“I’m sure she could. She’s kind of terrifying.” Cam shook his head. “Come on, out to the kitchen. I’ll feed you. Do you like pizza? I can’t remember.”
“Are there people who don’t like pizza?” As long as it didn’t have broccoli on it, he could handle it. Broccoli he would draw the line at.
“You’d be surprised at how many rodeo guys don’t eat it. It’s too carby, too greasy. Too something, something.” Cam took his arm and steered him toward the main part of the house, toward the kitchen. He reckoned it didn’t matter whether Cam could figure this out or not because the guy just kept moving. That seemed to be his MO, though—just keep moving.
“Well, my girls love pizza. I’m sure you’ve heard all about it. Jalapenos and pepperoni for Sarah, sausage and onion and peppers for Bekka, and the baby wants mushroom.” Him? He liked green olives and pepperoni.
Cam nodded, eyes wide as saucers. “Oh, yeah. I’ve never met a little one who liked mushrooms.”
Mitch huffed out an amused little breath. “I have to tell you, there is nothing average about my girls. They’re all just personalities.”
And he adored them.
He wanted to be better for them, but he wasn’t.
Somehow it had been easier when there were two of them, to be young and stupid and in love and broke.
It was as if to do it with one baby was adorable. To do it with two babies was a challenge. To do it with three babies and no wife? Sucked.
“They really are. They told me what to get on your pizza, too, so I got it.” Cam got him down in a kitchen chair, gentle enough that he didn’t whack his brace on the back of it.
He groaned, feeling stiff all over but also somehow a lot better than he had earlier.
Cam moved around, pulling out a pizza box from the fridge, and putting his big skillet on the stove. He wasn’t sure how that was going to work, but who knew what Cam was up to? “Once you have supper, you could have a pill and then head back to bed to get another round of sleep.”
“I’ve done slept the clock all the way around, I think.”
“Only half the day.” Cam grinned. “And it is the middle of the night, so you don’t want to get all off your schedule.”
“Sure. You can head on out any time.”
“No, I really can’t.” Cam shook his head. “The girls asked me not to leave. And while I’ll probably stretch out on the couch this time instead of sitting next to your bed because I wasn’t sure whether we were going to wake up or not. I’ll hang out till at least morning.”
“You are being good to me, and I do appreciate it.” Mitch drank Cam up with his gaze. He had to, didn’t he? The man was damn handsome, even still. Fucker was lean and tall, and he still had all his fingers—weren’t ropers supposed to lose those?He was pretty sure they were. Cam was the epitome of cowboy, though. “I’m not sure why. I mean, God knows we didn’t split up nice.”
Cam glanced over, those green eyes gleaming. “True. True, but that’s been quite a few years, hasn’t it? And well, we’ve both spent a lot of years apart, not particularly pining for each other.”
“Hey, I don’t know what I was supposed to do. You had a life, and so did I, and I needed to figure out what to do.” He’d loved his wife. Allison had been hilarious, genuinely funny, understanding, and caring. She’d had a girlfriend about the time he had a boyfriend. When both relationships had broken up, they’d turned to one another for a little peace, some succor.
“Well, Mitch, you seem to have done that. You got three babies out of the deal, and this place.”
He lifted his chin, firmed his lips. “I did. I mean, I know I look all broke-dick and everything, but I’ve been fighting hard. I’m trying to keep the bills paid, keep them together, and keep the county from showing up here. Hell, I’m fighting to keep this house. Not all of us have a support system. Allison and I were each other’s support systems.”
Cam had the good grace to look down and look away. “Yeah, I am sorry to hear about that. That sucks. That’s a terrible way to lose somebody. Hell, anything is terrible, but that had to have been an awful shock.”
He didn’t want Cam to feel sorry for him. He didn’t want Cam to be all, “Oh, you know, life’s been hard.” He wanted everybody to be proud of him. Damn it, he just couldn’t quite manage it.
“Well, anyway, my girls are the most important thing in the world to me, and I appreciate you taking care of them today. I didn’t think I was as bad off as I was, and I just lost it. I was hurt so badly I just passed out.”
“I’ve done that. Did you know that? I was working at a little rodeo, and they asked me to fill in for the safety man who wasout because he had the flu. I was roping a bull, and he turned back on me, tried to gore my horse. Thankfully, I didn’t lose my horse, but he went down on my leg, broke it real bad, and I just passed right out there in the arena.”
“No shit?” He stared at Cam wide-eyed because that sounded like hell on earth.
“Yep. Thank God, when he got up he stood still instead of making a run for it, because he would have dragged me along, and I might have lost a lot of skin if not my life over that.” Cam put a tiny bit of water in the pan and then started heating it up. He stared while Cam took pizza out of the box and put it in the pan and then covered it with a piece of foil. Well, this was new and different. Maybe this was a tactic off YouTube or something, but he hoped that didn’t ruin his damn pizza.
Cam winked over at him when he gave that pizza a concerned look. “This is way better than microwaving it, trust me, and it doesn’t dry it out like it does in the toaster oven.”
“If you say so.” He sat back a little, not leaning on his back so much as resting his head, closing his eyes. Everything still ached pretty hard from having fallen on the floor. His belly rumbled and his cheeks heated because damn it, that was all he needed was to embarrass himself with Cam even more.
