Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family, #7)(16)

What was I supposed to say to her? Noah was probably still crying because I’d hit him. Naturally, I just wanted to walk away and come back when it was all settled. Unfortunately, I was right in the middle of it all.

I left Savanna and Noah crying and headed to my mother’s to get the girls. At least if Savanna had them to keep her busy, she wouldn’t have time to be so emotional.

My mother had this intuition about her. She knew when something was wrong. I’d no sooner walked in the door when she started asking me questions. “What’s wrong? It didn’t go well?”

“Mom, nothin’ about it was well. Zeke wants to take Noah home with him. Noah told his mother that she wasn’t his mother. He said he hated her.” I shook my head in disappointment. “I slapped him.”

She walked over and hugged me. Right away my daughter reached out for me to pick her up. She was getting entirely too big to be carried around. I looked down at the couch and saw that Christian was asleep and laying on Lucy’s leg. Christian didn’t get naps like her sister, so she was always the first to conk out. Lucy smiled but stayed quiet so she didn’t wake her. “Son, this is what being a parent is all about. There is good and there is bad. I hate to tell you this, but the rebelling doesn’t go away over night. I’m afraid this is probably just the beginning.”

“Savanna is never goin’ to forget this. I’m afraid this can’t be undone.”

“Time heals all wounds. You and I both know how much that kid loves her. He reminds me of someone I know.” She patted me on the back.

“What did you do when I got mouthy?”

“I hit you with a wooden spoon!”

I suddenly remember running from the wooden spoon. “You never caught me.”

“No, but your father’s belt did the trick, didn’t it?”

That was something that I could never forget. He used to snap it to scare me. I learned to mind what I said, in fear of getting that leather smacked across my bare ass. “Yeah.” I finally smiled.

“Get the girls home and just be there for your wife. Everything will work itself out. You have to have faith, Colton.”

I kissed my mother and Lucy goodbye before getting the girls back to the house. Savanna and Noah were both in their bedrooms. It was difficult to carry both of them, but I was used to the task. Once I got Christian in her room, I carried Addy straight to her mother. When I laid her down beside her, she started to stir and it got Savanna’s attention. She wrapped her arms around our daughter and kissed her little head. She was still sobbing, but I knew that this was the best thing for her. She needed to feel that motherly connection, even if it was with another one of our children. “Why you cryin’, Momma?”

“I was just sad.”

“It’s okay, Momma.”

We didn’t know why she’d started calling Savanna that, but my wife loved it.

I wrapped my arms around Savanna and Addy, but said nothing to her. I just wanted her to know that I was there for her.

As far as Noah went, well, I left that kid in his room without checking on him. He needed to feel left out, because he’d hurt her so badly. This was going to leave scars and I wasn’t okay with that.





Chapter 7


Savanna


I wanted to wake up and it all have been a nightmare. Noah’s words repeated over and over again. It was breaking my heart each time. Then there was the fight with Colt. I knew we’d both been too frustrated to have that sort of conversation, but I forced it anyway.

Now he was mad, at not only Noah, but me as well.

It felt good to have his arms around me, and even better to have Addy in bed with us. It also reminded me of the child in the other room, who had broken my heart. I never thought I would hear him say such awful things to me. Hearing that he hated me was just indescribable.

When morning came, I was afraid to get out of bed. I didn’t know what to say to Noah. I just loved him so much and if he didn’t love me, I didn’t know how I could handle that.

Colt took Addy downstairs early. I could hear him talking to Christian when I started walking down the stairs. Since she had no idea what happened the night before, I put on a happy face. “Good morning, pretty girl.”

“Hi, Mommy. Grandma and Aunt Lucy let me stay up and watch the show with the duck mans in it.”

“The duck men, you mean?”

“Yeah, that’s what I said.”

She loved watching the men with the long beards goofing around. Colt never missed an episode and now he had the whole family watching it. Of course, Ty and Conner took their love for the show to a whole different level. On several occasions they had a whole conversation with each other by only using lines from the show.

At first it was funny but, after a while, it became so annoying.

“Did you have fun with Grandma and Aunt Lucy?”

She nodded and started playing with her doll. Addy had a handful of banana and was shoving it into her mouth. Her eyes lit up when she saw me smiling. It melted my broken heart a little.

Colt smiled as I poured myself a cup of coffee. “Mornin’, darlin’.”

I smiled back at him.

“So, I talked to Noah this mornin’ and told him that he wasn’t comin’ out of that bedroom until he thought long and hard about what he said to you. Until he apologizes, he is not to step foot outside that room unless he has to piss.”