He was not going to just sit there and wallow, he was not going to be there and let himself be ashamed. Mitch was going to be a damn good dad and let his eldest girl have what she wanted, because he could.
“Well, I think that we should get them, but I think you should only you pick out yours, and I’ll let both of your sisters pick out theirs. Does that sound fair?”
She bounced, smiling at him, and he noticed she was wearing a sweatshirt that had the Broncos logo on it. He bet it was from one of Cam’s brothers or sisters. He was a Lions fan himself.
“So, are you and Cam gonna wear couples costumes this Halloween?” Now she did meet his gaze, and there it was, the question that he’d been dreading for weeks, and she’d managed to slip it in on him before he could even be ready to be worried again.
“Wicked child. I don’t think so. We haven’t talked about it. Do you think we should?”
Her mouth twisted and her nose wrinkled. “I don’t know. It seems sort of weird, but I know that Marissa’s momma and daddy—she’s in Girl Scouts with me—they’re going to be Morticia and Gomez, and so I thought I’d ask.”
“I don’t think so, just because we haven’t been able to plan it. Maybe next year.” Hopefully that answered two of her questions in one fell swoop.
“Oh. Okay.” She beamed at him. “I bet Cam goes as a cowboy or as an Old West sheriff.”
“I bet he does. He already has the clothes, huh?” He felt like they were on more solid ground here, safer ground.
“Uh-huh. I saw him out in the pen working with the new mare. He was wearing his chaps. It was kind of cool. It was like watching something out of a movie.”
He was relieved on two fronts. That Rebekka hadn’t said something about how Cam was really hotandthat she hadn’t said it looked like something out ofYellowstoneor some other violent adult TV show.
Mitch wasn’t set for either one of those eventualities.
“So when are we going to get our costumes, Daddy?” Rebekka was picking at his shirt and his pants now, like she did when she was trying to pretend he had loose threads or fuzz or something on him. He probably did have dog hair. Rosie was big on shedding and slobber.
“Did you want to just order online, or did you want to go look at the Walmart to see if they have something there? I don’t know if they’re going to have anything that lights up at the store.”
“Amazon or stores online have lots of choices. Did you know that some of the girls in my troop have their own phones already?” She asked that question, oh so carefully.
“Do they?”
She nodded. “Yeah, they do. It’s kinda cool because they can look stuff up online and stuff by themselves. Sometimes there’s scary stuff, though.” She shot him a glance. “I told them we couldn’t afford it yet. Not that it was how you thought I was too much of a baby to have one.”
“I don’t think you’re a baby, Rebekka.” They’d been over this, but he knew it was hard. Peer pressure was tough on kids her age. “I just think you’re an awful young person to have to have all that worry about things like text messages and social media.”
She gave him a sidelong glance that told him she kind of agreed with him and she kind of hated him for it. “I understand, Daddy. I’m not mad.”
“Okay, well, you and I will sit down and we’ll look at your costumes. At least you and Rachel, we’ll see if Sarah either wants to find something online or work on her own costume.” Mitchknew he was kind of glossing over the whole cellphone issue, but it worked.
“I bet Sarah would maybe like to go to the thrift shop to look for something for hers. She wants to do Wednesday at the dance party, you know, with the gown.”
Lord, he had seen that YouTube video. He never had time to sit down and watch the series with Sarah, but she loved it. “I bet we could probably find something. Miz Halley knows a lady who does some sewing.” Miz Halley knew somebody who did everything, so surely one of her daughters, daughters-in-law, or their friends could help Sarah alter a dress to look kind of like the one in the TV show.
Beckka rose and kissed his cheek, looking way less worried than she had when they’d sat down together. “I love you, Daddy,” she said. “Thank you. This is going to be the best Halloween ever.”
God, he hoped so. He watched her run off, worried that if even the slightest thing went wrong, she was going to get hysterical. The peace in the house, the feeling of prosperity was still so fragile and new he wasn’t sure if it could handle any kind of disaster.
So he reckoned he needed to stop borrowing trouble and looking for that disaster, didn’t he? That would sure as hell bring it on.
His phone beeped, and he picked it up, seeing a text from Cam.He got a picture of a very phallic-looking corndog.
He snort-laughed, his whole body shaking with it.
Mitch gave up trying to text everything he wanted to say and typed in,
The phone started ringing, and he answered when Cam’s name popped up. He was ready to have a little adult conversation time. He hadn’t realized until Cam went away to go do his event that he would miss it so much.
