Risking Fate(39)

“I’m just trying to protect you, I swear.”

I looked up at him. My eyes burned from the tears. “Don’t! Don’t you dare protect me from somethin’ that directly involves me.”

He scrunched up his face like he was in pain and kissed my forehead. “Alright.” He climbed into the passenger side and I drove him back to his shop. When he leaned over to kiss me goodbye, I didn’t react to his lips. He hurt me. For two and a half years we had no secrets. Even if it only involved Bella, he had no reason to hide it from me. I wanted to wring his neck.

I went home and ate a whole quart of ice cream and then spent the afternoon throwing it up. When it was time to get Bella and Ty, I felt awful. Bella came running out with a book bag full of artwork and papers. She climbed in the car and immediately began talking. “We need to get meatballs.”

“How about a ‘hi Mom’ first.”

“Sorry, but Daddy says we need meatballs.”

“They are in the bag next to you. I went right before I got here.” I looked in the rear view mirror to spy on my daughter making sure I bought her father’s favorite kind. She got a smile on her face as she closed the bag.

Ty was leaning against the building as we pulled up. He smiled at Bella before climbing into his seat. “Hey ladies. Are you ready for a fancy dinner?”

“YES!” Bella couldn’t contain herself.

Ty reached over the seat and grabbed my leg. “Are we okay?”

I gave him a quick smile and started on our venture home. I wanted more than anything for us to be okay, but I was honestly still a little pissed at him. I didn’t understand why he would lie to me. I was a big girl. I could handle it.

Ty and Bella talked about her day at school, while I drove home in silence. He knew I was still angry at him and I appreciated that he didn’t push my buttons with our daughter in the car.

When I put the car in park and got out to go inside, he ran around to my side and stopped me. Bella had the bag of meatballs in her hand and turned around to wait for us. “Go ahead inside Iz, I need to talk to Mommy real quick.”

She did as she was told and went right into the house. Ty put one hand on either side of me and pinned me against the car. He stared directly into my eyes. “Don’t do this, Baby.”

I wasn’t going to give him his way. “Do what, Ty? Give a shit about your feelin’s? Be mad at you for lyin’ to me?”

“You know this whole thing has me all messed up. Everything I’m doing is for our family. I said I was sorry, Miranda. I can’t have you mad at me. I can’t stand it. I got nothing done all afternoon because all I could think about was you.” I could see the pain in his eyes. He never looked away from me.

“You hurt me today. It broke my heart knowing you lied to me.”

His body came closer and soon I felt him completely pressed against me. “I love you.” As fast as he said it he pulled away and walked into the house. I waited a couple minutes just to be a bitch about it. Maybe I was overreacting, but I didn’t want him lying to me to become a habit. He needed to know he was wrong.

Bella was standing on a chair filling a pot with water, while her father was opening the bag of meatballs and pouring them and a jar of sauce into another pot. He put the lid on it and turned on the other burner to boil the water for the noodles. “I’m going to grab a five minute shower while all of this is cooking. Can you throw in the noodles if it starts to boil before I’m out?”

I nodded as he ran by and headed toward our bedroom. Bella was setting the table with paper plates and plastic forks. When she and Daddy did the cooking, they also did the dishes. Buying them paper plates just made it easier on all of us.

Before the water began to boil, Ty came walking out in a pair of pajama pants and no shirt. I was trying to get comfortable on the couch on account of the two little ones in my belly causing a commotion. When I saw my husband and smelled his body wash, I almost needed to fan myself. His wet hair was disheveled on his head and he gave me a wink as he walked by.

I loved that man.

I was crazy about him.

I followed him with my eyes, only to get caught and share a moment with him before he gave our daughter his attention. In that moment I had forgiven him completely. Life was too short to dwell on little things. Ty had never given me a reason to not trust him. I knew this was all taking a toll on him and he just was doing the best he could to get through it.





Chapter 12

Tyler

I was digging myself into a hole that I wasn’t sure I knew how to get out of. Instead of just telling my wife the truth, I had hid it from her. Now she had discovered that I lied to her. To make matters twenty times worse, I was still keeping something from her; something that could be construed as the wrong thing.