I was so glad to see her go. Don’t get me wrong, she’d been considered my aunt my whole life, but since she became my mother in law, she was very overprotective of her daughter, sometimes making me the enemy.
I was both happy and excited to go home. Miranda still had to have her staples removed, but everything else seemed to be healing. Once she was moved into her own room, she had made a miraculous recovery. I think it was the boys that pushed her, but she claimed she just wanted to go home.
My mother stayed with us until we were released so she and Izzy drove home in my Jeep, while Miranda and I drove a rental car. Miranda’s car was totaled, but we were able to salvage everything she had packed up when she was leaving me. It was good that we didn’t have to go out and buy all of the baby stuff again. At any rate, the rental car was filled with all of our shit and a slew of flowers that had been sent to the hospital.
Instead of being an hour and a half to two hours away from home, it took us four. The boys did not like being in car seats. Poor Miranda was uncomfortable and we had to keep stopping to get them calmed down. By the time we pulled into the farm, she was ready to go to bed, unfortunately, the family had planned a welcome home surprise.
Once I got out both of the car seats, and helped Miranda out of the car, we slowly made our way to the house. When everyone screamed the word ‘surprise’, I thought my wife was going to pass out.
I think everyone, including her mother, Colt’s mother and Van and Colt, saw how exhausted she looked. I looked around the room at our family and even some friends and grabbed my wife by the hand. “Come on, let’s get you in bed.”
I got her changed and into bed without her saying very much to me. Once I got her tucked in, she reached for my hand. “Tell everyone, I’m sorry. I’m just so tired.”
“I know, Baby. Don’t worry about it. Just try to get some rest.” I leaned down and kissed her on the head. “I love you.”
She smiled as I pulled away. “I love you, too.”
By the time I got out of my room, the boys were being passed around like hot potatoes. I felt myself becoming overprotective immediately. Colt handed me a beer and patted me on the back. “You need to relax. They’re home and they’re safe.”
I sat on the edge of my couch and took a deep breath. “You’re right.”
Van leaned on the other side of me. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
“I hope so.”
I couldn’t help but notice Conner standing in the corner of the room. He was holding one of the boys and talking to Amy. He threw me a nod before giving her all of his attention. I could tell right away that they weren’t just friends. It was a good thing Miranda had gone to bed.
Chapter 26
Miranda
After spending so much time in the hospital, I couldn’t wait to get home. It was nice of my family to want to do something for us, but after the long ride and having to stop to breast feed the boys, I was exhausted.
Even with all the people in the house, it felt good to be home, in my bed. Ty had been so great to me since everything happened and I found myself depending on him even more with the boys. His boss had been great about him taking off, not that Ty even needed that job anymore. With the farm picking up cattle and the chicken houses doing well, we were really making a good living. I knew Ty was thinking about quitting, but he didn’t have the heart to leave his boss high and dry without a mechanic.
My welcome party went on without me and when I finally woke up to feed the boys, only Colt, Van and the kids were still at our house. Christian was starting to pull herself up on things and Van was on the floor behind her making sure she didn’t fall back and hurt herself. I loved that the kids were going to be close enough in age to play together like Noah and Bella. When I didn’t see them or Ty and the boys, I walked toward the back of the house to look for them.
Bella and Noah were playing with one of her pop up tents. He was the farmer dad and she was cooking him his dinner. His plate was full of plastic fries, plastic peas and an actual plastic can of tuna. He pretended to eat the little food, while she did the dishes. When they saw me laughing in the doorway they got mad and chased me out of the room. I couldn’t run, so just turning around was good enough for them to leave me be.
Ty was in the nursery with the boys. A little music player was turned up to block out the sound from the other rooms and he didn’t hear me come into the doorway. He had both of them on his lap and was rocking them in the chair. He held them like footballs on both arms.
I was going to go in and join him until I heard him start talking. He was looking down at each of them not paying any attention to who might be standing in the doorway. “You two really gave Mommy a hard time coming into this world. I hope that means you’re going to be tough, cause life isn’t always how we’d like it to be. Now, I can promise you that I will always be there for you for anything. You and your sister make every single day worth living. I love you guys so much.”