“Of course you’re bringing him cookies,” the nurse said. “That’s pretty much been his diet. You’re good to go in.”
Carson watched as Chassie Glanzer came around the corner, holding a paper bag.
She smiled and passed it over. “I’m sure you heard what’s in here.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty quiet up here.” He peeked inside. “These are gigantic. What kind are they?”
“Rancher cookies. They’re a mix of chocolate chip and oatmeal with butterscotch chips, peanuts and M&Ms. They’re a favorite in our household.”
“I can see why. Thanks, darlin’, now supper is covered.”
“I’ll be honest; I wish I wasn’t bringing them to you at all.” She sat next to him. “Any news from the docs?”
“Nope. Still the same.”
“I figured. India has kept me updated.”
Usually Keely passed on news to her West relatives. “Indy stopped by. But she wasn’t bearing cookies.”
“Trust me, Uncle Carson, if she had you wouldn’t want to eat them. I love her, and she has many talents, but cookin’ ain’t one of them.”
“That description fits me too.” He set the bag aside. “How’re the kids?”
“Healthy, first off, or I wouldn’t be here. Enjoying the summer. They’re pretty involved in 4-H. It sucks we had to start our own club since no one wanted us in theirs. But with Colt and Indy’s kids and ours, and now the Anderson triplets from up the road wanting to join, we’re making inroads.”
“It sucks that you gotta make inroads at all. People oughta mind their own business and not worry about what someone else is doin’ behind closed doors.” While he didn’t understand two guys wanting to be together, he also didn’t understand why half the damn couples in the county were together either.
Chassie leaned her head on his biceps—a very un-Chassie-like reaction. She’d always been a sweet and shy girl, thoughtful, kind, nothing at all like her ass**le father. If she’d acted anything like Harland West, Carson would’ve put his boot down and kept Chassie far away from Keely.
“I’m sorry,” Chassie whispered. “Sorry this happened to Aunt Carolyn and sorry that you’re goin’ through hell.”
“In the words your generation are so fond of, it sucks all around.”
She laughed softly and sniffled.
He couldn’t deal with her tears—which he suspected were as rare as Keely’s, so he changed the subject. “What’re your men up to?”
“Getting ready to turn the bulls out. They’ve remodeled my goat pens into an actual barn and they’re putting the finishing touches on it, and I gotta say, it is awesome. My men made sure everything is state of the art.”
“I’ll bet they did. Colt brags on you all the time, about how successful your products are.”
“Colt is sweet and currently one of two of your kids who ain’t on my shit list.”
“Who’s the other one?”
“Carter. Them two are the only ones…” She shook her head. “Not my business or my drama. Anyway, you and Aunt C oughta swing by our place sometime and check out my new goat grotto.”
“I promise we’ll do that when Carolyn is feelin’ up to it.”
“I love how optimistic you are about her recovery.”
“I refuse to accept that she won’t recover.”
“In all the years my mom was sick, I never heard my dad say anything like that about her. I hated that he’d pretty much accepted she was gonna die.”
“Behavior he learned from your grandfather Eli West,” was all Carson said.
Chassie glommed onto that comment. “I know some of the backstory about why the Wests and McKays feuded all those years. But it was always more personal between you and my dad. Why?”
Carson met her serious gaze. “Harland was your father, so I won’t say anything that’ll disrespect him…except my issue with him was how he treated my wife—his sister. I never wished the man ill, but I never thought he’d done right by his family either. So darlin’, I’ve always been happy that you ain’t a chip off the old block.”
“Me too. As I was driving here, thinkin’ about all the times I spent with Aunt C, and how wonderful she’s always been to me, from the time I was a kid, then after Dag died, and especially how accepting she was—you both are—after me’n Trevor and Edgard became a family…” Her chin wobbled and she looked away until she regained control. “Anyway, I remembered that last time me’n Keely and Ramona went to church camp. Keely ended up in a fight—no surprise, but the real surprise was learning that she hadn’t gotten that fighting mentality just from you, but from her mother.”
“Few people know how much of a scrapper Carolyn West McKay really is beneath that sweet and proper church lady persona.”
“I saw it firsthand and, man, was I ever impressed. I’ve never forgotten it. As a matter of fact, when we were dealin’ with all that bullying a few years back with Westin, I remembered that incident at camp and how fierce she was and I’d promised myself I’d be exactly like that when it came to my kids. And now I am. Because of her.”
Choked up, Carson patted Chassie’s leg. “Girl, you’d better be tellin’ your aunt that to her face because it’d mean a lot to her comin’ from you.”
“I will make a point of blubbering all over her while she’s recovering.” She lightly kissed his cheek. “Take care of yourself. You need anything, just call.”
After she’d left, he helped himself to a cookie. He’d polished off two by the time the nurse informed him to suit up and head in.
As corny as it sounded—hell, as silly as it felt—for the last five days he always started those five minutes the same way, hoping the repetitive words would get through to her.
“Hey sugar. I’m sittin’ here beside you. I know you can hear me. I need you to hear me. Come back to me. I need you to know that I’m right here, I ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
He paused, but kept stroking her arm.
“I must look like a man with a sweet tooth, ’cause Lord Almighty, woman, everyone’s bringing me cookies. So I ain’t gonna lie, I’ve pretty much been existing on cookies and Dr. Pepper the past few days. I’ve gone to the cafeteria a few times, but the food is shit. I figured you let the grandkids eat as many cookies as they can shove in their greedy little mouths whenever they visit us, so no passin’ judgment on me.