The Mitchell Family Series BoxSet 1-4.5 (50 page)

Miranda spent a good twenty minutes looking at every picture over and over. I could tell she was touched by each one. I thought about mine and Colt’s first real pictures together, and how after the first few, I started taking them all the time. Our house was filled with pictures of the two of us. It was like we had been together for ten years instead of two.

As mad as I was about the pictures coming in and seeing the barn in a bunch of them, it made my day to be able to see Miranda’s face when she looked at them for the first time.

Chapter 7

Colt

The drive back from town was a lot less eventful, as far as the bickering between Ty and Conner. Once we got the truck loaded, they seemed to both be motivated. Sitting back and looking at the two of them was entertaining. I think they only fought because they were so similar. The only difference was that Ty had grown up and become a husband and parent, while Conner was determined to hit every piece of ass in the state of Kentucky.

I think sometimes Conner hated Ty, because he knew how he was himself. I could honestly say that Ty was head over heels in love with Miranda and Bella. He was happy and maybe his happiness was what made Conner so upset. Sure, I knew deep down he wanted Miranda to be happy and Bella to have a father and a family, but it was hard to be able to accept Ty as that person.

When we got back to the ranch, the first thing Ty wanted to do was see Miranda. Apparently they had been texting and he said he had to make a pit stop. If he thought the two of them were going to get busy in the bathroom again, he had another thing coming. It wasn’t happening.

Both Miranda and Savanna were sitting on the couch, looking at all of the pictures. When we walked in, I watched Ty walk over to his wife and kiss her. It wasn’t a normal peck like I gave Savanna; it was a more full-blown kind of passion, like they hadn’t seen each other in months. I shook my head and tried not to watch them swooning.

Conner walked right past them and headed into the kitchen. I could hear the fridge opening and a beer cracking open. Being that we had so much shit to do, I followed suit. We both stood in the kitchen, leaning up against the counter.

I could hear Savanna in the other room talking to Ty about the photos. She had showed me the one of him and Bella, and I knew he would love it. Savanna made a point to order the pictures as a way to let them know she was completely okay with them being together. I had no reason to worry about either of them having feelings for one another.  Savanna found Ty to be annoying and immature, while Ty constantly got on Savanna for being uptight. They loved each other, but there wasn’t an inch of romance involved. I often found myself wondering what they were like as a couple. They had no chemistry and although I know, it hurt Savanna deeply when they broke up, I don’t really think Ty was ever that serious about her.

My wife to be always seemed to end up a victim. She had the worst luck, and the newest of such luck resulted in us having to bust our asses to create a new wedding location. After Conner and I both had a beer, we walked back out into the living room and found Miranda in Ty’s lap. They were still looking at the photo books with Savanna.

“You ready to get to work, or do ya want to hang out and watch Lifetime Network all afternoon?” Conner teased.

Ty got a big smile on his face. “You’re just jealous cause you weren’t invited.”

Here we go again!

“There ain’t nothin’ about you to make me jealous,” Conner said defensively.

“Till I take off my pants. Then you will be.” Conner started approaching Ty and Miranda held her hands up blocking her brother from her husband. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t speak.

Conner turned around and walked out of the door. “Forget this shit! Let’s roll, Colt.”

Once Conner was out of the house, I turned to look at Ty. He and Miranda were already back to their cuddle fest. “Seriously, can you just keep your mouth shut until we get finished workin’?”

“He was taunting me.”

“Act your age, instead of five, please,” I begged.

Ty scooted himself off of the couch. He leaned down and kissed Miranda again. I watched their eyes intently focused on each other. It was like they were having mind sex or something. I shook my head and turned to Savanna. “We have to get to work on your surprise. Love you, darlin’.” To prove a point to myself, and everyone in the room, I let my kiss linger over Savanna’s lips. As I walked out the door I laughed at myself for being jealous of Ty and Miranda’s kissing.

Damn, he is rubbing off on me!

I was blown away when we got to the barn and the cleanout crew had shown up early. I hadn’t expected it, but when someone in our town needed help, people showed up. It was even better that they brought a roll off dumpster. A group of four guys were pulling out large metal tractor parts as we approached the barn. Ty started to unload the generator, while Conner grabbed the pressure washer. My intent was to pressure wash the entire outside and take the tractor around to cut the high grass that had grown all around the outside of the barn.

With every prayer I had focused on my two cousins working together proficiently, I started walking back to get the tractor. It took me a good fifteen minutes, but I was more than pleased when I arrived back to find Ty and Conner working together. Instead of cutting the grass and having it uneven, I had bought a whole truckload of sod that was to be delivered the next day. I took the tractor and tore up the existing weed filled grass to give the dirt a nice even bed. When the landscapers arrived all they would have to do was roll them out evenly.

It took the guys a few hours to pressure wash the whole outside of the barn. For the most part, all of the old paint came right off. The sun was shining down, drying the wood quickly. To give the barn the exact look of the original, we picked out the same red paint and had to rebuild the barn doors from scratch. Conner worked on the doors, while Ty painted all of the white trim.

As the sun began to set, we started spraying the outside the deep color. I had rented the sprayer for two days and it worked so much faster than rolling it. Since the roof was metal, we climbed on top and sprayed it the dark gray color that it once had.

When the moon replaced the sun, we had already painted the whole roof, the front and one side. The cleanout crew finished in less time than they had expected and we were able to get into the empty barn right away. Since there was nothing in it, and the paint on the outside had dried for the most part, we started gently spraying the inside.  I knew the outside would need another coat, especially since we had sprayed some of it with water, but we had a good head start.

We called it a night around ten in the evening. After dropping off the guys at the other two houses, I headed back to find Savanna asleep on the couch. Without waking her, I carried her up to our bed and tucked her in. I was working so hard to give her the perfect day she always dreamed of. I climbed in bed beside her and pushed the hair out of her face. She was so beautiful to me. I loved her full lips and the tiny freckles on the bridge of her nose. Her dark hair was longer now and it fell past her breasts.

Savanna was everything I had wanted in a woman. She was so innocent and it was something that I cherished about her. I’d been in bad relationships, some in which I never even gave a damn about. I had treated my fair share of women terribly, especially after I got cheated on in college. I found it so hard to trust anyone that I just couldn’t let myself care enough in any relationship. Savanna changed me.

Being there for her and feeling the pain of what she went through, it opened my heart. At first I fought it, but the more time I spent with her, the more I knew how real my feelings were. I wanted every part of her for myself. I had to touch her and have her heart.  She was my everything.  I never wanted to let her go.

To be able to open up my heart again didn’t exactly come with instructions, especially on how to deal with things, when she still loved my cousin. Looking at them now, I would never think they even liked each other, but I guess neither of them really considered what else was out there. Ty was never mean to Savanna, in fact she was more like a treasure to him. He kept her locked away, even from the real person he was.

Savanna started to stir and nestled her body into mine. Since neither of us liked sweating in bed, we kept the window cracked so we could touch while we slept.  With her arm on my chest, I fell fast asleep knowing everything was going to work out.

The next morning I got up early. Ty and Conner were already at the barn waiting for me. As I got closer it looked as if they were fighting, but instead they were playing some stupid slap game from when we were kids. I started to yell at them, but the truck full of sod came rolling in. I shook my head as I walked by them and started directing the truck in.

Ty and Conner must have sensed my frustration with their love hate relationship, because they got right to working. The entire inside of the barn needed to be sprayed white. I left Conner and Ty to the task. They each took a spray machine and did opposite sides. Of course, I should have never trusted that they could go for a long period of time without acting like total morons. I came in to check on their progress and they were both covered in white paint from head to toe. They were back to work, but after they spotted me coming toward them, they both pointed to each other.

Instead of playing into their drama, I walked back out of the barn, knowing they would work harder to try and not piss me off again. The sod was looking seamless and I decided to have the landscapers come back and lay flowers all around the edges of the barn.

Savanna had planned on riding Daisy, her horse, up to the barn. I decided to make Daisy her own little corral with a little white picket fenced in area.  Since our wedding flowers were lilies, we could have some draped around the small fencing.

When the jokesters were done painting the inside, they came outside and we got right on to finishing the outside, with a second coat of paint all over.  When it finally started to get dark, we went inside and got to installing the floor. The floor was dirt, so we needed to frame out an almost deck formation, in order to lay the plywood down flat. 

Conner was amazing at construction while Ty and I were great at the mathematical aspect of it. Ty made the measurements while I cut the wood, then finally Conner installed it. We had a great system going and at about midnight, we were all starving to death and exhausted.

The wedding wasn’t until four in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time to run all of the electric and get ready without Savanna having to worry.

Since she and I were being married and we didn’t want to jinx anything, she chose to sleep at the main house with all of the girls. Plus her parents and my aunt and uncle had arrived and they were also staying in the guest rooms. Us guys came back to my place to a tray of lasagna and a fridge full of beer. We were too tired to stay up and party, and after about an hour, Ty finally snuck away from us to sleep with Miranda. He claimed that she couldn’t sleep, but Conner and I thought he was the one who couldn’t handle being away.

The following morning came too soon and my nerves were getting the best of me. I don’t know why I was nervous. I had wanted to marry Savanna for so long. There wasn’t a doubtful bone in my body. I think I was more worried about her not showing up. I let myself love her with everything I had, so the thought of losing her was just too hard to ever imagine.

Ty was already at the barn when Conner and I arrived. A truck full of flowers and another full of tables and chairs had arrived. We hadn’t had time to paint the wooden floor, but with everything being decorated and set up, the brown floor just wasn’t an issue. The white inside walls of the barn gave it a clean look. People from different companies started decorating and setting up with chairs, tables, balloons and other things to make it perfect.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Ty standing there. His hair was all sweaty like it was hot out, but it really wasn’t at all. “What the Hell? Did you run here or somethin’?”

“Nope, got up early and made you something. Come out back and look.” Ty suggested.

We walked out back and I stood there shocked. It wasn’t anything fancy, but Ty had made a trellis out of lattice to use on the altar. “I didn’t have time to do this. Thanks Cuz. This is fantastic.” I patted Ty on the shoulder and went over to thoroughly look at it.

“The paint is still wet. I just finished spraying it. I figured after it dries we could put flowers all over it. So you think she’ll like it?”

I turned to face Ty. “I think she will love it. She is goin’ to be so surprised about all of this, but I will make sure she knows you did this for her.”

“For you both, Colt. I did it for both of you. I’m glad she’s marrying you.  You were always the right choice you know.”

I didn’t answer him. We both knew it was true, so I didn’t have to agree. Ty was so overly happy about his own life, that I would never in a million years think he wasn’t being genuine. His priorities were on his own family now. I used to picture him trying to have one last plea with Savanna to not marry me, but seeing him now, I knew it was never going to happen. He might tease Savanna, but there was nothing between them.

“So what do we have left to do?” Ty asked.

“Yeah, what do we have left? Brina said she’d meet me before the service if I hurried up.” Conner interrupted.

“T.M.I. brother.” Ty joked.

“Brother, my ass. Stop callin’ me that you cock sucker.”

“Speaking of cock sucking, you should have seen your sist...”

I had to interrupt them before they went wrestling through one of the barn walls. “Can you two just shut the Hell up for one Goddamn day? Jesus, you may as well be in kindergarten. Neither one of you fought like this when we were little. Conner, just get over it. They’re happy together and there ain’t nothin’ you can do to change it, and honestly I know you don’t really want to. In my opinion, you’re just jealous of them. You want to settle down, but don’t want to admit it. How long are you two goin’ to do this shit? Make amends, were family for Christ sakes.”