Risking Fate (Mitchell Family #4)(70)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Van coughed when she heard what he said.

He brought the baby over to me and I got myself ready to feed him. As I was pulling my shirt down he asked again. “So, what did I put up?”

I felt bad even bringing it up, especially after what I had just heard. “It’s nothin’.”

He put his hands on his hips and waited for me to answer.

Van didn’t give me a chance. “I want to see the pictures.”

“Of the boys?” Obviously he was oblivious to what we were talking about.

“No, the other pictures.”

Ty frowned and looked over at me. “Oh, those.”

“Ty, I didn’t want to make you upset.” Van waited for him to answer.

“No, it’s fine, I just really didn’t want to ever look at them again. They’re buried in the woodstove. I’ll be right back.”

Van lifted up Christian and followed behind him. “Ty wait, I’ll just go with you and we can burn them together.

I focused down on little Jake who was chowing down, when I noticed Ty walking back in the room. He stood there looking at me just clenching his jaw. “Only you, Miranda.”

I felt like my heart skipped a beat when he said it. Just like that, he was gone.

Getting up was still a problem for me, so I actually had to call Colt into the bedroom to help me. By the time I laid Jake down, Jax was up and hungry. At this rate I wasn’t ever going to get any sleep. This time I sat down on the couch next to my cousin. He turned his head away as I got adjusted to feed Jax. I covered all the skin up so Colt wouldn’t freak out and let him know it was okay to turn his head back.

“How you doin’, Darlin?”

“It’s safe to say I’ve been better. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we’re all home safe, but it has been really hard.”

Noah and Bella came running in the room. “Dad, can you get us some foil?”

“For what?”

“We want to be super heroes.”

I started to giggle, but realized I was shaking poor little Jax’s head.

Colt let out a cackle. “What on earth is the foil for?”

“For our belts, you silly head.” Noah and Bella began giggling.

“Noah, what did I say about the name callin’?” Colt tightened his lips and widened his eyes.

“But you said I couldn’t say poop head.”

“I don’t want you sayin’ anything that ends in head, got it?”

“But heads not even a bad word.”

Colt stood up and went after Noah. “Boy, don’t make me tell you again.”

Colt no sooner sat down when Bella came walking up to him. “Hey Bells, what’s up?”

“Noah wants to know if we can have the foil now.” She was rocking back and forth like she wasn’t doing anything wrong.

I couldn’t help but ask. “So, what kind of superheroes are you goin’ to be? Do you have names?”

“Well, I wanted to be pet girl, but Noah says dogs already have their own, so now I want to be invisible girl.”

Colt and I started laughing. “Bells, what exactly would invisible girl do, besides being invisible?”

She looked at her uncle like he should have already known the answer. She put her hands on her hips and got up closer to him. “I can go into any room without people knowing.”

Obviously, she didn’t realize that was what being invisible did and the fact that we were still laughing made her angry. Colt noticed that he had made her angry so he pretended like it was the coolest thing. “I wish I could do that to spy on Noah when he’s being bad.”

“I want to spy on Mommy and Daddy and make sure they aren’t sad.” She tried to whisper so I couldn’t hear her, but obviously little kids had voices that carried.

“What is Noah bein’?” I changed her focus.

“He wants to be Ant Man, because he says he would be able to crawl in small places and just one cookie would feed him forever.”

Noah came in the room wearing all brown clothes. It wasn’t just that the clothes were brown, they were all Bella’s and they were way too small. “I’m Ant Man.” He ran around the couch until he was in front of us.

Colt looked at me as I looked at him. “The foil is in the top cabinet above the sink. Just let them have it.”

As soon as he handed it to them, they ran back into Bella’s room. Colt reached his hand out to take Jax from me, who was now sound asleep. I managed to cover up my exposed breast right before he lifted Jax away from it. “Thanks.”

“Welcome, Darlin’,” he whispered as he walked Jax back to his room.

When he came back out he looked outside first. I knew he was looking for Ty and Van. At first I thought it was because he thought they were doing something wrong, but then as he sat down beside me, I realized it was so that he knew he had time to talk to me alone.

“You know, I was the last person to think that Ty could change his ways. As soon as that kid started puberty, all he wanted to do was have sex. It’s all he talked about. But Miranda, something changed in him once you were on his radar. He’d lied before, so I was skeptical, even with his promises that his feelin’s for you were different. I was wrong to doubt him, and I think you are too. That man loves you and those kids. I know about the pictures, but Savanna and I have talked about this so many times in the last week and neither of us thinks he would intentionally do that, especially with that tramp.”

If one more person brings this up today I think I am going to scream.

“Even if I believed him, it still doesn’t change the fact that it did happen, whether he was drugged or not, he did those things. Look, before I even heard his side of the story I had decided not to leave him. I’m not going anywhere, but I can’t say that I’m ready to just forget about it. I just can’t do that. It hurts too much to just be able to let it go.”

Colt put his hand on my shoulder and leaned over to kiss me on the head. “Life’s too short.”

He was right and I knew it, but I think I had the right to take my time. I didn’t feel like I was being rude to Ty. I just wanted my space.

Colt got up and walked back toward Bella’s room, which left me sitting by myself. I wondered where my brother had gone again. He seemed to always go out somewhere, yet I still hadn’t met one of his friends. I hated when he was secretive, but he wasn’t drinking or using drugs. I just didn’t get it.

I knew that he and Ty had their moments, but I loved him living on the farm with us. I think it was easier for him to move because of me too. He hated that I moved away in the first place. Our mother was so far up her boyfriend’s ass that she kept herself busy. After raising us and never getting involved with anyone while we were younger, it was good for her to be living life to the fullest. I was really hoping that one day he would just pop the question and they could start a long life together.