The Mitchell Family Series BoxSet 1-4.5 (69 page)

Savanna pulled away from me and shook her head. “No, I will never blame her. People make their own choices in life. Miranda was never anything like Tucker. She had no idea he was capable of being the person he became when they first met. I will never blame her. I love her too much to put the blame on her.”

“Then stop blamin’ yourself. It ain’t nobody but Tucker’s fault.”

She agreed by smiling. “Okay, I will try.”

For the rest of the evening we all three lounged around the house. Noah woke up from his nap and claimed he was dying of starvation, so Savanna made us all grilled cheese sandwiches.  She cut Noah’s in the shape of a heart, which he got a big kick out of. He still ate the cutoff pieces, claiming the crusts were the best part.

We sat around the kitchen table laughing and carrying on and I felt like somehow something had changed. Savanna seemed at peace.

Chapter 26

Savanna

The next three months went by so quickly. The bigger I got, the more Noah and Colt did for me. I wasn’t helpless, in fact I spent most of my days trying to reorganize the entire house and Colt’s garage. He was fine about the house, but when he came home to me standing in the garage in one of his winter coats, putting screws into jars, he lost his temper with me.

It was funny, he never raised his voice. He got this mad look on his face, that was more sexy than scary and he pointed to the door to the house. I took a second to finish up what I was doing before stomping back into the warm house.

The winter was rough and we were being pounded by another snow storm. It didn’t help that I was in full nesting mode and bored out of my mind. Every drawer, cabinet, and closet in our house had been completely organized. I even went on a binge and made photo collages for the whole family. I was out of my mind. Our little baby had begun moving around so much at night that I wasn’t getting any sleep. I had two weeks to go until my official due date and I was going totally insane.

Sunday morning came and I knew we were at least going to trudge through the snow to get to Colt’s mother’s for Sunday funday. Noah had been going in and out of the house constantly. Colt was trying to clear me a good path to walk to the truck, I felt bad he had to go through such hard work just for me to have dinner at his mother’s house. Noah had already built three snowmen and I was running out of household items to use for the faces. We were out of grapes, carrots and buttons, as well as toothbrushes. He used the toothbrushes instead of pipes because he learned smoking was bad for your health.

By noon, I had dried his snowsuit three separate times, washed the foyer floor around ten times and done three loads of laundry. When Colt said it was time to head over, I was beat. I threw on a pair of his sweatpants from college, that were old as shit and came walking downstairs. I looked like the abominable snowman.

“Darlin’ is that what you’re wearin’?” He knew as soon as he said it that it was a mistake. You NEVER talk about a pregnant woman’s attire.

“Yes, this is what I’m wearing. Why? We are going to your mother’s not a fashion show.”

He started to say something, but bit his tongue and changed his tone. “I was just wonderin’ if you are goin’ to be comfortable, that’s all.” He smacked my ass as I walked past him.

“Seriously? That hurt.”

“You liked it. Stop your complainin’ before I take you upstairs and give you some more.” I knew he was teasing as I watched our son jump off the couch.

“I’m ready too!” Noah came to the front door in a pair of superman underwear, a hoodie and a cape, as well as giant red rain boots.

Oh, Good lord!

“Noah, Honey, what on earth are you wearing?” I asked.

“This is my superhero uniform.  I need to be ready in case you go into labor, Mom.”

Colt and I started laughing. Noah gave us a dirty look as his father patted his head. “Buddy, you need to put on some pants for now, but when we get to Grandma’s you can wear your uniform in the house.”

He went running up the steps toward his room and I could hear his drawers opening to his dresser.

I looked to Colt who was still laughing. “I can’t believe you told him he could take his pants off at your mother’s. What has gotten into him anyway?”

“He is excited about the baby, that’s all. I’m excited too.”

Obviously…

“Well I do hope you don’t start taking your pants off at the dinner table too.”

“Darlin’, I will be taking them off as soon as we get back, because there ain’t nothin’ sexier than seein’ you in those old sweats.”

Smooth talker!

I grabbed his cheek and pulled him down to me for a kiss. “Good come back.”

“Are ready to go or what?” Noah came whipping down the stairs and started opening the front door.

Since it was an icy mess outside, Colt held my hand and slowly helped me walk down the porch stairs and then to the truck. He lifted my fat butt up into it with no strain on himself. It was really nice to have such a strong man.  He patted my backside as I slid in.

He winked at me. “You liked that didn’t you.”

I leaned back out to whisper in his ear. “I will take care of this friskiness later on.”

“You promise?”

I nodded as I watched him walk around the truck and help Noah to get in. I’d been so exhausted recently to worry about my appearance, but just moments before pulling up to the house I realized I hadn’t even checked my hair. Colt was laughing at me as I tried to flip my hair up in some kind of neat ponytail with just my fingers as a brush.

Colt opened Noah’s door and he went running into his grandma’s house. Lucy would holler at him for getting the floor all messed up. He then came around to my side and helped me get down. “You okay, darlin’?”

“Yeah, it’s just hard getting around. This little person inside of me has run out of room.”

“I bet. Come on, let’s get you inside the warm house.”

Colt held my hand and led me into the house. He sat me down on a chair and started pulling off my boots. After he removed my jacket, we headed into the living room. The house was super quiet. I should have expected they were up to something.

I loud ensemble of ‘SURPRISE’ was being yelled from the hoard of people in the room. I jumped from being startled and got butterflies from the excitement. Noah came rushing to my side. “It’s a party for my new brother, Mom.”

“Maybe sister,” I whispered in his ear.

I was greeted by everyone, including Miranda and my mother. I was so glad to see them that I almost didn’t notice Bella sitting on Ty’s lap in the corner. He nodded his head and gave me a wink, before turning back to talk to my dad and Colt.

Colt glanced over and mouthed the words ‘I love you’.

I mouthed, ‘you too’, before directing my attention to all of the lovely people in the room.

My mother’s arms wrapped around me. “Are you surprised? Did Colt tell you about it?”

I looked back over toward where Colt sat and saw him smiling. “No, he didn’t tell me. Do you think I would have worn this,” I pointed to my clothes. “if I knew this was happening.”

“You look fine, Sweetie. My God, Noah has gotten so big. I can’t get over it. Your father and I told him he could come spend a couple weeks this summer at our house. Of course, Tyler heard us and insisted he stay a week with them too.”

I started laughing. “He and Bella just love each other so much. It would be nice for them to have all that time together. Although, with Miranda and Ty being pregnant, I don’t know how they will handle a newborn and our two rug rats.”

“Honey, if you are worried they will steal some horses, you have to know they wouldn’t try that again.” She sounded confident, but I knew my son, and the things he did to impress his cousin.

My mother and Colt’s mother led me over to a corner chair and started handing me gifts. I was surprised that Miranda was around four months pregnant and she already had a little baby bump. It was her second pregnancy so I guess that was why.

She sat down next to me after giving me a big kiss, and started writing who my gifts were from.

“I can’t believe you’re here.”

She reached for my hand. “Van, Ty and I would never miss this. We love you, Cuz.”

“I love you too, so much. I hope you both know that.”

She looked over at Ty and he gave her a big smile. “We do. So, did you pick out any names yet?”

“Aside from SpongeBob Square pants and Ninja Joe?”
Like that was ever going to happen.

We both started laughing. “Have you and Colt picked out any names?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Of course it is,” she teased.

After opening the room full of presents, Colt and I had enough diapers to probably supply Ty and Miranda’s baby as well as ours for the first two years. I have four sets of crib sheets, over twenty bottles, seven soft blankets, and a wardrobe of clothes sized from birth to two years. We got all kinds of seats and gadgets as well as a couple baskets of baby necessities. Ty and Miranda got me the breast pump that she swore by. Of course he had to add something smart in the card about watching me try it out. I just laughed. At this point in our lives I knew that Ty joked about everything. I’d learned to appreciate him for his sense of humor and his love for his family, because at the end of the day that was all that mattered.

After the hour of present opening, the party headed into the kitchen. It was the biggest spread I had ever seen. There were so many cool foods shaped like baby things, some being butts and rattles. Ty came over and showed me a plate with two cupcakes that he had purposely put two favors on top to look like nipples.  “Van, look at what I’m eating for dinner.”

“You would think with a daughter and a baby on the way, you could at least act right in public,” I teased.

He smacked my ass and shoved one of the fake boobs into his mouth. “Never!” With a mouth full of cake he bent down and gave his daughter the other cupcake. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Bella took her cupcake and licked it. When she didn’t like the icing, she gave it to Ty, who ate the spot she had licked. She thought it was funny as I started to gag. “Aunt Van thinks Daddy is gross.”

“My Daddy is the funniest person in the whole world.” Bella leaned over and kissed Ty.

“I think you might be right kiddo.”

Ty walked over toward the guys while Bella pulled me toward the large cake on the dining room table. “Look Aunt Van.”

Wow!

The cake was a giant copy of our last 3-D sonogram photo. It was quite a difference seeing it so much larger than the smaller picture I was used to looking at. “It’s so cool.” Noah came up behind me and stood with Bella, looking at the cake.

“It’s pretty amazing isn’t it?”

“Is that how big the baby is now?” Bella asked.

I started giggling. “No. The baby will be small and we can hold it in our arms when it gets here.”

“Well, I hope my mom’s baby won’t be that big. Then it would be an ogre like Shrek.” Leave it to my kid to assume ogres were real
.  Really? Ogres?

Since the kids had found the dessert table, their attention went from the size of the baby, to how many desserts they could both eat before they threw up. I watched them for a couple moments before my mother caught my attention. She and Colt were sitting up at the breakfast bar, already involved in a conversation. I made my way through the crowd of family and friends and sat down next to them. “Were you really surprised, Sweetie?”

“I had no idea. Colt did good keeping this secret from me.” I moved forward so I could get a good look at my sneaky husband’s face.

“Colt was telling me that they want to induce you if you haven’t gone into labor in the next two weeks. When you both find out a date you need to let me know. It’s going to be hard for me to get a flight in little notice. If you make it to the induction date it will give me ample time to plan. You know your father and I don’t want to miss it.”

“I know. I was just kind of hoping I would deliver before that. This baby is just too stuffed in my body. I think it’s time it blessed us with its presence.”

“Oh Sweetie, it will be here when it’s ready. You can’t rush perfection. I’m sure you can make it a couple more weeks.” My mother seemed confident. I didn’t!

Aunt Karen got everyone’s attention to play some yarn game. Apparently, you were supposed to take the string and guess how big my belly was. The closest person to guess how gigantic I was around, won the prize. I watched as the room full of men and women started taking spools of yarn and cutting out large strands, measuring them up to their own bellies.

It was quite comical until everyone was standing there with yarn that appeared to be over five feet long. I looked down at my big belly and rubbed it.
Was I really that gigantic? Good God!

Colt came up behind me and shoved his yarn in his pocket. One by one the yarn was measured against my real body.  I was so relieved when most of them were way bigger than I was. The people who were close lined up against the wall and waited to see who was the absolute closest. When everyone was finished, Colt pulled out his strand and reached it around my tummy. His strand was off by only one inch. Nobody else was that close, I was sure of it.

The room filled with laughter. “You cheater! Colt! You weren’t allowed to play.” Aunt Karen came up and grabbed the string out of his hand.

Everyone continued to laugh.

“So what do I win?”

She rolled her eyes and handed him a wrapped package. He opened it to reveal a small bottle of scented lotion. Colt got a huge grin on his face. He looked up at everyone in the room. “I bet this will make my ass smooth like a baby.”

Even I began to laugh, but when I did something happened. I felt something warm and feared that I had just peed myself in front of our entire family. I closed my legs as tight as they could go, but continued to feel the gushing of warm liquid.

Colt stopped laughing and looked at my face. I slowly opened my legs to reveal the wet spot all over his sweat pants. “I think my water just broke,” I whispered.