Folding Hearts (Mitchell Family #2)(47)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“Are you sure you want to marry me? You can still back out.”

I ran my fingers in between hers and pulled her hand up to kiss the ring on her finger. “I am sure.”

Yeah, so my friends would be calling me a sappy ass pu**y bitch, but if that’s what I had to be to have this life, then that is what I was. My assbackwards life plan wasn’t for everyone to understand, it was hard enough trying to explain it in my own head. Nothing mattered to me except those two girls. They were my reason for breathing.

Chapter 25

Miranda

I guess most girls would imagine having a huge wedding with fancy dresses and a room full of people that celebrate the coming together of two people that love each other. My wedding was nothing like that at all. We applied for the license and two days later we were walking into the court house. I don’t know where he found the time, but Ty had gone out and got us two matching white gold bands. His parents and Bella went with us. Ty held her the whole time, even though the Justice of the Peace guy thought she was a distraction. He probably thought we were crazy, or maybe I was pregnant again.

Ty carried me out of the court house. We went out to dinner and went home just like every normal day. Except for the piece of paper, nothing felt different between us. I was ecstatic that I was Ty’s wife, but he already had my heart regardless. Ty’s mother, my new mother in law, helped me make the necessary calls about having Bella’s name changed to Mitchell. I had to fill out a bunch of forms and then contact social security administration to get a new card for her. Because there was no father listed on the birth certificate, it was easy to have it done. I lied and said he was the father on every piece of paper. I wasn’t worried about Tucker ever coming around. He never wanted her in the first place.

Ty and I decided that if he ever came around we would deal with it then. In my heart I knew that he was Bella’s daddy in every way that counted. They didn’t need blood to have that father daughter bond. She was his before he was ever on my radar.

Sometimes I had to laugh at how it all had happened. Perhaps Ty had been right when he said we were always meant to be together. I had never believed that before, but I started to think back to our first time in church. The unanswered prayers had worked to our advantage and now we had each other.

As we both started to prepare for Colt and Savanna’s wedding and our official coming out, things became stressful. It didn’t put a strain on our relationship, but it was obvious that we were both worried. There was no way of getting out of the visit. We were both in the wedding party. Ty had asked Colt to have Conner be his best man. He had a few reasons behind his decision. I think the first one was that he hated Brina, who was Van’s maid of honor. The second reason was that he insisted on being paired up with me in the bridal party. I liked that part of his reasoning the most. The third being that if the family overreacted and we had to leave, they could go on without us and have to change nothing.

I was trying to be optimistic, but my brother was a dick and there was no getting around the fact that he told Ty to stay away from me and he promised that he would. When it came to my brother accepting us, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. He was still sending Ty random text messages about it, like he was reminding him.

The day we packed up the jeep was beyond nerve strickening. Since we were in the wedding party we had to go a week earlier than Ty’s parents on account of wedding festivities. We decided that at first we weren’t going to say anything. There was no need to cause drama before the big day. We would keep our distance and act like friends. The problem was that I couldn’t be in the same room with Ty and not look at him like he was my whole life. Not to mention that Bella called him Daddy all of the time. In fact since he had been promoting it. She had completely forgotten that he had any other name.

Ty tried to keep my spirits up on the way there. He tickled my leg and reached over to kiss me at stop lights, but my nerves were shot. I wanted to vomit. I was supposed to be living at the farm as a temporary situation. Not only was I sleeping with whom they thought was the devil, but I had up and married him, and filled out the paperwork to change Bella’s name.

Our web of secrets was going to give me an early heart attack.

“Baby you need to calm down. No matter what happens, we are going to be together. If they don’t accept it right away, we can deal with it. They will come around once we prove that this is real. I promise.”

“Maybe you should just pretend that you are still upset about the wedding and go home.”

“Are you seriously telling me to drop you off and drive all the way home without you?”

When he put it that way it sounded pretty stupid. “You know Bella will spill the beans.”

“So what if she does. I have nothing to hide. They can’t do anything to us now.”

Ty was starting to talk with his hands. He only did that when he was frustrated. I tried to ignore it, but it was making me more nervous. “Oh yeah? Who says?”

“The state of North Carolina for starters.”

“I am sure that our family will be glad that the state of North Carolina is on our side,” I said sarcastically.

Aside from worrying about all of this, I was also worried about the Tucker situation. Things had been quiet, but I knew the whole town knew about Colt’s upcoming wedding. Word travels and Tucker would know I would be there. Ty knew it was on my mind, and reassured me a thousand times that I was safe. It was just hard not to worry.

“I think you need one of Van’s pills.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m glad you find this so entertaining.”

“Its….” Ty was interrupted by Bella screaming his name.

Apparently her daddy thought it was cool to teach her that when she saw the golden arches she could have fries. Her little finger pointed toward a McDonald’s billboard with a picture of fries. “Daddy. Daddy fri fri.”

Of course Ty forgot about what he was saying mid sentence. “Daddy will get you fri fri’s baby.”

She started clapping in the backseat. “Yay!”

I shook my head. “You know if you give her everything she wants she will expect it.”

“So what. I can’t help it. She has me wrapped around her finger,” he teased.

“Obviously.”

Once Bella got her fries, she concentrated on shoving them in her mouth. To prevent her from choking in the back of the car, I only gave her three at a time.

By the time we got to the ranch, she was sound asleep. I was relieved that I could at least get hugs and kisses before she woke up and called Ty Daddy. Before getting out of the car, Ty grabbed my hand. “We should probably take off our rings.”