Wrapping Up (Mitchell Family #4.5)(15)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Conner was concerned about someone other than himself…this was serious.

"I never pegged you as the kind of guy that was just friends with a woman."

He shook his head and laughed. "Neither did I, but even if I wanted somethin’ else, it would never happen."

"So, this is the woman that helped with that Heather girl problem?" The drama in the last year between Ty and Miranda and their boys could have all been avoided if that woman from Ty’s past wouldn’t have set things up to ruin their marriage. Ty had never strayed from his wife and almost lost his family due to some jealous ex.

"Yeah, and that is a whole different story that we need a bottle of whiskey to talk about."

Savanna had already filled me in on what Conner actually did. I have to say, he is either the bravest or stupidest person I knew.

"They’re never goin’ to forgot what you’ve done for them." Conner had gone and seduced that woman to get the truth out of her, to save his sisters marriage. I don’t know a lot of men that would sacrifice themselves like that, especially one that never seemed to be that happy about Ty and Miranda being together. I don’t know what changed his mind, but he and Ty had mended fences and things were back to how they’d always been.

"I made a promise to my father that I would take care of my sister. I wanted to be mad at Ty, but I knew about his plan and that it was all for Miranda and I also saw his face that night. He didn’t want anything to do with that stupid bitch. When he called me all messed up that night, I just knew somethin’ wasn’t right."

"Even if you didn’t do that, I think they would have just worked through it. Those two can’t live without each other."

"I live with them. You don’t have to tell me. I bought a recliner for out in the barn, so I could get away from them. You have no idea how loud they are sometimes."

We both started laughing.

When I walked back into the house, I had a new opinion of my hard ass cousin. It seemed that him moving in with Ty and Miranda had been the best decision. That man had gotten to a point in his life where he only cared about himself, but after seeing his sister struggle, he threw himself out there and opened his heart to protect his family. The thing with opening your heart is that it is usually very hard to close it back up. Conner wanted to feel love and whatever he did or didn’t have with this woman, was definitely changing him.

He needed to be very careful.

Just like every holiday, we all ate until we couldn’t move and after half of us fell asleep in random places; we were all wide awake to play cards. Because we had so many people now, we had to play in the dining room, instead of the kitchen. One deck of cards to play Rummy with just wasn’t cutting it, so our new game was Pinnacle. We played teams and after finally learning all of the rules, started to really have a good time. My mother and Aunt Karen were the best at it, since they played together all the time.

I didn’t care who won the game to be perfectly honest. My whole family was in the house that I built with my father. I could only hope that he was somewhere looking down on us. I wanted him to know that we were okay and that I finally got that family he always wanted me to have. I knew he would have loved Savanna and every time I did something with Noah it reminded me of my father showing me how to do those same things. Holidays are a hard time to spend without the people that we love, but I’ve learned to keep the ones with me close and remind them every day just how important they are to me.

In a few short months, we would be welcoming another addition to our growing family and when I thought about their future, I hoped that they would be as close as I was with my cousins. Noah and Bella were already off to a good start, seeing as they were already the best of friends.

I reached under the table and grabbed my wife’s hand. As her fingers intertwined with mine, she threw me a smile just as I winked. With the exception of a few mishaps, her Thanksgiving had gone off without anyone having to go to the hospital again. We still had someone with a black eye from a turkey attack, two cousins with chiggers, two little brown painted Indians, and Savanna and I being caught in the closet without pants, to remember how special this year was.

I couldn’t be more thankful.

End of Part 1

Part Two

Christmas at the Mitchell’s

Hosted By: Tyler and Miranda Mitchell

Chapter 1

Miranda

The chaos of the Christmas holiday started on Black Friday for Ty and I. Van had talked us into staying up all night and heading for a late night shop-a-thon. Since she was pregnant and I was breastfeeding, we were the only two that hadn’t been drinking.

Not Colt, Ty or even my brother had ever gone out and experienced what it was like at a popular large store on the day after Thanksgiving. Van piled us all into her SUV and we headed out. The Three Stooges sat in the back filling the whole vehicle with loud bantering. Poor Van and I needed earplugs to be able to deal with them for a long period of time.

Sure enough, we pulled up to a local superstore and noted the lines of people just waiting for them to open their doors. Most of the people were in groups and some even held flyers and lists of what they were going to make a run for.

Now, I knew that Van was too pregnant to deal with pushy people and I also knew that if anyone even bumped into her, they would have three grown men kicking their asses. I wasn’t worried too much about myself. All three of the guys knew I wasn’t one to take anyone’s shit. People could be rude around the holidays and I had no problem kicking a pervert in his jewels.

We all climbed out of the vehicle and headed toward the crowd of people. Luckily, the guys were too involved in themselves to really notice the tension in the air. They just didn’t get that people were vicious when it came to Black Friday shopping.

The guys continued to fool around, drawing attention from the shoppers around us and even getting a few eye rolls when they were talking about and doing things that seemed inappropriate, like trying to punch each other between the legs and playing the hand slap game.

What grown men still do that?

Scratch that…..

My husband still did.

About fifteen minutes after we arrived, we heard cheering as the mob of people started moving. Conner walked ahead of all of us while Ty and I walked behind Colt and Van. I noticed that when Colt got a glimpse of the crazies, he grabbed ahold of his wife and didn’t let her go.

Since Ty and I were in the back of the crowd, he found it to be impertinent to pick out weirdo’s and point to them. For a second I was sure my brother was going to hit him, but he ended up turning around and laughing with him. Our first thirty seconds in the store and two women were fighting over some baby doll. We made our way past them and in the next isle was a tower of the same doll for sale. Ty found an empty cart that someone left sitting and took it for his own. He grabbed as many as he could put in the cart and went running around, passing the two bickering women. They froze as they saw him. It didn’t help that he was acting like a fool running circles around them screaming, “I love baby dolls!”, over and over.