Raging Love(63)

“Care to explain what you two were doing up there?” Miranda was still laughing when she said it.

My face was turning a bright red shade. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Well, while the two of you were,” he stuck up his fingers to quote, “’cleaning the bedroom’, our children decided they wanted to have glasses.”

I had no idea what Ty was saying or why they were laughing. The kid’s backs were facing us, and they seemed to be behaving. “What are you talking about?” I asked.

Noah heard my voice and turned around. In black magic marker he had two giant raccoon circles on each eye, with a line connecting in the center. If that wasn’t funny enough, Bella turned around and had a matching pair of magic marker glasses. “Aren’t they cool, Mom?”

Colt just stood there scratching his head. Miranda buried her laughter in Ty’s chest, while he stood there waiting for me to respond. “Noah, where did you get the marker?” He was over four, obviously he knew where we kept them, but I had to ask.

“In Daddy’s office. We were just playin’.” Noah explained.

It took Miranda and I two kind of soaps to remove the permanent marker from our children’s faces. Due to the fact that we got so occupied with the kids, Ty never brought up mine and Colt’s shower sexcapade. With the combination of Noah and my pregnancy, Colt and I didn’t have a lot of sex time. When it became available we took advantage.

My husband had patience, I had to give it to him, but everyone had their breaking point. Pleasing him and keeping him happy was something that I considered important. Was it really wrong to shut the door for some alone time? Noah knew where to find us and how to get our attention. He was famous for beating on the door, then asking why we locked it in the first place. There were a couple times I swore Colt was just going to sit him down and explain how we were making babies, so he would stop asking.

At any rate, we got the kids cleaned up and all headed to the main house for breakfast. The three older women were there at the table, drinking coffee. A buffet style set up was on the island, just like every breakfast at Colt’s mother’s house. Everyone greeted each other and started catering to the kids. Colt’s mom had bought them a little kid table and they felt all cool about having it for themselves. Us adults made our plates and settled down at the table.

When the kids finished they went into the family room to watch television, while the adults stayed around and talked. Conner came walking in the door about a half hour later. He had some brunette around his arm and a pair of sunglasses on his face, even though it wasn’t even sunny. In fact, it had been raining on and off for a couple of days. We all stopped talking and watched as he and his flavor of the week made a plate. They took their food out to the pool yard without saying a single word to any of us. I don’t know why, but I looked over toward Ty and Miranda. He was clenching his jaw and looking outside. Even though I was looking right at him, when his fists pounded on the table, I still jumped. Out of reflex I grabbed my belly while I watched Ty get up and start walking toward the pool yard door. Colt slid his chair out and followed behind him.

Miranda stood up and took off after the guys. I looked at the three older ladies, my mother in law, Aunt Karen, and Lucy, and wondered what in the world was happening.

Colt’s mother grabbed my hand. “Everything will be okay. Just let the guys handle it.”

“What do you mean? What don’t I know?”

Conner’s poor mother put her hands into her face and started shaking her head. “I can’t believe I let things get this bad. What am I going to do? He is going to end up hurting himself or someone else.”

“Let’s just hope that Colt and Tyler can help him.” Lucy added.

I tried to listen in, but could hear nothing. They weren’t really giving me any hints on what the heck was happening, so I walked outside to where Miranda was standing.

Conner and the mystery girl were sitting at a table eating their breakfast, while Ty and Colt stood over them.

I whispered to Miranda. “Are you going to explain?”

“Conner is out of control. He is partyin’ too much, drinkin’ himself belligerent. We don’t know how to get him to stop. He won’t even associate with us anymore. Colt is workin’ so hard to make this cattle deal work, and Ty and I can’t be responsible for him if he moves in with us. His parents aren’t goin’ to be okay with him comin’ in drunk every night. He probably doesn’t even know this girl’s name. It’s pathetic!”

“I guess I haven’t had very much time to notice. I’m really sorry. Between Noah and this pregnancy, I’ve been so preoccupied.” I explained.