Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)
Jennifer Foor
Chapter 1
Tyler
Family.
It’s what makes life worth living, and memories so valuable. For me, it’s everything. If someone were to take them away from me I’d lose my will to keep going.
I’ve been blessed, even when I didn’t deserve it, with three kids and a beautiful wife. After almost eleven years, I’m still the happiest man on the planet.
With that being said, my life is just as chaotic as it was before Miranda and I got together. Having twin boys and a daughter that thinks she’s a teenager will do that. On most days, like today, we wake up to bickering, or screaming. Whether it be the boys torturing Izzy, or her taping them to the kitchen chairs, something is going to happen.
That’s why we knew something was wrong with Izzy when we woke up to two little boys standing over our bed like stalkers.
I wiped the sleep out of my eyes before being able to focus on what they were doing. They liked to work together to cause mischief. Unaware that something was wrong, I had to assume that’s why they were in our room. “Hey guys. What’s up? Ain’t there some cartoons you want to watch?”
“Izzy won’t get up,” Jax announced from the other side of the bed.
“She got sunburned,” Jake added.
Miranda and I sat up and looked at one another. I started getting up, realizing she was probably still naked under the covers. We’d waited like little criminals until the kids went to bed so that we could have some alone time. It was hard to come by, so we had to look for ways around getting caught.
“I’m sure she’s just teasing you. Come on, let’s go see if we can wake up the hair monster.” They called her that when she first woke in the morning, because her hair was always crazy. She hated it. On most days I think she hated them.
“Tell her to make sure that room is cleaned before she goes outside,” Miranda announced from the bedroom as I walked down the hall to our daughter’s room.
They were right to worry. As I got close to her bed I could see the color change in her skin, not to mention the fact that she was covered in sweat. I knelt down beside her bed and put my hand on hers. She was still.
I shook her. “Iz, wake up, sleepy head.”
She didn’t move.
My heart started pounding out of worry. This wasn’t normal.
I felt her head and she was burning up, almost too hot to touch, so I ripped off her covers, immediately realizing that I needed to get her fever down.
“MIRANDA!” I screamed for her, beginning to freak out about our daughter’s condition.
Miranda met me in the hallway. She immediately saw that something was very wrong. “Call 9-1-1,” she yelled to the boys.
We rushed her into the bathroom, and I sat her down in the tub while Miranda turned on the cold water. As her nightgown started to get wet, we saw her barely open her eyes. “Hurts,” she said in a faint whisper.
“What is happenin’ to her, Ty?”
I shook my head and kept holding on to our daughter. “I don’t know.” We were petrified. It was that moment of impact when you realize that something terrible could be happening and you can’t do anything to stop it.
The more the tub filled, the more her body began to shake. “What if we break the fever too fast? That’s dangerous, too. She could have a seizure.”
“She’s got to be cooled down. You didn’t feel her skin. Baby, she’s burning up.”
Miranda was starting to cry, and as much as I wanted to comfort my wife, I was also fighting back my emotions while holding my daughter.
We kneeled there, on the bathroom floor, trying to talk to Izzy. It’d been a while before the sirens came wailing down the dirt lane. Miranda jumped up and ran out to meet them.
Since the bathroom was small, only suitable for two people at a time, I carried a lethargic Iz out to the living room and lay her on the couch, not giving a damn about the upholstery. My life, my heart, and my soul was lying on that couch. She needed to feel safe and comfortable.
The paramedics took her vitals and started getting her hooked up to take to the ambulance. Miranda was already a mess, while the boys stood there amazed at what they were witnessing.
My mother came frantically running into the house in a thin nightgown. She was full of concern and almost lost her footing when she saw they were working on Iz. She walked over and held onto Miranda, clinging to her, offering some sort of support.
The paramedics couldn’t tell us anything, just that her vitals were low and they had to take her in. I knew Miranda wouldn’t be able to drive, and thankfully Conner came rushing into the house. He looked at me and I looked at him, knowing he’d be strong enough to get us there.
I didn’t fight my wife when she wanted to ride with Izzy. It was the best place for her, since I had to get myself calmed down enough to be able to stay strong.
It was all happening so fast, as if it were a terrible dream.
More than anything, I wished it was. I wished that my beautiful little girl wasn’t being carted off to the hospital, clinging to life.
There was no time to explain what had happened, because the paramedics were loading her up. Miranda grabbed her purse and ran out to go with them. My mother had both boys by the shoulder. She nodded when I looked to her to make sure she was okay to watch them. “Just go, Ty. Bring our sweet girl home, you hear me?”