he was pretty damn proud of that.
“Hey now. I was told to get my ass down here and help you out, and that is what I am doing.”
Mitch sobered. “You are, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. Though I’m not sure I understand why. I hope I’ll be up and around in no time, and you can head on out.”
“Just don’t rush it.” Cam gave him a serious stare. “You have to give yourself time to heal. I’m serious, no lifting, no bending, no pushing, no pulling. Resting.”
“You sound just like the doc.” He put a hand on Rachel’s head when she snuffled and curled tighter into his leg, as if protecting him from whatever might be making him tense.
“Trust me, as good as it feels right now to not be hurting like I was before the surgery, I’m going to try to not do anything that makes that come back. ”
“Excellent.”
Mitch raised an eyebrow, trying not to turn his head toward the kitchen, even though he wanted to look that way. “What did you decide to make for food?”
“I threw some chicken in the Instant Pot. I’m gonna make chicken enchiladas. I’ll do some without the spicy stuff for the little one there.”
“That’ll work.” If Rachel wouldn’t eat it, he would get Bekka to heat her up one of those mac and cheese cups that went into the microwave. “What’s your timeline look like? When’s your next big event?”
“Well, I had been thinking about doing Cheyenne, but I don’t think I’m going to make it.
And I never did put a whole lot of serious thought into it.
I won a couple of bigger events early in the spring so I’ve got my in with the NFR this year no matter what.
” Finals Rodeo ranked people based on earnings throughout the year, so Cam must have done fine at the big stock shows, which almost always ran between January and March.
If he could take off most of Cowboy Christmas, which always came around the 4th of July, because that was when so many of the smaller rodeos happened in the Western world, and then skip Cheyenne? Cam was doing pretty well for himself.
That made Mitch feel better.
He shouldn’t have been so relieved by that idea, but he was. If Cam didn’t have to go running off to Frontier Days, then he wasn’t going to have to worry about healing up in two days just to make it so he could take care of the girls.
On the heels of that thought came the guilt, because he didn’t want Cam to have to stick around and take care of him like he was broke-dick or something.
“I can see almost every thought as it crosses your face, man. Stop worrying so much. It’s gonna be what it is.
” Cam arched an eyebrow at him. “Once you’re back on your feet and able to do a few things, then my mom and her crew will come back and start helping out, and they’ll make sure the girls get to Girl Scouts and all that stuff. ”
His jaw tightened, and he tried hard not to grind his teeth. “I don’t like being a charity case.”
Cam gave him a squinty-eyed stare. “You’re not a charity case.
You just don’t have any family anymore, man.
I may have so many that it makes me insane, and they may swarm around me like ants sometimes when I want them to leave me alone.
But I always know I have a safety net if I fall.
You don’t have that luxury, so everybody’s pitching in to give it to you. That’s all.”
He took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m trying to see it that way.”
“Hey, man, it’s cool. No one’s thinking ill of you. No one.”
Mitch snorted. “Are you sure? No one?”
He seriously doubted that.
Cam glared at him, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m sure. Close your eyes. I’ll keep an eye on the girls.”
He sure hoped so because the pain pill was working on him, and his eyelids were heavy, so Mitch just relaxed into the brace, the constant sound of Nick Jr. on the TV soothing him to the bone.