Wrapping Up (Mitchell Family #4.5)(14)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I put my fist near my mouth and started laughing. I couldn’t help myself. “I’m so sorry, it’s just that I can’t believe you got smacked in the eye by a turkey leg.”

She looked from Ty then back to me. “Can you still see it?”

Ty looked down. “Shit, I’m sorry, Baby, but you’re going to get a black eye.”

“I’m what?” She went running toward the bathroom. We chased after her, passing the family who was busy stuffing their faces. “Holy hell! Jesus, Ty.” She leaned into the mirror and kept looking at the injury. “It looks terrible. How are we goin’ to explain this? There is no way in hell anyone is goin’ to believe that I got hit with a turkey leg.”

Ty leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “You could tell them I hit you in the eye with my meat.”

I jabbed him in the side and rolled my eyes. “Idiot.”

“What? She did get hit in the eye with my meat. What’s wrong with the truth?”

Miranda leaned over and wiped her eye a few more times before turning to face us. She took her finger and pushed it against Ty’s chest. “You’re so lucky that I love you and know that you already have injured balls, or else I would be planning on paying you back while you slept.”

We started walking back to the dining room. Ty leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Should I be afraid of her putting rocks in socks and beating me to a pulp?”

I cocked my eyebrow. “Maybe.”

As we walked back into the room with our family, everyone noted Miranda’s Thanksgiving injury and the teasing began. Poor Ty was then made fun of for the rest of the meal. He never touched the turkey leg on his plate and I was pretty sure he wouldn’t be involved in battling for it next year.

It was funny, I should have been uncomfortable for being caught red-handed in the closet with my husband, but looking around at the people in the room only made me feel happy. We’d been through so much and no matter what crazy thing came our way, we’d always be family, which was the most important part of life.

Chapter 8

Colt

After the attack of the turkey leg on Miranda’s eye, we managed to have a semi-normal dinner. Of course, the babies were a challenge and ended up being passed around like little sacks of potatoes. There were enough adults to manage them and allow everyone a turn to eat.

As Miranda’s eye continued to redden and swell, Ty went into makeup mode. I don’t think there was a second that his hands weren’t somewhere on or around his wife, and it wasn’t even in a perverted kind of way. We all knew it was an accident, a funny one at that.

Savanna had managed to give everyone a feast they would never forget. Obviously, they could also remember this unforgettable Thanksgiving from the simple fact that they caught us in the closet getting it on. I knew she was devastated at the time, but in the big picture of things, I wanted my wife no matter if she was pregnant, or even covered in food from cooking. It made me happy that the longer we were married, the more I seemed to grow to love her even more.

Since another football game was about to come on, us guys cleared the table like we did every year and then retreated to the living room. Noah and Bella were taken upstairs by my mother-in-law to get cleaned up. Where they got those crazy ideas, I will never know. Sometimes I wondered if Ty slipped them money and ideas just to get to my wife. Since he looked as shocked as I did that his daughter had colored herself brown and attached feathers to her head, I would say that he was left in the dark, at least this time.

A sad Miranda sat with us guys with an icepack over her eye. The funniest thing was that not one person would ever believe she was hit by a stubborn turkey leg. Luckily, they were staying a couple days and it would be healed by the time they went home.

Conner, who always seemed to love this holiday as much as all of us, was preoccupied with texting someone on his phone. He had it on vibrate, so it wasn’t bothering us, all except for the constant pulling it out of his pocket. "Who do you keep talkin’ to?"

He quickly put the phone back in his pocket. "It’s just a friend." I think he tried not to, but he looked over at his sister and she shook her head. Conner smiled but wouldn’t say anything else.

"What’s the big secret?" I usually stayed out of people’s business, but I was intrigued.

Ty leaned forward. "Trust me when I say that you really don’t want to know."

"Is it somethin’ I should be concern over?" I knew Conner had problems in the past.

Conner shook his head, probably assuming that I was actually thinking the worst of him and I shouldn’t have been doing that. "It ain’t nothin’ like that. I just have this friend that I enjoy spending time with. We’re just friends, nothin’ more."

"Because she’s married." Miranda announced, causing everyone in the room to turn around with shocked faces.

Conner stood up and got in his sister’s face. "Just friends. Leave it alone, Randa!" He picked up his drink and walked out on the porch to get away from all of us.

When Conner walked away, we all just sat there speechless. If anyone would get involved with a married person, it would have been Conner. I picked up my beer and headed out of the house to see if I could get some answers out of my younger cousin. I didn’t want to pry, it was more to reassure myself that he wasn’t going to be shot by some angry husband.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Why, so you can get all pissed at me too? Look there ain’t nothin’ goin’ on that anyone has to worry about. Even if I did want it to, she would never be okay with it. She’s just in a real bad situation and doesn’t have anyone else she can trust."

"So, is this someone you met at meetings?" I knew that sponsors usually became good friends, but dating someone was highly frowned upon.

"No, since I know you aren’t going to get off my back, I will tell you. It’s Miranda’s boss Amy. I’m not goin’ to divulge her personal drama, but let’s just say she is in a very bad way and I am the only one that knows the truth."

"And how did you get to be that lucky guy?"

Conner looked out into the yard and let out a laugh before explaining. "I guess it started when I first moved there. She came over after having a fight with her husband. I happened to be really sick and she sat up with me until I pissed her off. We weren’t exactly friends, but a while later, after a night out, I found her in a parking lot all upset. I took her somewhere to be safe and she told me enough for me to be concerned. After that she started confiding in me. I don’t think it was because I was ever her first choice, it was just that I already knew."