Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)(12)

I grabbed one of his legs and took him down. He fell at my feet, but I didn’t let go of him. Instead, I dragged him up towards us. He kicked and screamed until I saw his brother coming in out of the corner of my eye. With Jake kicking me, I kept focused on him. Izzy started kicking him back. Jax jumped up and began hitting her while she hid under the covers. I grabbed him by the underwear and yanked him toward me. Due to the instant wedgie I’d given him, he screamed out.

A loud whistle made the four of us freeze in place. Miranda stood in the doorway with a spatula in her hand. “What’s goin’ on in here? Do I need to bust some asses?”

“Bust Dad!” Jake yelled.

Jax laughed while Izzy peeked out from under the covers. Miranda crossed her arms and shook her head. “I saw them naked last night.” I knew my wife was mortified. Her eyes went from accusing to humongous.

“You did not. You must have been dreaming.”

He looked puzzled. “Jake,” I said while winking at Miranda. “Did you see me and Mom naked last night?”

He shook his head.

“I came in to get you to look under the bed.”

“You had to have been dreaming.” Thankfully, I knew his brother wouldn’t have remembered me being in there. We’d woken him up at night and given him his medicine when he was sick and he never remembered.

“I swear, I saw you and Mommy in this bed all naked and touching each other. You were kissing on her privates and said she had ticks.” He pointed to his own crotch.

Miranda covered her mouth and I almost burst into laughter. “Hey, that never happened. Now get your mind out of the gutter and go change into something else. It’s chilly out and super hero pajamas are not allowed,” Changing the subject was going to be the only way to make him stop thinking about seeing us.

Truth be told, when I was their age, I knew a lot more than I should have, or at least thought I did. The two of them together were worse than me, so I probably wasn’t fooling anyone.

Jax was confused about what he perceived as reality, not that I cared. As long as he thought he was dreaming, it didn’t matter what he was thinking about in that little head of his. For now, Miranda was in the clear. They’d all seen her naked before. The woman never had a second to herself. She couldn’t even go to the bathroom without them coming in needing something from her.

Izzy finally pushed the covers all the way down once the boys retreated to go get dressed. “Daddy, can you take me to Noah’s after breakfast?”

“Sure can, as long as you go put some clothes on and brush those nasty yellow teeth. What if he has a cute friend over? Those funky things would send him running in the opposite direction.”

She giggled. “I don’t like boys. They have B.O. and say curse words.”

Miranda walked over and sat on the bed, laughing her head off. “That’s right. Boys stink!”

“Except for Dad.” She looked up at me with a smile and I kissed the top of her head.

Miranda smirked. “Your dad was one of those boys, when we were kids.”

“Eww. He was?” I liked that Izzy only thought of me as being awesome. She was eleven, an age where she wanted to feel like she was grown up, but had so much to learn before that could happen. Miranda and I always tried to be straight with her if she had questions, no matter how absurd they might have been.

I still had to deny ever having body odor. “I’ll have you know that I never stunk. Your mother is full of bologna.”

Izzy giggled and climbed out of the bed. “I like the way he smells.”

I nudged Miranda and she gave me her annoyed look. “Yeah, well, he didn’t always smell so wonderful. He was a stinky boy, who said stinky things for attention.”

“Did you think he was cute?” Izzy was laughing, but intrigued that we knew each other as kids.

It wasn’t like we were close. I’d see her in the summer when I visited. We called each other cousins back then, and I never would have considered her someone to date. “We were kissing cousins,” I joked.

“You were not.” Izzy couldn’t stop laughing and neither could I.

I continued telling my fake story, while chuckling through it. “She used to chase me around, trying to kiss all over me. You should have seen her.”

Miranda slapped my side. “That is not true. Your dad was annoyin’. I never would have liked him back then. He stared at older ladies boobs too much.”

She’d called me out, in front of my precious girl. I had to defend my honor to all pubescent men. “In my defense, boobs were an amazing discovery for a boy. It was only natural to want a peek.”

They both cringed.

“You’re gross. I’m gettin’ dressed now.” Izzy jumped off the bed, leaving me there with my agitated wife.

Did I mention that she was holding a metal spatula?

It came across my leg hard. “I can’t believe you said that to her. She’s goin’ to tell all her friends that you’re obsessed with breasts now.”

I pulled her into my arms. “It’s no secret.”

She wriggled out of my hold and stood in front of me. After shaking her head, being at a loss for words, she walked out of the room, leaving me in bed all alone.

Twenty minutes later, after a shower, shave and a clean pair of clothes, I felt awake enough to join the chaos at the breakfast table. Miranda had made eggs and creamed chipped beef. I sat there staring at the boys, ripping apart bread and creating a tower on their plates. Knowing that they barely ate that much, it was obvious it would get wasted. “I think you both have enough bread.”