Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Mitch hummed, working on the estimate he had to send out this evening.
He’d gotten a skeleton crew together, and while his old boss wasn’t loving the competition thing entirely, he was giving Mitch some of the smaller jobs he didn’t have time to do.
Combining that with working with Laurie’s contractor husband on some jobs, and he was already paying Mark.
Cam was on his last event before the National Finals Rodeo in early December, and then they would have Thanksgiving before Cam left for a week.
He missed the man, though, dammit. He’d gotten used to Cam being around. And fast.
But then he liked being part of a couple. He liked working together toward a common goal and having help and helping around the place.
Cam was the one who was still adjusting to that groove, but Mitch felt as if it was happening. Little by little.
Hell, Cam had seemed reluctant to leave this time.
Mitch had never seen that before.
“Daddy, are we going to eat Thanksgiving dinner this year?”
He looked at Rachel, who danced in on her toes, arms over her head. She was wearing a sweater with a fuzzy llama on it and a pink tutu that had once been Sarah’s. And muck boots.
“We are, baby.”
“But we didn’t buyed a turkey. Can we not afford a turkey?”
Oh, lord. “We’re going to Miz Halley’s this year, baby girl. We’re taking some stuff, but Cam says they bought five turkeys.”
Her eyes lit up. “Oh! Granny and Grandpa Halley. Oh, okay. I want to make something.”
He nodded, tickled she wasn’t having a meltdown. “Sure, baby, we can make something together.”
She pursed her lips, her button nose wrinkling. “Bekka says that you’re boyfriends together.”
He blinked at his baby girl, the change of subject so fast it liked to give him whiplash.
He’d been waiting for this conversation, but not with Rachel.
He wasn’t going to be ashamed, though. Why would he be? “Yep. We are boyfriends. How does that make you feel?”
Sometimes he felt weird and fake saying things like that, but he wanted to know. He wanted to know about his babies, about their minds and hearts and souls.
He guessed the easiest way to find out was to ask.
“I like that. I like him. So do Sarah and Bekka. We talked about it. He can stay if he wants to.”
God, to be a fly on that wall…
“Well, thank you. I appreciate it.” He gave her a smile. “I like him too.”
“Are you going to marry him?”
Married? Christ. He didn’t know. That was a big statement for Campbell Halley, although his oldest sister had sure done it. “I don’t know.”
“If he asked you, would you say yes?”
In a heartbeat. He smiled at Rachel. “Oh, honey, I don’t think we have to worry about that right now. There’s so much to worry about—Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, your sister’s birthday.”
Her eyes lit up. “Are we gonna have a bouncy castle?”
“I don’t think so.” He chuckled softly. “I think she wants to have a slumber party.”
Now Rachel’s eyes went wide, and she blew out a hard breath. “Wow.”
“I know right? It’s nice to see Sister have all these friends.”
She nodded. “I have friends at school and Girl Scouts, and Cam says I can have gymnastics class next year.”
“Did he?” He didn’t know what to say about that. It wasn’t Cam’s place to say what his kids could or couldn’t do, but then maybe it was now.
A little bit.
He couldn’t have all the good and not have the bad stuff too. Hell, maybe it wasn’t bad.
Maybe it was just different.
Maybe Mitch protected his place with his girls like Rosie dog with a bone. It might feel good to let go some.
He wasn’t sure yet.
“We’ll see on that, huh? Maybe if Cam isn’t riding as much, and he can take you.”
“I can ask him.” She bounced. “What are we gonna make?”
“Well, I was thinking chocolate pie for one. Cam says his momma makes good pumpkin and pecan, but can’t make chocolate pie for sh—anything.”
“Oh, I like chocolate pie. I like it a lot. Can we have whipped cream?”
“Sure, baby, why not? I like whipped cream too.”
She grinned at him and crawled up to sit in his lap. “I’m glad your back is better. I was worried.”
He let himself sit with the pang those words gave him. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. Bekka said if you died we’d have to leave, and the mean granny would come and take us away and make us wear dresses all the time and no makeup.”
Jesus. What did Bekka remember about Allison’s folks? “I don’t let you wear makeup now.”
“Yeah, but you let us play makeup.” She cuddled right in to his chest. “Bekka says when she starts middle school, she could wear makeup.”
“She does, does she? Wow.”
Rachel leaned back and met his eyes. “Daddy, what does happen to us if you die?”
He didn’t know what to say; he froze because he hadn’t considered it, which was stupid.
He knew it was stupid.
He had a dangerous job, and things happened, but he also couldn’t believe that God would take him away after He’d taken the girl’s momma.
But Rebekka was right. The girls’ next available relatives were Allison’s mom and dad. Fuck.
“Can we be Cam’s? I mean, if you die.”
He stared at Rachel for about half a second, then he nodded. “Yes.”
The word popped out of his mouth because it was the easiest thing to do, partly because it was just anything but Allison’s parents, but mostly because he believed it.
He believed that if something happened to him, Cam would raise his babies.
And that was a huge relief. Cam was a good man, and he’d taken to the kids like a duck to water. Maybe with a few ‘surprise alligators!’ moments mixed in. The kids could still make Cam freak out, but he also knew the man was deep in love with his girls already.
She smiled at him, so satisfied, and he knew he’d answered right. “Oh, good, good. I like Cam. So, pie. Are we going to make a bottom?”
“A crust? Yeah.” One of the wildest things about being a parent was how these amazing conversations could happen and then the girls just went on.
There he was, sitting there with his soul in his hands, trying to figure out what the hell had happened, but he was the daddy, and he still had to go make a pie crust.
He was going to have to talk to Cam or maybe ask Cam’s dad if this was normal. Had he felt like this?
They had seven kids. Surely at least one of them made him feel like he couldn’t quite keep up.
Although maybe it was after four or five, it got easier, and he stopped worrying about it. They had done it so many times.
Rachel had been his easiest baby so far. Bekka ran hot and cold, although it had been Sarah who was the hardest. No question that baby was tough. “Speaking of, where are your sisters?”
“Huh?”
“Your sisters? Sarah? Bekka? You live with them?”
“Oh!” Sarcasm was lost on his baby girl. Thank God for small favors. “Sarah’s in the barn reading a book with the dog. Bekka’s on the iPad with the Girl Scouts doing a thing.”
“You’re a Girl Scout, too, you know,” he pointed out.
Rached rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but she’s like a Junior. I’m just a Daisy. I’m not even a Brownie. You’re not doing anything, though, so I’m playing with you.”
“Oh, so I’m the luckiest!”
She blinked at him, immediately perking up. “You are! Because I’m playing with you.”
He nodded. “That’s right. I love to play, so come on, let’s go make a pie. We can make a crust. If you want, we can make two crusts. We could have Thanksgiving Day pie, and then we can have practice pie.”
She stared at him, her face all wreathed in smiles, “I love practice pie!”
He let his mouth drop open in fake amazement. “I do too!”
She hopped up and grabbed his hand. “Come on, Daddy. Can we wear aprons? Do we have chef hats?”
“I don’t think so, but we can wear our witch hats. Your sister still has a witch hat, and I have a witch hat somewhere. We can wear witches hats and we can be—”
She shook her head, “No, Daddy. Witches are for Halloween. This is Thanksgiving.”
Fuck. “How about a bandana? When your momma used to cook, she would wear a bandana and put her hair back.”
He lived for that expression of pure wonder.
“Can I wear one of her bandanas?”
He chuckled. “Of course you can! I think I have a few. Let’s go look, and then we’ll go make pies.”
It was time to go dig in Allison’s chest and pull out one more thing.
One day when the girls were grown, the chest would be empty, but not yet. It still held a few secrets for them, and he would dole them out, bits at a time.
He was the Daddy, after all.