Thank god. “Okay, out the door, guys. Look, the bus…”
“Run, Jayden!” Jaxson took off out the door.
“Bye!” Jayden went chasing after, only half-in one sneaker.
“Jesus Christ.” Connor sighed as he watched the bus drive away, then went to fill his travel mug with coffee and find his keys.
The first week without Early, Connor had felt like he totally had this. He’d left work early to meet the school bus, made dinner, given the boys baths, and read to them before bed. After everyone was tucked in, he’d pull out his laptop and get back to work.
The boys had mostly been good about it; they missed Early, but they’d managed ten or fifteen minutes of FaceTime every night after dinner while he was doing the dishes. He and Early hadn’t really had time for a real conversation, their schedules were practically polar opposite, but they texted and sent pictures.
It wasn’tawful.
But now he was at the end of week two, and he was exhausted. The boys had already started asking every day when they were going to see Early again. Connor had been staying up late working, then getting up early just to get five minutes of quiet. The boys had gone to a couple of after-school things this week—a band concert, the school play—and that had thrown off dinner enough that he’d ended up picking up pizza.
Twice.
The second time the kids reminded him that Daddy only ordered pizza on Fridays.
And he had two more weeks of this insanity.
His conversations with Early had been rough, too, and amounted to telling each other how tired they were, a quick, “I love you,” and that was it.
Maybe he’d call from the car.
He wasn’t sure what Early was doing—but he knew the list was insane. Early had to deal with probate, the ranch, Demming. There were horses and cattle and feed and things that just didn’t make sense.
He had a lot to learn. A lot.
He slid into his BMW and headed for work, then dialed Early as soon as he got on the road.
It rang a couple of times, then he heard Early laughing. “Hold on, babe! I’ve got a two-year-old on a lead, and she’spissed!”
“Goddamn, boss! She’s fixin’ to have your balls!”
“Shut up. It’s okay, baby girl. You’re okay. I got you.”
How many times had he heard that comforting tone when the boys were little?
He shook his head. Early sounded happy. He missed that laugh. “Tell her I need those balls intact.”
“Okay, y’all! Watch out!” Early was still laughing when he got back on. “Man, I forgot how hard that was. How are you, babe?”
“Having way less fun than you are, I’m on my commute. Just got the kids on the bus.”
“Oh man. Yeah, I’ve been trying to work with this filly. She’s been neglected something awful. I got her at the auction for twenty bucks. She needed a home.”
“You bought a horse?” Wasn’t Early busy enough already?
“Well, I bought twenty calves and saw the filly. You wouldn’t believe her baby face. She needed a home.”
“Listen to you, taking in strays.” He wasn’t going to pretend to understand adding work to everything Early already needed to do to get the ranch in order. “Have you hired everyone you need to help? Do you have a foreman yet?” What they needed was someone who could run the place when Early wasn’t there. This single parenting thing wasn’t something he wanted to do forever.
“I’ve hired a couple of hands and someone to deal with the house and landscape, but we haven’t found the one that I can trust to run the place when Demming’s gone.” Early sighed softly, and then the sound of the wind stopped. “Yeah, please, man. Coffee sounds fine.”
“I imagine it will take some time to find that right person. But you’ve got him until October.” October felt like forever. He sipped his coffee, driving the long road toward Aurora. He didn’t really know what else to say. This felt like a bigger conversation, one they weren’t really ready to have yet. “Things are okay otherwise?”
“I miss you and the boys. My Momma is always over here touching things. I have a sunburn.”