“Hey, babe, how’s it going out there on the road?”
Cam had needed to drive to California, so it wasn’t as if he was somewhere on the Turquoise Circuit or the Colorado state rounds.
“Food sucks. Would you believe that I am missing meatballs?”
Mitch hooted. “I’m not sure I would believe it.”
Of course, the request these days was mac and cheese. It seemed to be the one thing he could get all three girls to agree on every time, and it didn’t matter if it was the boxed kind, or the baked kind, or the frozen kind. He could serve it out of the microwave, he could serve it out of a pot on the stove, or he could spend hours making it with bechamel sauce and everything.
It didn’t matter; the girls would eat it.
Soon he was going to see if he couldn’t try them on chicken spaghetti. How much fun would that be?
“I have to tell you, I am going not to show the girls your corny dog because they’d be jealous. You know how kids are with fair food.”
“How are they doing? Are they missing me?”
Well, listen to that.
He thought maybe Campbell Halley missed the girls as much as they missed him.
“Bekka’s already asked after you, thank you very much.” Mitch stood, walking out a bit of stiffness. He was learning to hate sitting for long periods of time. “She’s finally got the nerve up to talk to me about Halloween. Apparently, they’re going to have a very busy season.”
“I’m assuming you’ve heard about the light-up costumes?”
He blinked, hurt that Cam already had. “They’ve talked to you?”
Cam’s snort was wild, and the incredibly horsey sound made him smile. “Nah, nah, that was Lori. Apparently, Sarah and Teresa are planning some sort of a couples costume from that Netflix show, she likes. And Lori was warning me the other two both wanted light-up costumes. The Junior Girl Scouts have decided they are going as light-up unicorns. And apparently the Brownies have decided they all want to be light-up witches.”
Mitch could see that. Maybe he’d talk to Lori, tell her that he’d like the gossip too.
Not that he hated getting it from Cam, because he didn’t, but he would like it sooner.
“Now we talked about it, I’m gonna let everybody pick out their costumes and see if somebody can’t help Sarah with whatever she needs help with on the costume front. Speaking of couples costumes?—”
“Babe, I love you, but we’re not dressing up as Raggedy Ann and Andy again.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You looked really cute in that dress during our Junior year.” He snorted. “No, but Rebekka did ask if you and I were going to have couples costumes. I told her probably not this year because we hadn’t had a chance to plan one.”
Hopefully that was the right thing to do.
“Well, look at her being all brave! I figured for sure it would be Sarah who asked first.”
“I was actually thinking Rachel, to be honest, because she doesn’t know not to ask. But yeah, Bekka did ask.” And Mitch was proud of her. That had to take a little bravery.
“Was it weird?”
“No, I mean worrying about it happening was way weirder than anything that actually happened.”
“Ain’t that always the case though?” Cam snorted. “I swear to God, I have stressed more and worried more about things in my life than have ever actually gone wrong.”
Mitch couldn’t say that, at least not and mean it, but he understood. “Yeah, she was cool. She just wanted to know if you and I had a plan. She also was very worried. She wanted to make sure that you were going to be here for the Girl Scout party and trick or treating and Thanksgiving.”
There was a pause and a soft sigh. “We’re gonna have to talk about Thanksgiving, honey, I mean, Momma’s gonna want us to come over to the house, and it’s gonna be a huge group of folks. Are you sure the girls are gonna be cool with that? Are you cool with that? I know you said turkey day could be fraught.”
“It has been in the past, maybe because I tried to make things…perfect.” He pondered that, but he thought it would be fun, and for once, he wouldn’t have to cook everything or, he had to be honest, order it from the grocery store because that was a lot to ask one poor dad to do.
“We can talk to the girls together and make sure that they’re all okay with it. Sarah will be so good to hang out with Teresa, and you know how Rachel is. It’s really just going to be Bekka who might fuss, and if your mom would let her come help in the kitchen…” That would ease things quite a bit.
