“Is it okay if we just go to the big store, kiddo?”
“Uh-huh, they carry a series I like. It’s okay, and maybe I could look at purses.”
“Do you need a purse?” He pulled into the parking lot at the Walmart, figuring that he was going to lose his shit one of these days, but he did like this kid.
“No, but Rachel does. She likes the really cute ones with all the flowers and kitties and things on them. Bekka likes nail polish. Daddy doesn’t let her have the fancy kind, but the ninety-nine-cent ones she can have. She needs more nail polish remover too.”
Lord have mercy. He was going to end up with a cart full of shit to take home. Way more than underwear and socks. T-shirts.
“I have a little money. I’ve saved twenty-three dollars. That should be enough for a little purse and a nail polish.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake—like he wasn’t going to get those girls what they needed. He wasn’t cheap.
He almost snapped, and then he saw the little change purse with its crumpled dollar bills and piles of coins picked up fromthe dirt and earned from killing flies—the girls earned a nickel a piece—and he thought better of it.
“We’ll deal with all that at the end, kiddo. Put your pennies away so you don’t lose any.”
“Okay.” She gave him a sideways glance from under her hair. “So how do you know Daddy?”
“Oh, we went to school together, honey. Your momma, too.”
“Yeah?” Her eyes went wide. “So you knew her?”
“I did. Did I not say that?” He couldn’t remember what he’d said to her, because they had these long and winding conversations.
“Maybe?” She scrunched up her nose. “Sometimes I don’t listen so good.”
“Uh-huh. I’ll tell you about it later.” He had a feeling that kid saw everything. And he needed to get her into the Walmart before she asked any more questions he had no desire to answer.
Chapter Eight
Mitch was fixing to lose his mind.
Miz Halley and her second-oldest daughter Leanne were over here cleaning. Then Cam’s brothers’ wives —Lori and Lizzie—had brought their eleven children with them to play with his girls.
Rachel, of course, was absolutely over the moon. Eleven new children to play with, and make friends with, and love on.
Bekka was making friends with Lizzie’s two oldest because, of course, the woman had to have two sets of twins and a set of triplets. Given that Bekka was galloping toward her twelfth birthday in December, that worked out.
He had no idea where his middle child was. Probably hiding in a barn. Or up at the very top of the house in her alcove. He didn’t know.
“Don’t you worry about a thing, Mitch. You just sit there and relax.” Miz Halley patted his hand, smiled, and he wanted to scream.
“Yes, ma’am.” He was going to go crazy if he had to sit here and relax for one more second with all these women in his house.
At least the two older sisters weren’t here, although he thought he’d quite like Diana. She lived in Denver and worked with her wife—something to do with computers.
He had to wonder where the hell Cam was, why he wasn’t here dealing with his family.
Leanne smiled at him, baby in a sling over her chest. “I appreciate you letting everyone come over. This last bit of summer, and everybody’s always bored. A new ranch is at least new, right?”
“Uh, sure.” Rachel raced by with a little boy who had a snotty nose, but all boys did, so he let it go. “Hey, where’s Cam?”
Leanne chuckled. “I think he got wind we were coming. He’s running errands. He had to go to the UPS store in Alamosa to get his new uniform shirt, and then he was going to drop it off at the dry cleaners, and he wanted to look at a mare…”
“For what? Fire is only a five-year-old gelding, right?” That was damn young in terms of a rodeo horse, at least a roping one.
“He wants to get into hazing and roping horses at some point. Can’t breed up a gelding,” she pointed out.
