Bekka grinned at him. “I can hold your hand.”
Mark held out a hand. “Well come over here and grab it.”
Rachel swung Mitch’s hand. “Daddy says we’re going to have McDonald’s for dinner.”
“Oh, I love a Big Mac and a McNugget, both.” Mark led the way to the parking lot, and they loaded the girls in, everyone chatting and excited.
Mark had a bittersweet smile on his face. “I love this, you know, how it’s not quiet all the time.”
“Well, I would say that I understand, but I don’t think I’ve had quiet ever.” Mitch winked at him. “I talked to Cam. We want you to come and stay for the holidays. You can work from there. There’s room. Cam’s in my bedroom now, so you can have the guest room. It’s really comfy. We want you there.”
“Really?”
Mitch nodded. “Yeah, really. We’ve got room. We’ve got a tree. There’s going to be tons of food and family and presents. Horses, kids. You know I miss you.”
Mark looked down at the floorboard, then looked back up with tears in his eyes. “I know I’m not a cowboy, and I know I don’t fit in there, but man, this has been a hard year.”
Dammit. He knew it. “Well, not work though, right? I mean, you said?—”
“Not work, personal, and I don’t want to get into it. I’ve had a couple of unfortunate happenstances on the dating front. I’m tired.”
This broke his damn heart. “So come rest at the noisiest place on Earth for the holidays, and then after that, you can make some decisions and breathe a little.” He hated this. He wanted to go kick somebody’s butt, go find whoever it was that made his friend sad and beat him down until?—
He had to wonder, could you beat somebody long enough that the person who they hurt felt better about it?
He wasn’t sure, but he was willing to try.
They pulled into the Thomas and Mack center, stopping at the gate to speak to security.
Mitch had no idea what to say to this guy. “Hi, I’m Cam’s lover, and I’m here to visit Cam’s horse and his bonus horse. I have absolutely no sort of identification to prove that I am who I say I am, but please let me in to where all of these super-expensive horses that are worth more than my house are.”
Fortunately he didn’t have to do anything because little Rachel piped up with, “Hey, Elmer, it’s us. We’re here to see Fire. It’s us. We’re Cam and Mitch’s little girls.”
The man—who was easily the size of his truck—grinned, one gold tooth glinting. “Oh, so you must be the dad.”
“Hi, yeah, I’m Mitch.” He grinned, shook his head. “I guess you’ve met these hooligans.”
Elmer bobbed his head, waved to Mark. “They’re good girls. I’m real sorry about Cam. Is he going to be okay?”
“He’s awake and talking, so he’s going to be fine. He got a lot of broken bones, but I’ll probably be coming out tomorrow to pick up the horses, and we’ll just drive them home. But I wanted to check on them, you know?”
“No problem. Go on in. Have a good day, girls.”
“Thank you, Elmer.”
Elmer. Jesus Christ.
“Your girls make quite an impression.” Butter wouldn’t melt in Mark’s mouth.
“They do at that.”
The pens were clean and well-kept, and there were security cameras and cowboys milling around, walking horses, chatting.
Mark pointed out a pen at the end of a row. “Park as close as you can over there. That’s where they’ve got them both. They’re just leaving them out, feeding them. They’ve got water, and then they load him back up in the trailer at night when everybody goes home, but there is security.”
“Perfect.” He parked the SUV. “Now, girls. I want you to be careful, okay? I don’t know who this other horse is, I don’t know anything that’s going on, and Fire is upset, so I need you girls to be good and stick with me and Uncle Mark, okay?”
“No problem.” Bekka grabbed Rachel’s hand and held on. “We got this, Daddy.”
