Risking Fate (Mitchell Family #4)(15)
Author: Jennifer Foor

She looked up at me and smiled, before leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes with a big smile on her face. “Not as much as I love you.”

I climbed out and grabbed her a towel, before starting to get dressed myself. “Now do you see how there are benefits to you peeing your pants?” I was trying to make her feel better about her little uncontrolled accidents.

“I can’t believe you still want me sometimes. I feel so embarrassed when that happens.”

“Miranda, stop saying that. You can’t help it right now anyway. How much of a dick would I be if I judged you for something like that. Baby, you can’t gross me out. Remember I have already seen you have one child. I am totally prepared for two more.”

She reached up and touched my face. I loved when she smiled at me. “We should get back. I promised Van I would help her with dinner.” Miranda stood up and walked toward the bedroom.

I followed behind her and sat on the bed as I finished dressing. “Can I have one more kiss?”

She slipped on her shoe and leaned down to kiss me. I grabbed her wet hair and held her against my mouth. I peeked to see if her eyes were open and they weren’t. I loved that.

“Can we go now?” She asked as she pulled away.

“Your mouth is magnificent.” I pulled her against my body. “I love all of things you can do with it.”

“Ty, stop or I will want to stay and you and I both know you need time to recuperate, besides, I want to get back to Colt and Van and I know you do too.”

I sighed feeling defeated, even though I knew she was right, in fact my wife was almost always right and she knew it.

I pouted the whole way back, not because I thought Miranda would change her mind, but because I wanted her to want more later. The truth was that Miranda got so tired during the day. On most nights, I would cuddle with her on the couch and end up carrying her to bed after she’d fallen asleep.

My fascination with Miranda was cut short when we pulled up to the house and saw Noah and Iz hooking up a wagon to Sam’s collar. The poor dog just sat there while the two Bopsy twins tried to figure out how to tie a knot. Lucky for the dog, neither of them knew how.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked as I approached them.

They put their hands behind their backs like it kept us from seeing what they were up to. “Nothing!” They both replied at the same time.

“It doesn’t look like nothin’.” Miranda walked up to Sam and unraveled the rope from around his collar.

They both looked at each other and refused to look at us. “Do you know that you could have hurt Sam? How do you think your dad would have felt if something happened to her?” I looked at Noah and waited for him to reply.

Noah shrugged his little shoulders. “He’d be real sad.”

“That’s right, he would be real sad. You need to get your butts in that house and leave the dog alone. Understand?”

“Yes, Uncle Ty.”

Izzy never looked back at us as she ran into the house. She knew I was disappointed in her.

“Trouble with a capital T.” Miranda started laughing behind me.

I grabbed her hand as she walked up the steps with me. “Yeah, wait til they become teenagers.”

“If they are anything like we used to be then we are in big trouble.” Miranda just shook her head and laughed as she talked.

“You got that right.”

Van was feeding Christian as we walked in the door. I shielded my hands in front of my face to prevent from seeing her bare breast. “God damn woman, put that tit away!”

“I’m feeding my daughter. You want another taste?”

I started gagging immediately just thinking about how bad that shit tasted. “Hell no! I would rather eat dog shit.”

Miranda was laughing behind me as I walked straight into the kitchen. Colt was opening the crock pot, checking on a pot roast.

“That smells great.”

He agreed, “Yeah, Savanna is goin’ to make her gravy once she’s done feedin’ Christian.”

“Hope she doesn’t add any of that breast milk in it. That was f**king nasty dude. Have you ever tried that shit?”

Colt started shaking his head while he laughed. “If you must know, yeah I did. I didn’t think it was as bad as you’re makin’ it out to be. My daughter likes it and that’s all that matters.”

“Yeah I guess. I’m going to have to start feeding Miranda sweets. My boys ain’t going to like that bitter shit.”

“Ty, you’re so damn simple. Talk about somethin’ else please.” Colt was disturbed. As funny as it was, I knew when to cool it.

“Your son was outside trying to tie the dog up to pull him and Iz in the wagon.”

Colt dropped the lid to the Crockpot and made a dash for the front door. “I stopped them. Sam is fine.”

Noah and Iz were upstairs playing. We could all hear them talking to each other. “Noah Mitchell, get your tail down here right now!”

“What Dad?” He stood at the top of the stairs waiting for his father to respond.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to tie anything on the dog? How many, Noah?”

The little guy shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry.”

“Do it one more time and you’re goin’ to get it. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir.” Noah went running away from where we could see him. I saw Colt shaking his head and walking back toward the kitchen.

“Damn Cuz, I think I’m even scared to touch your dog.”

“Shut up man. This ain’t the first time he tried that shit. Not only could he seriously hurt her, but he could have hurt himself. He needs to learn to listen.” Colt grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and passed one to me. He opened his and began drinking it before the refrigerator door shut.

“So what were you going to give him? You have a paddle or do you prefer a stick from a tree?”

Colt cocked his eyebrow. “He was goin’ to get my bare hand on his ass, that’s what he’s goin’ to get. You wait til those boys are born and start causin’ you grief. Don’t be callin’ me whinin’ about it. Your ass can handle that shit yourself.”

He was right, I knew he was. Colt was trying to teach his son what was right and I respected that. Being that all I had was a little girl, it was harder for me to be so stern with her. Honestly, Miranda would probably say that I didn’t know how to be stern with our daughter. She always said I was too easy on her. I just hated to see her sad. I wanted to do whatever it took to make my little girl happy, even if it was bending the rules sometimes.