Blinding Trust (Mitchell Family, #7)(26)



After sending a text to Colt, letting him know we had arrived safe, I could hardly keep Addy from busting out of her booster seat. “I want to see Cammie and Callie, Mommy. Hurry!”

“Just a second, honey. We aren’t at their house yet.”

She looked around and pointed. “There they are!”

Sure enough, the girls came running out of the barn toward my vehicle.

With Addy being drawn away from me, I headed toward the house to see my family. Loud music was coming from inside as I entered, I found out why.

Ty and Conner where standing in the living room. They had spiked their hair and put on black makeup all around their eyes. They both wore black ripped up outfits and in their hands were cardboard guitars. The music was something that I’d never heard, but I noticed the CD sitting on the table and saw that it was Zeke’s band. As the two of them continued to jam out and play the air guitar, I walked over and turned off the stereo.

Laughing filled the room. “Pretty rad, huh?” Ty stood there like he was famous.

Conner just kept smiling. I knew which one of them thought this little bit would be funny.

Ty came up and tried to hug me, but I pushed him away. “You are an ass!”

“Miranda gave me permission to sign your tit.” He pulled out a black sharpie from the front of his pants. I cringed as I watched him open the cap with his teeth. “Left or right?”

I backed away from him more. “Get your nasty ass pen away from me!”

“You really are against famous people. Some people would kill to have me sign their tits.”

“Where are the girls?” I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore him.

Ty lifted up his shirt to display his abdomen. “You want me, don’t you?”

“Stop it!”

He cornered me in the room. “Conner is into pregnant chicks, but I have room for a groupie like you.”

I took my knee and brought it up between his legs. He did this thing where he laughed and moaned at the same time, as he hunched over and tried to catch his breath. “You can’t take a joke, Van! You suck!” Ty grabbed himself between the legs and held his hand there as he walked toward the kitchen.

The house filled with female voices as Miranda and Amy came walking in. Amy looked like she was about to burst at the seams. They each walked up and hugged me at the same time. “It’s good to see you.”

Miranda turned around and took a look at Ty and Conner. “I told you both not to do that!”

“We couldn’t help it, sis. It was a kickass idea!”

“You both are asshats!” Amy pointed at them and shook her head.

Miranda’s scorning did nothing to make Ty wash off the makeup and change his clothes. In fact, he and Conner walked around for the rest of the day like that.

I spent the night in the guest room at Ty and Miranda’s, while Addy chose to stay with her cousins. Even though the mattress wasn’t as soft as mine, it was a great night’s sleep.

I woke up to the smell of cooking bacon and a conversation between Miranda and Ty having to deal with nipple sizes.

“I’m telling you, baby, their like fingerprints. Each set is different,” Ty said as he flipped the bacon.

Miranda sat in a chair with her knees against her chest. She had a cup of coffee in her hand and was reading something on her tablet. “That’s ridiculous! How would you know anyway?”

“I am the master of tits, that’s how!”

They didn’t look at each other as they talked and they didn’t notice me standing there, holding my hand over my mouth.

“The master of tits?”

“Shit yeah! You put a picture of your tits in a line up with a hundred other sets and I guarantee I can pick yours out!” I couldn’t help but start to laugh. They both turned and looked at me.

“Van, can you please tell my husband that he’s full of crap?”

“Honestly, I think you should take him up on the challenge.”

“And let him look at ninety nine other sets of breasts? You’ve got to be jokin’. The last thing this man needs is permission to be a pervert.”

Ty held up his arms like he couldn’t help himself. “It was worth a try, right?”

“No!” Miranda and I said at the same time.

They retreated into the living room shortly after, while I made a cup of coffee and sat in silence. It was nice to have a little time to myself, but also made me think of the reason that I wanted to leave town in the first place.

I felt like my happy little bubble was being jeopardized and I didn’t know how to make things better. With my health being in question, no matter how much I was told not to worry, I still couldn’t see a way out. I think Ty being obsessed with breasts was making my morning worries heightened. As much as I tried to separate my problems from my visit, they were clearly one in the same.

In just a short time, Colt was going to take Noah for a weeks visit with Zeke. Maybe I would have felt better about it if I were included in the decision. To be honest, I felt like I didn’t belong. Maybe I was being selfish. I’d known all along that I wasn’t Noah’s birth mother. I shouldn’t have been surprised that this kind of conflict had come in to play.

Once the kids woke up, the house filled with chaos. I went outside to the barn, where I sat down on the couch and looked around, thinking of all the happy memories that we’d all shared in the place.

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