“We can do it!” Colin shouted, his backpack bouncing on his back as he scurried behind Cash, the dog named Duke scampering along at my son’s side.
“No way, we can’t,” Eva bemoaned.
“We can’t be babies, Eva,” Addy scolded. “We have to be brave, remember?”
It’s what I’d been drilling into them.
We have to be brave.
Of course, I never mentioned theyou can’t be babiespart, but Addy never hesitated to add her own spin on things.
But Addy’s championing did nothing because Eva plopped down onto her butt right in the middle of the path. “I am poops.”
I breathed out a sigh of frustration, then I sucked it up because I could do this. Whatever it took.
I slung the two bags I was carrying higher over my shoulders and bent down to pick her up under the arms. “Okay, sweet girl. Up you go.”
A groan left me as I tried to hitch her to my hip and balance everything else.
But the sole of my flip-flops, which turned out to be a really terrible choice for hiking through the mountains, slipped on a loose patch of dirt. It sent me slipping to the side and Eva scrambling to cling to my neck. “Eek! I falling, Mommy!”
I scrambled to readjust my hold while a heavy duffel slid down my opposite arm. “Hold onto Mommy’s neck,” I wheezed.
“Don’twowwy, Mommy. I got you.” She beamed as she squeezed me tight, showing me all her tiny, gapped teeth.
My chest expanded.
This…this was why I’d sacrifice it all.
Somehow, I managed to right myself, hiking her higher and sucking in a deep breath, then that breath was getting ripped right back out of my lungs when I realized Cash was suddenly standing right there, a foot away. “Give her to me.”
It was gruff and curt and hard, as if our mere existences put him out.
“I have her.” My arms trembled with the weight.
Great. I was getting defensive now? When I was the one who was begging him for mercy?
But I couldn’t help it. Couldn’t help the flash of hurt that penetrated as I realized I might not know Cash Cunningham at all.
Not anymore.
He glowered. “Give her to me, Daisy. You came here for a reason, and that was for me to take care of you, and that starts right now.”
No one had ever sounded so unfriendly in their offering.
Giggling, Eva tucked her head into my shoulder and peered out at him. “I want the biggwumpygiant to carry me.”
A splutter of surprised laughter erupted from me, then I pinched my lips closed because Cash wasn’t laughing.
He only scowled while he reached out with his meaty palms and pried my daughter from my arms. Reluctantly, I let her go, while Eva screeched her approval.
Wrapping her little arms around his thick neck as she turned that beaming smile up at him. “Now I don’t got tired legs because you can carry me, huh, BigGwumpyGiant?”
“Hey, no fair! What about me? You think you could carry me, Big Grumpy Giant?” Colin hollered.
Oh lord, my kids were not going to make this any easier on me.
Cash only grunted in response before he turned and wound past Colin and Addy and started prowling back through the forest, climbing up the mountain and dodging branches and ducking below limbs with my youngest daughter in his arms and loaded down with our belongings as if he were carrying nothing at all.
