Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)(19)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I rubbed my forehead, and sure enough, it was covered in drops of more pudding.

As my body sprung off the bed, I watched them running out of the room, leaving a mess on the other side. A half used pudding cup had fallen on the floor and splattered everywhere. Beside it was a straw, full of pudding. Apparently, they’d taken the pudding and sucked it up in the straw and then let it drip all over our heads as we slept.

Who does things like that?

My kids, that’s who.

Ty rolled over and saw me cleaning the mess off the floor. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Your sons thought it would be cool to put puddin’ all over our faces while we slept.”

He wiped his face and realized it was all over him. “What the shit? Where are they?” He sat up and looked around the room.

“If they’re smart, they’re halfway to Colt’s by now.”

He stood up, yawned and then stretched. “I’ll handle it.”

“You better, because when I get a hold of them, their asses are goin’ to hurt so bad they won’t be able to sit for weeks.”

I was getting tired of their shenanigans. Why couldn’t they let us sleep in one day? Instead of being considerate, they spent every waking minute conjuring up plans to annoy the hell out of us. It drove me crazy.

I found them standing on chairs in the kitchen, washing dishes. With my hands on my hips, I took a deep breath and prepared to scream at them. For a second, I watched them cleaning, doing something that was nice for a change, and decided to wait until they were finished.

I sat on the couch, watching them. Once they finished, I sat them each in a chair. “I’m tryin’ to think of a good punishment for the two of you, but I think I have a better idea. I think I’m goin’ to let your uncle put you to work. Obviously, you don’t want to behave, so maybe a day of cleaning up horse crap will do you some good.”

“Mom, please. We won’t do it again,” Jax pleaded.

“Yeah, we promise,” Jake added.

“Too late. Get dressed and get some shoes on. Maybe the next time you want to do somethin’ sneaky you’ll think twice.”

I watched their faces change from desperate to devastated. They retreated to the bedroom, while I sat there, enjoying the moment of silence.

Ty turned to me and started laughing. “You know Jake is going to throw up, right?”

Jake’s weak stomach would be no match for piles of fresh horse feces. “Yeah, I know it.”

He rubbed his hands together. “We need to get this on video.”

I pushed him. “You’re awful.”

“Blackmail makes a boy a man.”

I started to walk away. “You’re ridiculous.”

He smacked my ass. “You love it.”

He was right.

I did.

Colt got a kick out of the boys being punished with work. Noah, on the other hand, liked that someone else had to shovel shit for the day. I also think he was happy, because it gave him more time with his cousin.

My mother and John, who’d only stopped by for a short time the day before, had showed up early for a breakfast at Colt’s mom’s house. She and Lucy were overly excited to be able to entertain. They invited Van’s parents, who also offered to help cook.

Since there was so many of us, breakfast turned out to be brunch. We were all starving.

The weather was nice enough that we all went out to the pool yard and sat at the round table surrounding the area. The cover was on the pool, and Jake and Jax thought it was cool that you could run across it and not get wet. While the adults sat around enjoying our time together, the kids played tag on the cover. Noah and Bella went off somewhere, like they usually did when they were together. I was trying to relax and enjoy my time with family, but I noticed one thing and it was driving me crazy. Bella never spoke to her father. I think Ty noticed it too. He watched her leave with Noah, and from the look on his face, I could tell there was something wrong.

The problem was, I was afraid to find out what it could be.

Chapter 13

Tyler

I wasn’t in the mood, after the morning with the boys, to deal with more of a cold shoulder from my daughter. Because of the new puppy, and their fascination with her, I chalked Izzy’s silent treatment up to her being preoccupied. She was with her cousin and they always seemed to go off on their own.

I was convinced that it had to be my guilty conscience getting the best of me. Sure, I felt guilty every day for having to lie to Izzy, but it was for her own good. I didn’t become her father to ruin her life. I became her father because it was what I was meant to do. I believed, in my heart and soul, that she was always meant to be my child. I did it to protect her and to give her the life that she deserved.

Since we had to leave that next morning, Miranda made it a point to offer my help to Colt. He was trying to clear out an area in the backyard to build the kids a playhouse. Noah had a tree house at the edge of the woods, but he was having a problem allowing his sisters up there, and I think Van had a problem with them being so young and so high up in the air.

Addy was shy and refused to do things by herself, where Christian liked to explore. She was the child to walk off in a busy store and cause a commotion.

Colt and I used a tractor and the Bobcat to clear away the tree debris that he’d cut the week earlier, while John stuck around and starting splitting the wood up to be used in the fireplace when the weather got colder. He used a large mechanical wood splitter that was loud, but split the wood perfectly to fit in a fireplace. It beat using a huge axe and pulling out his back.

The twins were obsessed with watching him place a large log on the machine and watching it bust into smaller pieces. When they fell to the ground, the boys would pick them up and stack them. To them, John had become their Pop Pop. They loved doing things with him and, because he was the sheriff, they thought he was badass.

While they seemed occupied, Colt and I focused on what we were doing. We didn’t notice Noah and Izzy riding away from the house on a four-wheeler. Miranda came running out, seeming upset. She was waving her arms in the air trying to get our attention. Finally I turned off the tractor and jumped down to see what she was doing. She had become out of breath from running and hunched over. “The kids just took off on a four-wheeler.”

“So what’s the problem?”

She looked up at me and I noticed that something was very wrong. Miranda had tears in her eyes, but she wouldn’t say it. I grabbed her and looked directly at her. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”