Risking Fate (Mitchell Family #4)(2)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Don’t give me the puppy eyes……Don’t do it!

I kneeled down in front of her and removed her shirt to expose her bare abdomen. My lips pressed against her stomach and I held them there. “Our little secret,” I whispered. “Daddy loves you.” I stood up and grabbed the bags out of my wife’s hands, and stole a little peck. “I got these; now let’s get on the road.”

I was already a father, and a damn good one at that, but hearing that Miranda and I had created another addition to our family, well it was one of the happiest moments of my life. Izzy was going to have a brother or sister and Miranda and I were going to make our family even bigger.

My life used to be full of parties and fast times, like I was always trying to fill a void I could never figure out, but when I realized what that void was, I finally felt like I was complete.

My girls had given me happiness and our new addition was just going to make it even better.

Chapter 1

Miranda

In the first several months of my pregnancy, we had a bunch going on. After the Noah and Bella episode with the horses, we went back to Kentucky two more times, one being for Savanna’s baby shower, which in turn was when she ended up going into labor.

Their little girl Christian was so beautiful. She had been born with one dimple on her right cheek that was almost so deep you could see it even when she wasn’t smiling. We still weren’t sure whether her eyes were going to be blue or green like Colt and Noah’s, but either way, she was gorgeous. Her full head of dark hair never fell out and it continued to get longer.

Savanna had already had new family photos taken and her walls were covered in more pictures. We kept joking to Colt that he was soon going to have to build an addition just to house all of the pictures she had.

I didn’t have much room to talk. Since getting married, my house was also filled with beautiful memories of our family. My favorite picture was the one of Ty and Bella from our ceremony at the barn. Every time I looked at it, I thought about those beautiful words he said to her on that day. I still don’t know how I got so lucky and ended up with Ty, or how he had changed his entire life around for me and my little girl, but I was more than grateful.

Aside from Savanna, Ty was my very best friend. We didn’t have secrets, unless they were some kind of sexual surprise to be discovered at a later time. We talked about everything, sometimes still staying up into the wee hours of the night.

In fact, I loved just hanging out with Ty when nobody was around. I loved that if he was close, he was always touching me. He’d play with my fingers, stroke my skin, or kiss me in random places. Just one touch from him sent a scorching fire into my heart. His love for me was obvious and it was something I never had experienced before.

Even though Bella had her own room, she still liked to sneak in bed with us every now and again. Of course, my husband had a problem with telling her ‘no’, so she knew she could get away with it, if he was around. I’d often wake up with her sideways between us. It was hard considering I had to stand up to style hair all day with a sore back. One benefit was that Ty would always give me one of his famous massages, which in turn would become a passionate night of love making.

Speaking of love making, I had started to prefer it over our quickies and rough adventures. Don’t get me wrong, Ty and I loved to get freaky, but there was something so intense when we came together emotionally. There had been several times, even before I was pregnant, where we had finished and I couldn’t stop crying. I was just so darn happy to connect with him like that.

Waking up next to someone that intently loves you, is something that can’t be described. Ty was everything to me and the longer we were together, the more I loved him.

Since we had built on to our house, we had plenty of room for my brother to move in with us. I was very reluctant at first, considering the state he was in, but he was my brother and we knew that moving him away from that life would help get him straight.

I couldn’t help but blame myself a little bit for Conner’s actions. He and I had never been apart and for most of our lives, he had been my very best friend. I didn’t hang out with other girls; in fact, they never really cared for me much. It didn’t help that I found it as my life’s mission to steal their boyfriends all of the time. I’d done some horrible things, but Conner always had my back, even when he knew I was in the wrong.

The issues with him were no different. He needed me and I felt it was my obligation to be there.

Originally, Ty had given Conner his old room in his parent’s house, but after the first week, he started staying in our guest room. He was homesick, I could tell, because he clung to me like we were the only survivors of an Apocalypse. With having a job, a daughter and a husband, the clinginess got old real quick.

I don’t think Ty would ever be jealous of me spending time with Conner, I mean our whole lives we had been considered family, as weird as that may sound, but it was more like he missed me. Ty did such a good job keeping his jokes to a minimum, especially the first few weeks Conner stayed with us. To say that I was worried about that would have been an understatement. Sometimes Ty got out of control with his bantering and it fueled Connor up every single time.

Izzy enjoyed her uncle being around, and because he wasn’t caught up in his normal social life, he had extra time for her.

For the first couple of weeks he was constantly on his cell phone, managing his Facebook page, texting his friends and even talking to a few girls on the phone. He was a grown man, so I had no right to act all bossy about it. I wasn’t that type of person anyway.

Instead, I let him do his own thing, knowing he needed the time to adjust. Besides Ty and me, his only friend in North Carolina was Brina, if that was what he would call her. He hadn’t been with us for a whole weekend before she started showing up. At first, she and Conner would go somewhere else, but we woke one morning to her walking around in his clothes.

It wasn’t just that I didn’t care for Brina, Ty hated her. She had been a bitch to him since they were kids; fighting with him over Van like she was an object. After spending time with her during Van and Colt’s nuptials, I really got a good taste of the person she was. Brina was a selfish girl who had every intention of having a relationship with my brother. She thought she had an advantage of being the only chick he knew. She was wrong.

When I came out of that bedroom and saw her in my living room, I wanted to pounce on her. She had no right to be in our house, especially after several comments she made about my husband just days prior.