“I can ask him.” She bounced. “What are we gonna make?”
“Well, I was thinking chocolate pie for one. Cam says his momma makes good pumpkin and pecan, but can’t make chocolate pie for sh—anything.”
“Oh, I like chocolate pie. I like it a lot. Can we have whipped cream?”
“Sure, baby, why not? I like whipped cream too.”
She grinned at him and crawled up to sit in his lap. “I’m glad your back is better. I was worried.”
He let himself sit with the pang those words gave him. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. Bekka said if you died we’d have to leave, and the mean granny would come and take us away and make us wear dresses all the time and no makeup.”
Jesus. What did Bekka remember about Allison’s folks? “I don’t let you wear makeup now.”
“Yeah, but you let us play makeup.” She cuddled right in to his chest. “Bekka says when she starts middle school, she could wear makeup.”
“She does, does she? Wow.”
Rachel leaned back and met his eyes. “Daddy, what does happen to us if you die?”
He didn’t know what to say; he froze because he hadn’t considered it, which was stupid.
He knew it was stupid.
He had a dangerous job, and things happened, but he also couldn’t believe that God would take him away after He’d taken the girl’s momma.
But Rebekka was right. The girls’ next available relatives were Allison’s mom and dad. Fuck.
“Can we be Cam’s? I mean, if you die.”
He stared at Rachel for about half a second, then he nodded. “Yes.”
The word popped out of his mouth because it was the easiest thing to do, partly because it was just anything but Allison’s parents, but mostly because he believed it.
He believed that if something happened to him, Cam would raise his babies.
And that was a huge relief. Cam was a good man, and he’d taken to the kids like a duck to water. Maybe with a few ‘surprise alligators!’ moments mixed in. The kids could still make Camfreak out, but he also knew the man was deep in love with his girls already.
She smiled at him, so satisfied, and he knew he’d answered right. “Oh, good, good. I like Cam. So, pie. Are we going to make a bottom?”
“A crust? Yeah.” One of the wildest things about being a parent was how these amazing conversations could happen and then the girls just went on.
There he was, sitting there with his soul in his hands, trying to figure out what the hell had happened, but he was the daddy, and he still had to go make a pie crust.
He was going to have to talk to Cam or maybe ask Cam’s dad if this was normal. Had he felt like this?
They had seven kids. Surely at least one of them made him feel like he couldn’t quite keep up.
Although maybe it was after four or five, it got easier, and he stopped worrying about it. They had done it so many times.
Rachel had been his easiest baby so far. Bekka ran hot and cold, although it had been Sarah who was the hardest. No question that baby was tough. “Speaking of, where are your sisters?”
“Huh?”
“Your sisters? Sarah? Bekka? You live with them?”
“Oh!” Sarcasm was lost on his baby girl. Thank God for small favors. “Sarah’s in the barn reading a book with the dog. Bekka’s on the iPad with the Girl Scouts doing a thing.”
