Page 16 of The Cowboy's Bullfighter
“I mean, it’s okay for a breakfast pizza, but not for supper.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I like your pizza, Uncle,” Mina said.
“Thank you, my darling girl.” He winked at her in the rearview mirror.
“You’re welcome. I want those weird sausages.”
“You got it, kiddo.” He’d had to put Li’l Smokies on a pizza once because he’d forgotten pepperoni at the store, and Mina was hooked on her first bite. It was bizarre.
He loved her face.
“Thanks!”
Nell giggled. “You’re so weird, Mina.”
“I know.” Mina didn’t sound at all put out by that. It was crazy, how the young ones bounced back so much faster than the older kids. Well, maybe it wasn’t surprising, but it was still wild. Oh, Mina still had periodic meltdowns, but she was so resilient.
Things were so much harder for Benji. And for Ricky, who was almost pathologically eager to please. He and the other two were also on their way home.
They pulled in at his place, which was a nice little fifteen-acre spread butting up against the Chiara ranch.
After the huge monstrosity that was his house, it was just enough for him to run around on a tractor and pretend to doshit, but aside from the three dogs, he didn’t have any animals. That would change now Lucy was in 4-H. He hoped she decided on rabbits…
He parked, then looked back at the kids. “Okay, you guys. We have a visitor, okay? Mina, Mason, he’s your dad’s brother. So we’re all gonna be nice, okay?”
“Why wouldn’t we be nice, uncle?” Mina said, giving him this curious little look, purple glitter streaked across one cheek. “Being nice is good. Being nice means recess. Being nice means?—”
“Coloring! And reading time!” Nell added.
Obviously, they were learning about being nice in kindergarten together.
Mason, though, that wasn’t going to be so easy.
“Is he like…nasty?”
“Brooks?” Lord that man was a cowboy—one hell of a horseman, not so much on rodeoing, but not one for settling down. Just a cowboy. “No, son. No, no. He’s just real sad. He was your daddy’s brother, and so he just found out that your daddy and your momma passed on.”
Mina looked at him. “No. Uncle Coop, they died.”
“Right, they died.” She was very specific about that, very clear, and Coop was used to being way more gentle.
“And they went to heaven. Lucy says so.”
“Well, Lucy is in the know.” Lord help him. “Everything is going to be fine. We’re going to go in and make pizzas, but first we have to go tell Kase all about Girl Scouts and you, son.” He fastened Mason with the look. “You need a bath. You don’t get pizza until you’re clean because, oh my God.”
“I didn’t tackle myself, Uncle.” Mason looked so offended that he cracked up.
“No, you were doing the tackling. I’m going to have to move you up to another league. You make those other little boys look like they’re all fun-sized.”
Mason grinned, flexing for him.
Lord help these children. Somebody needed to.
He got Frick and Frack out of their car seats, pulled Nell’s car seat out so Kase could have it back, and then followed the cloud of glittery Girl Scouts up to the house. He kind of shuddered at the thought of what that meeting room had to look like, because damn.
The lights on the front were just beginning to come on. Lord, he wanted Ricky to get his ass home. He didn’t like the sixteen-year-old driving after dark.
