Blinding Trust (14 page)

“I guess it’s time to call Colt!”

I smiled. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

I walked out on the porch with my phone and dialed my husband. The vision of the naked girls was still fresh in my mind, but I was truly believing that it was just a joke he was playing on the guys.

The phone rang four times before someone picked up.

And it wasn’t Colt.

Chapter 18

Colt

I woke up on the bathroom floor, looking around and trying remember why the hell I was where I was. Once I was in the sitting position, it all came back to me.

Without my phone, or a clock in the bathroom, I had no idea what time it was. All I knew was that it was daylight out.

I could hear my phone
’s ringtone, but it wasn’t in the bathroom, so I jumped up and headed out into the bedroom to find it.

I stopped in my tracks when I saw one of the blondes from the night before holding it in her hand and talking to whoever had called. I said a little prayer, hoping to God that it wasn’t my wife.
I‘d never hear the end of it, if it was.

“Hold on, he’s right here!” She handed me my phone.

Hello?

The line was already dead.

I looked up at the girl. “Who was it?”

She giggled. “I think it was your wife. She thought she dialed the wrong number, I guess.”

“Shit!” I started pacing around the room. “You two need to get your shit and get out of here, now!”

Her smiled dissipated as she gathered the rest of her clothes and her sleeping girlfriend and ran out of my room.

I sat down on the bed and stared at my phone. Without giving myself time to rethink things, I dialed Savanna.

I don’t want to talk to you right now, Colt!

Just hear me out, would ya?

I think I’ve heard about enough!

Savanna, it ain’t what you think. That was just Pi…

Don’t you dare lie to me, Colt Mitchell. So help me God.

You’re this mad over someone answering my phone?

No! I’m not just mad about that. I’m mad about something else, too.

Well, I ain’t done nothin’ else.

Bullshit!

Savanna, I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.

For someone that sent the message himself, I’m finding it hard to believe that you can’t remember. I mean, if I took a picture of a bunch of naked men, I think I’d remember it.

What the hell? Let me guess, Ty sent you that shit?

No! I saw it on his phone this morning. He’s here to help the alarm company install a new system.

He ain’t stayin’ at our house.

Don’t you dare go there with me! Until you can explain to me what you were doing and what you were thinking, I don’t want to talk to you, Colt. You’ve hurt me and you’re acting like you did nothing wrong. You have no idea what I’m going through. Do you know how it made me feel to see you sending a
picture like that. You better not wish I was there, because right now I’d cut off your testicles and feed them to Sam!”

I tossed the phone on the bed and laid down next to it. I was in the dog house, when it came to my wife. A little while later, Noah came barging into my room. “Dad, you’re never goin’ to believe it. I got to meet some of the players from the Raiders. They own the restaurant that we ate at last night. Piper got them to autograph some things for you.”

I sat up and took in just how excited my son was. “Sounds like a good time. I figured you’d call last night before you went to bed.”

“Sorry! Me and Johnny stayed up playing his Xbox.” Noah was oblivious to what had went down at the house the night before.

Well, he didn’t know until the screaming began.

Piper and Zeke were really having it out. I could tell that it bothered Noah. We weren’t a loud kind of family. Sure, we had typical redneck arguments, but we didn’t get loud and we surely didn’t do it in front of the children.

“What’s goin’ on?”

I patted him on the back. “I reckon they’re havin’ it out about somethin’. It ain’t none of our business though. Did you eat breakfast?”

“I had a doughnut. I’m still hungry.” The screaming was getting to him. He started fidgeting.

“How about you and me head out and get something to eat. I’m sure that limo driver can take us somewhere.”

His eyes lit up. “Cool. I want pancakes with whip cream and strawberries.”

I shook my head. He was a chip off the old block. I finished putting on my shoes. “Let’s go find us some pancakes then.”

It was easy to slip out of the house unnoticed and luckily we found the limo driver outside, talking on his cell phone. Noah seemed so excited
that we didn’t have to pull the guy’s leg to get him to take us somewhere.

He drove us to a corner diner and assured us that the appearance on the outside had nothing to do with the quality of food on the inside. It was what he called a ‘gem’.

We invited him to join us, but he instantly declined. Noah and I found a booth seat against a window and started looking over the menu. “Dad, they have the pancakes, with any kind of fruit you could ever want. This place is awesome!”

I looked over at him while I sat down my menu. “I
’ll just have what you’re gettin’ then.”

Noah told the waitress what we wanted and I added a coffee before she walked away. He was looking all around outside the window.
“So, Noah, are you havin’ a nice visit?”

“Yeah. I can’t wait to come again. Piper said Uncle Zeke has a surprise for me. Do you know what it is?”

This was news to me. I didn’t know anything about a surprise and the thought of it made me leery. In fact, everything about Zeke made me leery after last night. He was trying to make himself out to be this normal guy, but behind closed doors, he was anything but that. What worried me more was that Noah was oblivious to any of the bad stuff. He only saw the cool and amazing things that Zeke wanted him to see. He was wooing him into acceptance and that wasn’t alright, in my book. It was downright wrong!

Our pancakes came with a mou
ntain of whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries. Noah dug in right away, after pouring a giant cup of maple syrup all over his plate.

We spent a lot of time together on the farm, but most of the time, it was because he was helping me with something. It had never been because we were on a trip together. As angry as I was at how he was treating Savanna, I had to appreciate being able to have this time with him.

Still, in the back of my mind, I worried about Savanna being so mad at me. I also had a problem with Ty being the shoulder she was going to cry on. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my cousin and his quirky ways, albeit he was Savanna’s first love, and that was hard to let go of. I’d be a fool if I didn’t worry about the two of them.

I didn’t have Miranda on my side when it came to my feelings about the two of them. Ever since the mess that Heather put them through, she’d been sure that he would never stray from their marriage. All I could do was hope that she was right.

I think I’d been on edge for so long that everything Ty said was just getting to me more than it ever had before. My relationship with Savanna felt different, somehow. Being away just wasn’t helping things in that department. It was hard, having to choose between your child and your wife, when they both seemed to need me equally.

When we were just about finished eating, the
limousine driver came in and said that Zeke had requested that he bring us to where he was shooting his new music video. He said that Noah’s surprise was going to be there, so naturally, Noah got all excited.

We paid for our food and got back in the
limousine to start on a long drive. Our destination was not what I would have pictured for a music video being shot. It was located at a dilapidated house. Outside of the house, several work vans were parked with media logos printed on the sides. A few people stood on the porch talking to one another.

When Zeke didn’t come outside, we started to walk in to look for him. This crazy women, probably in her late fifties, came running toward Noah. She grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him further inside of the house. “It’s about
time you got here. We’ve been waiting thirty minutes to get this scene in. Time is money, child.”

I grabbed his other arm, causing them to stop. “Just hold on a minute, lady. Who are you and what the heck are you talkin’ about?”

She shook her head, like she was dealing with a couple of idiots. “The video, of course…”

“I think I can explain.” Zeke came out of a room. He was wearing jeans, for a change
. His hair was more tame and his shirt covered up almost all of his tattoos. “This is Ramona. She’s my manager. Just ignore her forwardness. Anywhoo, I brought you guys here today to give Noah a big surprise.” He looked down at Noah. “How would you like to be in my rock video?”

While my son jumped up and down like a monkey, I crossed my arms over my chest. “We need to talk. In private! Now!” There was no way in hell this guy was going to do something so bold without mine and Savanna’s written permission. This wasn’t a surprise for Noah, at all. He was exposing him to something that I wasn’t about to be okay with.

He turned to Ramona. “Watch the kid. Be nice!”

Zeke led me to an empty bedroom. He shut the door behind us and finally gave me his attention. “What’s up, Colt?”

I pointed at his face. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong! You got no right to make decisions regardin’ my son without my permission. Me and his mother are the only ones to decide what’s best for him.”

“Look, man, it’s a fucking video, not a surgical procedure. I ain’t asking you for a kidney. I thought you would feel
honored.”

I ran my hands through my hair and just shook my head trying to control myself before I threw this asshole up against the wall. “I did you a favor by lettin’ my son come to stay with you. It’s nice that you want to get to know Noah, but I can’t let him do somethin’ like this without talkin’ to his mother.”

He chuckled. “It’s funny that you keep calling her that, considering we both know she ain’t his real mother.”

“She’s been his REAL mother since the day he came into our lives.
You can say and think whatever you want. Savanna and I have given that kid more than your sister ever could. I won’t stand here and hear you say shit like that. Got it?”

He put his hands up. “Okay, okay! I get it. Look, I want Noah to do this with me. It would mean a lot. If you need to make some calls and talk it over with Savanna, go ahead. I can let everyone know that we need to shoot a different scene until I know what to do.”

It was weird that he calmed down so quickly. I didn’t doubt that he was afraid of me, but it seemed like he just agreed to make me happy. “Fine. I’ll call his mother and let you know.”

“What do I tell the kid in the meantime?”

“You tell him that minors need permission from their parents to participate, because it’s the damn truth.” I walked out of the house, still feeling like I wanted to bust him up. Savanna was definitely going to flip with this one.

Chapter 19

Savanna

I hated fighting with Colt, especially when he was so far away. Honestly, I think I missed him so much that my frustration was making
things ten times worse. Ty being here just added fuel to the already burning fire.

After our heated argument, I put my phone in my purse and promised myself that I wasn’t going to answer it again until I calmed down. My mother always said nev
er to say anything to people you love when you’re mad. Some things, you just can’t take back.

Since I had a full day to wait for my biopsy, I was full of worry. The only thing that kept my mind off of the test was scrubbing everything within reach. The girls were occupied in the playroom, planning the wedding of Barbie and Joe. I could hear them
making decisions and discussing how they wanted to decorate the room for the event.

After getting the bathrooms done, I started on the bedrooms, even organizing the girl’s dresser drawers. When I got to Noah’s room, I was finally getting tired of cleaning. Deciding that his dresser drawers where the way to go, I pulled one out at a time and sat it down on the bed next to me. I folded all of his t-shirts and placed them back into the drawer, before pulling out the next one. When I dumped out the mess of clothing, I noticed a pair of dress pants that needed to be hung up. The closet was a mess, but I was determined that I wasn’t going to work on it, too. Once I got the pants hung up, I noticed a couple large folded papers on the shelf above. Since I’d put them up there myself, I remembered what they were
.

On the first day of
kindergarten, Noah came home with a poster size piece of paper. The assignment was to draw a picture of someone that you love. In multi-colored finger paint, he had drawn a picture of him and I. We were holding hands. Above it, the teacher had wrote what the picture meant.

I love my Mommy because she makes the best grilled cheese and she lets me ride horses. My Mom is my best friend.

I traced the words with my fingers and got teary eyed just reading it. Noah was such a special little piece of my life. I believed with all my heart that he was sent to me from heaven to take away all of the pain in the past that I had been dealt with. Not only had he healed my heart, but he filled it with a love that I could have never imagined existed. That little boy was my hero. There was a time when I was the most important thing in his little life. For a long time, I had assumed that nothing could ever tear our bond apart.

When I heard someone clearing their throat, I looked up to see Ty standing in the doorway. “Hey, you alright?”

I nodded and wiped the tears away. “Yeah, I was just looking at something Noah made me a long time ago.”

Ty picked up the paper and smiled. “This must have been back when grilled cheese was the only thing that mattered in life besides shitting in his pants.”

I pushed him. “He was such a good little boy. Think about it. Not only did he lose his mother tragically, but he was in the car when she died. Then he’s delivered to a father who never even knew he existed.”

“And he turned to you, Van,” he interrupted. “He loved you from the first moment he saw you. Who wouldn’t? You’re like a damn saint when it comes to kids.”

“I just longed to be a mother so badly. It was all I could think about. We’d tried so hard to get pregnant and when I lost the baby, I felt like maybe I wasn’t supposed to have children. I just wanted to feel that unconditional love.”

He put his arm around me. “Can you not be so
damn gloom? I am ready to go draw wedding flowers with the girls, just to avoid your sad ass.”

“Shut up!”

“Dinner is going to be ready soon. I thought we could just all four ride up to the main house together. It will give those two old women something to gossip about when we leave. They’ll think it’s scandalous and we’re having a heated affair right under everyone’s noses. It will be fantastic!”

I stood up and put Noah’s drawer back in his dresser. “You seriously have issues. First off, I would never, in a million years, cheat on my husband. Secondly, you are the last person on earth I would do it with and third…”

He threw his arms up in the air. “Save me the excuses. I’ve already been there and done that, so to speak. Well, actually, I really have had that. Anyway, I know it isn’t going to happen. You ain’t my sexual cup of tea either. I mean, have you seen how flexible my wife is?”

I shook my head as I walked out of the room. He was still talking when I started to walk down the hall.

“She can put her legs behind her head and crawl around on the floor, Van. It’s awesome!”

The girls were still in the playroom and had done quite a job at decorating everything
. They had cut out, well they’d tried to cut out, flowers with construction paper.

“Mommy, you’re just in time! How do you spell, just married?” Christian had a marker in her hand.

I told her and watched her writing down the letters in her neatest first grader handwriting. Addy leaned over the table and watched her sister, like she wanted to know how to spell it herself.

“So, when is the big day?”

She stuck out her tongue when she tried to make little hearts on the corner of the paper. “It’s Saturday night. Daddy and Noah have to be home for it.”

“Are we having it in here?” I looked around the room full of toys.

“Yes. Can we bring up some chairs?” Obviously this event was really going to happen. I wanted to laugh at how serious they both were about it.

Then it hit me.

I needed to prepare myself for not being able to be around for these kind of things. Even if the test was negative for cancer, I still needed to live each day as if it were my last, incase there was no tomorrow. I just wanted to surround myself with the family that I adored so much.

I could feel myself getting upset as I stood thinking about my girls being without me. Before I could let them see me, I ducked out of the room.

Ty was standing outside the door and without even saying anything, he opened his arms up for me. After I had sniffled back my emotional breakdown, he pulled away. “God isn’t going to take you from them, Van.”

For him to say something so serious like that, just reminded me of how real the situation was. “You don’t know that. It happens all the time, Ty. We can’t change our fate.”

“Would you please stop being so negative? I get that you’re scared. Hell, I’m scared for you, but we have to have hope, because without that, we have nothing.” He rubbed his face. “Let’s just…We need a beer!”

He pulled me down the stairs like he used to when we were kids. I followed behind him and didn’t argue or fight. He was here to be supportive and I needed it, now more than ever. In fact, aside from Colt, Ty knew me better than anyone, even the girls. Colt wouldn’t have agreed with me, but it felt normal for him to fill in.

He pulled out a bottle of wine from the refrigerator and smelled it. “This shit is rank. You got anything harder?”

“We have beer in the garage.” Colt drank on weekends or if we had company, but it wasn’t like we did it every night. Surely, I hadn’t planned on Ty coming to visit, so I had no reason to go out and buy it.

“No! I’m talking about the shit that puts hair on your ass.” He opened the pantry and looked around. “Hey, remember when you and Colt were in here getting it on? That was awesome!”

“Colt keeps that stuff locked in his office. He didn’t want the kids getting into it.”

Ty popped out of the pantry. “What are they, five and six year old alcoholics?”

“It was a precautionary measure for the future. Noah will be curious in a couple years.” Ty’s sons were going to be trouble. I could just see it in his future. He’d be gray in the next ten years, for sure.

“It takes one time and he’ll change his mind. That little peck will sneak a few shots and it will knock him on his ass. After he pukes it up, he’ll put off drinking for a few more years.”

I started to laugh. “Where did you learn that, because I’m sure it wasn’t from a professional.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m a guy and it’s the truth. Just face it, I’m awesome!”

No matter what I could say to him, he was going to turn it around and make a joke out of it. I grabbed the bottle of wine and drank right from it. “It’s going to be a long night.”

He grabbed a large cucumber off the kitchen table. “If you’re planning on taking this up to your room tonight, can you at least take a picture?” He was laughing before he even finished the sentence.

“You’re sick. Besides, I bought it for you. I thought I heard you tell me that you liked them big.” I smacked him and walked out of the kitchen.

As gross and perverted as Ty was, he was offering me little distractions and it was working. Even if Colt was around, we would have been dwelling on the negatives together.

Realizing that it was almost time for dinner, I left Ty in the kitchen and ran up to get changed. I checked on the girls before getting a quick shower. When I was ready, I found the girls downstairs playing with their uncle. He had Addy on his back and was crawling around the couch, chasing Christian. She was giggling so hard that they were gaining space on her. When he caught her, they all tumbled on top of each other and laughed.

“Are you three children ready to go?”

They all stood up and said, ‘yes’, at the same time.

When I checked my phone, I’d had several missed calls from Colt and even a voice message. I excused myself from the living room and went to listen to it.

Darlin’ it’s me. Look I get that you’re angry, but there’s somethin’ important that I need to talk to you about. Can you give me a call, please?
I love you.

I listened to the message twice just so I could hear his voice. Sure, I was angry at him, but I missed him terribly and the distance between us wasn’t helping with any of our problems. Plus, it was really bothering me that Ty knew my secret and Colt didn’t.

I decided to text him, instead of calling. The reasoning behind that being that I just didn’t have the energy to get myself all upset in front of the girls. They didn’t need to know anything was out of the ordinary.

Headed to dinner at your mother’s house. I will call you later when the girls are in bed. I love you, too.
–S

Colt was rough around the edges, but he was born to be a family man and I believed in the bottom of my heart that
it was never going to change. I could only hope that the doubts I was having were just my imagination playing tricks on me. Losing him would kill me before any ailment could.

Dinner at my mother-in-laws was always a good time. We drank wine and talked about all sorts of things. Ty was like the
eighth man out, never really getting into our social life talk. Lucy made the best dessert and while scrubbing the house, I’d steamed some vegetables. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was enough.

We played cards for a little while, but the girls were getting too tired and whiney for us to stay any longer. While Ty carried a sleepy Addy to the golf cart, and Christian followed behind them, my mother-in-law pulled me to the side. “Is everything okay, Savanna?”

“Are you asking because Colt is away, or because Ty is staying at the house?” I didn’t mean it to come out defensive, but I guess she took it that way.

“You just seemed off, that’s all. I know real love when I see it and you and Ty both have that with other people. If I was afraid of that, I would have just come out and asked you.”

I hugged her. “Mom, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just not used to Colt being gone. We’ve always traveled together. Plus, this problem that I’m having with Noah is just driving me crazy inside. Just tell me it will all get better?”

She kissed my cheek. “Oh, honey, it will. You just have to take it one day at a time. Boys will be boys.”

“Thanks for having us over, Mom.”

“If my nephew gets on your nerves too much, you know where to send him,” she teased.

“Yes, I have a couple good ideas where to send him.”

We both laughed as I exited the house and joined the crew on the golf cart.

When we got home and tucked both of my girls into my bed, I knew I had to make that phone call that I had procrastinated about. Ty was busy watching basketball on television, so I snuck out onto the porch and called Colt.

Darlin’, I was starti
n’ to wonder if I’d have to hop on a plane for you to talk to me.

It might of helped.

Listen, you got the wrong idea about them girls.

Is that what you’re calling me about?

No. I’m callin’ you because somethin’s happened and I wanted you to be a part of the decision, but since you didn’t call me back, I had to make it on my own.

What kind of decision? Don’t tell me you’re leaving Noah there with them.

Of course not, Savanna. What kind of parent would I be to do that. At this point, I don’t even want to be here, but the kid is having a good time. That’s what I needed to talk to you about. Zeke is puttin’ Noah in his next music video and…

He what? How could you allow something like this, Colt? How could you subject our son like this? We said we didn’t want him in the spotlight. You
promised everything was going to be okay!