Saving Us (Mitchell Family #6)(11)
Author: Jennifer Foor

"Yep, did you ever hear of the Underground Railroad? The old barns have secret hideaways under the floor boards where the slaves would hide while they ran from their owners."

"That is amazing." I turned to Conner. "Why didn’t you tell me this?"

He shrugged and just shook his head.

"Conner used to take girls down there and steal their virginity."

Immediately, I felt his hand grab mine. "That is horseshit! Amy he is blowing smoke up your ass."

"Language!" Miranda yelled from the front seat.

Ty was almost hunched over the steering wheel laughing so hard. "Come on, that shit was funny and you know it."

"Daddy, you said a bad word" Bella added.

I looked from Conner to the front seat. "So, how much was true?"

"None of it!" Miranda revealed.

"Sorry, Iz." Ty looked in the rear view mirror at her and then back to me. "Gullible."

"That is really not cool. I believed you." I slapped Conner’s leg. "You could have told me."

He laughed "Sorry, Blaze. You look cute when you get angry. I just wanted to see you scrunch up that little face of yours."

I rolled my eyes and ignored the fact that I had been so naive to believe Tyler Mitchell of all people.

Once we reached Kentucky, I was completely exhausted. I’d tried to sleep in the car, but there was just too much going on for that to happen. The ranch was gigantic. I knew that family had money, but my God, they really had money. The main house was enormous and I couldn’t believe that only two people were living in it. Colt and Van’s house was down a long dirt road and Conner’s mother’s house was even further away on the property.

Of course, her house was small compared to the other two. It was still big, especially for just her and John. At Christmas time they were bickering about what house they would live in once they were married. I could tell how excited Conner was to be home. He snatched up his mother and spun her around, but finally sat her back down. She smoothed out her clothes before turning her attention to me. "How are you feeling these days? How is my grandbaby doing?"

Instinctively, I placed my hand on my belly. "I guess good. We have our first sonogram next week. Conner thinks it’s going to be a boy."

She placed her hand on my belly. "Conner thinks he knows everything."

"Because I do!" He added.

Miss Karen looked over at her son and shook her head "Hardheaded, that’s what you are. Go show Amy where ya’ll are sleeping so she can put her stuff in there."

Conner led me back to his bedroom. It was weird seeing how he lived before he moved to North Carolina. I sat my purse down on his double sized bed and sat down. Shelves filled the walls and sitting on top of each one were old antique tractors. There were two posters on the back of his door of two naked pin-up models. I tried not to cringe at the thought of what he may or may not have done while looking at them. Conner sat my larger bag next to his dresser and sat down on the bed next to me. He caught my eye just as I was turning away from the posters.

"Yeah, I reckon I should take them down." He stood up and walked over to the door. Before he could say anything, his mother came in.

She put her hands on her hips. "Conner Healy! Amy, I am so sorry dear. I thought I got them all. I guess I never looked at the back of his damn door." She grabbed the posters out of his hand and started crumpling them up. He made a face like she was killing his best friend. She said something under her breath as she walked out of the room.

"She said she thought she got them all. Was there more?"

He took his hat off and scratched his head, while he smile answered the question. "A few."

I laughed and laid down on the bed. When I did, I could see a square from where a poster had been on his ceiling. "My God, were they all naked?"

He shrugged his shoulders and jumped on the bed next to me. His finger traced my lips. "Does it make you jealous?"

I don’t know why, but it did. I wasn’t about to admit that to him. "No way!"

"Blaze, you’re pretty damn sexy yourself. How about I pin up a naked picture of you on my ceiling?"

I smacked his chest as he fell into me laughing. "Since I sleep in bed with you, I would say that you don’t need that."

I stood up when I saw a bunch of pictures on his mirror. There were a bunch of Conner with people I didn’t recognize, and most of them were with females. Blonde, gorgeous, young females.

He stood up and walked up behind me. I felt his hands reaching around my waist. "That’s my past, Blaze."

I hoped it was the truth. Never in my years of marriage with Rick had I ever cared about losing him, the way I cared about losing Conner. If he left me for another woman, I would be devastated. I looked at him through the mirror. "I know."

A little later, we were headed to the cemetery to pay respects to his father. The boys were being cranky, so Mrs. Karen decided to wait and go with Ty and Miranda once the boys had their naps.

Bella had already disappeared to Colt and Van’s house. She was so excited to see Noah that she barely spent a second with her grandmother.

As we pulled into the cemetery I could almost see Conner’s demeanor changing. My tough man was putting up a shield as the emotions of losing his parent was all being reminded. It took him a couple minutes to locate his headstone. We parked fairly close and started walking through the grass to reach where his father had been buried. It wasn’t anything fancy. It had his name, his birthday and the date he died. I reached out and intertwined my fingers with Conner’s. Even when I squeezed them tighter, he kept his still. He stared at that stone, then finally crouched down to be face to face with it. I crouched down beside him and watched him take his free hand and trace the part that read ‘beloved father’.

"I wish you could have met him, Amy. He would have liked you. Hell, he liked damn near everyone." Conner let go of my hand and sat down on his butt. I sat down beside him and put my arm inside of his.

"I can still remember the way he smelled when he came home from work every night. Ain’t that crazy?" Conner obviously missed his father so much.

"No, I think it is those type of things that allow us to hold on. I can still remember running around the hardware store and the way the old wood floors sounded. It always smelled like sawdust, or that burnt kind of smell when wood is being cut." I heard him sniffling and hugged him tighter. "I’m sure he’s somewhere looking down at you. I bet he’s excited about you being a daddy."

Conner patted on my arm. He looked me right in the eyes. I could see that his were more wet than normal. "You mind givin’ me a few minutes alone?"