Chapter 7 #2
“Then I’ll tell her through the door, at least I’ll feel like I did something to get that awful look off her face.”
Now it was Mitch’s turn to smile at him. A real, genuine thank-you kind of smile. “I do appreciate that. She really was just trying to help. And I think she really likes you. She doesn’t want to disappoint you.”
“No, I get it. I do.” He checked to make sure his phone was in his pocket, then took the laundry basket back to his room to put all the crap in it before taking it to the laundry room and dumping it in the washer.
From there Mitch could add the OxiClean and figure out what all to do.
Then he stopped by Bekka’s room and tapped lightly on the door.
She opened the door, her eyes looking bruised, her nose red, which was a sure sign she had been crying. She stared at him with big, wide eyes, not saying a word. He figured that was probably the safest thing she could think to do, start out like she could hold out.
“Hey, kiddo, I’m sorry if you thought I was real mad about the laundry. I’m not. I just wasn’t used to people doing stuff for me, and it kind of shook me.”
She sniffled, her lips quivering. “I didn’t mean to ruin your stuff.”
“Your dad says we can do a lot to fix it, and it was about time for me to get a new rodeo shirt anyway. You want to do something nice for me? You can learn to crochet me a hat—something warm for when I need to go out and do stuff early in the morning in the winter.”
She brightened some. “I saw a pattern for a hat that I can crochet flat and then sew together. It’s like a beanie. Would that be okay?”
“I think that would just about be the most perfect thing ever.” He had the terrible urge to hug her, but he fought it because he didn’t know if it would be welcome.
“I’ve got to head into town for a few minutes, but I’ll be back.
Can you help keep an eye on your Daddy and make sure he doesn’t do something stupid? ”
She gave him a watery chuckle. “I think I can do that.”
“Thanks, kiddo. You’re amazing, and don’t let anybody, including me, tell you you’re not, okay?” Pep talks he knew how to do. He’d been on a couple of team roping situations before with young kids.
Her chin dipped the tiniest bit. “Okay. Maybe you could ask Sarah to go with you to town.”
“Why?” He didn’t mean to come out such a bald way with it, but it did kind of happen. “I mean, does she want to go to town for something specific?”
Bekka gave him a look that said, ‘Duh.’ “She always wants to go get books. And that way Daddy doesn’t have to worry about her being out in the yard with the dog while you’re not here.”
Lord have mercy, she was a smart ladybug. “All right, honey, I’ll ask her. But Rosie’s feeling a lot better since that wound on his side started to heal up. I don’t think he’s going to cause her any trouble.”
“Okay, thanks, Mr. Cam, I wasn’t trying to make trouble.”
“You didn’t. I just had to get over myself. I’ll see you in a bit.” He had to take off before he broke down and blubbered all over her or got down on his knees and begged her not to be so sad.
He did go out and find Sarah, who was sitting in the barn in her space. She had an entire setup there next to Rosie’s pen. She had a blanket, a pillow, a cup, and a bag of dog treats, along with her book. She was reading aloud to Rosie.
She was adorable.
“I’m going to town. Would you like to come?”
“Did Daddy say it was okay? Are you going because you’re in trouble? I mean, I’ll go with you even if you’re going because you’re in trouble, but Daddy has to say yes, because otherwise he would be very scared.”
It sounded to him like Sarah was speaking from experience.
Also, she’d used an enormous amount of words to say “yes”.
He texted Mitch really quick.
He didn’t even know what that meant, but he said .
He would just take a picture of any book that Sarah said she wanted, send it to Mitch for approval.
What the hell was a dark romantasy? Were there light romantasies?
Was that some strange thing where dragons had sex in caves? One of his sisters read those.
“He says it’s okay. And yeah, I pitched a fit because my undies were pink. So I’m going to get Bekka a crispy chicken sandwich and tots, and I need you along to tell me what everyone else wants and from where. You see everything.” Couldn’t hurt to suck up to her a bit, and it was the truth besides.
“Oh God, Bekka and the damn laundry.” She looked at him as if she was daring him to say anything about her cussing, and he didn’t, so she kept going.
“Seriously. I know she’s trying to be all grown-up and stuff, but she is not the mom, and she needs to stop touching other people’s stuff. She is not my mom.”
“Do you remember your mom?” Did he just ask that? What was wrong with him? A decent person didn’t ask a nine-year-old if she remembered her dead mom.
Sarah shrugged and took his hand as they headed out of the barns.
“Sort of? I don’t know. Kind of, but not as much as Bekka obviously.
” She rolled her eyes and scrunched up her face.
“I remember that she was pretty and she smelled good and she knew how to make cookies.” Sarah shrugged.
“It’s funny because when I think about her, I always feel like I watched her turn into a balloon and then she popped. ”
Weirdly enough, from what he understood happened, that made sense. She got pregnant and she threw a clot. Still, damn.
“I’d say I understood, but I don’t. I still have my mom.”
“I know. And you’re old, like as old as Daddy. You’re so lucky because your mom’s nice. She brings food and she cleans stuff and she knows stuff, so that’s cool. I don’t even have a granny or a grandpa.”
Jesus save him from being old in his thirties. “You don’t?”
“Daddy doesn’t think I know, but Bekka told me. Daddy and Momma were both bisexual. Do you know what that means?”
He was going to die. He prayed she hadn’t asked what he thought she asked.
“Do you hear me? Do you know what bisexual means?”
Yeah, no, she’d asked it. “I do.”
“Okay, so it means that you can like both boys and girls, right? And it doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl.
So Daddy had dated a boy, and Momma had dated a girl, and that made both of their parents really, really, really mad.
Then when they got married to each other, they both said, ‘If you don’t like me when I love somebody one way, then you don’t get to like me the other way. ’ And that’s how it happened.”
That broke his fucking heart. “Had to have been really hard.”
“Can you imagine Daddy not loving me anymore?” She looked at him with huge eyes.
“I mean, I could go to Daddy and say, ‘I’m in love with the Mothman,’ and Daddy would say, ‘Well, I hope that they’re very good to you.
And if they’re not, I’m going to punch them in the nose.
’ But that’s it. Daddy would love me no matter what.
Daddy would love all of us no matter what.
” She wrinkled her nose. “What’s wrong with people?
What is wrong with them that his momma and daddy would say, ‘We don’t love you anymore’? That’s stupid.”
“That is really stupid, kiddo. I mean, my dad wasn’t thrilled when I came out to him, but my momma, well, she just nodded like that was that. But Dad wasn’t gonna kick me to the curb, either.”
What was happening here? How was he having this conversation with Sarah, she of the dark monster mini books and boy dogs named Rosie?
And she was holding his hand.
He got her to the truck and opened the door, looking back and forth between her and his truck seats. Did she still need a booster seat or a…
“I can sit in your back seat. It’s okay, I’m big enough.”
“As long as you know what you’re doing, and your dad’s not going to kill me if I do something wrong.”
“Daddy would’ve told you when you texted if you needed to move a car seat from the SUV to your truck.” Her tone was so rational. Not at all sarcastic though, which he was proud of her for.
“Good point. Okay.” He opened the back door of the truck to help her get in. And a furry black and brown bullet came flying out from the direction of the barn to jump into the truck.
“Rosie, I don’t know if you can go to town with us. We’re going to the store.”
Cam glared at the dog. “How long has he been getting in and out of his stall without any help?”
Sarah shrugged. “Couple of days. You’ve been really busy.”
“Huh. Well, I don’t want to leave him in the truck while we’re in the store.
If we were just going to get food. It would be fine, but Rosie, you’re going to have to go back to the barn.
” Cam waved a hand because he hated snapping his fingers at anybody, even a dog, and let out a sharp little whistle.
Rosie heaved a sigh, but he hopped down out of the truck limping terribly, as if it had been his leg that was injured in the first place. What a ham.
He made sure Rosie was well out of the way of the truck, though before he got in and started the engine. He had no intention of hitting that damn dog. It would kill most of them at this point to lose him.
Sarah chattered at him all the way into town, and he wondered if she would be okay with just getting a book from the Walmart. Did they carry spooky kid books at the Walmart?
“Is it okay if we just go to the big store, kiddo?”
“Uh-huh, they carry a series I like. It’s okay, and maybe I could look at purses.”
“Do you need a purse?” He pulled into the parking lot at the Walmart, figuring that he was going to lose his shit one of these days, but he did like this kid.
“No, but Rachel does. She likes the really cute ones with all the flowers and kitties and things on them. Bekka likes nail polish. Daddy doesn’t let her have the fancy kind, but the ninety-nine-cent ones she can have. She needs more nail polish remover too.”
Lord have mercy. He was going to end up with a cart full of shit to take home. Way more than underwear and socks. T-shirts.
“I have a little money. I’ve saved twenty-three dollars. That should be enough for a little purse and a nail polish.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake—like he wasn’t going to get those girls what they needed. He wasn’t cheap.
He almost snapped, and then he saw the little change purse with its crumpled dollar bills and piles of coins picked up from the dirt and earned from killing flies—the girls earned a nickel a piece—and he thought better of it.
“We’ll deal with all that at the end, kiddo. Put your pennies away so you don’t lose any.”
“Okay.” She gave him a sideways glance from under her hair. “So how do you know Daddy?”
“Oh, we went to school together, honey. Your momma, too.”
“Yeah?” Her eyes went wide. “So you knew her?”
“I did. Did I not say that?” He couldn’t remember what he’d said to her, because they had these long and winding conversations.
“Maybe?” She scrunched up her nose. “Sometimes I don’t listen so good.”
“Uh-huh. I’ll tell you about it later.” He had a feeling that kid saw everything. And he needed to get her into the Walmart before she asked any more questions he had no desire to answer.