Baby

49

"Any more biscuits?" Tate asked, walking over to John with his place

"Yeah, well, I think there's plenty." he replied

He grabbed a handkerchief, removing the lid to a dutch oven that was over the opened flame and grabbing a biscuit, putting it on Tate's plate,

"I'm gonna need more than that." the kid said

"All right." he replied with a smile, placing another biscuit on his plate

"Another one." he smiled

"You're just . . you're just like your father." he chuckled, placing a third biscuit on his plate

He grabbed another one, tossing it across the fire, Baby catching it with her left hand while taking a bite of her corn, handing it over to Ryan, who looked at her with widened eyes. John chuckled once more, throwing another biscuit toward her, one that she kept for herself as Kayce and Monica joined them.

"You know my wife . ." placing the lid back on "She used to make two dutch ovens full of biscuits: one for your father and one for the rest of us. This is when you were a baby." pointing toward his youngest "He'd stand by the fire and ask his mother, how long?. And she'd say, five more minutes. Which just meant soon to my wife, it didn't mean five minutes. It didn't even mean thirty minutes sometimes . . He'd stomp off and pout and walk away and come back and ask again and shit would go on for an hour." chuckling at the memory "And when they're finally ready, he'd take a plate of biscuits, nothing else, and her just go to the edge of the firelight with his back to us and he'd just go at it with both his hands."

"They were really good." Kayce said, shrugging as everyone chuckled "Why is that funny? They were really good!"

"Like a wild dog." earning more laughter "After an hour of standing over that dutch oven, she'd sit beside me, her hair a mess, smelling like smoke, madder than hell because she hated cooking those damn biscuits. And I looked at her and said, Sweetheart, he'll eat anything you put in front of him. Just make him something else that doesn't take all night. Your mom looked at me and she said, I know. But if I don't make 'em I can't watch him eat them. Then she went to the tent, laid down and fell asleep. We were branding, so I was up before her . . that was the last thing she ever said to me. Branding cattle on her goddamn birthday."

Baby watched him with sad eyes as he stood from his place, walking away from the fire, Ryan draping an arm around her shoulders, knowing she didn't get a chance to know her mother, and he would've loved to meet her.

∆

The barn they were building came together nicely, Baby climbing up the ladder with a paint can in her hand, paint brush in her mouth as she ran up the roof, nearly giving Ryan and Lloyd a heart attack in the process.

"Hey." she said, spotting a woman who did the same

"Hey, yourself." the woman replied with a thick texan drawl

"I'm Baby." holding out her hand

"Teeter." shaking her hand "Youse a wrangler?"

"And horse trainer." she smiled, opening the paint can "Glad to know I'm not the only girl anymore. I think we're gonna be good friends."

"Anyone single here?" doing the same "'Cause mama needs some love in her life, know what I'm sayin'?"

". . Well," a smirk on her lips "I think I might have someone in mind." looking below them "See that man over there?" pointing to the wranglers "Light colored hat?"

"Hell yeah." looking at Colby "Mama likes what she sees, that's for fucking sure."

"I think you two would be perfect." her smirk never leaving her lips "His name's Colby and he's a real romantic."