Chapter 6
Chapter Six
“ M
r. Trey?” The new housekeeper-slash-cook tapped on his door. “I hate to bother you, but I was wondering if you wanted enchiladas or lasagna for dinner tonight?”
“Let’s go with lasagna. The kids like noodles. Thanks, Mark.” Trey would never have thought he would hire a male housekeeper. It wasn’t that he was opposed to it; he just hadn’t thought about something like that since he’d left the West Coast.
Mark had great references, a perfect background check. Not only that, but he was a hell of a cook. He was the perfect candidate. In fact, Trey had been confused as to why someone hadn’t snapped him up until he realized all of Mark’s references were in Marsha’s name. Thank goodness that wasn’t an issue where he was concerned.
And if any of the cowboys had an issue, then they could find somewhere else to work.
“No problem. When you’re ready to go to town for school supplies, please let me know, I have a list. Just some odds and ends that are easier to pick up than to order in.”
That was the one downside about Mark. He didn’t drive.
They weren’t close enough to ask why the man didn’t drive, and to be honest, it wasn’t that big of a deal. If Mark wanted to be at the house all the time, that was cool. Someone was always available to drive the boss around.
Everything else about Mark had been too perfect to let the one downside screw this up.
“I can do that. It’ll probably be next week. Noah needs school clothes, school supplies, all that stuff, and I’d like him to pick his stuff out if he can.” It was touch or go. Some days Noah seemed excited about the idea of going to school. Some days, Noah flat-out refused.
Trey kept telling himself the therapist said this was normal, reasonable. The kid had experienced a huge loss. Zoe was easy right now, and Dr. Pinkerton said not to be surprised when it became difficult with her at different stages when she realized what she’d lost.
But right now? Noah was the one who needed him.
“School. Wow. That’s kind of exciting.” Mark grinned, seeming pretty stoked himself. “Is it all right if I make one of those first day of school things so we could take a picture?”
Oh lord. “Sure, just remember whatever you do for him, you have to do for her because she just will be inconsolable.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that.” Mark chuckled, dark eyes rolling. “Do you need any more coffee or anything?”
“God, no. I’m gonna be jitterbugging and jiving all over the ranch. Thanks though.”
“Holler if you need me.”
He waved Mark off and stretched, letting the sun soak into his bones for a second. The sun was blazing down, and he knew he would miss it when winter came.
He wasn’t ready for summer to end and school to start.
The kids were about to be waking from their naps. He could hear them starting to move around a bit. So he wrapped up checking his emails and closed his computer.
Maybe he’d take the kids out, let them play in the sprinklers. They had a nice little thing set up, and both kids could use some energy release, he thought.
Trey went to peek in on Zoe first, tapping on Noah’s door on the way. Zoe waved at him, and Noah’s door opened, and a little grumpy face appeared. “Hey.”
“Hey, kiddo. Do you want to play in the sprinklers?”
That actually made Noah smile. “Yeah, yeah, sure. I’ll put on my swimming trunks.”
“Cool. Let me get your sister.”
Zoe was sitting on her big girl bed staring at him. “Spinkers?”
He nodded. “Yep, we’re going to play in the water.”
“Waddy.”
“You know it, sister. Let’s do this.”
He got them both dressed in their swimsuits, and they headed outside. The sprinkler was already set up on the patch of lawn near the driveway. So all he had to do was turn on the faucet and let it go.
He found the fancy lawn chair he’d bought at the beginning of the summer, pulled it out from under the umbrella, and settled in to bake. Trey had found the ancient lounger his folks had invested in was no good for watching kids. Too damn hard to get up out of, for all that it was still damn comfy.
Now, for napping with kids, it was grand. He and Zoe could sack out there for hours. But to be up and running if someone fell or got stung or something? This chair was the ticket.
He tilted his head back against the pillow roll he’d bought for just that reason, and kept an ear out for the littles.
He might have dozed off, the giggles and chortles lulling him. A shadow fell over him, blocking his light, which woke him up.
“They’re sure having a good time,” West said.
“They are. They all right?” Trey forced himself to sit up. God. He sucked. They were only little. He couldn’t sleep with them outside.
“They’re fine. Where are they going to go when they’re fenced in? You do know the person in the house?—”
“Mark.”
“Mark is watching them through the window in the kitchen while he’s cooking. And Mr. Ben is watching them from the porch. They’re fine.” West didn’t sound too worried.
“Still need to get up. What do you need?” Why was West even here? Was it time for their meeting? They hadn’t gone so far as to set up a time for meetings as far as he knew. Race would have told him to put it on the calendar if it was true.
“I was coming over to see what time and day you wanted to meet and also to give you a list—I mean, a budget for the stuff I think we need for the ranch. I’ve got lists, of you know, immediate necessities. Then there’s plain old needs, then it would be nice to haves, this would rock to have, and this is a dream, that kind of thing. But I didn’t get your secretary’s name and stuff.”
He held up one hand, cutting West off. “First, for your health and well-being, never call Race a secretary. He is my assistant, and he is quite…firm about that. Possibly psychotic. Fair?”
West chuckled deep in his chest. “Fair. I promise never to call him a secretary.”
“Good, because my money’s on him. He’s a bear.” Trey grinned at himself. Race was actually a waxed and greased gym bunny, but the man needed a lover to turn him inside out. The kid had rage. “Go ahead and sit. I mean, if you want to talk about the immediate stuff now. What kind of stuff is on each list, that sort of thing. I’m assuming they’re very different.”
The chair next to his creaked and groaned as West sat. “The immediate stuff is we’ve got a tractor that’s broken. We’ve gotta hire some guys, we need to discuss getting a vet on retainer, winterizing the barns, and there’s some roofing that needs to be done. Those are absolutes.”
“Fine. I’ll have the money put in your expense account. Do you have an expense account? You should have an expense account. It’s easier than having to ask for a check every goddamn seven seconds.”
“Nope.”
Dammit. “All right, well, let’s start there. Have you met Maria?”
“You mean the pretty lady with the little boy?”
“Yes. That’s her son, Manu. He and Zoe are great friends. She’ll be the one who can set you up an expense account. She’ll also have the NDAs for you to sign. Once you get that sort of stuff sorted, then either she or I can get you Race’s contact info so that you can set up meetings and anything like that that you want. I mean, you could set up a meeting with me, but he’ll be the one who knows that I don’t have something else that will conflict.”
“Good deal. I know I probably shouldn’t just?—”
“Misser Wessie!” Zoe shouted it, and then she was incoming before he could even blink. She threw herself at West, the wet splat she made when she landed in his lap huge.
He had to stifle a laugh, because lord have mercy.
West just laughed. “Well, hello, Miss Zoe. Are you having a very good day?”
“Uh-huh.” Zoe babbled about breakfast, naps, sprinklers, and her big brother, who was whooping louder, no doubt trying to catch their attention. He did grin then.
Trey waved to Noah. “Good going, big guy!”
“He’s doing cartwheels,” West said, sotto voce.
“Nice!” He thought that was what he was seeing, but sometimes in the sun it was tough to focus. He glanced at West, and the words that popped out of his mouth shocked the fuck out of him. “I need someone to drive me and the kids into town to get school supplies for Noah next week. Mark doesn’t drive. Do you think you’d be willing?”
“You just tell me when, Trey. I’m guessing you have an SUV?”
“You’d guess right. It’s an Escalade. It’s in the garage. It’s got plenty of room for stuff, and it’s comfortable, and it has heated seats. I also have a pickup so…”
West hooted. “Oh ho, the blind man has two vehicles!”
“I’ll have you know the blind man came with two vehicles. Speaking of, do you have one? Do you need one? You need to make sure if you have one, that you put the mileage on the business. We need to get you a gas card too…” Lord, his head hurt.
“Relax. You know, Maria will hook me up, right? I mean, that’s what her deal is. She hooks people up, you know?”
“That she does.”
Maria was kind of a jewel among women. She took care of all of the money stuff for him, delivering it to the accountant unfailingly. It worked out well.
“I’d be happy to take you. It’d be fun. We could make a day of it. The kids like to go shopping and stuff?”
He rolled his shoulders, trying to relax some of the tension that seemed to always be there. “I think so? Zoe’s a little upset that she’s not going to get to go to school, so I’m thinking about letting her go to some kind of a program or just a day or two a week so she can have school too. She just seems so little…”
“I’m surprised that you don’t— Well, that ain’t none of my business.”
“What?” He hated not knowing what people were thinking, and it drove him crazy not being able to see somebody’s whole face.
“I’m surprised you don’t have a nanny. I would think— I mean you’re a busy guy and you know, with the whole eye thing. I just would have thought you have one.”
“I haven’t found anyone that I like, that I trust with the kids. My other housekeeper, she would watch them for me periodically, if I had a doctor’s appointment or something.” It had been working well, in fact.
“What happened to her?”
“Her daughter had triplets in Los Angeles, and they needed their ‘uelita.” Life happened, life happened to all of them and nothing ever stayed the same, he knew that. He just hated it. Sometimes.
“Damn, that’s— well, it’s kind of cool, but also a little…”
“Oh fuck me now? Yeah.”
“Yeah. I mean, just as the kids get used to someone.”
“Shit, West, you know how it is. Ranch life is hard. It’s isolated. It really takes a certain kind of person to do the work.” A loner. Like West.
West chuckled, the sound warm and a touch wry. “You know it. Lord, it can be lonely. And I know with folks who have a lot of family somewhere else, it can be tough because you can’t just run to the airport to go see them.”
“True that.” Commuting from the Pacific Northwest had been an impossibility. People wondered why he’d sold out and moved and changed his whole life… It didn’t work to have to make that drive to Denver every time he’d wanted to go anywhere… “Anyway, I hope now that you’re here to actually run the ranch, things get smoother. Anyone who’s had to wear too many hats has up and quit.”
“Sure. Of course.” West reached over to touch his arm, which made him jump. “I’ll be happy to take y’all. We can do lunch out or whatever too.”
“I appreciate it. You just find a day in the next week that you don’t have too much to do, and we’ll go buy backpacks, underwear, and shoes.” It wasn’t like his life wasn’t very busy anymore.
His life was just what it was.
Quiet. Simple. Boring.
So incredibly fucking boring and small.
God, he really needed to find a friend who was male and queer and wanted mutual hand jobs on the ranch like once a quarter.
Trey wasn’t going to get that though, so he would stick with what he did have and stop feeling sorry for himself.
He had more money than he knew what to do with. He had a ranch. He had beautiful children. He had good friends.
Pity parties weren’t fun to attend, full stop, and he needed to stop fucking throwing them for himself.
“You okay, honey?”
He blinked. There was that endearment again. He needed to tell West to stop that, and he opened his mouth to do just that when Zoe, who had returned to the sprinklers, started to wail.
“Help!” Noah shouted. “Zoe is bleeding!”
West was up and running before the last word was out of Noah’s mouth, and Trey followed, his heart pounding against his rib cage.
“What happened, sweet pea? Oh, you hurt your toenail, huh?”
“Bleeds! It bleeds! Bleeds! Da! Da!” Zoe’s wild screams hit him right through the heart, and he rolled his eyes, trying to focus on that toe trying to figure out what was going on.
More than anything, he was trying to not panic, and not ask West how bad it was. “Should we go inside and wash it off and get a bandage?”
Calm.
Cool.
Collected.
Surely, surely he could manage that, washing and bandaging a wet, wiggly toddler’s toe. No stress at all.
“ SpongeBob bambage?” She sniffled, her breath hitching.
“Absolutely baby girl. A SpongeBob bandage it is!”
“Can I have one too?” Noah asked, “I like to have a bandage.”
“Sure man, no problem. Bandages for all.” He carried Zoe inside, West right behind him.
Mark met them at the door. “What do I need to do? I’ve got basic first aid.”
“I don’t think we need actual first aid,” West chuckled. “I think we need a clean wash rag and a bandage.”
“ SpongeBob bandages to the rescue!” He heard Mark hurry off, and they were standing there in the kitchen, water dripping on the floor, the smell of garlic and tomatoes and parmesan strong.
Somebody please, somebody please, tell me that it’s not bad. I don’t wanna touch it because I don’t wanna hurt her, but I can’t really see it. I mean, I can see that there’s blood, but I can’t see how bad it is. And I don’t know what to do. If somebody doesn’t help me soon, I’m going to just lose my shit and I can’t lose my shit because I’m supposed to be the fucking grown-up. I’m supposed to be the dad. I’m the one who’s supposed to do all of this, right? And I can’t do it. And nobody seems to understand that I can’t do this. I can’t raise children to adulthood. I can’t even deal with basic first aid. I can just barely take care of myself, and I can’t do this anymore. And I’m going to have a panic attack and I might just die right here and…
“It’s okay.” West’s hand was firm on his shoulder, solid and grounding. “It’s just a little cut on the edge of her toenail. A wipe, a bandage, and a kiss will fix it all up. See, it’s already stopped bleeding.”
No, he couldn’t see. That was the major issue here.
“You are dripping, though. Your da looks about like he’s been in the sprinklers himself. You guys got him all wet.”
That had the kids giggling, and before long, Trey was able to put Zoe down, her toe all doctored and kissed. “Let’s go get you dressed, Zoe. Noah, can you put on some dry clothes for me?”
“I don’t know which—” Noah started, and West interrupted.
“I’ll help you, son. That’s no problem. Let me find some towels.”
Somehow, between him and Mark and West, they got both kids redressed, dry, and sitting at the little plastic table in the front room, eating goldfish crackers and watching something that he didn’t recognize on the television. There was lots of laughing in cartoons, so it must be all right.
“Thanks for the save, West.”
“No problem at all.” West’s voice was warm as melting butter. “They’re good kids, man. They really are.”
“They are. Noah was at a serious disadvantage when you met him.”
“Well, sure. I mean, he’s had a hard time of it, just like you.”
He opened his mouth to answer, then snapped it shut. He wanted to lean on West and just howl, but he had no right and he wouldn’t upset the kids for anything.
Trey cleared his throat. “Thanks.”
“Okay, so we can meet…” West trailed off, waiting.
“You mean for a business meeting or for school shopping?” He wasn’t following, and he needed a big glass of water and a genuine nap.
Hopefully none of that meant he was slipping.
“Both. I think we’ll need both. Especially now.”
“Okay.” He pulled up the calendar on this phone. “Mornings or afternoon?”
“I think late morning or early afternoon works best, right? Lunchtime?”
“You’ll have to deal with me and the kids then. They usually nap after lunch, though, so that tends to work…” Then he’d have the rest of the afternoon to figure out what the hell he was doing.
“Fine. Good. Tomorrow?”
“Okay. Go see Maria. She needs to get you set up. All your paperwork and shit.” And Trey needed a nap, a dry shirt, and a big glass of water, not necessarily in that order.
“Sounds good. But you call me if you need me. Did Mal share my contact?”
He handed West his phone. “Can you check?” He hadn’t asked Siri to do it.
West clicked through some stuff, the phone making little noises. “She did. Just tell it to call or text West, and you’re in business.”
“Sounds great.” Not that he would call. He was functional. He had Mark. He could do this…
Right?
Exactly.
“Come watch!” Zoe called.
“Looks like I need to go sit with them.”
“Sure. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Do you want to come up for supper?” It popped out before he even actually thought.
“Well, it sure smells good. If there’s enough…”
“There always is.” And he had no idea why he’d asked. He really didn’t.
But then with West, he had no clue what he was doing. Ever.