Wrapping Up (Novella) Mitchell Family 4.5 (Wrapping Up Novella 4.5) (3 page)

I closed the door behind us and we headed back downstairs. Since Savanna’s parents were due in the morning, it was best if she was awake when they arrived. I was much better at going without sleep than my wife. She had a real grumpy streak when she wanted to. Now, for me, it was cute, but for others, it wasn’t so much.

We no sooner made it to the last step when I felt something grumble against my hand. Of course, my daughter looked up at me and smiled as she scrunched her face and continued to poop in her diaper. 
Oh for shit’s sake!
“Girl, if you weren’t the cutest thing.” I shook my head and turned back around to head up to her room where the diapers were. “I guess you’re tellin’ Daddy it’s goin’ to be a long night.”

I don’t know why, but the child only had explosions when she was under my ca
re.

Chapter 3

Savanna

I woke up at around three in the morning to find myself alone in my bed. I climbed out of bed and went searching for my husband, who I knew had fallen asleep in some random place. Every time he took Christian so I could sleep, they ended up falling asleep in a chair, or on the couch. Sure enough, I found my husband snoring away with a little girl lying flat against his chest. There was no way I could have slept to that noise, but Christian seemed to really be soothed by it.

Now, the problem with waking Colt to come up to
bed, was the chance that it would also wake our daughter. While he opened his mouth to let out his next growling snore, I reached down and put my lips against his. He startled immediately and opened his eyes. I pulled back in time to see him making sure Christian was secure in his arms. It was little things like that that made me appreciate how much of a great father he was.

I held my finger up to my lips to
remind him to not say anything. Colt sat up slowly and we were able to walk Christian up to her bedroom without waking her. As we climbed into bed, Colt grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. “See you in a few hours, Darlin’.”

Morning came too fast, as did a screaming baby. Noah, who was going to be six at the beginning of the year, liked to think he could safely get his sister out of her crib by himself. Now, Colt and I would love to think that he could do it, but it still made us nervous when he did it. Before I could climb out of bed to attend to our daughte
r, Noah came walking in the room with her in his arms.

“Look, Chris, here’s Mommy and Daddy.”

I held out my arms for my daughter. She leaned over with little tear filled eyes and immediately stopped crying. “Noah, run downstairs and get Mom a bottle. Do you remember how to do it?” Colt was just making sure.

“Yeah, Dad, I am almost six ya know. Besides, Mom put a stick
er on the button on the microwave. All I have to do is touch it.”

“Don’t forget to take the nipple off first.” Colt shook his head as I threw in that last reminder.

We heard Noah go running down the stairs and then a giant crash. Colt was out of bed, before I could even blink. By the time I made it down the stairs with Christian in my arms, Colt had Noah in his arms and was carrying him to the couch. “Tell me where it hurts, Bud.”

Noah was screechi
ng in pain. He was using his one arm to point to his other one. Colt went to touch it and Noah screamed louder, causing his sister to begin crying. Colt stood up and came over to where I was standing. “Do you need some ice?”

He shook his head. “His wrist is already turning purple. I’m going
to have to run him to the emergency room to get an x-ray.”

I turned around to start getting us ready. “Just give me ten minutes.”

Colt grabbed my arm and stopped me. “I can take him myself. It’s not a big deal. Besides, the family will be here in a few hours. There’s no tellin’ how long it will take. Just take care of Christian and I will call you when I know somethin’.”

Colt ran upstairs and came back down five minutes later fully dressed. He wrapped a coat around Noah. As he picked him up to carry him out to the car, I rushed to his side. “Noah, you’re going to be fine. I love you.”

He cried out and tried to reach for me. “Mommy!”

I knew he was in terrible pain to call me Mommy. There wa
s no way in hell I was letting Colt take our son to the hospital without me and Colt knew it as soon as he looked me in the eye. He slouched his shoulders and carried Noah back to the couch. “Well come on then, get yourself dressed so we can get this kid looked at.”

I started running up the steps. “Call your mother and have her come here.”

I threw on a pair of sweats and one of Colt’s hoodies and changed Christian’s diaper. As I was walking down the stairs, I heard a car pulling up out front. My mother-in-law came running in the house. I didn’t let her talk as I handed her Christian. “She needs to eat her cereal and drink a whole bottle. She has a fresh diaper and we will call you as soon as we know something.”

She knew the drill, since she’d raise
d a little boy herself. With one child situated we rushed the other one as fast as we could to the hospital.

Three hours later, we were driving home with one unhappy child. He broke his wrist in two places and had to wear a cast up to his elbow.
Since this was his second cast, he already knew what color he wanted and who was going to sign it.

We pulled into the ranch and saw my
parent’s car in front of the house.  Noah, who had pouted the whole way home, started getting all hyper in the backseat.  I think before Colt had the car into park, our son was jumping out of the back. My father came running off the porch and met him halfway. He picked him up and spun him around.

My mother was content to stay on the porch swing with Christian on her lap and Colt’s mom at her side. They waved to us as we got out of the car. Colt walked up behind me and massaged my shoulders as we approached the
house.

Once we all got inside, it became chaotic. My mother missed us and when she came to visit, she kind of took over. Since I appreciated the help and someone to keep Christian occupied, I never complained about it. Hell, if she wanted to stay up all night with my daughter, it would have been fine with me.

I heard my son scream and went flying for the front door. Ty came busting in the door with two child carriers and a diaper bag strap hanging from his mouth. He tried to smile, while the bag clung to his teeth. When I saw him pucker his lips, I gave a disgusted face and took the two baby carriers from him instead of the bag. As soon as I bent over to sit down the carriers, he had grabbed me from behind and swung me around for a hug. “Oh, Van, I am so glad to see you. Miranda said if she had to be in the car with me for another second she was going to rip out my tongue. Do you have any idea how traumatized I would be?”

I pushed him away from me and reached my arms out for Miranda. She was laughing and shaking her head. “He found a station that played all Christmas music. For the past six hours it’s all I’ve heard. Not to mention, he sang every single song at the top of his lungs, even over the boys screaming in the backseat. Did you know my husband knows every single word to Feliz Navidad?
He even turned down the volume and sang. Just imagine how awful it was?”

I’d heard Ty’s attempts at singing. Colt had been gifted with a beautiful voice, but Ty, not so much. I started to laugh
just imagining him belting out the lyrics to that song while Miranda smacked him with everything she could to get him to stop. “I would have threatened to walk the rest of the way.”

“I did. He didn’t
believe I would do it, so I had reverted to sexual favors.”

“Oh my God, while the kids were in the car?” Nothing would shock me when it came to the two of them.

Miranda gave me a dirty look. “Of course not!”

“You never know with you two.” We both laughed and headed into the kitchen with the other women. The table was already filled with pies that the ladies had made before they came. My kitchen was big, but not big enough for all the women
to crowd inside of.

Colt’s mom leaned into my shoulder. “Are you sure you want to do this here? We can bring everything over to the main house.”

I gave her a wide eyed smile. “I’m sure, but thank you. You know I appreciate everything you’re doing to help out.”

She came over and hugged me. “I love you so much. You’re the only daughter I will ever have.”

If I could have picked one mother-in-law out of every mother in the entire world, I would have chosen Colt’s mom. She was the most giving and honest woman I knew. She loved her family and did everything she could to make sure everyone was happy. “Thanks. I love you too.”

Ty came in the kitchen carrying yet another dessert. He winked at me as he sat it down and pointed to it. Right in the center was a spot where the plastic wrap had been ripped open. Upon further
inspection, he began to laugh. “You don’t want to know.”

I knew he was referring to that movie where the guy had sex with the pie. I rolled my eyes. “Keep it up and I will feed that shit to Sam.”

“I worked so HARD on it.” The way he said the word hard made his aunt and mother-in-law turn around and give him the evil eye. My mother just shook her head and rolled her eyes. She’d known Ty for too long to take anything he said serious.

Commotion caught our attention as we made our way out to the living room to greet Ty’s parents and Conner. I felt bad that he had to ride with them the whole way. I can’t imagine the conversations and how bored he must have been.
He came right in and started hugging everybody, finally getting to me last. “Hey there hot stuff, how you feelin’?”

“Good, still a little tired. How are things with you? Are you seeing anyone?”
Conner needed a woman.

He smiled and looked around the room. “You know I can’t kiss and tell.” He walked away with a wink and left me more curious
.

Before I knew it, the house was filled with all kinds of commotion. The kids were running around like maniacs while the little ones were being passed around like hot potatoes. The twins
were the cutest little boys and I wanted to stop entertaining everyone so I could have a turn with them. 

Bella grabbed one of them and began lugging him around. She was so petite that it was
hard for her to carry him. Miranda went running to his rescue and grabbed the poor baby up. “Bella, you know you are not allowed to carry your brothers around.”

“But I wanted to play house with Noah and they were going to be the kids.” She looked
thoroughly disappointed with her hands on her hips.

Ty came walking over. “Iz, what did your mother say?”

She put her little head down and headed up the stairs, without a baby. “Okay, Daddy.”

Miranda was standing next to me as Ty came up behind her, burying his head into her neck. “Who needs turkey when my wife smells like
this. Sometimes I could just eat her skin.”

She giggled and pushed him away. “
Ty, cut it out. They already think all we do is have sex.”

“So what? I think that’s pretty freaking awesome.” He would have thought that, considering that half of his brain was attached to the head of his penis.

I gave him a dirty look and started to walk away. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back. “Don’t forget about my pie. I made it myself. I want to watch you eat it.”

“Is that supposed to make me want to eat it?
I’m not getting near that.” There was no way in hell I was eating a pie that he made, and had poked a hole in.

“You will eat it. I’ll make you.”

Colt came up behind Ty and took out his knees, sending him tumbling to the floor in front of me. By the time he regained his composure, the whole room was laughing. Of course, instead of directing his anger and revenge against Colt, he looked at me and winked. “It’s on, sweet thang!”

It was at that moment when I started to regret taking on Thanksgiving with the whole family.
I looked around my house and felt like the walls were closing in.

How was I going to pull this off without going insane?

Chapter 4

Colt

Hunting was a big deal to my family. Maybe it was a southern thing, but we took it very serious. The month before, we’d go out and get the newest in camouflage and fill the feeders in the woods and fields with corn. I even went as far as to set up motion activated cameras next to my two tree stands to monitor activity.

Rifle season was always two days after Thanksgiving, so it was always a family affair. Now, for as long as my family had owned the farm, hunting was a man only hobby, but Miranda had changed that. When she and Conner moved to the farm, after they lost their fat
her, they insisted that they both go. We used to tease her, up until she shot this big ass buck with only a bow. Her kill shot was damn near perfect and she never let us live it down.

Since she was pregnant the year before, Ty hadn’t wanted her to hunt, but this year she was ready and none of us were going to talk her out of it.

A few days before the season started, we would all go out and get our stands ready. Normally we all used the same one, well except for Ty, who made it a point to switch stands every darn year. None of us cared, but one day he was going to be mistaken for a deer and be sorry. Conner kept laughing behind his back, claiming his own wife would be the one to take him out in some tragic hunting accident. I’m pretty sure he was joking, but with Conner, well you never could really tell.