Chapter 23 #2
“Actually, I was thinking the lobby.” He winked. “I’m fixin’ to head out and take him some food here in a minute.”
“Cool. Let me get my key and my shoes.” Mark disappeared for a second, then came back, walking him out toward the lobby, the girls trailing along.
He waited until the girls were busily inspecting the board games and books, even though he knew they’d looked at all of them, and then grinned at Mark. “So Sarah tells me there are two horses sleeping in Cam’s trailer.”
“Yeah, there are. I guess it’s the one that he got hurt on?”
Mitch frowned. “So he wasn’t riding Fire?”
Mark looked at him and shrugged. “How the hell should I know? Do I look like a rodeo fan?”
He looked Mark up and down with his shiny shoes and his oh-so-perfect peg-legged jeans. “You’re adorable. I know lots of guys that look just like you that come for…” He glanced at the girls. “Nefarious reasons.”
“‘Nefarious’?”
Oops. “Okay, uh, sensual?”
“Better.” Mark rolled his eyes, then winked at him.
“Seriously, from what I understand—and I don’t know exactly—he was riding this horse, the one that’s sleeping in the trailer with the black one, and they threw in the fireworks.
The poor thing got really, really scared and a little bit hurt, and so, the original owner, who I don’t know because I’ve never even met him signed her over to Cam. ”
Mitch blinked at Mark. That was a backasswards way of telling a story…
“Well, that doesn’t make any sense. Why would somebody do that?” Horses were expensive. “Is she hurt bad enough to need a vet?”
Because that would piss him right off, if there were a bunch of cowboys dealing with the horse that needed a vet and it hadn’t gotten attention.
“Dude, what is it you want me to say? I know kids, I can pay for just about anything you want me to pay for. I’m not a horse guy.
” Mark seemed a little put out. “I took the kids out there; I made sure that the horse you told me that was supposed to be there was safe.” Mark held out his hands and stared at him, and Mitch took a deep, deep breath.
“You know what? You’re right. You’re so right. I’m sorry. I’m just confused and—”
“Tired. You’ve had a long couple of days, and I wish you could have napped a little more, but like there’s only so much long I can stand in a hot tub. My balls were shriveling up.” Mark winked at him, and he took a quick, hard hug.
“No, it’s cool. I have to run out there and check everything out. I will tell you what, I will take the girls, give you some time off, and—”
“Oh, bullshit. You’re taking me with you. I want to hear whatever stories you’ve got to tell, and we haven’t got to see each other hardly at all. So let’s do this.”
God, he had the best fucking friends on earth.
“Come on, girls. We’re going to drive out with Mark to see the horses.” Mitch held out a hand for Rachel, who grabbed it. And then Sarah grabbed his other hand, Bekka taking her other side.
“What am I, a chopped liver?” Mark asked.
Bekka grinned at him. “I can hold your hand.”
Mark held out a hand. “Well come over here and grab it.”
Rachel swung Mitch’s hand. “Daddy says we’re going to have McDonald’s for dinner.”
“Oh, I love a Big Mac and a McNugget, both.” Mark led the way to the parking lot, and they loaded the girls in, everyone chatting and excited.
Mark had a bittersweet smile on his face. “I love this, you know, how it’s not quiet all the time.”
“Well, I would say that I understand, but I don’t think I’ve had quiet ever.” Mitch winked at him. “I talked to Cam. We want you to come and stay for the holidays. You can work from there. There’s room. Cam’s in my bedroom now, so you can have the guest room. It’s really comfy. We want you there.”
“Really?”
Mitch nodded. “Yeah, really. We’ve got room. We’ve got a tree. There’s going to be tons of food and family and presents. Horses, kids. You know I miss you.”
Mark looked down at the floorboard, then looked back up with tears in his eyes. “I know I’m not a cowboy, and I know I don’t fit in there, but man, this has been a hard year.”
Dammit. He knew it. “Well, not work though, right? I mean, you said—”
“Not work, personal, and I don’t want to get into it. I’ve had a couple of unfortunate happenstances on the dating front. I’m tired.”
This broke his damn heart. “So come rest at the noisiest place on Earth for the holidays, and then after that, you can make some decisions and breathe a little.” He hated this. He wanted to go kick somebody’s butt, go find whoever it was that made his friend sad and beat him down until—
He had to wonder, could you beat somebody long enough that the person who they hurt felt better about it?
He wasn’t sure, but he was willing to try.
They pulled into the Thomas and Mack center, stopping at the gate to speak to security.
Mitch had no idea what to say to this guy.
“Hi, I’m Cam’s lover, and I’m here to visit Cam’s horse and his bonus horse.
I have absolutely no sort of identification to prove that I am who I say I am, but please let me in to where all of these super-expensive horses that are worth more than my house are. ”
Fortunately he didn’t have to do anything because little Rachel piped up with, “Hey, Elmer, it’s us. We’re here to see Fire. It’s us. We’re Cam and Mitch’s little girls.”
The man—who was easily the size of his truck—grinned, one gold tooth glinting. “Oh, so you must be the dad.”
“Hi, yeah, I’m Mitch.” He grinned, shook his head. “I guess you’ve met these hooligans.”
Elmer bobbed his head, waved to Mark. “They’re good girls. I’m real sorry about Cam. Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s awake and talking, so he’s going to be fine. He got a lot of broken bones, but I’ll probably be coming out tomorrow to pick up the horses, and we’ll just drive them home. But I wanted to check on them, you know?”
“No problem. Go on in. Have a good day, girls.”
“Thank you, Elmer.”
Elmer. Jesus Christ.
“Your girls make quite an impression.” Butter wouldn’t melt in Mark’s mouth.
“They do at that.”
The pens were clean and well-kept, and there were security cameras and cowboys milling around, walking horses, chatting.
Mark pointed out a pen at the end of a row. “Park as close as you can over there. That’s where they’ve got them both. They’re just leaving them out, feeding them. They’ve got water, and then they load him back up in the trailer at night when everybody goes home, but there is security.”
“Perfect.” He parked the SUV. “Now, girls. I want you to be careful, okay? I don’t know who this other horse is, I don’t know anything that’s going on, and Fire is upset, so I need you girls to be good and stick with me and Uncle Mark, okay?”
“No problem.” Bekka grabbed Rachel’s hand and held on. “We got this, Daddy.”
Mark opened the door. “You ladies need to figure out what we want to have for lunch, while we wait on your daddy.”
“Can we have Subway?” Bekka asked. She rarely asked for anything specific, so he had a feeling Mark would say yes.
“Sure, kiddo. We can even order it so they’ll deliver, and we can let your daddy get back to the hospital.”
Sarah ran up to the fence, climbed up onto the first rung. “Fire, Fire! I’m here!”
Fire whinnied and reared back and then began to run towards Sarah, and Mitch wrapped one arm around her waist, and she swatted at him. “Don’t, Daddy, he’s fine!”
No, he was unhappy and he was scared and he was frustrated and he needed his dad. He wasn’t fine.
“Hey, old man, what you doin’?” He met Fire’s energy with calm.
Fire ran up to the fence, squealing to a halt right before he got there. Then he snorted and stamped one foot, proving his displeasure.
“Fire, you evil son of a bitch. You stop it.”
Fire tossed his head and snorted and whinnied and told him all about it, and he kept talking.
His eyes were on the other horse in the pen with Fire, though.
She was a bay with a blaze on her face and she also had an injury.
He didn’t think it was bad, and it had obviously been treated, but surely this wasn’t the horse Cam had gone down on, was it?
“Huh.” He took out his phone and grabbed a picture so he could show Cam. “I’ll ask him about it.”
“I can tell you all about it.” A big old cowboy came up, nodded to him. “These Cam’s girls?”
Whoa. He found himself nodding without a thought. “They are. This is Rachel, Rebekka, and Sarah, my daughters. I’m Mitch Gonzales.”
“I’m Dale. Dale Brooks.” The guy took his hand and shook it.
“He was hazing for me when he got hurt. They arrested that guy that threw out the fireworks, but he was like sixteen, so you know nothing’s going to come of it.
Anyway, that’s Copper Penny. She’s the one that Cam was riding when the fireworks hit.
He really wanted her bad, like, to take her home.
I talked to Terry and told him it’s his damn fault that he wasn’t the one hazing, so it’s his damn fault that Cam got hurt.
” The big guy shrugged. “Anyways. The simple fact is that she ain’t no good in the arena.
She won’t even go back in. She’s skittish and she’s unhappy, so we made a fair deal, and he signed her over to Cam.
So, you got yourself another horse. She’ll be good breeding stock. ”
Christ, this man could talk.
He realized he was standing there, staring, so he shook his head. “Wow. Cam’ll be…so pleased.”
“She’s a good girl.” Sarah shook her head and kind of scowled a bit. “She’s a very good girl. She’s going to be my good friend. What’s her name again?”
“Copper Penny.”
“Okay, Copper Penny, come here! Penny! Penny!”
“Baby girl, she’s not gonna—” He’d be damned if that fucking horse didn’t come right up to the gate as if she was drawn to that little girl.
Sarah loved on her, completely unafraid, completely at ease with these great big horses, and Mitch couldn’t be more proud of his goth-y, witch-y, weird, horse-loving baby.
Mark, on the other hand, was cracking up, and he might beat the man to death.
“Well, are you the one taking care of these guys?”
Dale nodded. “I am. I’ll be here. I made the short go, so I’ll be here until the end. When do you think you’re gonna be able to come take him home?”
Like he knew the vagaries of doctors. They did what they wanted.
“I imagine they’re letting Cam go in the morning.
Once he’s settled in, we’ll probably spend one more night at the hotel just so he can breathe.
Or maybe not. I don’t know. It’ll probably be tomorrow we’ll come get him if not the day after. ”
He needed to work this out because there was only two rooms and three beds. There were already a lot of them. He could probably sleep on the couch, but really, the easiest answer was if they got him out by noon, they could conceivably be home by supper time.
Which reminded him.
Shit, he had to call Cam’s momma. That was why the girls had woken him up in the first place. She was going to kill him.
“You just let me know what you need from me, and I’ve got your back.” Dale handed him a business card. “There’s my number. Text, call, whatever. Cam’s also got my number. I know he doesn’t have his phone right now.”
“I’m bringing him his phone as soon as I go back to the hospital. I just wanted to check on the horses. He was concerned.”
“He’s a good horseman. It doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Satisfied they were being housed in a place that was safe, Mitch fed and checked everyone, cleaned out the trailer, and then shoved everyone back in the car so they could head back to the hotel.
“I got to go see a man about a horse, huh?” He grinned. “You guys be good for Mark, okay? And be nice when it comes to lunch, will you?”
“Okay, Daddy.” They all chorused it again, and he knew they were feeling this, that they needed to have this settled as soon as they could. But he couldn’t take them with him to the hospital. He could tell over the phone that Cam was drooping, so he would give him one more day of grace.
After that, all bets were off. He wanted to take Cam home.
All he had to do now was face his mother-in-law and explain what was going on with her son.