Raging Love(75)

“Okay,” he said quietly.

I cut off the apology. “How did the two of you even get up high enough to saddle the horses?”

“We stood on the feed buckets,” Noah replied.

I shook my damn head and let out a chuckle. Of course he knew to do something like that, he was my child after all. “Well, you know you shouldn’t have done it, even if Bella said she knew how. Neither one of those saddles was tight enough to ride.”

“I won’t do it again, I swear.” Noah looked so sad, even after Savanna came over and kissed him on the head.

“So who fell off first?” Conner asked from across the room. Of course, when I looked over at him I couldn’t help but notice the beer bottle in his hand. My focus was on the kids today, not my cousin.

“I did. Thunder got spooked from the storm and threw me off. He took off right away. Bella hopped down to help me, but Atticus ran away too. We were scared of the storm and kept hearin’ noises, so we hid,” Noah explained.

“Honey, how did you maneuver over those rocks while you were in that much pain? The embankment was slippery.” Savanna waited for Noah to reply.

“Bella and I held hands. Once we got inside, it was too slippery to get back out.”

“Noah, we should all be so angry with you, but since you both are home safe and went through so much, we aren’t goin’ to punish you. This will never happen again, Son. Do you understand me? You could have been killed. Both of you.” The more I looked at my injured son, the more grateful I was to have him home. Last night had been rough on everyone, I couldn’t imagine being a little child and going through that dark storm with those injuries.

Two pregnant women had battled weather and horrible conditions to save their children. We were physically and mentally drained. Even though Savanna and I had taken a nap, I could tell she was still tired.

The kids settled down and finally started talking to each other after they realized they weren’t in trouble. It was kind of cute how they were protecting each other. I wondered if they sat in that protected spot and talked about it.

The family all seemed to calm down after lunch and we spent the rest of the day together. It was still raining outside and with Noah’s arm in not only a cast, but also a brace, he couldn’t play with much. After they ate, he and Bella cuddled up on the couch and watched some movies. Us adults played some cards in the dining room and sat around catching up.

Ty and Miranda were leaving first thing in the morning to go home, so after everyone except for them left, we sat down and talked about our idea for Conner. At first, Miranda didn’t like our idea, but after we really explained the situation, she seemed to ease up and agree with us about it. She knew that it would benefit not only Conner, but the whole family if he moved out to their farm.

Conner may have been going through some hard times, but he was damn good at his job and he knew exactly what to do to get Ty started up and running. It would be easy for us to talk him into going there if he didn’t think it was just to get him clean. We had talked about this business opportunity for a long time. He would never suspect it to be anything else.

Everything was going to work out with Conner and our new business venture. At the end of the day our decisions were about protecting our family.





Chapter 24

Savanna

It was hard to say that Ty and Miranda’s visit wasn’t disastrous. I felt horrible and wished I could somehow make it up to them. I kept trying to replay the kids disappearing in my head. There was no way of knowing they would pull a stunt like they had, but maybe I could have prevented it if I were paying more attention to them.

Even though I talked to Miranda almost every single day, it was still different when they came to visit. So, when they came for weekends, I got so excited and spent all of my time trying to entertain and make sure we all had a good time. I knew the children weren’t just my responsibility, Miranda was there as well and she would never have blamed me for it. I just felt horrible that it had happened.

We watched with sad eyes as their family pulled away from our house and set out on their long ride home. An instant emptiness filled my heart every time they went home. Even with all of the people my age that I had met in college and in town here, they never gave me the friendships that Ty and Miranda gave me. I guess them being my family was also another reason.

We were all pretty nervous with the Conner situation, but right before they pulled away, Ty made sure Colt knew he would have the room ready for Conner by the end of the week. I was kind of thinking that Conner would have an issue about moving away from everything he knew, but he took the news calmly, even thanking Ty for giving him a chance to make things right.