Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family #7)(28)
Author: Jennifer Foor

With the wedge between us, Savanna kept her distance. She went as far as taking the girls to her parents one night for dinner, leaving me and Noah to eat leftovers. At night, she read her stories and acted like I wasn’t even in the room.

It wasn’t how I wanted to leave things.

Finally, the night before our flight, I climbed into bed and refused to get the cold shoulder. I grabbed her Kindle and put it on my bedside table. “Darlin’, we need to talk.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I have nothing to say. It hurts too much and you don’t get it.”

“I do get it.”

She turned and gave me a dirty look. “You have no idea what it’s like to go day in and day out knowing he doesn’t want to be near me. I pass him in the hallway and he treats me like I have the plague.”

“You’re exaggeratin’.”

She held up her hands. “Colt, please just go to bed. It’s obvious that we aren’t going to agree and I’d rather say nothing then cause a huge blowout before you leave tomorrow.”

“Fine!” I rolled over in bed and said nothing else for the rest of the night. The sleep didn’t come for at least an hour later. I was too angry to relax.

Savanna’s mother came over in the morning to watch the girls while she drove us to the airport. Noah spoke directly to me about the trip, but said less than three words to Savanna.

When we got out of the car, she walked around and hugged me goodbye. Noah didn’t respond when she put her arms around him. I could tell right away it hurt her feelings. “We’ll miss you, darlin’. Give the girls a kiss every day from me. I love you.”

She waved as we walked away. “I will. I love you too!”

We had a six hour flight and during that time, it was too congested to have a serious talk with Noah. He was too busy listening to his iPod. When he finally fell asleep, I took the thing and went through his songs. Sure enough, he had downloaded all of Zeke’s songs. I was so angry about it, that I woke the kid up. “What is this?”

He shrugged.

“Noah, I told you that these songs were not appropriate.”

“I wanted to know about Zeke and his band, Dad. I won’t sing the words out loud.” He was acting like it wasn’t a big deal.

“You have one week to straighten your little butt up, son. I’m not having you disobey me and your mother like this. What gave you the right to go behind our backs?”

He just shrugged again.

I kept the iPod in my hand for the rest of the flight. I could tell he was pissed about it, but he wouldn’t dare argue with me over it.

A limousine was waiting for us, which excited Noah. Suddenly, he no longer cared about being in trouble with me. His whole focus turned to living the life of a rockstar.

I was on edge. After sending Savanna a text, I was too stressed to consider how much of a mistake this could turn out to be. The limousine driver looked like a lumber jack. He was gigantic and reminded me of the Jolly Green Giant from the vegetable cans.

Noah was blown away by the size of the vehicle. It was full of sodas, and I grabbed two once we pulled away from the curb. “This is awesome, Dad!”

“You think we could have one of these on the ranch?”

“We could fit lots of chickens in it.” I knew it was a joke, but raised my eyebrow at him anyway.

“Very funny.”

Since it had been a while since I had visited California, and I knew Noah had never been there before, I figured that we could make this a vacation for the both of us, even aside from having to visit Zeke. It was cool to see Noah reacting to the big city. He pointed to all types of places as we drove past them.

I knew we were probably getting close when the city turned into large hills overlooking valleys. Once you got out of the city, it was a nice place to drive through.

We came to a gated entrance about ten minutes outside of town. The limo driver held up a key card and the gate opened. We started to pull down a driveway as long as the dirt road at home. The house was enormous and bigger than I originally expected.

As the driver walked to the rear of the car to let us out, Zeke came walking out of his front door in a robe. His tattooed chest was exposed. “How was the flight, guys?”

I reluctantly shook his hand. “It was fine. This place is tremendous.”

“I know, right? I wanted the best house that money could buy.” He waved his hands. “Come on inside. Cal will grab your bags and take them to your rooms.”

We walked into to an extremely large foyer. The floor shined like it was glass. The walls were red and the floors were all a white marble. Black and white décor followed through to each room. Zeke walked us around, showing us his home theater room, his large master bedroom with a rotating round bed and a bowling alley in the basement. The house also included an indoor and outdoor pool and a recording studio. I was taken aback by all of the things that one person had put in this single family mansion. Aside from the insane amount of extras, the house had seven bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

Piper, Zeke’s wife, was out lounging by the pool. She was wearing a very skimpy bathing suit and huge sunglasses. When she heard her husband talking, she sat up. “I didn’t know you were here already. Did you bring your suits?”

Noah was in awe. I think he was literally speechless. As cool as it all was, I could see how it was overwhelming.

Zeke patted me on the back. “You like what you see?”

“You’ve done well for yourself, Zeke.”

“My chef is making us dinner. He’s preparing you and Noah separate entrée’s so you don’t have to eat what we have. I’m pretty sure he can make anything you guys want. A little later I can take you into the kitchen so you can tell him the things you like. I want you both to make yourselves at home. I need to run out for a little bit, but I will be back for dinner.”

Noah didn’t waste any time getting his trunks on and jumping in the pool. The kid had forgotten about being in trouble and was only focused on living the high life at his uncle’s pad. It was hard to feel protective when it felt like we were in a family resort, instead of someone’s house that posed a threat to our family.

After watching Noah swim outside and go down the slide at least twenty times, I retreated into the house to check on Savanna and the girls. I plopped down on the extra soft king size bed in my room and dialed her number.

Hello.

Hey darlin’.

How is it going?

It’s good. Noah has been swimming all day. Zeke had somethin’ to do this afternoon, so we’ve just been hangin’ around. He said somethin’ about takin’ Noah to the beach tomorrow. Noah asked him if Jaws was going to be in the water.