Wrapping Up (Mitchell Family #4.5)(9)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Colt had gotten them last year after taking Noah out hunting for squirrel. They killed about five and skinned them before coming in to shower. I forget what else happened, but we ended up having to do something before they could get washed up. The next day the two of them were itching something fierce. Colt was in better shape than our son, who cried as he discovered the tiny little blistered bites all up his legs. The two of them continued to itch themselves until they were raw.

It took five days for the itching to completely go away and I don’t think either of them had ever gone out into those woods without getting a shower immediately when they came inside. The fact that Ty had them that bad, was just funny to me, where I think my husband had a bit more compassion.

"Did ya’ll shower yet?" Colt still couldn’t contain the grin from showing on his face.

"Yeah, we showered last night. I swore it was too cold for them to be out, but damn if I wasn’t wrong."

It was obvious that he had come for the clear fingernail polish. For some reason the old wives tale did seem to stop the spreading and some of the itching.

"Dude, I woke up and the shit was all over my balls." Ty started itching his crotch, just as my mother came walking in with Christian in her arms.

She refused to make eye contact with any of us as she walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle. When I approached her, she shook her head, but said not one single word. I grabbed the bottle of pumped breast milk out of her hand and put it in the warmer. Christian reached her hands out for her Uncle Ty and I could tell it aggravated my mom. She was a little smothering when she visited her grandchildren and hated to share her time with other adults. Ty leaned over and kissed his niece, before he and Colt walked out of the room.

As soon as they were gone, my mother began whispering. " What was that about? I don’t think it is appropriate for you to be talking about Tyler’s body parts like you four do."

"Mom, it’s not like that at all. Ty and Miranda got chiggers out in the woods yesterday. He came over to get some fingernail polish to stop the spread of them. We don’t talk about our body parts and even if we did, it would only be a joke. We’re friends and family. I know you think our relationships are weird, but we all love each other."

When the bottle warmer chimed that it was ready, my mother grabbed the bottle and started feeding Christian. I was surprised she hadn’t screamed for her bottle while she waited like she normally did.

"I know you all have a special connection to each other. I guess it is just hard for me to understand it from the outside. You and Tyler have such a history. It amazes me that you can joke around and not ever be offended. I guess it’s the fact that you’re family."

"Yeah, I don’t know what it is, but I love them very much and I couldn’t imagine my life without them."

Since I hadn’t had any coffee and already had two serious conversations, I decided to go get the polish so at least Ty could get back to the main house. At any second Noah and Bella would be barging through the door demanding to do something they shouldn’t be asking to do. I looked over at the coffee pot before heading up to my bathroom to find the fingernail polish.

Now, my nails were naturally long and everyone knew that I had them professionally done, so clearly it would have made sense for me to keep clear fingernail polish in the house. The truth was that I had over a dozen bottles of clear, but when I thought about Ty and where he said he had them, I grabbed the bright pink and headed downstairs.

He gave me a dirty look as I handed him the pink colored bottle. "What the hell is this?"

I shrugged my shoulders. " It’s all I have. I’m sure your balls don’t care what color the polish is."

"Bullshit. They are complaining already."

I scrunched up my nose. "If you itch that bad, you will take what you can get. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m making my husband and I some coffee. I’ll see you a little later, well, after you’ve polished up your balls."

"You’re evil woman! I’m taking a picture to show you how I decorate them."

Thankfully, Ty walked out of the house before he could provide me with more visuals than I would ever want to imagine.

Colt came in and reached his arms around me. "Thank you for this morning, Darlin."

I twisted my body around and wrapped my arms around his neck. " You never have to thank me for that. I love being with you."

A loud noise at the kitchen door got our attention. Noah and Bella were racing for the door and had knocked over the entire turkey fryer full of grease. Colt ran out in bare feet to try to control the mess, while I checked on the kids. "Are you both okay?"

"Please don’t be mad, Mom. Me and Bells were racin’. We didn’t mean to knock it over."

Colt looked seriously pissed, but I turned my body away from him and faced the children. "You need to be more careful, but I’m not mad at you. I didn’t want to fry the turkeys anyway. Just don’t tell Dad." I winked at both of them and they smiled back at me. "Did you already have breakfast?"

They had already started walking in the house. "Yeah, Lucy made us pancakes. Grandma said that her and Grandpop will take us out for a ride in the woods after breakfast."

I grabbed my hyper son by the back of his shirt. "Noah, I don’t even think that Grandpop is awake and Grandma is feeding your sister."

I saw him turn to Bella. "Now what are we going to do?"

"Let’s build a fort in your room." Bella was swinging her body as she talked. She was such a happy little girl.

The two of them ran up the stairs on a mission.

A little while later, I went upstairs to check on them because it was way too quiet for the two of them. When I walked into Noah’s room, all I could see was blankets and sheets. His mattress was the only thing left on his bed. I thought that maybe they heard me coming and were hiding, but after pulling most of the blankets down from where they were positioned I realized they were not in the room.

As I started to head to the playroom, I heard a loud thump that sounded like it was coming from the roof. I bolted back into Noah’s room and pushed open his window. Before I could call their names, I was attacked by something white, hitting me in the face. When I used my hands to clear my vision, I noticed that it was feathers and more were falling.

"Keep doing it, it’s workin’." I heard my son announce.

"My pillow doesn’t have any left." Bella’s little voice sounded like it was right above the dormer.

I turned my body and looked up to see the two of them sitting on the roof like it was no big deal, while shaking the feathers out of their pillows. "Noah Mitchell, get your tail in this window this minute!" I held my arms out as two sad little kids came sliding down the roof to the window. "What were you thinking. You already have a cast; you could have broken your neck!"