“Princess, can you give us a minute while the adults talk?” I ask Naomi.
She sighs and goes into the living room.
“Hi, Bekah,” I say and pull her into a hug.
She freezes for a moment, but seems to relax as she hugs me back.
I release her, and she looks up at me with tears in her eyes. “You good?” I ask her.
She blinks and wipes her eyes quickly. It’s the first time I’ve hugged her since she came back. It’s time to start moving on.
“So you can sleep in my bed. I changed the sheets and everything. There’s food in the fridge for dinner, and popcorn, Naomi’s favorite. Naomi has all kinds of ideas for what to do tonight, so I’ll leave that to you two. If you need anything, Aunt Dixie and Uncle Mason are home. If there’s an emergency. I have something to do for a few hours, but I’ll stay at their house. But again, you can always call me if you need something or have a question.”
Rebekah nods and looks around.
I explain Naomi’s bedtime routine and ask her to try to stick to it even though they will probably stay up past her bedtime. Which is fine. June will pop in tomorrow morning to see Rebekah out, and so I don’t have to wake Naomi up to get out to the cattle.
“Naomi told me she gets up before five to go move cattle and all that stuff. Has she always gotten up that early?” Rebekah asks.
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “When she was little, I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t leave a two-year-old by herself in the house. Aunt Dixie was busy. So I’d strap her to my chest while we were out and she’d usually fall back asleep and then I’d come back to the main house and Aunt Dixie would watch her for the rest of the day.”
Rebekah’s lips thin, and I can’t figure out what she thinks about it. It doesn’t matter. I’ve done my best, but her lack of response tells me she doesn’t really like it.
Ignoring the irritation building in my stomach, I grab my wallet, keys, and hat.
“Princess, come here and give me a hug.”
Naomi drops what she’s doing and runs over to me. I pick her up, squeezing her hard, and kissing her cheek. I already talked to her about if something goes wrong, or there’s a problem, go straight to her Grandma. Her and my aunt also have walkie talkies and I said she could ask Grandma to come through those too.
“Be good and have fun,” I tell her.
“We will, Daddy!” Naomi says with a bright smile.
I chuckle and set her down, and she runs back to what she was doing.
“Have fun,” I say to Rebekah, and leave before I change my mind.
I take the truck down to the main house and find my entire family having dinner and hanging out.
“What’s all this?” I ask. Tatum, Fletcher, June, and Ledger, along with my aunt and Uncle are all sitting there.
“Having dinner, what does it look like?” Fletcher says.
“Are you all…” I trail off, the words stuck in my throat.
“We wanted you to go have a good time with Mae and not worry about things here,” Aunt Dixie says.
Everyone nods in agreement, and I see the walkie-talkie sitting on the table.
“I know you’re nervous, but you have nothing to worry about, Coop,” Tatum says.
I take a stuttered breath. My family is full of amazing people.
“Thank you all,” I rasp.
“Dude go. You’re going to be late to Mae’s,” June snips at me.
“I’m going, but I wanted to let y’all know I’m headed out.”
