“Poor guy. He’s in for it.” Connor chuckled and sipped his coffee, which was perfect, of course. “You found the thermostat at least.” He wandered over to the kitchen window to figure out what he’d seen earlier. “Oh, that’s just a pony. I thought it was a cow without my contacts. What else is out there?”
“Oh, there’s about a hundred head of cattle, two dozen horses, four donkeys, ten alpacas, and chickens. Lots of chickens.”
“Oh, Jesus. That’s…busy.”
“Chickens!” Jayden shouted, and he was instantly sorry he’d asked.
“Bawk!”
“Bawk bwawk!”
He sipped his coffee and pretended he didn’t hear. It had worked for Early.
“I’ll introduce you, but, if you scare them and the hens stop laying, then they’ll become fried chicken…”
Oh, that was evil.
“I like fried chicken,” Jayden added helpfully.
“Noooooo!” Jaxson wailed. “You’re so mean! We have to be nice to the chickens.”
Jayden chuckled. “Okay, I like eggs too. Geez.”
“Nice is the way to be, boys.” Early winked at Connor. “We’re going to meet up with the folks at noon, see what we need to do.”
“Okay.” He sipped his coffee. He felt like he was going to need it. He liked Early’s parents, his mother especially. Mr. Jericho—Wyatt—was kind, but he was the stoic cowboy type and happiest sitting on the porch and talking about the weather, or about nothing at all. It had taken Connor a long time to understand and follow Early’s advice to just sit and let the silence be. It was still difficult; he was used to big city small talk, but he did it now, and it did pay off. “It’s going to be a tough day. I’ll wrangle the boys as much as I can so you don’t have to.”
“Thank you. Mommama’s going to want to take them to buy clothes for the funeral, get them haircuts, and all.” Early rolled his eyes. “Like we didn’t manage.”
Early had brought them all starched jeans, black button-downs, and boots, then the adults had Stetsons, bolo ties, and Western-cut jackets in a deep gray. It was a sad occasion, but he didn’t mind dressing like a cowboy. He always looked fantastic.
“Well, you know, what do men know about clothing?” He grinned at Early. “And the boys’ hair is always too long. Every time we come down here.”
“Always. We can’t be trusted, you know.”
He always said the same thing to Mommama.We haven’t starved them or lost them yet, so we’re doing all right.That got him the eye roll. He got that a lot. “Someday I’m going to shave their heads the day before we get here.”
“She’d be so pleased, and then she’d worry that they had lice, and we didn’t want her to know.” Early was barely keeping the chuckles at bay.
“Damn. We really can’t be trusted. Who raised me? Yankee chimpanzees?” He gave in and giggled his way back to the coffee pot.
“Well…you do have to wax your butt…” Early managed to say that without moving his lips.
He was about to shoot back with something sarcastic but was reminded there were children in the room.
“Dad waxes his butt?” Jayden blurted out.
“What is waxing?” Jaxson asked.
“I don’t wax my butt.” He poured himself a second cup of coffee without turning around. “All yours, Daddy.”
“I was teasing him, boys. Waxing is when you rip your hair out on purpose. Can y’all imagine your father doing that?”
Jaxson’s eyes went wide. “No way.”
“Nope. Dad is not into pain. He hates having a hangnail,” Jayden announced, and Jaxson stared at his brother.
“What’s a hanged nail?”