Saving Us (Mitchell Family #6)(19)
Author: Jennifer Foor

This was going to make a mess, but she didn’t seem to care one bit. She ran out and grabbed one more bag of flour. Only my family would have concocted this plan up and bought this stuff ahead of time. He must have been waiting for this moment. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if she slipped him a sleeping pill so that they could do it.

Miranda came walking downstairs just as Colt was holding the lighter up to the smoke detector. I assume he had been waiting for her to get finished with the kids, even though it would most likely wake them up. She took a double take and gave us both the evil eye. Van ran over and whispered something in my sister’s ear. She crossed her arms and just shook her head. I had to keep myself from bursting into laughter. I’d do anything for my sister. I think I proved that when I went after Heather to save her marriage. I still got a kick out of seeing her get pissed off. She may have been little, but she was spunky when she was mad.

With the creamy white, thick mixture in the boat, the smoke detector started blaring next to his ear, Ty jumped off the couch and rolled right into the boat of goop. When he pulled himself up, the entire front of his body was covered in mush. The room filled with laughter and Van was beside herself. “How do you like that, f**ker?” I think we were all surprised to hear her using profanity. Since the children came into the picture, she tried not to curse at all.

Ty took his fingers and removed the white substance from both of his eyes. We could see the stuff going inside of his mouth when he opened it to speak. “What is this shit? It tastes horrible!”

“I made you a human paper machete project.” She giggled up until the moment that Ty got ready to lunge himself at her. In just a small instant, Colt jumped right in front of him. The white mixture was pouring off of Ty as he stood there looking pissed.

“This ends right here, cuz. Savanna didn’t do this to you, I did. I’ve had to get naked in front of your parents and run around in a thong. You did this to yourself. I let you think I was over it, so that I could get you real good. You got a damn problem with me beatin’ you at your own game?”

It was just getting good. I half expected Ty to jump on Colt and them start rolling around on the living room floor. Ty just stood there, looking around at all of us. His shoulders sunk and he shook his head while letting out a laugh. “There is only one person that I know can kick my ass. I need all my body parts to work so I can keep satisfying my wife. I call truce.” He held up his hands like he was giving up.

Colt held up his fist and pounded mine, before turning back to Ty. “That’s what I thought. Now get this shit cleaned up so my wife doesn’t have to.”

Ty looked over to my sister. “Baby, can you help me?”

She put her hands on her hips. “You’re on your own.”

While laughing, I looked over at Amy. She seemed so amused by my family and the way we communicated. It was hard imagining not having a family, when I was raised with such a great one.

Ty began whining and everyone cleared out of the room, leaving him with a pile of towels and a bucket. It was going to take him forever to get that boat drained enough to move it on his own.

I walked over to Amy. “That there was some funny shit.”

“So this happens all the time?” She seemed shocked.

“It gets worse every time. Knowing Ty, he will plan some revenge on Van the next time they visit. It never fails. Someone is always doing something to each other. We’ve been doin’ it since we were kids though.”

Most of the time, Colt would pick on Ty or myself. We were always too pu**y to mess with him since he was so much bigger than us. By the time we got as big as him, the idea of playing a prank on him seemed juvenile. That was until Van came into the picture. She wedged herself right between Ty and Colt and even though they all three loved each other, it started a lifetime of pranks.

“But it was Colt’s idea. Why does he want to pick on Van?”

“Van is the easiest target and gets the most offended. He likes picking on her. It doesn’t matter what Colt says. Now that he has initiated retaliation, it’s definitely not over with.”

“Will they do that to me, or is it just between them? I don’t want to have something like that happen to me.” Ty didn’t ever seem jealous of Colt winning Van. I think he liked that the two of them found each other. Van was always special to him, but not in the way she needed to be. After he fell in love with my sister, it was obvious that what he and Van shared had been a deep friendship. They grew up together and had a past, but appreciated that they were now family. I don’t know if either one of them could have been happier with the turnout. When all of that went down, I felt so left out. They were all so happy, while I was miserable. It was the reason I turned to the parties and the pills. I’d been so darn immature. Amy made me want more. She was what I always wanted.

“If he knows what’s good for him, he won’t go near you.”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around me, pulling my body close to hers. “You are always protecting me.”

It amazed me that she had to be reminded of that. After all this time Amy still thought I was going to just leave her. She was wrong. I’d die before I let someone hurt her. “I always will, Blaze.”

Chapter 13

Amy

If I thought the ride to Kentucky was rough, well the ride home was ten times worse. The twins were in rare form and Bella was exhausted and cranky herself. I sat in the backseat with Miranda on account of Conner’s legs being so long. I think the ride to Kentucky had been extremely uncomfortable for him.

We’d had a good time, even though our visit had been for something so sad. After the whole prank thing, everyone got along like nothing had happened. Conner had said it would be like that, but I didn’t believe him until I saw it for myself. We had a huge card game going the night before, in which I won. They said it was beginners luck and it would be the last time I ever won again. Conner seemed proud of me, which made me all giddy over my accomplishment. Honestly, it had been all luck. I was never the best at cards.

When we passed the sign welcoming us back to North Carolina, it made me sad. I wanted to believe that I could get through anything as long as I had Conner by my side. The thing is, I just couldn’t be certain. Rick had lied about pretty much everything I ever knew. I still hadn’t told Conner about his phone calls to the salon because I was too afraid of what Conner would do. To me, he was a gentle man, but I’d seen him get pissed and he wanted to kick Rick’s ass more than anything.