“That would be a little odd, but I can see it. Girls can be roofers, too.”
“I bet Rachel would be good at being a contractor, at the very least, but possibly more of a general contractor type, like the boss.” As he said that, he was watching Rachel pull the same little boy she’d been running around with across the floor by his shirt front as he dug in his heels and tried not to go with her. It was futile. She was way too strong for him.
“I can see that as well.” Lori patted his knee. “Now let me get back to work.”
“You really don’t have to—” But she was gone.
And then Sarah was back. “Dad. Can Teresa spend the night?” She ducked her head, her hair falling over her face. “I know I’m a tiny bit grounded because of Rachel, but I really want to be able to make friends.”
“As long as you don’t get together and tell your sister more ghost stories, you can absolutely have Teresa over.” He had no idea what he was going to feed them, but that was okay. He wouldn’t deny Sarah this opportunity.
“Thanks, Dad.” She ran off, looking lighter somehow than she had only moments ago.
About the time he was done burping the baby and pondering how his night was going to go, the door to the kitchen opened and Cam breezed in, his hands laden with bags. “Hey,” Cam said from the pass-through, “How’s it going?”
“Good. I think, you deserter.”
Cam snuffled out a laugh, unpacking bags. “I am not a deserter,” he said. “I just had the opportunity to go run a bunch of errands while someone else was here to help you out.”
“Well, I’m glad you got your shirt.”
“Yeah me too. It’s hanging up in my truck.” Cam put a bunch of stuff away in the fridge, then headed for the back door again. “I’ll be right back. I left a crapload of things in the car.”
“Do you want me to help you unload, Cam?” Bekka popped up like a little jack-in-the-box.”
“That would be great, kiddo. Come on. I’ve got all kinds of food from the store.”
Bekka headed out behind Cam and he shook his head. Somewhere he’d lost the plot again, which seemed to happen a lot with Cam. But he was grateful for the man, for not being gone all day and for showing up with food.
“Daddy!” Bekka came in carrying four bags, two in each hand. “Mr. Cam got fried chicken at the grocery store.”
“Wow, that’s nice.” He loved grocery store fried chicken. It was lowbrow, but it heated up like a dream.
“Uh-huh. And he got mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw to go with it. I think he also got some egg rolls for Sarah.”
He had to grin at the idea. Sarah loved those stupid crunchy egg rolls with the red sauce. But that also meant Cam had gotten something special for Bekka and Rachel. He didn’t know what yet. “Well, you’ll have to all tell him thank you when it comes time for us to have dinner. Hopefully he got enough for Miss Teresa, too.”
“Oh, he did. He got lots of everything.”
Mitch was trying not to be… not grumpy. Maybe ashamed, because grumpy wasn’t the word. Cam seemed to be hitting all the right notes with the kids, and every time he went into town, he came back with a crapload of stuff Mitch would probably never be able to pay him back for.
“That’s amazing, kiddo. I’ll tell him thank you, too.”
“You can tell me now.” Cam breezed back in, another dozen bags in his hands, and put them up on the counter. “That’s everything, Bekka. Thanks for your help.”
“Okay.” She wandered off, and he hoped she was going to go play some more, even though she swore eleven-year-olds didn’t play.
“So polite, that kid,” Cam said. “Not anything like her daddy.”
“Ha-ha.” He bounced the baby on his arm and got a messy burp on his shoulder for his trouble. “You’re hilarious. Seriously though, I really do appreciate the food. Teresa is going to spend the night, so we were probably not going to be able to just eat franks and beans out of a can.”
“Like I would let you guys eat that anyway, because ew.” Cam unloaded the rest of the bags, putting half of the stuff in the fridge and the rest away in cabinets. Mitch thought he saw a couple of bags of chocolate in there and he knew that had to go immediately on a high shelf so the girls didn’t see it and get right into it. “You got roped into bottle duty, huh?”
“I seem to be the only one who is sitting still.”
Cam studied him for a moment, then grabbed a Coke and came over to sit across from him, popping it open. “Good. You’re supposed to be resting still.”
“When are you leaving?” It was supposed to come out as a tease. Instead, it came out sort of harsh.
