10. Ben
BEN
“Daddy!”
The yelling over the sound of the nail gun barely registered. It had been so quiet around here lately, with only the sound of construction to fill the dead space in my house.
Glancing over my shoulder, I took in Lizzy’s frazzled state as she held Willa in her arms, trying to calm the wriggling toddler.
“Hey, honey.” I set down the nail gun and walked over to my daughter, grinning at the little imp in her arms. “What’s going on?”
“I need you to watch Willa,” she said, practically shoving my granddaughter into my arms.
“Whoa, say what?”
“Momma’s not here, and I have to get to work. We’re still trying to find a new cook at the bar since Roy—” Her words cut off as tears filled her eyes.
If there was one thing I was not good at, it was consoling crying women. It was different when they were kids. That, I could handle, but as an adult…what did they want?
A hug?
A stern talking-to?
Was I supposed to buck them up or commiserate? And how did I go about that?
“At least he went quickly.”
Those were the wrong words. Her eyes narrowed at me dangerously. Yep, I should have gone for the hug.
“I’m sure he would much rather still be cooking behind the bar instead of being gunned down by a crazy person. But yeah, at least he went quickly.”
“Well…yeah,” I answered uncomfortably.
“Seriously, Daddy!
“Honey—”
She slung her bag off her shoulder and shoved it at me angrily. “I just need you to keep her so I can get a few hours in without her screaming at me.”
“But I’m really not qualified to handle this!” I shouted as she turned to leave.
“Daddy, you raised five of us.”
“Your mother did,” I corrected. “I was outside the whole damn time!”
I chased her down as my heart thundered in my chest. I was most definitely not cut out to watch a kid on my own.
It had been years since I’d watched anyone this small, and when the kids were over, Clara was always there to do most of the work.
I normally just watched them for a few minutes if she had to do something.
“Lizzy!” I shouted as she ran out the front door.
“Daddy, it’s not rocket science. Just keep her alive until I get back.”
The door on her truck slammed with a finality I felt deep in my bones. She was really doing this to me, leaving me alone with a child I had no right watching on my own. Did she realize this would only end in disaster?
I stomped back into the house, grabbing my phone from the table. Luckily, I had plenty of kids, and all of them were capable of taking care of a child.
Except Liam’s call went straight to voicemail. Michael was at work. Jeff…well, he hadn’t picked up any of my calls since the last time he ran out of here.
That left Krista.
I prayed harder than any man in his entire life, and when she finally picked up, relief washed over me.
“Honey?”
“Hey, what’s up?”
I could hear rustling in the background, and as my daughter shuffled things, the sound of heavy breathing filled the air.
“Uh, is this a bad time?”
“Not at all. I’m just trying to put together a proposal for Jeff’s new Scottish Highlands tournament for next summer.”
“So, you can come help.”
She laughed sarcastically. “I was joking. This proposal has to be at city council by the end of the day.”
Willa wiggled in my arms, wanting to get down, but I couldn’t set her down in the house. It was a damn construction zone. “They can extend it.”
“They can’t. If we’re going to do this thing, we have to meet certain deadlines, and getting the proposal to the city council any later would most definitely be bad news for us.
Not that I care about it since it was all Jeff’s idea, but since we’re basically business partners and Jeff can’t type worth a damn, the job falls on me. ”
“But you have a few hours to spare—”
She laughed in my ear. “Not likely.”
“It’s just…” I looked at my granddaughter in my arms and cringed. I was not cut out for this. “Lizzy dropped Willa off with me.”
“So?”
Willa wiggled out of my arms, then took off through the house. I gave chase, but knew I could never catch the little rascal. She was fast. I didn’t quite understand how such a tiny person on such little legs could outrun a full-grown man, but somehow, it always happened.
“Look, the house is torn apart! I can’t watch her!”
“So, take her outside. Listen, Dad. I’ve got to go. Just do what you did with us.”
The line went dead just as I caught Willa by the back of the shirt, pulling her to a stop. “Krista!”
But she didn’t answer. She was already gone. I tried calling her back, but it went straight to voicemail. How could she do this to me? Did people really think I was qualified to watch children? I didn’t know what to do with them.
“Alright, little monster. We’re going outside.”
“O-side!” she squealed, clapping her hands together.
But the moment I stepped outside, I realized just how dangerous this was. There were fences she could get tangled up in, wild animals, birds that could— well, it was unlikely a bird would hurt her, but if it could happen to anyone, it would happen on my watch.
Sighing, I took her hand and led her over to the stables. “Alright, let’s look at the horses.”
“Hosey! Hosey!” she screamed, taking off once again, ripping her hand from mine.
Those damn little legs ate up the ground as she rushed toward the barn, and as I ran behind her, I heaved just a little too much for a grown man.
“Willa!” I shouted, but she just squealed and kept running, finding the whole thing hilarious. “I said stop!”
She glanced over her shoulder, nearly crashing to the ground since her little body hadn’t learned to slow her momentum while she twisted. But she just kept going despite it all.
“If you don’t stop right now, I’m gonna take my belt to your ass!”
That would have worked on my kids, but Willa? She found it fucking hilarious.
“I’m telling you one last time to stop, and then I’m getting my belt out!”
She slowed, looking back at me with a twinkle in her eye, and I knew I was fucked. A grin spread across her lips right before she took off again. My fingers grazed her shirt as she darted away from me, right toward the horses.
Well, fuck.
I was already exhausted, and she was this little ball of energy I had no hopes to contain.
“Hosey! Hosey!” she called out, luckily, outside Susie’s stall.
Panting hard, I held the pinch in my side, taking a minute to regain my energy. Fuck, I was not okay with running after little kids.
Scooping her up in my arms, I vowed to never let her go again, if only she would stop torturing me. “Alright, you want to go on Susie?”
“Hosey! Hosey!”
Sighing, I set the little girl down and gave her my stern face. “If I let you ride Susie, you have to sit here like a good girl while I get her out of the stall. She’s a big girl, and she could hurt you.”
She stared back at me with wide eyes, nodding in understanding.
“Okay. You hold this post right here,” I pointed. “And you don’t move.”
Again, she nodded.
It took more time than usual to get her out and tacked, but that was mostly because I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure Willa was listening. The girl liked to press my buttons, and no matter how hard I tried to be the good grandpa, I had a feeling I was failing at this somehow.
“Alright,” I sighed, looking down at my little granddaughter. “Are you ready?”
A bright smile spread across her lips as she held up her hands, wiggling out of control.
Chuckling, I picked her up and put her in the saddle, telling her to hold the horn as I guided her out of the stall.
“Now, hold on tight. Understand?”
I was a nervous wreck as I guided them out of the stalls. We’d just go for a short walk and then come back. Susie was a good horse, but she spooked easily. We walked around in big circles for the longest time, to the point that I wasn’t paying enough attention.
And that was my big mistake. It was only when I glanced back that I saw Willa slipping off the saddle, and I rushed forward, but not in time to catch her. She hit the ground hard, a little whimper leaving her lips.
“Willa!” My heart slammed in my chest as I picked her up and held her in my arms.
But I shouldn’t have been worried. Despite the smudge of dirt on her face, she grinned up at me, clapping her hands. “Moe! Moe!”
The worry rushed out of me in a flurry as I tugged my granddaughter against my chest. Fuck, I was really bad at this. Who decided I should be trusted with kids?
“‘Gain! ‘Gain!”
“Nope, I think we’re done for the day.”
“No moe hosey?” Those little eyes batted sadly in my direction, but I wasn’t an idiot. I lucked out big time just now.
“No more horsey.”
Sighing, I looked up at the sky, my heart finally coming to a normal pace.
“Let’s not tell mommy about this.”
I sat in the kitchen, tapping my fingers on the table impatiently as I waited for my errant wife to walk through the door.
At first, I was pissed when she decided to go through all these changes.
She was messing with my schedule, and I didn’t like that.
Granted, it had felt good over the last two weeks to work again, to feel my muscles straining and stretching in all the right ways.
It was something I hadn’t felt since the last of the cattle left the property.
That aside, we were going on two weeks of dinner conveniently missing, along with my breakfast and lunch. I was starving after working such a long day. There should be food waiting for me. After all, I was doing all this for her.
We were making good progress on the house every day, and just when I thought she would walk through the door and beam at how wonderful everything was, I turned to find no one there.
Every. Damn. Day.
I didn’t know what she was doing all day, or where she was.
Her new office was suspiciously empty today when I went in search of her, aside from some weird painting sitting on an easel that looked like nipples.
For a second, I thought she was trying to paint an erotic portrait, but then I realized it was supposed to be a landscape.
I’d keep that thought to myself.