Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
“So, Daddy, can I ask you a question?”
Mitch looked at Rebekka, suddenly panicking because he knew the questions were coming.
Of course he did. How could they not?
He and Cam had been sleeping together now for six weeks, since the beginning of September for sure. The girls had seemed to accept it, but questions were coming.
They had to be.
Cam was pretty much moved into the bedroom.
His toothbrushes sat in the cup on the double sink, his clothes were hanging in the closet.
The hamper in the guest bath only had little girl T-shirts and school socks and panties.
Nobody was having to wash the sheets in the guest bath by the guest bedroom anymore.
Right before Cam had left for his event on Wednesday, he’d kissed Mitch right on the mouth, told him to be careful, called him babe.
Questions were inevitable.
He wasn’t sure he was ready for them yet, though. He didn’t know how to admit to Bekka that he wasn’t going to mourn their momma for the rest of his life, although he would miss her.
Hearts healed, even if the world left scars on them.
One way or the other, the questions were absolutely coming.
“Sure, baby, what do you need?”
She was chewing on her bottom lip, making scabs. “I hate to ask…”
“Ask anyway, and I’ll just tell you what you need to know.” It wasn’t like he was ashamed of Cam or anything for God’s sake.
“Well…”
“Spit it out, girl.”
“There’s a Girl Scout party soon,” she blurted out, shocking the fire out of him, “and then there are three parties for Halloween in between now and trick or treat. One’s a birthday party. I mean, and then there’s actual Halloween, and there’s Sarah’s birthday.”
He looked at his daughter, confused for half a second before he caught up. “Okay, what’s the problem?”
She stared at him as if he’d lost his good senses. “Well, can I? I mean, is it cool if I go to some of them? I know that it costs money to have costumes and presents and all, but—”
“Let’s just write them all down on the calendar so we know, and so you don’t miss any of it. You need to tell me if there are ones for just you or all of you too.” He wasn’t about to tell her no.
She looked at him, her eyes wide as saucers. “You mean it?”
“I mean it.” Had he been that shitty of a father that she was scared to ask to go to a damn Girl Scout party or something?
“Lord knows, I’m not rolling in dough, but Cam is helping out with some bills now, and I’ve got that job doing the roofing for a couple of houses where I’m the boss. So I think now it’s getting better.”
She stared at him and nodded. “Speaking of Cam…”
Oh God, here it came. Now he was at least ready for it. He tensed, prepared for the questions.
“Is he gonna be home for trick or treat? Is he going to be home for the Girl Scout party?” Those were not the questions he was expecting either.
Thank God he had the answers.
“Yep, he’s going to be home for the Girl Scout party and trick or treating. He’s riding that event this weekend, and then I think he’s doing one right before Thanksgiving, but besides them, he’ll be back home. That should be it.”
“Oh, that’s good. I know everybody’s looking forward to trick or treating, especially Sarah and Rachel. They’re just little.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t let your sisters hear that, they’ll skin you alive.”
“Yeah, that would be gross.”
“And painful.” Weirdly enough, it would be Rachel who did the skinning. That wee one didn’t want to believe for a second that she wasn’t as grown as anybody on Earth.
Sarah wasn’t worried about growing up. She was worried about body count.
“So, what are you guys going to be for Halloween? Have you thought about it?”
She glanced and asked, “Have you seen the light-up costumes? We saw them on at Girl Scouts. They have a unicorn rainbow light-up one and a light-up witch one. I think Sarah wants to go as Wednesday, no lights though.”
“All right, we can do that, yeah?”
She looked a touch nervous, her eyes searching his wildly. “They’re like twenty-nine dollars apiece. That’s a lot of dollars.”
“They are, but are they really cool?”
She giggled, and that was the sound he was desperate to hear. “Yeah, they’re really pretty and they light up, and a bunch of us from Girl Scouts wanted to go as the unicorns.” She kept looking down and then glancing up at him as though she couldn’t believe she was asking.
He was not going to just sit there and wallow, he was not going to be there and let himself be ashamed. Mitch was going to be a damn good dad and let his eldest girl have what she wanted, because he could.
“Well, I think that we should get them, but I think you should only you pick out yours, and I’ll let both of your sisters pick out theirs. Does that sound fair?”
She bounced, smiling at him, and he noticed she was wearing a sweatshirt that had the Broncos logo on it. He bet it was from one of Cam’s brothers or sisters. He was a Lions fan himself.
“So, are you and Cam gonna wear couples costumes this Halloween?” Now she did meet his gaze, and there it was, the question that he’d been dreading for weeks, and she’d managed to slip it in on him before he could even be ready to be worried again.
“Wicked child. I don’t think so. We haven’t talked about it. Do you think we should?”
Her mouth twisted and her nose wrinkled. “I don’t know. It seems sort of weird, but I know that Marissa’s momma and daddy—she’s in Girl Scouts with me—they’re going to be Morticia and Gomez, and so I thought I’d ask.”
“I don’t think so, just because we haven’t been able to plan it. Maybe next year.” Hopefully that answered two of her questions in one fell swoop.
“Oh. Okay.” She beamed at him. “I bet Cam goes as a cowboy or as an Old West sheriff.”
“I bet he does. He already has the clothes, huh?” He felt like they were on more solid ground here, safer ground.
“Uh-huh. I saw him out in the pen working with the new mare. He was wearing his chaps. It was kind of cool. It was like watching something out of a movie.”
He was relieved on two fronts. That Rebekka hadn’t said something about how Cam was really hot and that she hadn’t said it looked like something out of Yellowstone or some other violent adult TV show.
Mitch wasn’t set for either one of those eventualities.
“So when are we going to get our costumes, Daddy?” Rebekka was picking at his shirt and his pants now, like she did when she was trying to pretend he had loose threads or fuzz or something on him. He probably did have dog hair. Rosie was big on shedding and slobber.
“Did you want to just order online, or did you want to go look at the Walmart to see if they have something there? I don’t know if they’re going to have anything that lights up at the store.”
“ or stores online have lots of choices. Did you know that some of the girls in my troop have their own phones already?” She asked that question, oh so carefully.
“Do they?”
She nodded. “Yeah, they do. It’s kinda cool because they can look stuff up online and stuff by themselves. Sometimes there’s scary stuff, though.” She shot him a glance. “I told them we couldn’t afford it yet. Not that it was how you thought I was too much of a baby to have one.”
“I don’t think you’re a baby, Rebekka.” They’d been over this, but he knew it was hard. Peer pressure was tough on kids her age. “I just think you’re an awful young person to have to have all that worry about things like text messages and social media.”
She gave him a sidelong glance that told him she kind of agreed with him and she kind of hated him for it. “I understand, Daddy. I’m not mad.”
“Okay, well, you and I will sit down and we’ll look at your costumes. At least you and Rachel, we’ll see if Sarah either wants to find something online or work on her own costume.” Mitch knew he was kind of glossing over the whole cellphone issue, but it worked.
“I bet Sarah would maybe like to go to the thrift shop to look for something for hers. She wants to do Wednesday at the dance party, you know, with the gown.”
Lord, he had seen that YouTube video. He never had time to sit down and watch the series with Sarah, but she loved it.
“I bet we could probably find something. Miz Halley knows a lady who does some sewing.” Miz Halley knew somebody who did everything, so surely one of her daughters, daughters-in-law, or their friends could help Sarah alter a dress to look kind of like the one in the TV show.
Beckka rose and kissed his cheek, looking way less worried than she had when they’d sat down together. “I love you, Daddy,” she said. “Thank you. This is going to be the best Halloween ever.”
God, he hoped so. He watched her run off, worried that if even the slightest thing went wrong, she was going to get hysterical. The peace in the house, the feeling of prosperity was still so fragile and new he wasn’t sure if it could handle any kind of disaster.
So he reckoned he needed to stop borrowing trouble and looking for that disaster, didn’t he? That would sure as hell bring it on.
His phone beeped, and he picked it up, seeing a text from Cam. He got a picture of a very phallic-looking corndog.
He snort-laughed, his whole body shaking with it.
Mitch gave up trying to text everything he wanted to say and typed in,
The phone started ringing, and he answered when Cam’s name popped up. He was ready to have a little adult conversation time. He hadn’t realized until Cam went away to go do his event that he would miss it so much.
“Hey, babe, how’s it going out there on the road?”
Cam had needed to drive to California, so it wasn’t as if he was somewhere on the Turquoise Circuit or the Colorado state rounds.
“Food sucks. Would you believe that I am missing meatballs?”
Mitch hooted. “I’m not sure I would believe it.”