Loving Her (Mitchell Family #9)(29)

“Just sit down and I’ll get it.”

I cleaned up the mess and made the three of us chocolate milk. We sat there at the round kitchen table looking at each other. “I want to milk a cow.”

The milk came out of my nose. “Why?”

“It looks cool. You get to squeeze those nipples and milk just comes squirting out. I wish I could make my own milk, don’t you, Jake?”

Jake nodded.

I ran my hands over my face and thought about what I should say. I couldn’t deny these two numb nuts. No matter how much I tried to think I was better behaved, I knew I wasn’t. “Can you two finish up and get into bed? Dad needs some alone time.”

“How come you were kissing Mom’s private parts? I know you were.”

I looked at my son and clenched my jaw. “One day I will tell you both all about being with a woman. For now, you two need to go to bed, before I lose my mind.”

Izzy came walking into the room. She grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and kissed me goodnight on the cheek. I grabbed her hand as she was walking away. “Hey, you okay?”

She gave me a half smile. “Just tired, dad. See you in the mornin’.”

“Okay, goodnight.”

I sat there, watching the boys, with my mind on Izzy. As long as she loved me, everything was right in the world.





Chapter 16


Miranda


After a very exhausting weekend, we’d made it home in one piece. I say that with a grain of salt, because Ty wasn’t exactly feeling great about things.

Bella acted as if nothing was wrong, albeit he still seemed on edge.

Her big return to school, after having her lessons in the hospital for the past month, was the next day. I think she was excited to see her friends, but also nervous, like they were going to wonder if she’d contracted a contagious disease.

Amy and I had planned on giving her a special day, where we pampered her with a new haircut and some pretty decorated fingernails.

We headed over to the salon in the afternoon and Bella was in a great mood. She gabbed to her aunt about Noah and their new puppy. She was happy after seeing her other grandparents and being able to do things again. For so long she’d been stuck in that bed at the hospital, and I often wondered what something like that did to her mentally, not that she talked about it much. With new devices and the internet, she had plenty to keep her occupied.

Nowadays, playing outside had been replaced by kids staring at little screens as a means of communication. They no longer required face to face conversations. When I was her age, all I wanted to do was spend the night with my friends and be a social bug. Bella wasn’t like that. Sure, she was popular amongst her friends, but their interests were very different.

I hadn’t filled Amy in on the whole Tucker situation, so when Bella brought it up as she told the puppy story, I was flabbergasted. She looked right at me as she spoke, as if she was trying to get a rise out of me. It was uncomfortable.

I knew if I responded negatively, it would give her a reason to think I was lying to her. For all I knew, her and Noah had only uncovered that Tucker had a daughter with the same name. I had no reason to believe that she knew anything else.

Looking back, I think I should have prepared for the worst, instead of hiding behind my faith that everything was goin’ got be fine.

After she was all dolled up and ready to go back to school, we started to head home. Bella was sitting in the car next to me, and out of nowhere, she started asking me questions again. “Mom, are you certain that you never knew that guy, Tucker?”

I felt so frustrated that I pulled over to the side of the road. “Bella, I told you already. I don’t know who he is. Why do you keep askin’ this? Do you have any idea how upset your father is over this?”

She shrugged. “Don’t you think it’s weird how I don’t look like daddy? I mean, Jake and Jax look just like him. Even Noah said it was weird.”

“Did you ever consider that Jake and Jax look nothing like me? It goes both ways, Bella. You got my genes and they got your father’s. Listen, honey, I’m sorry you ran into that woman that got your head all messed up, but you need to drop this. Do you want to break daddy’s heart?”

“No.” She seemed like it made her sad to hurt Ty. I felt bad that I was lying, but Tucker was someone I never wanted her to know about. Finding out that your biological dad was not only a criminal, but also an evil person that never wanted you, wasn’t exactly something any mother wanted her child knowing. It hurt me that she was looking for answers when they were only going to cause her pain.

“I want you to drop this. Do you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

By the time we’d pulled up at the farm, I think we both felt uneasy. I put the car into park and sat there.

Bella got out and headed inside like she was unfazed, while I was praying in my mind that this whole nightmare was going to be over. She was too young to dig into Tucker, not that she’d ever be old enough to learn the truth. I wish she could understand that we were doing all of this to protect her.

The boys saw me pull up and came running out of their grandparent’s house. Jax was carrying a little brown box. “Mom, look what we found in Mimi’s kitchen. It’s a snake. Can we keep it?”

They opened the box and a black snake came striking out at me. I screamed and fell back on the ground. The snake, who’d come halfway out of the box, was being scooped back up by one of my brave sons. “Get that thing away from me!”