Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)(59)
Author: Jennifer Foor

“It’s been a long two months.”

She kept rubbing on my shoulders. “I bet your glad it’s over.”

“I’m speechless. For a while there, I thought she’d disowned me. You don’t know what it meant to find her in that truck, waiting for me. I still can’t believe it.”

“I still don’t know how you knew. That’s the thing with the two of you. You share somethin’ that nobody could ever explain. Even when you both are at your worst, it’s always been there.”

“Maybe.” There was something there between me and Iz. I didn’t know if it was fate, God, or just the fact that I’d raised her, but it was something.

I turned over and flipped Miranda on my lap. “I’m glad I came. Being here and seein’ the two of you reconnect like that was beautiful. It’s all I ever wanted.”

“Me too.”

“I guess Van really messed with her head.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I was in the room with them. It was ugly. Izzy called her liar and walked out. I really thought it made things worse.”

A voice in the doorway scared us both. We turned to find Izzy there, in her nightgown. “When Aunt Van said that stuff I went upstairs and looked it up. I know you told me not to, but it was all there, on the front page of a paper and everything. It talked about him bein’ in jail and what he did to her and her unborn child. All I had to do was search both of their names.”

We motioned for her to join us on the bed and Miranda scooted her body to the other side of me. We shuffled until Iz was between us. “You know you weren’t supposed to do that anymore.”

She shrugged again. “I had to know the truth. Then when I read it, I felt embarrassed.” She looked really sad for a second. “Then I got sad because I knew I made dad leave. I made everybody hate me.”

“Nobody hates you,” I reminded her.

“It felt like they did. That’s why I ran. I wanted to go where I couldn’t hurt anyone else. I just wanted to be alone.”

“Then you found me,” I added.

She smiled. “When I saw your truck, I knew you couldn’t leave me if I was in there waitin’.”

We both hugged our daughter. “We never wanted you to come here. We just wanted you to be at home where you belong.”

She held both of our hands, and as much as I enjoyed cuddling with my wife, I think neither of us would have traded her sleeping between us.

The three of us drove home the next morning, after Izzy apologized to her aunt and uncle for scaring them. I think Noah was the only one upset that she wasn’t coming to stay with them.

I didn’t know about Miranda, but I couldn’t stop smiling. She cuddled next to me the whole way home, letting me sing the wrong words to all of her favorite songs.

Maybe we should have just given her space. Maybe she needed to hear everything.

We may not ever know exactly what brought her back to me, but she was there and I wasn’t going to ever let her go again.

Everything got back to normal once we arrived in North Carolina. Izzy went to school as if nothing had ever happened. Her brothers welcomed her home by leaving fecal matter on their shared toilet seat and hitting her with a flying video game paddle.

After a black-eye and a huge welcome home dinner from her Mimi, we could tell that things were finally going to settle down. It had been so long since I was able to tuck her in at night. I almost hesitated before walking into her room.

She was sitting there waiting for me in her bed when I walked in. I tucked the covers around her and kissed her on the cheek. “You know, if you think you’re too old for this, I’ll be okay.”

She laughed. “As long as you don’t tell my friends, you can still do it.”

We pinky promised.

When I turned off her light and started walking out, I heard one last thing that warmed my heart. “Dad, I love you.”

I leaned against the doorframe, smiling. “Love you, too Iz.

Miranda was on the couch, waiting for a blow by blow of how it had went. I told her about our pinky promise and what Iz had said to me. She was so happy to hear it, after so much drama that kept us apart. She stood up and took my hand. “I know what you need, Mr. Mitchell.”

“Oh really? I raised my brow and seemed interested. “What are you offering?”

“How about we get naked and get a nice hot bath, that may or may not lead to something more in the bed tonight.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Anal sex?”

She hit me up side the head. “Seriously?” Then she laughed. “I always know things are good with you when you start talkin’ about bangin’ me in the butt. Some things will never change.”

I followed after her. “Baby, it’s all in fun.”

She turned and took off her top as we entered into the bathroom. “You let me do it to you first, and then I’ll let you do it to me.”

I shook my head, after considering it for less than two seconds. “Okay, missionary it is.”

Epilogue

Isabella

6 1/2 years later

I looked around at the crowd of people, letting my eyes coast the audience until I found them. Getting tickets for everyone would have been hard, had I not been the valedictorian of my graduating class.

There they were, sitting right in the middle, where I should have known they’d be. My mother looked so proud and having all of my aunts and uncles there was pretty amazing too. I gave them a quick wave before adjusting the microphone.

My hands were shaking as I finally spotted the one person who could calm my heart and make everything disappear. Just before taking the stage, he’d pulled me to the side and told me to picture everyone in the audience, except for him, naked. It was hard to look out and not laugh, because obviously it was all I could think about.

“Thank you all for coming today. I feel truly blessed to be here, speaking on behalf of this year’s graduating class. I’ve been advised by my peers to keep this short and sweet, so here it goes.” I cleared my throat and then continued.

“As a child, I always enjoyed school and making new friends. I strived to do my best to make my family and myself proud. For most of my life, I’ve considered myself pretty adventurous. Without faith and family, most of us wouldn’t be here today. After twelve years, maybe more for others, we’ve finally come to the end where some of us will go onto college and some find jobs immediately. From what I’ve been told, when we leave this celebration today, we’re officially adults. I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve been assuming I was an adult since I was a little girl. Just ask my family, who had to deal with me.”