We pulled up at the cabin and saw the girls sitting on the porch swing. Noah and Bella came whipping around the corner on two Hot Wheels vehicles. One was a Tractor and one was a Mustang. They were giggling, trying to race each other. “Sorry ya’ll had to deal with this on your visit.”
Ty put his hand on my shoulder as the kids flew by us. “Hi Daddy!” Bella waved.
“Hey Sweetie!” He turned to look at me. “This isn’t your fault Colt. Conner just needs an eye opener. He needs something that will change the person he wants to be. You and I both know what that is like.”
I nodded. He was right. Ty and I both knew what it was like to find something that made us want more out of life. I don’t know how much I had changed for Savanna, but Ty was a different person. I’d hate to tell him that he turned soft, but it was true. All he cared about was being with his girls.
“How’d it go?” Miranda asked from the porch.
Ty skipped all the steps but the last and hurried over to where she sat. He leaned against the railing as I came up to meet him. “Not exactly how we pictured it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Oh my God, Ty, your face.” Miranda stood up and approached Ty, holding her hand up to her husband’s face. “Did he do this to you Babe?”
Ty grabbed her hand and pulled it away from her face. “I’m fine. I pounced on him first. He was just trying to get me to let him go,” he explained.
“I think he was still drunk from last night.” Miranda thought she knew the worst of it.
“He was drinking when we got there, Baby.”
Ty pulled Miranda into his chest and kissed her on the head. “He can’t come stay at the farm like this. I can’t be pregnant and responsible for him too.”
“I know, Baby. Don’t worry about it right now. He obviously didn’t hear us mention it, so we can focus on you having a good first trimester and then figure out what to do about Conner. As of right now he isn’t our problem to fix. Colt gave him an ultimatum and hopefully he does something about it.” Ty stroked Miranda’s hair as he spoke to her.
“If he knows what’s good for him he will cut his shit out. I wasn’t lyin’ when I said those things Ty.”
He looked over at me. “I know, Cuz, I know.”
Miranda was really bent out of shape about her brother. After Ty and I finally dropped the conversation, she went inside and called her mother. We could hear her raising her voice in the office. I don’t think that my aunt was saying she wasn’t concerned, but I think she just didn’t know how to handle her grown son. Aside from drinking and driving, we really weren’t sure what else he was doing. Sure, he was caught with drugs, but Ty and I couldn’t prove they were really his.
Savanna stayed outside with the kids, while Ty and I started watching a ball game and drinking some beers. The kids came in yelling that it was time to ride the horses, but we still had about a half hour left in the game we were watching. They went back outside huffing and puffing that we were meanies. A few minutes later we heard them outside laughing and playing again.
Miranda finally came out of the room and winked at Ty before she went outside with Savanna.
“It’s pretty cool we are both going to be Daddy’s’ again.” Ty announced.
“Yeah, it is. I just can’t wait to be there for the birth. I missed out on so much with Noah.”
“The birth is crazy. It is scary and disgusting and beautiful all at the same time. Do you have any idea what their shit looks like?” I had to remember that I was talking to Ty. Of course he was going to bring this up.
“Yeah, I hadn’t put too much thought into that part of it.”
He started laughing. “As much as I wanted to be with Miranda that first night we were finally together, there was this flash right before of what it looked like down there the last time I had seen it. Dude, I was scared shitless.”
“Not that I want to even talk about Miranda like this, but I have to believe that you of all people would have still gone through with it.”
He shook his head and busted out in a loud uncontrolled laugh. “Yeah, there is no way I could have said no to her. She had me from the first kiss. Everything else was just a bonus. Besides, it ended up looking nothing like I remembered. Trust me when I say I have it memorized in my head. Every little inch of it.”
The grin on his face showed me he was just playing into my disgust of hearing about it. I tossed a pillow at him. “You’re sick.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I decided that talking to Ty about Savanna’s birth was a mistake. He was lucky to have been there for Bella to come into the world. If it weren’t for that day, he and Miranda probably would have never gotten together. Looking at Noah now, made me regret not seeing him as a baby. All of those first experiences that I had missed out on. I knew we would have a lifetime of new ones, but it still hurt to know I could never have those back. I would never try to replace that with our new baby, but I was very excited to experience them. I wanted to see those first steps, or hear the first words.