Risking Fate

by Jennifer Foor

  “What are you thinking about?”

  I sat up and leaned on my elbow. “Just how sexy you are and how much I love you.”

  He crawled into bed next to me. “I know I’m not perfect, and I probably don’t deserve this life with you. Sometimes I feel like the luckiest man in the world.”

  He reached up and turned on the ceiling fan before pulling my body into his. I loved how the cool air made me want to get even closer to him. “You’re perfect for me.”

  “When the boys come I want to take turns getting up with them. I know you are going to breast feed, but it would mean a lot to me. Do you think you could pump like Van does for Colt?” He rolled me over on my back and placed his hand across my belly right before he leaned his head over the other part. “I love feeling them in there, knowing they are ours.”

  They were starting to really move more and every time Ty talked against my belly, they seemed to respond to his voice. “I think they already know you are their daddy.”

  He laughed and kissed my belly. “Baby, I can’t wait to hold them. I can’t wait for Izzy to hold them. I keep picturing it in my mind. The closer it gets the more I lose focus on everything else and daydream about them.”

  I had to laugh. “Last week I was cuttin’ Mrs. Emerson’s hair and I started thinkin’ about the kids, imaginin’ them runnin’ around the farm. The next thing I knew, I was done cuttin’ her whole head. I don’t even remember doin’ it.”

  He leaned his chin on my stomach and looked up at me. I ran my hand through his hair. “That would have been hilarious if you fucked up that old woman’s hair.”

  “For you maybe. I felt sick over it.”

  “Remember when I let you cut my hair for the first time?”

  I would never forget that night.

  I was still learning and needed a guinea pig. Ty’s mother let me dye her hair, which I did a good job. His father let me give him a good buzz cut, but Ty was scared shitless. His hair was still longer and I wasn’t sure if he was more afraid of his new look or me jacking up his head. He kept making me stop and running to the mirror.

  We both started laughing. “I did a good job. You loved it, besides, I think it made you look even hotter.”

  “I am pretty fucking hot.” His perfect white teeth were displayed as he gave me the biggest smile. I loved his brown eyes and his long dark eyelashes. His sarcasm was easy for me to appreciate since I’d known him my whole life. It was harder for other people to get his sense of humor.

  “You’re alright,” I teased.

  “Whatever! I can make your panties wet by just looking your way.” His hand slowly started to slide the t-shirt I was wearing up over my breasts. His face came up to one of them and he drug his lips lightly over a nipple, but never kissed it. I bit my lip and refused to agree with his comment.

  “You aren’t that good.” Think about something not Ty related. Think about dirty socks and peeing your pants…

  His bottom lip circled my nipple again. When he spoke, I could feel his hot breath against it. “I know you’re lying. In fact, I know exactly what to do to make you beg.”

  I rolled my eyes and focused on those dirty socks. My face curled up and I shook my head. “In your dreams, Mr. Mitchell.”

  He used his chin to make my nipple even harder. “Mmm, I love how hard they get. I bet you want it in my mouth.”

  “I bet you’re wrong.”Oh God, you are so right…

  “I bet you want me right now. In fact, I can tell you are trying so hard to fight it.”

  I closed my eyes for a second and looked down at him. “I have a headache. I think I need some water.” Without any warning, I scooted myself out of bed and walked out of the bedroom. I was so hot and bothered that I stopped once I got into the kitchen to catch my breath. I grabbed a bottle of water and took my time walking back into the room.

  Sure enough, Ty was laying there with his arms behind his back. “I call bullshit!”

  I stood at the foot of the bed and put my hands on my hips. “This ain’t a game of cards.”

  “It’s definitely a game. Are you going to climb up here and straddle me or do I have to come and get you?” He never moved his position. I wanted to smack him, but I knew he would like it, and so would I.

  “You’re the one beggin’. I am fine just goin’ to sleep right now.” I am such a liar. I wanted to pounce right on him, belly and all.

  His disposition never changed. “Goodnight, Baby.” Before I climbed into bed he had closed his eyes.

  On one hand, I wanted him so badly that I wanted to scream, but on the other, I knew he would hold it against me and feel like he had won. Ty liked to be in control and so did I. To protect my own ego, I pulled the covers over my body and tried my best to fall asleep.

  A good ten minutes went by in a very quiet house. I was sure that Ty had fallen asleep, so I rolled over and nestled myself close to him. As soon as my hands touched his warm chest, I felt him grabbing my hand. He guided it down and sat it right on top of his hard penis.

  I giggled and heard him let out a little cackle. “You suck!”

  He pulled my hand up to his mouth and kissed my wedding ring. “No I don’t, but you do it better than anyone on the planet, Baby.”

  I smacked him on the chest. “Sometimes you really piss me off.”

  “That’s only because our makeup sex is the best.” He pulled me close to his body and positioned my hand over his chest. “But the sex isn’t at all why I love you so much. Your trust and friendship is the most important. Get some sleep, Baby. We can make love tomorrow and every other day for the rest of our lives. I know you’re tired and have to work in the morning.”

  As much as I wanted to make love, Ty was right. I needed to get some sleep. I started working part time in the morning, but it was still getting hard to stand for even an hour at a time.

  The next morning was as hectic as ever. Ty refused to wake me up on time and although he and Bella were at the door waiting, I still had to get myself ready. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for something to wear, while trying to do something professional looking to my hair. I worked in a salon so having bad hair was a definite no no.

  My worries were relieved when we pulled up to the Salon five minutes early. I leaned over and kissed my sexy husband before heading inside. Ty and Bella usually stopped by for doughnuts before he dropped her off at school and went into the shop.

  I got my station all ready to start working and grabbed a bottle of water for me to drink. Amy was getting the register together when the door bell rang. Ty came walking in with a cup in one hand and a bag in the other.

  He handed me the hot drink. “Decaf coffee with extra cream and one sugar for my beautiful wife.” He opened the bag and let me peek inside. “Two chocolate éclairs for my growing boys.” He leaned over and kissed me. “Gotta run. See ya at lunch, Baby.”

  He went flying out of the door before I could thank him. I grabbed my phone as I watched our car pulling out of the lot.

  I love you Ty. Thank you.

  A few minutes passed and I knew he was rushing to punch in on time at the shop. As the first customer walked in, I heard my phone vibrate.

  Anytime. Love u 2.

  The smile on my face couldn’t be contained. Amy shook her head and started walking toward me. “You two make me jealous.”

  “Sorry, Ames. Another bad weekend?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “He never came home on Friday night. Showed up Saturday morning completely shit faced. I took the kid out and grocery shopped. When we got home he was passed out. I guess it could have been worse.”

  It wasn’t that cold out, but Amy was wearing a long sleeve jacket. I know I was pregnant and drinking coffee, but it was too hot to be wearing a jacket. I reached for her arm and she pulled away. “Don’t! Please just don’t, Miranda.”

  I pulled her in for a hug. “Our offer stills stands. You can stay at Ty’s parents whenever you need to.”

  �
�I’m saving up my money. I can handle him until then.” She started walking toward the customer at the front of the shop. “Good morning Agnes. How can I help you today?”

  I watched Amy put on her best fake smile as she began working on her first customer’s hair. After ten minutes my first client showed up and the place filled with voices. At noon two more stylists came in and worked until six at night. I felt bad, but I never got a chance to talk to Amy any more.

  Since I’d known what it was like to be physically abused, my heart ached for her situation.

  Ty showed up at lunch time and after we ate, I stopped at the school and picked up Bella, before taking the car home. I knew I’d have to pick Ty up later, but it was nice to go home and relax for a while. If it was up to Ty, I would just be a stay at home mother. Between the farm and his full time job, we didn’t need the money. I just liked getting out and doing something. Of course, once the twins were born, it was going to get a lot harder.

  As long as I got to cut Ty’s hair I think I would be satisfied. He had the thickest, sexiest brown hair. I loved playing with it.

  Bella and I spent my first half day watching kid shows and pigging out. Conner was nice enough to run out and grab Ty when he headed into town to pick up something he needed. By the time they both came in, I had dinner ready and on the table for them. We all sat down together and said grace like we tried to do every night. Bella liked to say it herself and we liked how she still messed up some of the words.

  Ty got Bella started in the bath tub, while Conner loaded the dishwasher for me. He came down and sat next to me, throwing my legs over his. “How’s my little sister feelin’?”

  “Good. How are you doin’?”

  Conner shrugged and tossed his hat on the table. “It’s different here. Brina’s been tryin’ to get me go out more. I just need to stay focused on work. I know this is my chance to make things right.”

  “Well, you seem to be doin’ a lot better.”

  “Randa, I’m a little worried about goin’ to Kentucky for the Christening.” Conner looked down at his hands and fidgeted. He’d done so well being away from all of his friends. His first week had been the worst, in fact we found out a lot more than we had wanted to. Conner had been using drugs. He tried to detox cold turkey and got really sick. He ended up spending the night in the hospital and having a very sick first week.

  Ty and I did everything we could to make him comfortable, we even kept the worst of it from the family. Conner was trying so hard and he didn’t need extra eyes judging him. Besides, Ty wanted to do it for Conner. He wanted him to be able to trust us.

  I grabbed my brother’s hand. “Conner, everything will be okay. The family doesn’t know the bad stuff.”

  “What if my friends want to go out?”

  I squeezed his hand. “It’s probably better if you don’t. Just hang out with us for the weekend. If it gets too bad then we can come home early. I can make up an excuse that I’m not feelin’ well. Ty will be cool about it.”

  He leaned over and kissed my head. “I couldn’t do this without you, I hope you know that.”

  Conner got up and headed back to his room. I heard him and Ty talking to each other in the hallway as they passed. I hadn’t thought about how hard things were going to be for Conner on our visit. I knew he missed his friends, but seeing them again, could test his sobriety. He and I both knew that he didn’t want to go down that road again.

  It made me very nervous.

  That night I told Ty about Conner and how worried I was. He told me that Conner had talked to him about it in the car and that he suggested the same thing. The two of them may have joked a lot and even gotten into heated arguments, but they acted like brothers. If something was wrong, they were the first ones to stand up for each other. Like always, Ty had Conner’s back and I knew we would be able to make it through the weekend if we just stuck together.

  The next week flew by and we found ourselves packing up the cars again. This time Ty’s parents were coming. We still had to take two separate cars and of course Bella wanted to ride with her grandparents. I had to admit that I was a bit relieved. My ride was going to be annoying enough with Conner and Ty.

  Ty’s parents wanted us to all ride in their new SUV, but thankfully, Ty insisted we drive separately. It would have been too packed for us to be comfortable.

  After four stops for pee breaks, we pulled into the ranch. Conner was the only one staying somewhere other than the main house, so we dropped him off at my mom’s first before unpacking our car.

  While Ty carried everything up, Bella and I went into the living room to see Lucy and my aunt. Ty met us downstairs at the same time his parents walked into the room. The older adults began a full blown conversation, while Bella was itching to get to Noah. We saw ourselves out and headed toward Colt and Van’s house.

  Chapter 8

  Ty

  Being in Kentucky was one of my favorite places. I loved being with my family. When the three of us walked in the door, Iz went flying past us and headed up the steps to find Noah. We heard him call her name and then a bunch of chattering upstairs.

  Van’s mother was holding Christian when I went over to say hello. She gave Miranda a quick wave before giving her grandchild all of her attention.

  We sat around the house for the rest of the evening catching up with everyone. It was nice being around the whole family and not having one single argument. My parents as well as my mother in law and John stayed up at the main house for dinner, while the rest of us ate at Colt’s place.

  Van was so busy appeasing her parents that she had little time to sit down and relax. Colt was sitting around talking about hunting with her father. I think he really missed doing that with my uncle. He’d been hunting with his dad since we were too small to even hold a gun. It was always a tradition that, while the women hung around the house, all the men got up before daylight and went out into the woods. Miranda was kind of jealous this year. She was the only girl in the family who loved to hunt and since she had a big ole belly, I wouldn’t even let her think about going.

  Izzy was still too little, but Colt planned on taking Noah, at least for a little while over the weekend. Once she heard about it, she started giving her mother and me a fit to let her go.

  The next morning, the women got up and started making food for the celebration. The smell of home cooking filled my aunt’s giant house. I reached around the bed before opening my eyes and realizing Miranda was already downstairs. I could hear female voices laughing and carrying on.

  I sat up in bed and started wiping my eyes. After checking my phone, and realizing it was only eight in the morning, I wanted to go back to sleep. My daughter came running in the room and jumped on the bed. “Daddy, Mommy told me to wake you up. Come on,”

  She started pulling me out of bed. “Honey, Daddy is in his underwear. Let me get dressed and I will be down.”

  She let go of my hand but stood there with her hands on her hips. She looked so much like her mother. I loved her big blue eyes and that beautiful blonde hair. When she refused to take her eyes off of me, I pointed to my jeans. “Hand me those, Iz.”

  She reached down and grabbed my jeans. I slid my legs around the bed, making sure nothing was hanging out of my boxers, then pulled the jeans up. “Do you need me to get your shirt?”

  “No. Daddy can get it himself. Did your mother tell you to stalk me until I came down?”

  She giggled. “Yes.”

  I laughed. “Did you brush your teeth yet?”

  She ran into the bathroom in front of me. I opened our zip lock bag and pulled out each of our toothbrushes. She held hers out and let me apply the toothpaste. We started brushing right away and I couldn’t help but laugh at her copying me. “Do you remember Daddy teaching you to brush your teeth?”

  She wasn’t even two when I showed her, but it still was something that was special to me. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She waited for me to spit first and then spit out her t
oothpaste. As I rinsed off my toothbrush, she stuck hers under the water. I pushed hers out of the way and started smiling. “Daddy, no fair. Share the water.”

  I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I couldn’t help it. You’re too pretty not to tease. You ready to go downstairs?”

  She grabbed my hand and led the way.

  I headed right to the coffee pot, trying to avoid contact with the gabbing group of women at the table. Van’s mother and my mother were sandwiching Christian between them, talking to her in baby talk. I sat my cup down in front of Miranda and kissed her on the head. “Morning, Baby.”

  She looked up at me as I reached over and took the baby out of her seat. The two women threw me a dirty look. “What? She’s my God child. Get in line.”

  Christian loved getting attention, in fact I was pretty sure she got held way too much, but who was I to talk? If I could have held Izzy constantly when she was a baby I would have. I loved holding her and spending time with her.

  Van’s mother caught my attention. “Ty, I think you’re in the wrong line of work. It looks like you should have your own Daddy daycare center.”

  All of the women in the room turned to look at me rocking Christian in my arms. “Little girls love me, I can’t help that.”

  Colt came up behind me. “You sound like a pedophile. Give me my child before you get all creepy.”

  I pulled away from him, not letting him take her from me. “Christian, tell your daddy he is wrong. Tell him uncle Ty would never hurt you.” She smiled at me talking to her.

  I looked up at the room full of people. “Just because I love kids, doesn’t make me a pedophile.” I stuck out my bottom lip like they all hurt my feelings. After sitting Christian back down in her seat, I took my coffee and pouted my way out of the room.

  Colt came in and sat next to me. He had Christian in his arms. She was cooing and drooling everywhere. “I was just kiddin’, Cuz.”

  I threw the remote in the air and caught it, trying not to look him in the eye. “I’d never hurt a child.”

  Maybe I was being defensive, but that wasn’t right.