“Daddy, are you awake?” Little Rachel came dragging her teddy bear out into the kitchen, her bare toes curling on the linoleum tiles.
“Did we wake you up, baby?” He held open an arm, and she climbed into his lap, super careful not to jostle him. She had learned how to do this without hurting his back.
She gave Cam a shy glance, then ducked her head against his chest. “No. I had a dream. I was gonna look for you, but then I heard you out here. Can I have a piece of pizza?”
He grinned at Cam over the top of her head. “How about a little bit of milk and maybe a nibble of some of that leftover cornbread? Pizza is going to be awfully hard on your tummy at this time of night.”
“Okay, Daddy.” She yawned, and Cam watched her a bit like he would probably watch a strange unknown creature that had crawled out from under the brush. It made him laugh.
But it was Cam who got up and got her milk and cornbread wasn’t it? And who just quietly faded into the background while they sat and talked about her dream? It was Cam who carried his youngest back to bed because he couldn’t quite lift her, he was so tired.
It made him sad for himself, but it also made him admire Cam. The man had hidden depths, and he wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or not.
Chapter Five
Cam shouldered a square bale of hay into place in the barn so he could break it open and do some work in the stalls.
Mitch let his animals mostly self-shelter, which was fine. He would leave the stall doors open. But they needed straw and water and such. And Fire needed a more formal setup. He only got to free-range for part of the day.
That gelding was just smart enough to get himself into big trouble if Cam let him. He would find apples to eat, or pick up a giant stone, or get hoof rot or something if left to his own devices.
He was about done spreading straw in Fire’s stall, so he could grab his gelding and stick him in there and keep the wild bastard out of trouble, when Sarah came strolling into the barn, a black lace parasol over one shoulder, a book in the other hand, and a frowny face plastered all over herself.
“Well, hello there, Miss Sarah. How is the little black thundercloud today?”
“Daddy had to go to the doctor. He leftBekkain charge.” Her lower lip pooched out, and she slumped down onto another bale of hay he had yet to break open. He’d had to spend a bit of hisown money buying some bales because when he had broken into a couple of Mitch’s, he’d found mold.
Holy shit, he was alone here on this little place with Mitch’s girls. What the fuck? The man could have at least texted him and told him. They’d gotten into a routine for the last three days or so, but that didn’t mean he wanted to have to watch those kids all alone, even if Mitch was asleep in the bed. At least he was there in case Cam had some sort of questions.
He took a deep breath, because he knew he could never let Sarah see him sweat. “I reckon that means he actually left me in charge,” he said. “Don’t you think?”
“Uh-huh. But you were out here, so he told Bekka to watch over us, and I didn’t want to be watched.”
She neatly folded her parasol and put it to one side, then curled her feet up under her and opened her book, ignoring him completely.
It was like some sort of movie about one of those Jane Austen books. Study of a girl with a parasol, black tutu, and some old tome.
Cam shrugged and went back to work. If Rachel or Bekka needed him, one of them would come out. If they needed to know where Sarah was, they’d come looking for him. He had quite a bit of work to do. This place needed some shoring up before it was really even safe for Fire to be out here, let alone all the other animals they had on this place. And he needed to doctor Rosie today. Speaking of which, he could hear a tail thumping against the wall of the stall Rosie was in, and he knew that that big ol’ boofy dog had heard Miss Sarah come in.
“You want to say hi to Rosie?”
Her eyes lit up. “Yeah, I totally do. I was hoping you’d ask.”
She stood up and carefully put her book on the haybale, then she went right over to the stall and peeked over. “Hey, Rosie Posie. Mr. Snozy, how you doing? Hey, Rosie.”
The massive beast jumped right up, staring her down, and she rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you can be grumpy at me. Daddy told me about eye contact and stuff. We’re gonna be buddies. You just don’t know it yet. I need a friend, okay, and that’s gonna be your job. Your job is to be my only friend.”
All right, that was sad as hell. “Your sister’s not your friend?”
“No, my sister is my sister. If you met her, would you be her friend? And the baby’s just a baby. We have to figure out if she’s going to be friend material at this point. She looks like she’s totally just gonna be bubblegum pop.”
He didn’t even know what to say to that. “Bubblegum pop, huh?”
“Yeah, I’m more like industrial alt grunge-type stuff. Like I should have been born in the nineties.”
God help him, he didn’t know what to do. It was all he could do to keep his face straight. “You think so huh?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh. Daddy told me all about it—about flannel shirts and stompy boots. I like the music; it’s so cool. Music now is all ‘Oh, I love him’ and ‘I can rhyme a word with boy.’ So stupid, right?”
