Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
B rooks pulled the trailer through instead of backing it in. He’d taken it with him today on the off-chance that he would see something at the auction that worked.
And he had.
He also had a backseat full of groceries for Thanksgiving supper, which was in about a week. So he and Coop needed to start cooking pretty damn quick.
The horses could stand in the trailer while he unloaded the groceries, and?—
“Uncle Brooks! What’s in the trailer?”
He blinked as Mina came out on the porch dressed in a pair of pajama pants, a huge coat, one of his knitted beanies, and a pair of Coop’s boots.
“Uh. What are you doing home from school, kiddo?”
“I threw up.”
“Oh.” Ugh. Poor baby, she’d been doing that a good bit, and he had a feeling she might have developed a food sensitivity. They just had to figure out to what. “Well, they’re horses. ”
She squealed. “Can I see?”
“Not yet, honey.”
“Isn’t it still my birthday?”
He chuckled under his breath. “No, your birthday was last weekend. It’s been almost ten days.”
“Oh.” She pouted a little, her eyes still on the horse trailer. “But I didn’t get a horsey for my birthday…”
“Your Uncle Coop bought you a whole bouncy castle, and you got a new bicycle for your birthday.”
She grinned at him, her front tooth wiggling. “He did, and we can put it up whenever we want and we can bounce and it is so much fun and I love it so much and I?—”
Blorp .
That little girl just barfed all over the porch.
“Coop!” He needed to get the damn hose.
“Coming! Coming. Oh, jeez Louise. All right. What are you doing outside? Why are you wearing my boots? And hey, Brooks. We have two of them that are going at it from both ends. So put your horses where they need to go and then come help me disinfect the entire goddamn house.”
“Two? Mina and Johnny?” he asked.
“Nope.” Coop rolled his eyes. “Mina and Benji. At least Benji is capable of cleaning up after himself, but I have this sinking suspicion that this is that damn norovirus stuff. And if one gets it, we’re all going to be at risk. Oh my God, I’m going to have to buy a lot of Pedialyte.”
“I don’t feel so good,” Mina whined.
“Come on, shower, bathroom, take off my boots. I swear to God you puked in my boots, child, and I might just have to make you run around naked in the backyard.” Coop winked at her.
“You wouldn’t do that.”
“No, but I would threaten it.” Coop’s phone rang, and he closed his eyes for a second. “It’s the school. I don’t suppose you got Lysol at the store? ”
“I got bleach wipes.” That was close, right?
Coop answered the phone, putting it on speaker as he walked Mina toward the front door.
“Mr. Coop, is that you?”
“Yes, Miss Maydel. What do you need, ma’am?”
She chuckled softly. “You’ve got two of them that are puking. That only leaves two that aren’t.”
“Yay. I tell you what, I’m just going to come pick up all the rest just in case. Have everybody send e-mails with their homework, fair? There’s only a couple of days before the holiday anyway, right?”
“That would be a blessing. This is the third time that norovirus has gone through the school. Y’all just lucked out.”
“I’m sure it showed up at Mina’s birthday party. I’ll come get the kids if you just get them all out to the front. Give them Walmart sacks if you need to.”
“Put trash bags in your truck and save the seats.”
“Will do. Having so much fun. See you in a minute.”
Coop smiled at him. “My life is so glamorous.”
“Ours.”
“What?”
“Our lives.”
Coop smiled at him. “Right on. Horses can’t get norovirus, can they? I’m assuming that’s what’s wiggling around in the trailer.”
“Uncle Coop! I don’t feel good.”
“I’m coming. Mina, get undressed. Get in the shower.”
“I don’t like to stand in the shower!”
“So sit in the damn bathtub. I’ll run the water. I’ll be right there.” Coop’s temper was beginning to show.
“You said a cuss!”
“I’m gonna say more than a cuss,” Coop muttered under his breath. “Brooks, you’re a good man, but if you don’t do something soon, I’m going to have a stroke. ”
That would be a waste of a hot stud of a man.
“All right. You get Mina’s bath going. I’ll get the horses in quarantine, and then I’ll clean up and start on the house while you go pick up the others.
” He would also unload the groceries, but it was cold enough they could sit in the truck while he did all that.
He’d disinfect everything before he gloved up and brought the food right into the kitchen and into the fridge.
The cans and dry goods could stay back in the mudroom where they were less likely to get slimed.
The horses were more than willing to unload and get into a warm barn with some sweet feed and some hay and a trough of clean water.
The pair were skinny, but not desperately so, and they were in decent shape, and he’d talked to the son of the man who had raised them. They were broken to saddle and harness, both mother and son, and they’d come with tack and names.
It sucked, getting so old that a man couldn’t live in his home, love on his horses. It wasn’t fair.
“Jenny. Hey, girl, how’s it going? Buddy. Buddy, are you in there?” Two heads popped up, the gelding a touch bigger than his momma, but they were both chestnut-brown and pretty as hell.
“You two are going to have the best lives,” he told them. Jenny wasn’t breeding stock, and they were for the kids. A way to get Lucy prepared for some of the other horses, start her slow. It would be a miracle if Mina wasn’t out here riding next week.
He might even get Johnny out here.
He didn’t know, but there was something about these, this pair, they just needed somewhere to live out the rest of their lives. It felt good to be able to be that place.
He got them settled, then headed in with groceries. He stashed it all, then cleaned the porch before he went in to wash up and then take over Mina care.
“Okay, I’ll be back,” Coop told him.
“You got trash bags?”
“I got all that and more. And good call on the Lysol and bleach wipes.”
“Yeah, I get them every year at flu season,” Brooks said. “It can be a real mess on a station with limited personnel.”
“Ugh.” Coop winked, then clapped him on the back. “Just keep washing your hands.”
“I promise.” He chuckled. “Want me to call in a pickup order for Pedialyte?”
“God yes. I’ll get it on the way home.”
“Gotcha.” He went to make sure Mina was okay, listening to Coop take off down the drive. Lord.
“Can I lay on the couch?” Mina asked, sniffling.
“Sure, kiddo. Let me put a couple of sheets down, okay?” That should help keep everything contained.
“Thank you.” She was dragging her little butt, and he felt so bad for her. He got her settled before going to check on Benji. He knocked on the bedroom door of the suite he would take over soon, and he heard Benji moan.
“Hey, do you need broth or juice or Sprite or something?”
“I would murder some Sprite. But just leave it on the table outside the door. I don’t want to make you sick too.”
“If Mina hasn’t already, you won’t. Coop went to get everyone else.”
“Oh. Maybe I’ll just die.”
“Well, that would suck. If you lived through all that shit for you to die from the runs.”
“You try puking and having the poops with a cracked pelvis.”
“Oh, BS, kiddo. You’re plenty healed.”
“Do not make me lick you, Uncle Brooks. ”
He chuckled, heading to get some Sprite. He texted in an order for that, Pedialyte, chicken soup, and apple juice. They would need all the liquids, and if he and Coop got sick, neither of them would feel like going to the store again.
Then he texted Coop to tell him the order was in.
About forty-five minutes later, they had six sick kids, a smelly house, and chapped hands from washing up so much.
“How are you feeling, Coop?” Brooks asked.
“Well, so far so good, but we’ll see how it goes huh? We got about three days to make sure it hasn’t germinated.”
“Yeah.” That sounded like hell on earth, and he wanted to just hide in the barn, but he couldn’t do that to Coop. The dogs were doing that anyway. Hiding from the humans. The beagles would normally be right on the couch with Mina, but they were avoiding everyone like the plague.
Or like they had the plague.
“Where are the mutts?” Brooks asked.
“My bedroom.”
“Oh, wow. That’s wild.”
“Too cold to hide outside.”
“I wonder if we just hopped outside every so often if we could kill the germs.”
“Might have to be colder for that.”
“Yeah. I guess that’s true. Want something to drink?”
Coop chuckled. “How about we wait until this lot is asleep, and then we can have a beer and have something that we don’t eat with our fingers?”
Brooks had to hoot. “You’re a brilliant guy, Mr. Bullfighter.”
“Yeah, I dealt with an entire rodeo company of this once.” Coop grinned. “I was the only one didn’t get it.”
“That was me last year, mate. I managed to wing right through it.”
“Well, here’s hoping we keep up our record. ”
He nodded, and they fist-bumped. Brooks had to stay healthy.
He had horses to acclimatize and Thanksgiving dinner to plan.
Though he might have to haul the food over to Kase and Ryder’s to cook it, at this rate.