Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Mitch couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to drop on their heads.
They’d decorated the house with the girls, putting up the gorgeous new tree they’d bought for not very much money at Walmart.
They’d strung some new lights on the porch.
The girls had told Cam all about Allison’s angel tree topper, and Cam had given that all the respect it deserved, which made him love the man even more.
The girls were sad when Cam had to hit the road with Fire, but they understood.
Cam had been at the NFR for two days now.
He was getting regular reports, and Cam and his partner were doing really well in the team roping.
In the tie-down roping, Cam was having less luck.
Without another horse there to help Fire calm down, he was breaking the barrier.
Really, there was no reason to feel any sort of impending doom, but Mitch did.
Maybe it was because things had been going so well, and he was used to a cycle of ups and downs.
Or maybe it was because Cam was gone, and he didn’t like that.
He was ready for Cam to be home until after the first of the year.
Having to take the girls to all these Girl Scout events and school parties and stuff without Cam was something he should be used to doing, but somehow he’d gotten accustomed to having Cam’s help.
It was too cold to do a lot of roofing, so he was working on the house. It was all little stuff he’d been letting slide since his back, things he didn’t want Cam to have to deal with.
Right now, he was replacing the vanity in the girl’s bathroom. This one had drawers, which were only kind of needed now, yet he had the feeling would be vastly important in the future. For things like, oh he didn’t know, makeup, hair doolies.
He chuckled when the phone rang, and it was Mark. The man had radar, he swore.
He answered and put it on speaker so he could wrestle with the plumbing under the sink and make it all decent. “Hey, buddy, what’s up?”
“I was just calling to check on you, man. Did you have a good Thanksgiving?”
“It was wild. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many people who were related in one place.”
“Yeah, it sounded like it was going to be a crazy time. I still can’t believe you’ve taken up with your high school boyfriend.”
He rolled his eyes hard enough they ached.
“God, the way you say that is so weird, but yeah, I don’t know, man.
” He chuckled because it was ridiculous, but in a strange sort of way it was just right.
“I swear to you, I think Pam Halley is the reason for all of this. I mean, I think that she’s orchestrated the whole thing.
She decided I needed somebody, and she decided Cam needed somebody, and she just made it happen. ”
“Are you trying to suggest that she’s some sort of a witch?”
He snorted at Mark’s words, and the wrench slipped, so he slammed his hand against the pipes. “Ow! Dammit.”
“What are you doing?”
He sucked the blood off one knuckle. “I’m putting in a new vanity for the little girls’ bathroom. I mean, it’s mostly all in, I’m just getting the sink settled and everything.”
“Well, that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, it really is.” He got back to work. “One of Cam’s people had taken it out of their bathroom to put in one of those fancy-ass freestanding bowl things.”
“Oh, I have one of those. It’s very gorgeous, but not appropriate for your house. You have all of those children.”
“Yeah, well, so do all of them, but that’s what they wanted, so I got this really neat vanity that has all of these drawers and one cabinet. It’ll be perfect in here because there are six drawers, which means two drawers per child or one drawer per child and three for me to store shit in.”
“You got this all figured out.” Mark chuckled. “I’m so glad.”
“Yeah, me too. What did you do for Thanksgiving?”
“I went out to dinner. I made somebody else do the cooking.”
Mitch blinked a little bit trying to parse that. “You didn’t go see anybody?”
“No, I didn’t get an invitation to any stuff this year, and that doesn’t surprise me. They’re all pissed at me for one reason or another. You know, it is what it is.”
Mark sounded kind of down. “You should have come here, man. Trust me, one more person would not have been a problem. I still have leftovers.”
“Leftovers are good. They can be versatile. You know I love me a turkey stuffing cranberry gravy sandwich.”
“I do know that about you. You are changing the subject, though. What happened. Why were you uninvited? I thought you had a steady. Are they mad at you?”
“Buddy, I’d rather not talk about it.” Mark chuckled again. “I’d rather live vicariously through you.”
“Well, if you decide you need to talk about it, you let me know.”
“I will, man. I promise. I love you.”
Mitch frowned. “I love you too. I really do, and I need to tell you—”
“Nope. If you thank me one more time, I’m going to bash you over the head with a bucket.”
Not at him grinning again. “A bucket?”
“That’s what’s closest to hand. I have one sitting in the kitchen waiting for me to mop, and I don’t feel like doing it.”
“Go sit down and have a beer. Is it too early to have a beer?” He shrugged. “Anyway, I was going to thank you but—”
“Living well is the best thanks I can have. All right, I’m going to stop being maudlin and go wipe my floor. I’ll talk to you again soon, man.”
“Please do, and call me if you want to come for Christmas. Having someone else here would not be a problem for that either.”
“I’ll let you know. Bye, buddy.”
“Bye.” Mitch ended the call and then got the sink fitted even as he pondered all of that. He always figured Mark had such an amazing life, but maybe not.
God knew it wasn’t about the money. Happy was about the people that a man surrounded himself with.
Mitch didn’t like that Mark didn’t have a…a safety net surrounding him. He was going to have to get Mark to come visit. That was all there was to it.
He chewed on his bottom lip for a minute, and then got himself back to work.
He would talk to Cam when he got home about Mark. They could work it out together. That was one of the best parts about being part of a couple—there was another grown-up to talk to, to bounce ideas off.
He started cleaning up his mess, tickled as all get-out about the way the vanity looked. He liked the way it fit in the bathroom quite a bit, and his girls would be stuffing drawers happily for hours.
His phone rang again, and he groaned, but answered it because it was Lori. God knew, she’d done him enough solids that he couldn’t not answer.
“What do you need, lady?”
“Well, basically, I need you to pick up your children from school today. All of mine came home sick. In fact, Momma and Daddy are sick, Wilder’s sick… I think the only ones out of all of us that aren’t sick at this point are Kacey and me. They even sent Lizzie home from work at the hospital.”
“What kind of sick?” He immediately went to wash his hands.
“Stomach flu. Stay away. It’s brutal.”
Thank goodness his girls hadn’t been over to play in a day or two, but damn, if it was going through school… Hell, they were all exchanging presents and germs at an alarming rate. That norovirus thing was for the birds.
“Yeah, no problem, I’ll pick them up. Is there anything I can drop off for y’all? Sprites, chicken soup, toast, or bread for y’all to make toast? I can just leave it on your porches.”
“I’ll ask Momma if she wants anything, but I think we’re good here. We’ve got Sprite coming out of our wazoos. Stephen stopped at the Costco and bought like eighteen cases.”
“Okay, well you let me know if anything changes. I don’t want y’all to be stuck in there and not have anything. I can even put a mask on if I need to. I’m not going to have y’all starving or expiring from the stomach flu.”
“Nah, we got this. You just stay safe and don’t infect everybody else, right?”
“Right. I’ll get the girls from school, and I’ll scrub them within an inch of their lives so maybe they don’t have it on them.”
“Good man. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Tell everybody to feel better, honey.”
“I will. Bye.”
He hit end on the call and shook his head. Lord help him. That was all they needed was to have everybody at school be all sick. They had so much Christmas shit to do and so many parties to go to. He was just not looking forward to that.
His phone buzzed, and he looked at a text coming in from Cam.
Mitch knew that because he’d been watching the stats come through the website. He knew Cam was doing well. He might end up in the money overall.
It didn’t matter if he didn’t, though.
The fact he’d come up top three in two nights meant he was making some cash.
he texted back. He knew not every rider went every day.
His heartbeat kicked up because that was the first time he’d seen Cam put it in writing. And it was pretty damn amazing. He cleaned up the sink and headed off to do the next chore, but he was ready for Cam to come home.