“Ain’t no one asked how my hand is,” Colt grumbled.
“Or my stomach,” Cam said from over by the couch. Which was missing all the cushions. Cushions that Cam was sprawled out on, on the floor, holding his gut.
“What happened to your stomach? And the couch?”
“Colt punched me. It’s okay, Dad, don’t get mad at him. I asked him to. But then it hurt really bad ’cause I’m pretty sure Colt does punch as hard as Rocky and I kinda…threw up.”
“You threw up in the fuc—” don’t swear, don’t swear, “—in the livin’ room?” Was that why the cushions were scattered to hell and back? Was he tryin’ to cover it up? “On the couch?”
Cam rolled his head back and forth on the cushion. “No, I barfed in the bathroom. I got most of it cleaned up.”
“You will get all of it cleaned up because I ain’t on barf-mopping duty,” he warned.
“How come Keely’s still half-nekkid?” Cord asked.
“Good question.” He looked at Colby, then Colt. “Why didn’t one of you boys help her get dressed?”
“Ma always does that.”
“Hey, I tried to get pants on her but she screamed in my face and tried to hit me,” Colby said. “So I let her be nekkid. But she did get her boots on by herself.”
On the wrong feet, Carson just noticed. “Girlie, you need to put some clothes on.”
She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. “’Kay. Wanna weaw a dwess. I’m a giwl, not like dem.”
“And thank God for that,” he muttered and shifted her higher on his hip. He glanced at the clock. It was only eleven a.m. Too damn early for a tumbler of whiskey.
Then he noticed he was one kid short. “Where’s Carter?”
Colby and Colt looked at one another like they just remembered they had another brother. “Uh, he went to feed the dogs.”
“By himself?”
“Yeah.”
“You were supposed to help him and show him what to do.”
“We sorta…forgot.”
“How long ago did he go outside?”
They both shrugged.
Shit.
Carson motioned Cord over and handed him Keely. “Help her get dressed in a dress.”
“Where are you goin’?”
“To find Carter.” He pointed at Colby, Colt and Cam. “When I get back this place better not look like this, understand?” Then he leveled the only threat that would work. “I mean it, boys. No one is eatin’ lunch or getting so much as a crust of bread until this place is cleaned up to your mother’s standards.”
That made them hop to it.
Then Carson went in search of his youngest son. The kid wanted chores like his brothers and Carson had been putting him off, it was just easier to do even the little things himself. He whistled for the dogs.
Weird they weren’t around. They were always underfoot.
He headed to the barn. “Carter? You in here?”
No answer.
He cut to the last empty stall where they kept the dog food. The bag of dog food that’d been half full…was now completely empty. No sign of the dogs or his son.