Page 42 of Broken SEAL'S Secret Baby
I settle back in my seat and consider this.
We have been doing all right in the penthouse. But if Cece is going to need extra watching, I can use some back up. Besides, I miss my roommate. If I could talk Charles into it, and if Grace was willing…
I daydream a little about having my friend at least visit us. I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I know we are bumping into a field.
The men all pile out of the cab, and Cece wakes up. “Where are we?” she asks.
“On your daddy’s country property,” I tell her. “I think they’re setting up the camper so we can have a good place to sleep tonight.”
“Are we camping?” Cece asks excitedly. “Mommy and Daddy took me camping last year. It was fun! I caught a fish.”
“More like glamping,” I say.
“What’s glamping?” she asks, picking up on the new word.
“It means that we have a nice dry camper to sleep in, where we won’t have any trouble with mosquitos or coyotes,” I say, unbuckling the safety harness on the booster seat.
“I’d like to see some coyotes,” Cece says. “Aren’t they kind of like dogs?”
“Kind of,” I say. I’m saved from further explanation by James rapping on the glass. I reach around the driver’s side seat back and disengaged the child safety lock. That lets me open the back door.
James reaches up and lifts Cece down, and I climb out after her. “Charles isn’t doing too good,” he says. “That bum hip of his is giving him trouble. We probably ought to see if we can get a mobile medical unit out here, somehow. Dr. Macy is good, but she’s stretched thin. And with this many people, we’re bound to have some sickness and accidents, even if we aren’t visited by the big C.”
I shoulder the cat carrier, get my laptop bag, and Cece’s personal bag. It means I am kind of overloaded, but James has Cece and the duffel of food supplies.
He and Charles haven’t bothered to unhook the camper from the truck but put out the stabilizers. “I’ll come back and lock the truck,” James says. “I got Larry bunked in with a couple of college guys, so he should be all right.”
“He’s been super helpful, but I’m glad we won’t have to share with him,” I say. “Where are you sleeping tonight?”
“In the truck,” James says. “Where else? I’m not going to take a chance that some dude drives off with my baby sister, my boss and the boss’s kid.”
“James!” I exclaim.
“I’ll be fine,” he says. “The bench folds down into a bed.Dad and I used to take the truck fishing. He’d take the bench, and I got the passenger side seat.”
“Oh.” I seem to be saying that a lot. James is ten years older than me. He and Dad had bonded a lot, while I mostly stayed at home or had been away at camp or school. It gave me some things to think about.
The camper wobbles just a little as we get in, but it is mostly solid on its wheels.
The inside of the camper is shadowy, but I can see Charles sprawled on a wide bed at the rear of it. “Sorry, Kate,” he says as we enter, “You and Cece have the loft. I’m not going to make it up there tonight.”
“Too much stair-master?” I joke, hoping to lighten the mood.
“Yeah,” he says. “My muscles weren’t ready for that downhill hike.”
“I made up the bed already,” James puts in. “I’ll get Cece up there, then you can tuck her in, Kate. Once you are settled, I’ll be in the truck. Text me if whatever.”
“We’d better wake her and let her use the bathroom,” I say. “It’s been a long trip. Besides, I don’t want her to fall down the steps because she doesn’t realize where she is.”
“Good point,” Charles agrees before James can protest.
Cece is delighted with the “little house” but is tired enough that it isn’t hard to get her to tuck into her “eagle’s nest”.
I line a box with brown paper off a food package and sprinkled cat litter into it for Mr. Fluffy. I am so glad it is the organic wheat litter. The clay stuff would have been impossibly heavy. I put food on the miniscule counter for Mr. Fluffy and feed Gidget on the floor.
When the dog is finished, I clip her lead on her and take her outside. She’d been amazingly good during the whole trip.
Chapter eighteen
