Don’t you touch my mommy, you asshat cowboys!” Sammy yelled as he ran across the field.
“Honey, mommy is fine. I know this cowboy. His name is Cade. Come and say hello. And watch your language.”
“Hello, cowboy Cade. Who’s the other cowboy?” Sammy asked, huffing and puffing, trying to catch his breath. About that time the other cowboy came out from behind the truck. He looked like a carbon copy of Cade, except smaller. Cade was so big and muscular. This guy looked like he didn’t work quite as hard as Cade.
“This is my cousin, Clay. Clay, say hello to these nice people,” Cade said.
“Hello, nice people.” Clay tipped his hat, using that same sexy southern drawl his cousin had.
“Nice to meet ya, Clay. I’m still a little confused about why ya’ll are here, though.”
“Mommy, I’m hungry. What’s for lunch?” My little Sammy was always starving.
“I was just going to make some sandwiches. We’ll eat in a bit, okay babe?” Sammy skulked off toward the barn.
Cade walked over towards Sammy, and said, “A sandwich sounds great, buddy. Maybe your mom will make one for me too?” Cade looked up at winked at me. Damn it, now I was going to have to invite them in for lunch. My mom did not raise me to be impolite.
I shrugged my shoulders and wrinkled my eyebrows, “Sure. We would love for ya’ll to come have lunch with us. Sammy, go get your sister.” Sammy headed off to get Mags.
When the kids got there, I had Cade and Clay follow us to our house. On the drive there I couldn’t help but think about the time I had spent with Cade. The things we had done together. The things he had done to me. I could feel the color draining from my face. I felt a little hand on my cheek.
“Mommy, are you okay?” Mags asked with a raised eyebrow and her little eyes squinting at me.
“Oh, sweetie, Mommy’s fine. Just thinking about stuff. Don’t worry about me.” I put a smile on my face for Mags, but when I looked in the rearview mirror and caught a glimpse of Cade that smile quickly faded.
We pulled down our drive and Cade pulled right up beside us. The kids jumped out of the jeep and ran in the house. I nodded to Clay and had them follow us in.
“Nice place ya got here, Loralei,” I heard Cade say as we were walking in the house.
I kept walking, “Thanks, we like it.”
After they removed their hats at the door and hung them on the rack on the wall, I led Clay and Cade into the kitchen. They had a seat at the table. Sammy and Mags were already getting in the fridge and pulling out the sandwich fixings. The table was covered with lunch meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, pickles, mayo, mustard, and bread.
“Boy, when ya’ll say sandwich, you mean sandwich.” Clay sounded in awe of our sandwich fixings.
Mags said, “Sammy, throw me the bread.” Sammy picked up the loaf and threw it at Mags head.
Cade jumped up and caught it in the air. He passed it to Mags. “Here ya go, sweetie.”
She blushed and smiled, “Thanks.”
We sat around the table and ate. Clay and Cade were pretty funny.
“Knock knock,” Clay said to the kids.
Sammy said, “Who’s there?”
“Yah.”
“Yah who?”
Clay started cracking up, “Yah HOO, ride ‘em cowboy!”
Cade said, “I’ve got one. “What did the horse say when it fell?”
Sammy and Mags were really thinking about it. Finally, Sammy looked at Mags. “We give up. What did it say?”
“I’ve fallen and I can’t giddy-up,” Cade was laughing so hard he was shaking. Even though the joke wasn’t that funny, his laughter was contagious. Before I knew it, we were all doubled over laughing.
Then Cade smacked Clay upside the head. “Get your elbows off the table. Your momma raised you better than that.”
Clay smacked him back. “Don’t hit me in front of the kids.”
“Didn’t you just hit me?”
“I was protectin’ myself.”
Then Cade smacked Clay on the back of the head again. “What the hell, man?” Clay whined.
“I said get your elbows off the damn table.”
Clay jabbed his elbow into Cade’s ribs. Cade screamed out, grabbed Clay by the back of the head and body slammed him on the ground. Clay was laughing as Cade had him flat on his back. “You said get ‘em off the table. You didn’t tell me where to put ‘em.”
The kids and I were watching, not really knowing if we should intervene or not.
Mags