Cowboy Take Me Away(148)
“Afraid I’ve got no experience with that, except the phone calls we got from parents demanding, ‘Do you know what your sons have been up to?’ which wasn’t fun.”
“That hasn’t happened to us so far. And I don’t want to interfere because I think Cord and Ky oughta figure it out themselves. If that was all that’s been goin’ on, it’d be enough. Except now Foster has decided to be a country singer. Since he got that guitar for Christmas all the kid wants to do is stay in his room and jam. Cord has to get after him to do chores. Then on a day last week when Cord and Ky were especially not fun to be around, Foster convinced Beau to do his chores.”
“Ain’t Beau a little young to be doin’ anything by himself?”
AJ worked her way down his spine. “Yes. Which Foster knows, but Beau just wants Foster to pay attention to him, so he’ll do anything he says. Luckily I caught wind of it before Beau took off with the BB gun to kill snakes out in the bull’s pasture. I tracked Cord down and told him to deal with Foster. He turned pissy and asked why disciplining our sons always fell on his shoulders.”
She’d become aggressive with her massaging. “Uh, AJ, darlin’, you’re getting a mite rough with my saggy old man skin.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Then she whapped him on the arm. “Saggy old man skin, my behind. I hope Cord’s in as good shape as you are when he’s your age—if I don’t skin him alive first.” She sighed heavily. “Anyway, where was I? Right. Cord passing the buck. I was like…what? You think you handle all the discipline? Bullshit. Who had to deal with Vaughn biting other kids at daycare? Who had to go to the school when Beau stapled Julia Ragland’s dress to the bulletin board while she was still in it? Who had to attend a parent-teacher conference about why Foster’s grades have slipped since he got that damn guitar? Me! All in the last two months of school when my husband was busy doin’ ranch stuff.”
Carson wondered if he was supposed to offer advice or if this was one of those listen with your mouth shut conversations.
AJ’s hands stilled. “I just dumped my problems on you without even thinking.”
“Which is fine, because other people’s worries allow me to forget my own for a little while.”
“Did you and Carolyn have this problem? Where one person has a different vision of what’s goin’ on than the other?”
“It was better and worse at different times as the kids were growin’ up. Sounds like Cord is hardest on Ky, whereas I came down hardest on Colt. And look how that ended up. Colt hated me for a while and I didn’t even know it. He was drinkin’ and partyin’ and sleepin’ around to the point he wound up in rehab. I won’t say the similarities are there between Cord and Ky, but I ain’t gonna say it’s not a possibility given the stubborn streak Cord has. I will say that even if Carolyn and I disagreed in private about discipline, we never let it affect our united front.”
“So far we’ve been able to manage that.”
“Then you’re already ahead of the curve. What worked best for us was takin’ the discussion outta the house. We went out to dinner where we knew we couldn’t yell at each other.”
She laughed. “I’ll try that.” She dropped her arms around his neck and squeezed. “Thanks for listening to me blather.”
“Thank you for the massage.”
“We all hate this.”
“I know.”
“Since no one is home at your place, I’ve been fielding phone calls from your friends. I guess as your oldest son’s wife I’m supposed to be in the know. Got people who want to bring over casseroles and such.”
“Tell them that their offers of food will come in handy when Carolyn is home recovering.”
“I will.” AJ moved to stand in front of him. “Carson, is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Yeah, there is. I watered the garden and the flowers on the porch when I went home…yesterday? Time is a blur in here. So if you have a spare moment or even if Ky’s got time to do it I’d appreciate it. Carolyn wouldn’t be happy if everything turned dead and brown on my watch.”
“Since you’ve been right here by her side I think she’d probably cut you some slack. But I’ll send Ky over to check.”
“Thanks.”
“Take care. I could say this a hundred times and ninety-nine times you wouldn’t take me up on it, but if you need anything, call.”
As soon as she disappeared around the corner, he wandered to the window, his hands in his pockets.