“Hey, DeeDee,” Holly’s sweet, angelic voice said. “You look super cute today. New jeans?”
“Kind of,” she admitted. “I need to wear them in. They’re a bit stiff. So I’m wearing them around here doing some chores so when I wear them to the dance next week they actually allow me to breathe.”
I stopped and turned. “You’re going to a dance?”
“It’s the Sadie Hawkins one that I go to every year, Dad.” DeeDee rolled her eyes. “Go wash your hands and eat. You, too, Holly.”
“Oh, I’m good. I don’t need…”
“Jetty literally bought them out of donuts. Trust me when I say there’s plenty.”
DeeDee left after that, making sure to give both of us a pointed look that said, “eat or else.”
“Who’s the parent again?” Holly snickered.
“Sometimes, I wonder,” I grumbled as I walked toward the box. “She only brought my favorite.”
She looked into the box on the railing and frowned. “You like glazed cake the best?”
“I like these, and old-fashioned the best,” I admitted. “I’ll eat regular glazed, but it’s not nearly as good to me.”
“These are my favorite, too.” She plucked one out of the box and immediately brought it up to her mouth to take a huge bite. “Unless it’s cake covered in cinnamon sugar. That’s where it’s at.”
She walked toward the stairs. “Do you want any milk?”
I hesitated, wanting to say yes, but not wanting to invade her personal space.
“Sure,” I eventually said.
She gestured toward the stairs and I hiked up them, feeling all of a sudden nervous.
I was a grown-ass man of nearly forty years old, and here I was getting nervous climbing a set of stairs to an apartment that I owned.
“Come on in,” she said as she left the door open for me to enter. “I also have chocolate milk.”
“What kind?” I asked.
She held up the glass jug and said, “Voleman’s.”
I gave her a thumbs-up. “The only one that tastes good. I’ll take some of that.”
Just as she poured the milk into the glass, a bellow from one of my ranch hands had me sighing. “I’ll bring the cup back.”
Holly smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
When I got downstairs, I grabbed two more donuts for the road, then went to tackle the next disaster.
That disaster being a downed fence with cows out on the road.
“Goddammit.”
That one fucking mistake had us moving the whole damn herd out of the east pasture closest to the ranch house and almost all the way into town.
“You need help?” Major asked as he watched us run the herd right through the middle of town.
“No,” I grumbled.
I was starving, and I hadn’t had a chance to eat in hours.
