Wrapping Up (Mitchell Family #4.5)(6)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I gave him a dirty look and started to walk away. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back. “Don’t forget about my pie. I made it myself. I want to watch you eat it.”

“Is that supposed to make me want to eat it? I’m not getting near that.” There was no way in hell I was eating a pie that he made, and had poked a hole in.

“You will eat it. I’ll make you.”

Colt came up behind Ty and took out his knees, sending him tumbling to the floor in front of me. By the time he regained his composure, the whole room was laughing. Of course, instead of directing his anger and revenge against Colt, he looked at me and winked. “It’s on, sweet thang!”

It was at that moment when I started to regret taking on Thanksgiving with the whole family. I looked around my house and felt like the walls were closing in.

How was I going to pull this off without going insane?

Chapter 4

Colt

Hunting was a big deal to my family. Maybe it was a southern thing, but we took it very serious. The month before, we’d go out and get the newest in camouflage and fill the feeders in the woods and fields with corn. I even went as far as to set up motion activated cameras next to my two tree stands to monitor activity.

Rifle season was always two days after Thanksgiving, so it was always a family affair. Now, for as long as my family had owned the farm, hunting was a man only hobby, but Miranda had changed that. When she and Conner moved to the farm, after they lost their father, they insisted that they both go. We used to tease her, up until she shot this big ass buck with only a bow. Her kill shot was damn near perfect and she never let us live it down.

Since she was pregnant the year before, Ty hadn’t wanted her to hunt, but this year she was ready and none of us were going to talk her out of it.

A few days before the season started, we would all go out and get our stands ready. Normally we all used the same one, well except for Ty, who made it a point to switch stands every darn year. None of us cared, but one day he was going to be mistaken for a deer and be sorry. Conner kept laughing behind his back, claiming his own wife would be the one to take him out in some tragic hunting accident. I’m pretty sure he was joking, but with Conner, well you never could really tell.

For the most part, everyone came prepared with their own equipment, but Savanna’s father had never been interested in the sport and was just learning. I had him watching hunting shows at home and we went out and practiced shooting the rifle at targets. He was such a calm man and Savanna joked and said that she didn’t think he could ever kill anything himself. She said he was just doing it for me. Whatever the case was, I wanted him to have the best experience possible.

While all of the females, except my cousin, worked on food preparations and kid duty, we took the Gators out into the woods to get our spots ready.

Conner came out of the house wearing camo from head to toe. If I didn’t know that half of his closet was camouflage I would have made fun of him, but it was true, the kid loved wearing it. Since he didn’t go to college and had always worked on the farm, he was more southern than any of us. That boy wouldn’t be able to survive in the city. He needed to be surrounded by livestock and tractors.

Since I had to show Savanna’s father around, Conner and I couldn’t ride together like we normally did. He and John hopped on a separate Gator and started on their way. I spotted Ty and Miranda coming out of the house hand in hand and knew that them riding together was a bad idea. They definitely weren’t going for the deer. Luckily, my uncle came walking out of the house and jumped on the back of the Gator with them. Miranda and my uncle waved, while Ty let his tongue hang out and flipped us the middle finger. I didn’t know if my wife’s parents were ever a fan of Ty when they were together, but they sure did get a kick out of him now.

When I got him situated and showed him where he was going to be posted, we drove around to check on everyone else. We came up to John first. He was taking his hunting spot serious and making sure his camera was facing in the right direction. He walked over and showed us a picture he had caught from the night before of a nice eight pointer.

Since Conner’s spot was further away, he had the Gator. We drove John in his direction so he didn’t have to wait for his ride. While approaching Conner’s stand, we saw a doe all by herself and one running away toward a thicket. Conner was standing in the middle of the field talking on his cell phone. He must have had to walk all around that field to find one bar of cellular service, but it was obviously working for him. He was standing there smiling and I could tell right away that he fancied whoever he was talking to. He waved at us when we pulled up, but turned around and kept talking.

I climbed off the Gator and approached my cousin. Sure enough, he was talking to a female. I could tell from the way his voice was that he was sweet talking. I grabbed him on the shoulder, causing him to turn around and look at me. “Hey, you ready to head back?”

He put his hand over the phone. “Just give me a minute.”

“You want me to take John back?”

He smiled. “Yeah, if you don’t mind. Do me a favor and don’t mention that it was because I was on the phone. I don’t need anyone in my business.” Conner was being nasty, but his secretiveness made me more curious.

“Sure thing. You should have invited her to dinner.”

Conner shook his head, but kept his hand over the phone. “Yeah, it’s not like that. Can we talk about it later?”

I walked away shaking my head. “Yeah, see you then.”

I wasn’t so much worried about Conner using drugs, but this mysterious relationship could be because the person he was seeing was using them. I needed to make sure my cousin wasn’t making a big mistake and getting himself into trouble.

When I got back to the Gator the two guys were talking about the deer on the camera. “Looks like he’s stayin’ awhile. Let’s go check on everyone else then head back.”

Now, Ty’s dad was no fool. The man knew how to hunt anything. He and my father would go all over the place on hunting trips.

A few years back he took us to South Africa. It was wild and amazing and something I don’t think any of us will ever forget. There was also the part where they eat fish for breakfast, which is something my Kentucky family could never imagine doing. Besides the fish, we met the nicest families and they welcomed us into their homes. Like our family business, taking people on guided hunts was their business. They had other employees, but it was mostly run by family. At night we would sit out at the campfire and they would tell stories until it was time for bed. You want to talk about drinkers, well they could drink us all under the table and keep on trucking. I didn’t know what the secret was, but they knew it.