Cowgirls Don't Cry

Ch 10

Chapter 10

Lynn

            I'm sitting at the foot of Daddies bed listening to him rant, on and on, about the anything and everything, the food, the bed, basically anything that he has experienced at the hospital.

"I mean, come on, why can't I have a burger? I'm not fat for gosh sake!"

"Daddy, it has nothing to do with your weight" I laugh, "That food isn't good for you. And with your chemo you'd probably just end up throwing up that greasy food anyway."

"I'd give up Chemo if I could have a decent piece of meat!" I give him a look, wondering if he realized what he just said. "Oh, baby. I didn't mean it like that." He throws his hands up in frustration.  "I'm just complaining."

 He pats the spot next to him on the bed. I sit next to him and he pulls me so my head is on his shoulder, and he rubs my back slowly. My dad's not good with the mushy gushy stuff, as he calls it, but this was always one thing that he was good at. Somehow those small, circular motions always had a way of making me feel at ease.

"I'm not going anywhere, Cara-Lynn." He says, kissing my forehead. "I can't leave you alone."

I stay with him until visitation hours are over. We don't talk much, we watch reruns of Seinfeld and Friends, dad complaining all the shows are set in New York. "Give me a sitcom set in the country. That, would be good television!"

            I get home a little after eight. Kips trucks not here, the lights in the house and barn dark. I unlock the door, tripping over Bear, who runs to the grass to relieve himself. How long has he been inside? I leave the door open for Bear as I go inside and make myself a cup of coffee. I'm tired but I'm not in the mood to go to bed just yet. I'm filling the pot with water when I hear Bear come into the room.

"Hey handsome," I say not looking up.

"Hello Beautiful,"

I turn around so fast, the coffee caraft flys from my hand and shatters on the floor.

"Shit," Colt says, jumping to clean up the shattered glass.

"what the hell are you doing here?" my heart is pounding in my ears.

"I came by to say hi," he picks up a few of the bigger pieces and goes to toss them in the trash.

"That doesn't mean you can just walk in." I say slowly trying to get my heart rate back to normal.

"Lynn, I wanted to see if everything was ok," he says, "The door was wide open."

As if to prove his statement, Bear comes in tail wagging.

"Well," I don't know how to be mad at him for that, "you shouldn't have scared me."

"I didn't mean to scare you," I give him a look, "Ok, I did mean to scare you, but not that bad."

My heart rate is finally back to normal, and Colt has almost cleaned up all the broken glass. "You owe me a new coffee pot." I say, unable to stop my lip from poking out.

 "How bout I make you dinner to say sorry," out comes his brilliant smile.

"Dinner would be nice," my stomach growling at the thought of food. "But I still want a new pot, Kip's not pretty if he doesn't get his coffee."

"I'll buy you a new pot," he laughs, shaking his head.

~~~

"That, was surprisingly good." I say, pushing my plate away.

"You thought it was going to be bad?" he asks, feigning hurt.

"What can I say, I grew up eating my father's food."

"Your old man can't cook?"

"No, he can grill, steak, burgers, chicken, but cooking, that's different." I laugh at the memory. "He'd never be able to cook..." I stop short, unable to name the fancy dinner I just devowered.

"Blackberry hoisin ginger pork chops," he says as though that's a thing everyone knows.

"Yea, that" he laughs and I watch him wash the dishes.

"Where did you learn to cook like that?"

"In college I had this girlfriend who hated going out, but loved eating. I thought I was going to marry her, so I learned to cook."

"Wow, so what happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"With the girl," I pet Bears head, avoiding eye contact with him. "What happened?"

"We broke up," he dries finishes loading the dishwasher. "I wanted to get married, and she didn't."

"Oh,"

"Yep," he looks at is feet, and I can tell that somewhere this still bugs him.

Im about to ask more when the back door opens.

"What smells like ass?" Kip asks, looking around the kitchen, stopping when he sees Colt.

"Thanks, boss." Colt laughs.

Kip walks over to the stove where the sauce for the Pork sat in a pan. He lifts the lid and sniffs, his lip curling up when he does. I stuffle a laugh. I will admit the food smelled pretty funky, blackberries and pork didn't sound appealing, but it did taste pretty good.

"Think I'll make a grilled cheese." Kip says, walking to the fridge.

Colt laughs and tosses a dish rag at the back of Kips head. I smile to myself. These guys were friends, if Kip liked him he couldn't be too bad... Right? It was in this moment that I decided to give Colt a chance.