Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)(21)
Author: Jennifer Foor

I agreed with Colt. Van was too fragile when it came to that. She may be acting tough, but Noah finding out would change his opinion of her, and none of us wanted that.

“Look, I don’t know what Iz knows. Obviously, she’s curious. Maybe she’ll let it go and I’m just overreacting. I think it’s a good idea if we all try to act like nothing is happening. Maybe she’ll come to me or Miranda and ask again. Until we know something, I say we pretend we know nothing about it.” I hated what I was asking everyone to agree to, but it was necessary. If Izzy was looking into Tucker, she’d be paying close attention to all of our actions. She was smart and I needed to be strong, if I wanted to come out of all of this with all of my heart still in one piece.

Chapter 14

Miranda

As much as I wanted to believe that Ty was going to be strong and pretend that everything was fine and dandy, I knew it was easier said than done.

He and Colt went back outside and got to working on the playhouse. The twins had gotten bored with helping John and decided they wanted to help their dad. Van and I made everyone lunch, but Noah and Bella never returned to eat.

He’d checked in with her through a text message, but only said that he and Bella were fishing and they’d be back before it got dark.

The girls were busy playing with the new puppy that they wanted to name Brownie. Colt was determined that the dog would have a good hunting name, but none of us were sure if he was going to win out on a fight between him and his girls.

By dinner, the guys had the whole thing framed out and the roof on. We decided it would be fun to have a bonfire in the backyard, and the little ones helped us form a teepee of wood in the perfect burning spot.

With three determined grown men working their butts off, we decided to make meatball subs. The kids loved the idea of eating outside, plus it kept the mess out of the house. My mom, my aunt, and Van’s mom stayed inside, while Van’s dad ended up coming out and helping the guys work. They’d been inside playing cards all afternoon, but he’d been itching to get outside.

Van ran out and got them beer and aside from the sound of hammering, they were mostly laughing and carrying on together. You give a man a beer and a friend and he’d be content for hours. It was kind of like the girls with the new puppy. They were happy, occupied and not even thinking about the sad day they’d gone through less than twenty four hours ago.

I appreciated hearing Ty laughing, considering he was so torn up over Bella. Colt would keep him in check. All he had to do was start an argument about being better than Ty and they were bickering for hours.

I started worrying about my daughter, but it was short-lived. She and Noah came back right before it got dark. They went inside to get cleaned up from being out in the woods. I made it a point to check her for ticks. I think that as long as I was alive, I would worry about those little creatures making my kids sick. I couldn’t even count how many times I’d pulled them off the children. Ever since Bella had gone into the hospital, I was going to make sure they never had a chance to sink their disgusting teeth into my baby’s skin.

Bella argued with me until we got into the bathroom and I started the shower. She was beginning to develop and hated anyone seeing her body. “Mom, please. I can look myself. Just let me be alone.”

“Bella, we’ve been through this. Strip down and let me check you. Do you want to take a chance and be back in the hospital? For goodness sakes, I’m your mother. I’ve seen everything you have and I have the same thing. How many times have you seen me naked?”

“It’s not the same,” she argued.

“Do you want to go back in the hospital?”

“No.” She pouted, but took off her clothes and held her arms up so that I could start checking her. “Please hurry. I’m cold.”

“I’ll be quick, just stand still.” The room was quiet, but I felt like if I said anything to her, she’d get offended and not want to open up to me when she was ready, so I stuck to the basics. “Did you catch any fish?”

“Not really. We caught some little ones, but we threw them back. We caught some crawfish and Noah almost caught a chipmunk in his hands.”

“It sounds like you had a full day. I’m glad. It’s nice to be able to visit again. Noah missed you. Everyone did, I think. We’re all so glad you’re better.”

“Today was fun. Anything is better than the hospital, but Kentucky is my favorite place to be. How come we don’t live here? When you and dad were datin’, did he live here, too?”

Her question caught me off guard. I wasn’t sure how to answer. “We weren’t officially a couple until we went to live with daddy. He’d visit me all the time, though.”

“How come? Why didn’t he stay with you when you were pregnant with me?”

I felt completely uncomfortable. “What’s with all these questions?”

She shrugged. “I just want to know.”

“Remember how daddy talked about bein’ in the coma?”

She nodded.

“Well, when I found out I was pregnant, he was in the coma. When he got out, he had to take care of some things before we could be together. Nothing would have kept him away from you.”

“When you got pregnant, did you want to live with daddy?”

I didn’t know what to do. I was panicking. My daughter was asking questions that I didn’t want to answer. “Yes, sort of. He got hurt before he knew about you. When he found out, all he wanted to do was be with us. That’s why we moved in with him and why we got married. I’ll never forget his face on the day you were born. You’ve seen the pictures. He was so scared, having to deliver you in the car. I could see how much he loved you in that moment. Then he held my hand the whole way to the hospital and he kept me from being scared. Aunt Van was there, too. It was her car you were born in.” I patted her on the butt. “All done, kiddo.”

“Mom, one last question.” Most of what I’d just told her was the truth, so anything she had to ask about that day would have been the truth. Ty delivered Bella and nothing could ever take that away from him.

I sighed and turned around to face her. “What is it, sweetie?”

“Never mind. It’s not important.” She climbed in the shower and I almost ran out of the bathroom to avoid any more of her questions. As much as it was killing me, I couldn’t imagine how much worse it was going to get.”

I found Ty outside, full of sweat and completely preoccupied. He saw me and stopped what he was doing. “Baby, what’s wrong?”