Wrapping Up (Mitchell Family #4.5)(26)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I stormed in my bedroom as Ty was climbing into bed. I pointed at him while I climbed in next to him. He wrapped his arms around me. “Is this how you stay out of things?” I was being rude, but he knew what was going on and wasn’t talking. It was pissing me off. Amy was supposed to be my best friend and for months she had been carrying on a secret friendship with my brother.

“I have nothing to do with your brother’s decision, Baby. You know that. Just get some sleep and we can talk about this tomorrow. Amy is safe and I am sure your brother will get her to calm down. She knows where to find you if she needs you.” He was moving the hair out of my face to kiss me, but I was still angry. Maybe I was hurt that they all had a secret.

I sat up and looked him right in the eyes. “Tell me right now what happened. Why was she out driving in this mess?”

He held his hands up like he gave up. “Fine, if you will shut up about it, I will tell you what I know.” He sat up next to me and played with my hand while he talked. “I don’t know what’s going on between them, as in, what they are to each other. I know that Conner talks to her a lot. When he sneaks out, I think it’s to see her….”

I cut him off. “She is married.”

“Would you just chill? They could be friends. You don’t know.”

“Seriously Ty, do you know my brother at all? He has never been friends with a girl, unless they are related. It has to be more.” Conner was the last guy any woman needed to be friends with. His black book was a damn encyclopedia.

“Look, all I know is that we went down the lane and she was in her car, honking the horn with a bloody nose. I heard her tell him that she ran out of the house after Rick threw her cell phone against the wall. She probably didn’t know where else to go. Just let her be. Conner isn’t going to take advantage of the poor woman when she is all messed up. He’s more decent than that. Amy came here because she knew we would protect her. Now will you please go back to sleep?” He didn’t wait for my answer. Ty slid down on his pillow and rested one arm over my waist as he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

I was being hardheaded, but I sat up for a while still wanting to know every detail. The longer I waited, the more curious I became and I soon found myself in the hallway, standing outside my brother’s door, listening. When I couldn’t hear anything, I slowly opened the door to peek my head in. Conner had Amy wrapped tightly in his arms. He’d given her some dry clothes to wear and they were both covered up to their waists. As I looked closer, I could see their fingers were intertwined together as they slept. In all of my life, I had never seen my brother care for a woman that wasn’t our family. He’d had girlfriends, but had distanced himself from having any kind of feelings. This was a whole new side to my brother.

A tug caught me off guard and made me jump. I turned around to see Bella standing behind me. “Mommy, what are you doing?”

I put my finger to my lips and closed my brother’s door. I grabbed Bella by the hand and pulled her away from his bedroom. “I was just checking on everyone. What are you doing up?” Okay, it was a total lie, but she would have told him I was spying on him. I knew my daughter.

“I had to go to the bathroom and saw you standing there. Will you tuck me back in?” I led her into her room and got her back to bed, before heading to my own.

Spying on my brother had left me with more questions than I had before. He was going to have to start explaining, if Amy was going to be sleeping in his bed.

Chapter 8

Ty

When the boys got up around four in the morning, I hurried in their room and calmed them before they could wake up Miranda. She’d been so damn adamant about getting into her brothers business that I didn’t want to discuss it anymore.

I passed Conner walking to the bathroom and he apologized for upsetting his sister. Since he was in his underwear, I opted not to take our conversation to another level. There was nothing like standing around with another man, when we were both in our boxer shorts.

I figured when Miranda got up, the first thing she would do was head toward Conner’s room, but I was wrong. She steered clear of her brother and he did the same to her. In fact, Conner only came out of his room to grab a couple sandwiches and sodas and when he did, Miranda was in our room with the boys. When it got to be about three in the afternoon, I couldn’t take the three of them tiptoeing around each other. We were family and it was Christmas time. I walked into my room to find my wife folding clothes on our bed. The boys were in the playpen sucking on pacifiers and playing with these plastic rings. Miranda smiled but kept on folding. I reached my arms around her waist and tucked my head into her neck, as I kissed it.

She moved away when it began to tickle her. “I thought you were watchin’ a movie.”

“Boring!” I turned her around and kissed her softly on the lips. She grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me into a deeper kind of kiss than I had expected. I looked down at the boys who were both looking at us. Jax was holding up one of the rings for us to take from him. I leaned over and grabbed the ring. “Thanks Buddy!” I handed him back the ring and patted him on the head. He started shaking it and forgetting all about me being there. I loved how they played together. They couldn’t talk, but they had this way of communicating with each other that boggled my mind. I turned back to my wife. “Where were we?”

“You said you got bored.” I kissed her again and then slowly worked my lips down to her chin.

She leaned her head back giving me a better angle to kiss her neck. “I can think of something else we can do on an icy day like today.”

“Lock the bedroom door.” It wasn’t a request from Miranda, it was a demand.

I made my way across the bedroom, noticing the twins were too busy with each other to even remotely know what was about to happen. I didn’t have time to think about them watching us, because as I got to the bedroom door, someone was knocking on the front door of our house. Being that it was still sleeting and snowing, I couldn’t imagine it being anyone other than our family that was staying at my parent’s house.

I looked back at Miranda and held up my hands. “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another. Hold that thought, Baby. In fact, why don’t you get that little red Mrs. Claus outfit on for Mr. Claus to take off.” I threw her a wink and walked out of the room.

When I got to the door I didn’t know what to do. Rick, Amy’s abusive and drunk husband was standing there, blowing his heated breath into his hands. Since the door was glass, he’d already seen me approaching it. I opened the door, but didn’t offer for him to come in.