Chapter 8 #3
“Yes, son, well, some of us like to go out to eat somewhere decent every now and again.” Miz Halley made exactly the same face Cam was making at him behind Cam’s back, and Mitch thought about just dying. He started chuckling and he couldn’t help it.
“Yes, Mother, some of us like to eat fried chicken out of a bucket.”
That was it, that was all she wrote. He couldn’t have stopped laughing for love or money, and everybody else was laughing too.
Obviously, this was some common tease between the family, because everybody was in on it.
Finally, Miz Halley pushed her bangs off her forehead, leaning down to kiss the top of Cam’s head.
Suddenly Mitch missed his mom so much it was like a physical thing, a genuine deep pain, and he got it.
He knew they’d never forgiven him for being queer.
They’d never forgiven him for being pissed that they were mad at him for being queer.
And then it didn’t matter anymore because they were both dead.
But still he missed his mom something fierce.
“Okay, we’re gonna get out of all y’all’s hair. Lori, start rounding up kids. Leanne, can you grab all the buckets and supplies?”
Leanne nodded, and Lori started gathering babies, leaving the littlest one still with Mitch.
“Teresa, come on. I’m gonna take you home so you can get some clothes, toothbrush and stuff, and your pillow. Then I’ll bring you back.”
“Okay, Momma, can Sarah come?”
Lori glanced at Mitch, and he nodded.
Cam’s eyebrow winged up, and he got it. He totally got it. His baby goth girl was making a friend with a Halley.
After all, he’d never really been friends with Cam.
Wildly passionate? Yes.
Insane with need? Totally.
Absolutely busting with teenaged angst? Oh yeah, baby.
But they’d never been something as bloodless as buddies. No, they’d been as hammer and tongs as teenagers could be, and then it had been over and they were nothing.
So why was he looking at Cam like he was the steak at a fancy steakhouse. The damn man made him drool, and seeing him with his mom had made him smile. Like, really smile.
He took a deep breath and told himself to just chill out.
Cam may still be beautiful. There was no question of that, but Mitch wasn’t. He was a middle-aged dude with a broken back, three kids, and that was it.
Of course he had three amazing daughters, which was a hell of a lot more than some people had. Some people only had one child, and they were dicks. Some people had nineteen children and half of them were dicks, which canceled them out.
“What are you smiling about?”
He shrugged at Cam, or tried to. His shrugs these days were more like shoulder wiggles.
“Honestly, I was trying to figure out if you had eighteen children and half of them were awful human beings and half were amazing, does that really mean you had zero children? Like do they cancel themselves out?”
Cam leaned forward and stared at him. “Are you high?”
“I’m holding this baby.” Was he high? “I wouldn’t do that if I was high.”
“Well, you might do it if you were high. If you were high, you wouldn’t care.”
“What?” He didn’t follow.
“Well think about it. If you were high, then maybe being high makes you not care that you’re high, so you could hold the baby.”
“You’re giving me a great pain in my head.”
Cam grinned at him. “Yeah, I know. I’m one of the bad kids, huh?”
“Well, your mother doesn’t have eighteen at least.”
Cam’s grin went evil. “No, but she does have seven, and of those seven, four are married. That means she’s got eleven right now.”
“Okay, how many of you guys are good?” He smiled as Laurie took the baby.
“Well, Diane and Lisa are really nice. Leanne’s okay. Wilder’s kinda great.”
She flipped him off. “Leaving. Lori will be back with the girls in an hour or so.”
They both waved, and then Cam started back as if they’d never been interrupted. “Ramsey and his wife, they’re both kinda dicks. Lori’s cool. Stephen? Dick. Kacey? Dick. Susan? Who knows.” Cam grinned at him. “She’s eighteen. She doesn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground yet.”
“Yeah.” Then he snort-chuckled. “I knew your ass from a hole in the ground at that age.”
“Oh, Jesus.” Cam glanced around wildly, as if looking for kids. “Hush.”
“It’s true.”
“But you don’t have to announce it.”
Mitch rolled his eyes. “Sorry!” He shouldn’t bring up their past indiscretions.
They’d been really fun indiscretions.
Besides, Cam shook his head. “You don’t do that anymore, right? You’re well, I mean, you were married.”
His lips twisted. “You know, bisexuality is a thing.”
“I know. Your middle daughter told me.”
“She did?” This time it was his eyebrow that arched up into his hairline. He would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.
“She did. She explained to me all about liking boys and girls and how bigots were bad.”
“That’s my girl.” He adored her.
“Yeah, I would really rather not have had the discussion, though.”
“You know, I have to tell you—one of the things about raising girls is that about ninety-five percent of the conversations you have are conversations you would really rather not have. But I’m the daddy, and I’m the only parent they have, so I have those conversations.
But believe me, I understand. And we haven’t even gotten into first periods, first kisses, birth control, or any of that stuff. ”
Cam looked like he was going to barf, and Mitch kind of got it, but then also part of him was like ‘Fuck you, I can do all this myself. I’m a stud.’
It actually felt good to sit with that for a second.
Cam shook his head, finally. “Well, you’re a brave man.”
“I try.” He winked. “God, that chicken smells good.”
“You want some? We can totally have some.”
Mitch shook his head. “I’ll wait until the girls get home. Besides that, I foresee a temper tantrum in my near future.”
“Oh?” Cam looked confused.
“Rachel is going to be exhausted, and she’ll have been all ramped up, so we’ll wait for her to have her meltdown and then a little nap. When she wakes up, she’ll be a brand-new person.” Not to mention the fact she was still convinced that her mother was a ghost.
“Oh.” Cam seemed a little confused. “Where’s Bekka?”
“I assume in her room. I don’t hear the TV in my room, so—”
“Your girls are as social as you are, man.”
“Hey, Sarah’s gonna have somebody to spend the night tonight. That’s crazy.” He waved a hand in the air. “We can’t all be like a Halley.”
“Trust me, that gets exhausting in its own right.” Cam shook his head. “Then I’ll just make myself a sandwich or something. Do you want a little snack? Some crackers and cheese or some pickles?”
“Here I’ll get up and help. I need to find Rachel anyway. Five is too young for not knowing where she is.” Mitch scooted to the end of the chair and slowly stood up. He was so glad that the horrible pain was gone. Every day felt as if he could breathe a little easier.
“I can do it, man. That’s why I’m here.”
“I know.” He sighed and sat back down in the chair.
That was part of the problem, wasn’t it?
He wanted Cam to be here because he was exciting, because he was a beautiful person. Because Cam was interested in him.
He didn’t want to be a pity case.
Oh, Mitch didn’t lie to himself, he was a pity case, but he didn’t want to be.
“Thanks, man, you rock.”