Folding Hearts (24 page)

“Baby, you aren’t going to lose me. I swear to God that you are all that I ever want. Can’t you just see how much I
need you?” I held her so tight. She really was my everything. There had to be a way to convince her how serious I was. A way to prove to everyone that this wasn’t temporary.

I knew exactly what I needed to do, but I would need my mother’s help again. Miranda finally calmed down and we watched a mov
i
e before heading to bed. Our night had been so perfect. What was it with people just walking in my door? All of this could have been avoided.

I was so happy once I got the bed cleaned off and Miranda climbed into my arms. I needed to feel her there, especially now that she was having doubts about me. If I could take anything back about my past it would be that I cheated. Then again, if I hadn’t I would have never been able to be with Miranda now.
It all happened to get me exactly where I needed to be.

With V
an being a ticking bomb, it was only a matter of time before Colt and Conner came beating down my door forcing her to go home. I wasn’t about to let that happen. I needed to make sure there was no way they could keep us apart.

Miranda woke up in a much better mood. She showered me with kisses and talked me into getting a very long shower with her. There was no way I could resist a naked Miranda. I washed her hair and then every single inch of her body. As I lathered up her breasts she began stroking my dick with her hand.  She teased me with her tongue, not letting me kiss her lips. It turned me on and she knew it. She pushed me back against the shower wall, before turning around and sticking her ass against my erection. To have a girl that offered doggy-style was like getting a diamond in a
Cracker Jack
box. As I thrusted myself inside of her, she put her hands up on the opposite shower wall and pushed against me. The friction from the water combined with how wet she already was enabled me to hit it faster than usual. I grabbed her wet hair and heard her moaning and lost it. The visual of me behind her was burned into my head for the rest of the day and I think she knew it would be.

My mother had gotten up and made breakfast, so Van picked Miranda up for dress shopping while we were all still over there. Van and my mother spoke for only a few seconds. I did notice that my mother purposely hugged and kissed Miranda in front of Van.
It was spiteful, but maybe in some way my mother knew that Van would spend the day filling Miranda with doubt.  I walked outside with them and kissed Miranda like we were back in the shower. When she pulled
away
s
he patted the crot
ch of my pants. She knew it was good, hell she knew she was that good.

Once I watched them pull away, I sat back down with my mother. She knew things were about to get serious and gave me all of her attention. My dad took Izzy and headed outside to collect eggs. She loved chasing those chickens around.

“What’s the matter?” She asked.

“Van walked in on us last night. It didn’t go over very well.”

“Well you don’t want her back do you?”

I scrunched up my face. “Hell no, Mom. She got Miranda all upset, telling her that I couldn’t be trusted and that I would eventually cheat.”

“If she spent half a second with you two, she would know how crazy you are about each other.”

I grabbed my mother’s hands. “Mom, I need your help and your blessing.”

She shook her head but still smiled. “I was wondering when you were going to have this talk.”

“I need to have Grandma’s ring changed. I know Van wore it for only a day, but I want Miranda to have something brand new. I know you have always wanted me to use that ring, so I was wondering if we could have some things added to it.”

“I supposed that it can be done. You sure this is what you want
? You won’t just be committing to Miranda you know.
”

“I have never been more sure about anything in my entire life. I know it is fast and maybe if the circumstances were different I would
wait yea
rs, but I
can’t
lose them, Mom.
It would kill me to be that far
a
way from them.”

If I would have known that Van was going to bust into my romantic night, I could have asked sooner. There was still a chance that Miranda would think this was all way too soon and quite frankly say ‘no’.

I had to at least try.

“Well, you know that we love her already. Bella is the cutest little girl. I’d love for her to call me Mimi, like you used to call your grandma.” She looked at me like her heart was full of love. My mother had never liked Van, so for her to be happy about Miranda and Izzy
, she must have been excited.

“I have an idea of how I want to do it. Do you think we could call Mr. Harper at the jewelry store. I need to get this taken care of as soon as possible. Is he even open on weekends?”

While my mother got out the old phone book, I headed back to the house to grab my grandmother’s ring. It was just plain white gold band with a solitaire diamond set high in the center. It was a half carat in size, but had a kind of antique look to it.
I knew what I wanted done to it, but I didn’t know how long it would take.

Someone in heaven must have been looking out for my sorry ass, because the jewelry store was open. I hated sneaking around behind Miranda’s back, but I felt like us getting engaged would be the only way to make this more permanent, aside of marriage of course.

I’d been so caught up in our relationship to actually look at the big picture. There was one thing that I knew for certain. One thing that I would give anything to have. I needed Izzy to be my daughter. She needed to have my last name. Tucker had given up his claim to her and I would be damned if anyone took that little girl away from me now. Aside from living so far away, I had done everything to be a part of her life since the day she was born. I had no intentions of ever letting her down.  If something happened to me and Miranda, I would still want to be her daddy.

I knew that nobody would understand the way I felt about her, even from the beginning I heard their comments. They looked at me like I had some fetish for small children. Sick Bastards!

I loved that little girl more than anything
in the whole world. I had to
believe
that I was meant to be there when she was born. Everything that happened from that day on had led me right back to her. I may not have supplied the sperm, but it didn’t matter to me. She was my everything.

The jeweler was waiting for us to arrive and when we did, he sat me down and listened to my idea. He said that what I wanted would be easy to do and would take about two weeks. I handed him my bank card and watched as he removed two thousand bucks from my account. I honestly didn’t care how much it cost. I needed it to be perfect.

With the ring being taken care of, all I needed to do was keep my cool until the jewelry store called to tell me it was ready to be picked up. I had time to plan
.

Izzy spotted my dad as we pulled back into the farm. My mother really got a kick out of how
smart
she was. In the past month she had gone out a
nd
got herself a car seat for her own car and had my father get some of my old shit out of the barn attic.

“Hey Dad. You got a minute?”

My father put the rake he was using down and walked over toward me. Izzy ran toward him and pointed toward the chicken house. “Chicks.”

“Wait a second and I will take you to see the chicken again.”

“I need your advice.” My father was a quiet man. He stayed out of people’s business and he liked it that way.

“What’s bothering you Son?”

“Would you be disappointed in me if I asked Miranda to marry me?”

He shook his head and removed his hat. Colt did the same thing when he didn’t know what to say.
“I can tell you really love the girl and this little one here too. I reckon after everything you been through that your just coming to a point in your life where you are ready to settle down. You already know that your mom and I approve. Hell, I plan on starting that addition in the next couple of weeks. I appreciate you asking me though.”

“Do you think I am rushing things?”

“Do you think you are?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Sometimes I guess. I mean, I love them so much and I know that they are it for me. I know it is fast, but I want Izzy to have a daddy. We need to be a family.”

“You already are a family in my book. You take care of each other and you love that little one. I am pretty certain that you are already a daddy in her little eyes.”

I looked at Izzy. She was playing with my dad’s old sweaty hat. She looked so much like Miranda and sometimes I just wanted to hug her and never let go. “Her mother and brother don’t want us together. They will do whatever they can to break us up once they find out we are together. I have to secure their life here.”

“As long as Miranda and you are on the same page, you do whatever has to be done. I don’t want any drama here like with your cousin. You know I don’t like that stuff.” He let Izzy down and started walking away from us. “We will meet back at the house. This little one wants to see the chickens.”

“Don’t be too long. She needs her diaper changed.” I walked back to the
house
and just sat on the couch. My stomach was in knots and started wondering how much more bullshit Van was filling Miranda’s head with. I went to grab my phone and send her a message, but when I did I realized that Miranda had my phone.

After I got Izzy
a fresh diaper we played outside for a little while until she started falling all over the place, crying for no reason. We went inside and laid on the couch together. Within ten minutes she was fast asleep on my chest. I played with her hair and watched her sleeping.  There was no way that I could ever be without them.

It would just kill me.

Chapter 23

Miranda

Dress shopping with three people that
had
major issues with my boyfriend was not my idea of a
fun time. From the moment that V
an picked me up, she began to give me the third degree about Ty. Apparently, she had been up all night so upset that I let myself get involved with such a ‘man whore’.

There were a couple times where I felt like slapping her out of her current conversation. As if that
wasn’t
bad enough, her friend Brina, who was a total bitch, talked trash about Ty the rest of the day. At one
point
I ducked in
to a bathroom and started crying
.

They could say everything they wanted about Ty, but I
didn’t
know the guy they were talkin
g
about. My Ty wasn’t selfish. He never put himself before Bella and I. He wasn’t rude. He never looked at other girls. He didn’t keep secrets. He never lied about where he was.

They didn’t want to hear that he changed, or that maybe he just never found the right person to make him happy. All they wanted to do was convince me that I was making
a
horrible
mistake.

I loved Ty. They
weren’t
going to change my mind. There had been something brewing between us for over a year and in that period of time we had become friends. We couldn’t hold back what we wanted any longer and I was so glad that we hadn’t. He treated my child like he was her father. He loved her, bought her things and took care of her. There was nothing that he wouldn’t do for that child.

To see them together, just
reassured me how serious he was about being with us. All along he had known
I had a child. He
wasn’t
trying
to get into my pants. I had been with a lot of guys. My track record was worse than
his. If anyone should be running
, it should be him.

After spending the entire
day listening to them and trying
on a million dresses, she finally drove me home. I was so happy to walk in that door and see the two of them sleeping. Van came in
behind
me and just froze when she
saw
them. I felt like turning around and giving her the finger after the earful that I had gotten all day. She was a great friend, but Ty talk should have been off limits.

To be nice I had invited
her
to dinner. It was unlikely that she would actually stay, but I needed to make sure that my mother and especially my brother didn’t find out about my relationship. I was an adult, but they would make my life miserable anyway. My biggest fear would be them threatening to take Bella away from me, on account of me being an unfit parent.  My family was close, but they would do anything to prevent me from being with Ty.

When I walked over to grab Bella out of Ty’s arms, he woke startled and squeezed her tighter until he saw me.  He smiled and finally let go. I was glad she stayed asleep long enough for me to lay her down and return to the living room before they killed each other.