Mark opened the door. “You ladies need to figure out what we want to have for lunch, while we wait on your daddy.”
“Can we have Subway?” Bekka asked. She rarely asked for anything specific, so he had a feeling Mark would say yes.
“Sure, kiddo. We can even order it so they’ll deliver, and we can let your daddy get back to the hospital.”
Sarah ran up to the fence, climbed up onto the first rung. “Fire, Fire! I’m here!”
Fire whinnied and reared back and then began to run towards Sarah, and Mitch wrapped one arm around her waist, and she swatted at him. “Don’t, Daddy, he’s fine!”
No, he was unhappy and he was scared and he was frustrated and he needed his dad. He wasn’t fine.
“Hey, old man, what you doin’?” He met Fire’s energy with calm.
Fire ran up to the fence, squealing to a halt right before he got there. Then he snorted and stamped one foot, proving his displeasure.
“Fire, you evil son of a bitch. You stop it.”
Fire tossed his head and snorted and whinnied and told him all about it, and he kept talking. His eyes were on the other horse in the pen with Fire, though. She was a bay with a blaze on her face and she also had an injury. He didn’t think it was bad, and it had obviously been treated, but surely this wasn’t the horse Cam had gone down on, was it?
“Huh.” He took out his phone and grabbed a picture so he could show Cam. “I’ll ask him about it.”
“I can tell you all about it.” A big old cowboy came up, nodded to him. “These Cam’s girls?”
Whoa. He found himself nodding without a thought. “They are. This is Rachel, Rebekka, and Sarah, my daughters. I’m Mitch Gonzales.”
“I’m Dale. Dale Brooks.” The guy took his hand and shook it. “He was hazing for me when he got hurt. They arrested that guy that threw out the fireworks, but he was like sixteen, so you know nothing’s going to come of it. Anyway, that’s Copper Penny. She’s the one that Cam was riding when the fireworks hit. He really wanted her bad, like, to take her home. I talked to Terry and told him it’s his damn fault that he wasn’t the one hazing, so it’s his damn fault that Cam got hurt.” The big guy shrugged. “Anyways. The simple fact is that she ain’t no good in the arena. She won’t even go back in. She’s skittish and she’s unhappy, so we made a fair deal, and he signed her over to Cam. So, you got yourself another horse. She’ll be good breeding stock.”
Christ, this man could talk.
He realized he was standing there, staring, so he shook his head. “Wow. Cam’ll be…so pleased.”
“She’s a good girl.” Sarah shook her head and kind of scowled a bit. “She’s a very good girl. She’s going to be my good friend. What’s her name again?”
“Copper Penny.”
“Okay, Copper Penny, come here! Penny! Penny!”
“Baby girl, she’s not gonna—” He’d be damned if that fucking horse didn’t come right up to the gate as if she was drawn to that little girl.
Sarah loved on her, completely unafraid, completely at ease with these great big horses, and Mitch couldn’t be more proud of his goth-y, witch-y, weird, horse-loving baby.
Mark, on the other hand, was cracking up, and he might beat the man to death.
“Well, are you the one taking care of these guys?”
Dale nodded. “I am. I’ll be here. I made the short go, so I’ll be here until the end. When do you think you’re gonna be able to come take him home?”
Like he knew the vagaries of doctors. They did what they wanted. “I imagine they’re letting Cam go in the morning. Once he’s settled in, we’ll probably spend one more night at the hotel just so he can breathe. Or maybe not. I don’t know. It’ll probably be tomorrow we’ll come get him if not the day after.”
He needed to work this out because there was only two rooms and three beds. There were already a lot of them. He could probably sleep on the couch, but really, the easiest answer was if they got him out by noon, they could conceivably be home by supper time.
Which reminded him.
Shit, he had to call Cam’s momma. That was why the girls had woken him up in the first place. She was going to kill him.
“You just let me know what you need from me, and I’ve got your back.” Dale handed him a business card. “There’s my number. Text, call, whatever. Cam’s also got my number. I know he doesn’t have his phone right now.”
“I’m bringing him his phone as soon as I go back to the hospital. I just wanted to check on the horses. He was concerned.”
