Folding Hearts (Mitchell Family #2)(5)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I heard from one of my friends that Conner saw Tucker out one night racing and gave him hell. He must have really laid into him, because after that he came around a lot more.

My family still begged me to just dump him. Every day they had some new reason that it needed to happen. I couldn’t help but hope that one day he would see how important family was to me. I lost my dad when I was a little girl. We did everything together. It was so hard for me to believe that I would never see him again, or sit on his lap again. I remember coming home from school and waiting for him to get home at night. When I heard his car pulling into the gravel driveway I would run to the front door and open it up. He would pick me up over his shoulder and plop me down on the couch and tickle me. He did that every night.

When he died I refused to sit on that couch. The memories were too painful for me. Soon after, my mom moved us to the ranch. My aunt and uncle put a nice double wide on the property so that we wouldn’t have to worry about money. We had been here ever since.

Tucker knew what losing my father did to me, so I couldn’t fathom how he couldn’t understand why I needed him to be here for me and Bella.

I realized I had completely dazed out. “I just want Bella to have her daddy. It means so much to me.”

“Bella will be loved no matter what,” Lucy said as she stood up and started washing a dish. “Before I forget to tell you, Tyler is coming to stay for a week. He will be staying in one of the guest rooms here.”

I knew he didn’t want to stay with Colt and Van. Those two couldn’t keep their hands off of one another. “Okay. I am sure Bella will like the attention.”

“It still amazes me how he acts around her,” Lucy admitted.

“Yeah, it weirded me out at first. It isn’t even like we were really close before. I guess it all changed after he helped deliver her.”

“You be careful with that boy. I hear how he is with women,” She warned.

I laughed. “Seriously Lucy, we are just friends, almost cousins even. I have never considered him anything but family. I am sure he feels the same. He even has me telling Bella to call him Uncle Ty. I hardly think there is anything more to our friendship in his eyes.”

She didn’t need to know that Ty would listen to me cry over Tucker sometimes late at night. We video chatted a few times a week and it was almost always so that he could talk to Bella and act like a moron to get a smile out of her, but several times we stayed connected and talked for hours. He gave good advice, probably because he was such a womanizer himself. I heard what he did to Van and I also knew he still loved her.

“When is he gettin’ here?” I asked.

“This afternoon I think.”

“I guess I will see him before I go out then,” I said as I carried Bella out of the room. I needed to pick out something hot to wear. I had tried everything else. Maybe seducing her daddy would get him to see what else he was missing. I was willing to try anything at this point.

Chapter 4

Tyler

I packed up my Jeep and headed to Kentucky. Part of the reason was to hang out with Colt and Van, but the other was to see Izzy. She was getting so big. All of the pictures I had from text messages and internet video chatting did nothing compared to how she was in person. She was turning nine months old and her cheeks were so chubby. I swear the child smiled constantly. She had two matching dimples on either side of her cheeks that made you just want to kiss them. That little girl was the only thing to take my mind off of my totally f**ked up life. Maybe using a baby to bury my problem was selfish, but things were difficult.

I’d lost everything. I just needed something to look forward to.

Van and Colt had expected me for dinner at the cabin, but I had stopped at the main house first. I wasn’t sure if she would recognize my voice, but when I walked into that house and said hello, in my best baby talk voice, she got the biggest smile. After it got dark, I realized I had been there for hours. Miranda kept me company, and called me a weirdo for playing with Izzy for so long.

When Miranda said she had to get ready for a night out, I volunteered to hang out with Izzy. We sat watching a video with a bunch of brightly dressed adults dancing and singing. I moved her hands around to act like she was dancing. She giggled and made squeaking sounds the faster we danced. Her little teeth were the cutest thing about her smile.

Miranda came out of the bathroom smelling like heaven. She wore a tight tank top that pushed up her already large br**sts and low rise skinny jeans. She did a spin in front of me. “How do I look? I still feel like I am so fat.”

We had become pretty good friends in the past few months. I think sometimes I freaked her out always asking about Izzy and even giving her my own nickname, but she still called every now and again to catch up or vent about her douche bag boyfriend.

I had to admit, this was the first time I had really looked at her as a woman and not a family member. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, especially her tits. Her curves were perfect and I imagined how f**king awesome it would feel to bend her over something.

I needed to shake that feeling.

It didn’t help that she was blonde, which was so sexy to me. Van was the only brunette I had ever been attracted to. Today Miranda had curled the bottom of her hair. It flowed down her back. She could have been the sexiest Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. I pictured her in that little outfit they wear and got a big smile on my face.

I tried to hide my expression, so that she couldn’t tell I was mind-fucking her. The idea of doing that to her just seemed wrong, but I couldn’t stop. Having a baby had caused the girl to have never ending curves. “Uh, you look fine.”

That was all I could say.

She turned around again and ran her hand over her ass. “I was hoping I looked better than just fine. These jeans are new. Are you sure they don’t make my ass look fat? They are so tight, but I need to be sexy. Tonight is important.”

I kept my smile to a minimum. Did every woman ask that question? “Are you going for a sweet relaxing good time, or more of a ‘I want to get laid’ look?”

She turned around and rolled her eyes at me. “Seriously Ty, I wanted your opinion. You have been with a lot of people, you know what guys like. Do I look sexy enough? How are the boobs?”

A lot of people?

The idea of her being with that little dickhead made my skin crawl. She obviously wanted to f**k him tonight. I wasn’t going to help her do it. “We are related. I am not answering that.”

She turned around to face me, leaned over and put her hands on my knees, teasing me with those br**sts.