“Yeah, Zane. What’s?—”
Ichabod met Zane’s eyes. That coffee shop visit was on the line here.
“Oh, fine. Let’s ask Mr. Ellis, okay?”
“Yep, I think that’s grand.” Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. “Let’s do it. Michael, do you want to go find him and ask? I think he’s working close in today and not out at the fences.”
“Uh-huh. I’ll be right back.” Michael ran to the back door and stomped into his wellies before heading outside. He could hear Mavis bark in a happy way, too—or at least that was what Ellis told him was Mavis’s happy tone— before Michael’s footsteps couldn’t be heard anymore. He had to admit that big old dog kept an eye on the kids really well. The wellies had been a gift from Ellis, who’d bought all the kids and him a pair of what he called “muck boots”. Apparently,flip-flops were a bad idea out in the yard full of cow and horse excrement.
“Come on, let’s get you girls in real clothes.” Somehow his oldest daughter was in a bathing suit and his younger one was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of rumba panties.
Zane snorted. “I’m gonna go get my wallet. I’ll be back.”
“Cool. Thanks, kiddo. I appreciate that you’re being so chill about everything.”
Zane gave him a positively Gallic shrug. “Yep. Be back in a minute.”
Ichabod got the girls to their shared bedroom and started finding clothes. “You wanna go get tacos, Miss Chrissy?”
She clapped and cheered. She didn’t care. This baby was purely easy. She loved going, she loved food, she loved her family. She knew no evil.
“I do. I want tacos,” Allie reminded him. “I want ones with no hot stuff.”
“Yes, I know you want ones with meat and cheese.”
“Matoes!” Chrissy hollered.
He grabbed her up, kissed her on her nose. “Yes, you want ones with tomatoes.” He chuckled and shook his head. He wasn’t sure how his littlest one was the world’s biggest tomato fiend, but she would eat them like they were apples. It was adorable.
He got everybody in T-shirts and shorts and wee bitty sandals. Then he ran a brush through Allie’s hair and tied it in a bow. He whispered sweet nothings over Chrissy’s hair because he didn’t want to have that fight today, and put a hat on her.
Sometimes a dad had to know when it was time to fight, and when it wasn’t.
“Dad!” Michael came thumping in like a herd of elephants. “Ellis says he can come. He’s just got to put on a not-sweaty shirt.”
“All right.” They had third row seats, used them all the time.
He got the girls settled with Michael and went to take off his holey shirt he used for work. He decided on his blueCookie Monster is my Soul MateT-shirt. It was clean, it didn’t have any holes, and he could still read everything it said on it, so he figured it was a win.
He absolutely did not change shirts because he wanted to impress his — the new cowboy.
Thenew cowboy, not his.
The.
Ellis had the whole hot cowboy thing down. Ichabod refused to stroke off to the thought of the fine man, because that was nasty, but he wasn’t responsible for his dreams, right?
Of course right.
He swore he could hear Chris laughing at him, but honestly? He was a widower. He wasn’t dead.
He knew he wasn’t dead because he was tired. He assumed that dead people got to rest. That’s what they said, rest in peace, right? Right.
He needed to remember to get the boys a couple of twenties at the bank. The little ones were happy with, “we’re going to go to the store because we got ten gold stars, so we can get a Barbie or a color book or a puzzle”.
But the boys were old enough they needed their own agency.
Well, that and if he gave Zane a color book, Zane might punch him in the nose.
