“Hudson, Ellison and McKenna are all healthy little pigs. Colt told me to make sure to tell you that I wasn’t carrying germs to you.”

“I appreciate it. How is Colt?”

“Worried sick about his mother. And you. He’s cut himself off from his brothers and Keely. I take that back—he talks to Carter because they’re the only ones who aren’t ass**les.”

“Tell Colt I appreciate it.”

“The reason he hasn’t come by isn’t because he’s following Cord’s stupid edict of ‘all of us or none of us’ but because he’s hurting, Carson. He’s hurting real bad. He’s always seen you and Carolyn as invincible. This is the second time in the last four months that he’s had to face that you’re not. He… Never mind.”

Something else was going on that caused Indy such distress. Carson set his uneaten candy aside and leaned forward. “Tell me what’s worryin’ you.”

“It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen Colt this close to…wanting to take a drink.”

His stomach dropped. “Has he touched the stuff?”

India looked him in the eye. “No. He’s talking to me, which is good. He’s going to AA meetings every day and talking to his sponsor, which is even better.”

“I am so f**kin’ relieved to hear that.”

“I know. Most people probably wouldn’t have dumped that extra worry on you when there’s so much weighing on your mind right now, but I’m not one to pretend stuff is sparkly f**king rainbows when it isn’t.”

“Which is one of my favorite things about you, Indy darlin’. So how is Colton coping if he ain’t hitting the bottle?”

“He’d like to beat the f**k outta someone. Kane even offered to mix it up with him, but wisely Colt declined. So he’s chopping wood. Lots and lots of wood.” She smirked. “And that gets him a better coping mechanism because seeing that sexy man with his shirt off, muscles dripping sweat, does it for me every damn time.” She laughed. “TMI, I’m sure.”

“Funny thing? Carolyn used to say the same thing about me.” He grinned. “TMI, I’m sure.”

“Touché, old man.”

“Now tell me about my grandkids.”

India groaned. “Pigs in clothing, that’s what the three of them are. I should start calling them the three little devil pigs. I do not understand how they can make such a huge freakin’ mess in such a short amount of time. I about fell on my ass this morning because they’d left markers all over the floor. I stepped on a huge ball of paste they’d just dropped on the carpet. Then I looked around and thought, where the hell was I when the bomb dropped? My house is destroyed. As easy as it’d be to say the place becomes a pigsty when Colt is home with them, that’s not even close to the truth. The kids aren’t ever left unattended and we’re both at our wit’s end on how to deal with it.”

“If I had a nickel for every time Caro said the same thing to me? I could’ve hired a maid for her a long damn time ago.” Carson cracked open his soda. “Darlin’, no offense, but Hudson is old enough to know better. He’s the ringleader, ain’t he?”

“Yep.”

“Over the years the kids were growin’ up, I came home a coupla times and found my lovely, calm wife threatening to buy herself a bullwhip to use on her sons.”

“Did Carolyn spank them?”

“Neither of us did unless the kid did something life threatening, but that was only when they were little. Spanking never had any effect.” He chuckled. “One time when Cord was probably nine or so, he decided to build a mud wrasslin’ pit out past the barn in a shallow spot where water collected. Evidently he and Colby and Colt were havin’ a big old time out there, mucking around like pigs in…” He paused. “Anyway, they came strolling up to the house, near dark, clothes covered in mud, acting like it was no big deal. Carolyn was very pregnant with Carter at the time, and Cam was two. She’d hit the end of her rope. She lined them up on the sidewalk and sprayed them down with the hose. And by that time of day it’d started to get cold.”

“Go on, I’m taking notes.”

“After she’d hosed them down, she made them strip to their underwear and sprayed them down again, warning them to stay outside until they dried off, because if she found even one speck of mud anywhere in her house, she’d drag them back outside by their ears and spray them again—but they’d be buck-assed nekkid.”

India grinned. “She find any mud?”

“Nope. What I’m tryin’ to say is she had patience with the fact they were messy boys—up to a point. She knew we’d be pickin’ up after them, that goes along with havin’ kids. But if the messes were extreme or frequent, the kids had consequences. Sounds to me like a little hosing down might do your hellions some good—figuratively speakin’, of course.”

“You’re right. I’ll mention the mud pit wrestling incident to spark Colt’s memory.”

Carson asked about India’s Ink—her tattoo shop—and they chatted for another ten minutes or so. But as always, Carson kept an eye on the clock as his time with Carolyn crept near.

“I probably better go home and check if the boys roped and tied up the dining room chairs with the vacuum cleaner cord again. Or if McKenna tried to flush something else down the toilet since her attempt at flushing her blanket failed last week.” She threw up her hands. “What is girls’ obsession with that? I remember Eliza doing the same damn thing.”