Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)(28)

She grabbed both sides of my face and forced me to look her in the eye. It was emotional, hearing my mother-in-law being so positive to me. For so long, I’d always been the one they were watching, waiting to screw up. Through their doubt, I’d finally been noticed for doing something right. “Thanks, Mom. That means a lot.”

“I love you, kid. Even if I used to call you my nephew and my friends still don’t understand how you and my daughter aren’t really blood related.” She smiled, and I felt the burning in my eyes again. Just thinking back to those days seemed like forever ago. We’d all become so close, because time heals all wounds.

“I still would have slept with her if she was my cousin.” I winked at her, and she lightly slapped my chest.

“Some things never change.”

“I have people on their toes.”

She gave me one last hug and finally walked away, smiling. Clearly I was joking. If Miranda was my cousin, I never would have touched her. It was weird enough when we first got together, after calling each other family our whole lives.

The boys whined about going home and Bella wasn’t happy either. Miranda and I rounded them up anyway and headed back to the guest house.

Since we were still so hung up on ticks, I took the boys into the bathroom and looked them over before forcing them to get in the shower.

“I don’t need a shower, dad.” Jax hated getting washed. He acted like it was going to melt his skin.

“Get your ass in that water.”

“But I don’t want to. I didn’t even get dirty today.” The child had played outside in leaves and a forest all day long, but was claiming he hadn’t gotten dirty. He had marshmallow around his lips with accumulated dirt stuck to it.

Jake laughed and stood there, completely naked in the tub. He wasn’t sitting down, but at least he was in it. “Sit your butt down before you fall.”

“I won’t fall.” He danced around like a fool. Sure enough, two seconds later, he slipped and went under the water. When he came up, he looked so embarrassed. Jax was cracking up and pointing at him.

“Idiot!”

“Jax, quit stalling. Get in the tub. I’m not sitting here all night with you.”

“But—”

“But nothing.” I picked him up and stuck him in the tub behind his brother. Then I sat down on the closed toilet seat to monitor the two of them.

“Can we have bubbles?”

“No.”

“Can we have a little bubbles?” Jax repeated his brother’s question.

“I said no.”

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and started reading, seeing Jake out of the corner of my eye pouring something on his brother. As I turned, I noticed that it was an entire bottle on conditioner. Jax punched him in the gut and water began to splash out of the tub as they wrestled for the remainder of what was left in the bottle.

I reached in, getting soaked myself, and grabbed it. “Seriously? What is wrong with you two? You could be done getting washed by now, but instead you choose to act like punks.”

“What’s a punk?” Jax asked while his brother giggled.

“It’s you two. Get washed, because if I have to do it, you’ll be sorry.”

Jake handed his brother the soap after lathering some up on his hand for himself. I looked back at my phone and heard them laughing again. This time, Jax was peeing, in the direction of his brother. Jake stood up and grabbed his penis, ready to attack with his own stream of urine.

I reached in and pulled him out, wrapping him in a towel. “What is wrong with you two?”

“He did it first.”

“It doesn’t matter. You both were wrong.”

As the water drained, the boys dried off and headed to get changed. I wiped up the floor, so that Izzy wouldn’t slip when she came in to use the bathroom. We passed by each other and I handed her a fresh towel. “Here, sweetie. Use this one. You’re brothers soaked the other ones.”

“Thanks, dad.”

Hearing her call me that was enough for me to feel good. I found Miranda in bed, cuddled up watching something on television. “What was all the commotion about?”

“The boys decided to give each other golden showers.”

“What the hell? Are you kidding me, right now?”

I plopped down next to her. “Nope. Honest to God, they were peeing on each other and laughing about it.”

Miranda rolled her eyes, like she wasn’t that surprised. “What are they doing now?”

“Probably plotting to take over the world.” I kissed her neck and she started to pull away.

“Ty, wait until they go to bed.”

“That could take hours.” Knowing she’d been asleep before they were, I decided it would be best to get out of bed. Being that closed to Miranda, especially when she was in just a t-shirt, made me extremely horny.

I found the boys attempting to make chocolate milk by themselves. Of course, chocolate syrup was all over the counter. “Seriously. How much destruction can you two possibly do in five minutes?”

Their faces got red as they turned around and realized they’d been caught. “We’re thirsty.”

“Ask someone to help, why don’t you?”

“Dad, don’t be mad. We’ll clean it up,” Jax assured me.