It was all about the hustle when it came to Vessa and the game of pool. Luckily, I finally got to be her partner on pool league nights. I’d much rather have her play with me instead of against me.
My son weighed nine pounds and nine ounces and took twenty hours of labor to finally come into the world. Vessa was a champ considering his size. She wasn’t a happy camper trying to push him out though.
Mason Andrew Towers was welcomed into this world by his brother and sister and also my parents. Vessa had to be induced, so it gave them time to drive to town and look after the kids while I stayed at the hospital the whole time.
I can’t explain the kind of emotions that I felt when the doctor put my son in my arms. I was already happy building a future with Vessa, but having a child that we made out of love, was the best kind of gift I could have ever received. I felt whole again, like my life had purpose. I was going to be good father, I already felt like I was to Vessa’s children. It pained me to think back to a time where I didn’t want to be surrounded by the people that cared about me. Looking around the room, at all of the people in my life, made me feel so thankful.
My parents only stayed for week before heading back home. While they visited we took them out and showed them our restaurant and where I worked.
Vessa fell right into taking care of a newborn. I guess it’s like riding a bike.
I made the cover of the local paper again. This time the title read:
Sheriff And Wife Welcome Baby Boy.
It made me smile when Vessa hung it up on the refrigerator and the bulletin board at the restaurant.
I spent more time at home, only going out when there were important calls or situations that I had to tend to. Vessa liked me being there and spending most of my time with her and Mason. The truth was that I couldn’t get enough of my son. He looked like me, except his dimples were huge. I knew it was just gas, but when he smiled, it made me smile.
One day we were laying on the bed while Vessa folded his little clothes. I was making raspberry sounds and sticking my face into his neck, playing. He was just drooling and being a baby, like every day. I guess he was about four to six weeks old. I kept tickling him and he wouldn’t stop smiling. Vessa climbed on the bed with us. He saw her and smiled even more. “Look who is happy today,” She said in a baby voice.
“I’m happy every day, “I jokingly replied.
She leaned over and pressed her lips against mine. “Me too.”
“You think he’s ready to learn how to play pool?”
She grabbed his little hands and made faces. “Daddy thinks he’s going to teach you to play pool. Tell him Mommy’s going to teach you.” He kept smiling. “Tell him big boy.” I think she didn’t even have to talk in a baby voice. He always responded to the sound of her talking.
“Fine! As long as I get to watch, then I’m alright with that.”
She giggled and kissed me again. “Get him to take a nap and I’ll shoot you without clothes on.”
“Meet me downstairs in ten minutes.” I picked up my son and took him to the nursery. It took about fifteen, but when I got down those steps and saw her laying there with nothing on, I knew it was going to be a good day.
This was our life. I never thought that something beautiful could come from something so devastating. It didn’t matter how we got there. All that mattered was that was where we belonged.
The End!
Look For Book Seven in The Mitchell Family Series, Summer 2013 (Told by Colt and Savanna)
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Jennifer Foor lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with her husband and two children. She enjoys shooting pool, camping and catching up on cliché movies that were made in the eighties.
Enjoy the first chapters of The Mitchell Family Series Book 1 Letting Go, by: Jennifer Foor
Prologue
Tyler
I could not believe she had the nerve to break up with me and then cock block me like that. I had have every right to be able to bang any girl I wanted to at this party. I was not going to let Savanna Tate dictate what I did. If she thought , I was going to sit around and wait for her to change her mind again, well , she was wrong.
Savanna broke my heart. She was the only girl that I had ever loved and that I ever wanted to love. All of our plans for college had been made together , and , out of nowhere, she tells me we need to break up. That she needed time.
I got drunk. I cried to her. I begged her to take me back.
When Savanna made her mind up, she did not budge about it. All of my words meant nothing to her. She pretended like as if I did not matter. She avoided me. I had given her five years of my life and she wanted to throw it all away. Her stupid notion being that we were in college and needed to focus on our education. Who breaks up for that reason?
After staying in my room for over a week, my buddies on the team talked me into going to a few parties. I discovered that booze , mixed with the smooth skin of an easy lay, made the pain easier. Problem was…it never made it disappear. .
I pulled my pants back on and started buttoning them, while the blonde chick behind me, who I think was named Heather or Danielle, still remained on the bed. “Sorry , Babe babe , I gotta jet.”
I turned around to see her sitting up in only panties. Her perky tits were something I would never forget. Next to her was the empty bottle of Jack that I had finished off myself.
She scrunched up her lips and rolled her eyes. “Whatever!”
I didn’t say anymore anything else to her, her; in fact fact, , there was nothing to say. She was just a meaningless fuck and she knew it. There was only one person I would ever love, love and she had just caught me red handed red-handed with someone else.
I needed to find her, to tell her it meant nothing. She needed to know the truth before I lost her forever.
I ran down the stairs of the frat house looking for my ex-girlfriend, or my future wife, I hoped.
When I finally got into the main living area, it was so jammed packed with people , that I couldn’t find her. I ran into someone I recognized and grabbed them by the arm. “Hey, you seen Van?”
“She ran out of here crying , dude,” he replied.
“Shit. When?” I asked.
“A few minutes ago.”
I ran away from him before even thanking him. I needed to talk to her. I wanted to know what her problem was. If she cared that much, then why did she end things? Why did she shut me out day after day?
I got to the front door. “Where are my keys?” I asked, noticing that my words were slurring.
A bunch of the football players crowded around me. “Let it go , Ty. You two will be back to loving each other next week , dude,” Michael , the linebacker, and one of my best friends, stated. He had also attended school with both me and Savanna Savanna and me . He knew of our unconventional relationship. In fact, none of our friends doubted that we would get back together, well , except for Brina. She hated me since I started dating Savanna. She had problems sharing since we were kids.
I tried to push past Michael. “I am serious , man, give me my damn keys.”
Gavin grabbed me by the arm and tried to lead me away from the front door. “Just stay here and sleep it off , man. Everything will work out tomorrow. You are You’re too wasted to drive.”
I cocked my arm back and punched Gavin in the face. He turned around just as Michael was attempting to grab my arms. “Give me my fucking keys , Mike. I need to go find her. I really messed up this time,” I admitted.
Another group of peers came rushing toward the front door, all trying to locate the hidden bag of keys. I noticed that Brina
was in that group. “Where did she go , Sabrina?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew. I am sure that it’s your fault that she left. You should have seen the look on her face. Guess she caught your pathetic ass finally. Way to go asshole!” She she said ignorantly.
“Fuck you!” I said as I rolled my eyes and walked past Brina and the gang of other people. When I got outside, I noticed quite a few kids I recognized standing around their cars.
“Hey, you guys seen Van?” I asked.
“She took off , dude,” some guy said , while standing outside of his vehicle.
I rushed over toward him. “Give me your keys,” I demanded.
“Hell no , man. You reek of alcohol,” he stated.
I grabbed him by the neck. “Give me your Goddamn goddamn keys. NOW!”
The guy, being much smaller, handed me his keys and I took off in his vehicle. Our college was located off the beaten path forty miles from our small country town. I knew that’s where she would go. It’s where she ran to every time we got into it.
She needed to understand that it was just sex. I was filling a void that she had left. She needed to know that she was my future.
I knew these roads like the back of my hand , but when I saw something running across the road, I slammed on my breaks. The car swerved off the road and began rolling. Once it stopped, and I was upside down, I closed my eyes and just let go, my last thought being of Savanna.
Chapter 1
Savanna
It’s been six months since Tyler had his accident. I still attend school, but barely go to my part-time job anymore. Most of my days are spent in a classroom and then the hospital.
If it weren’t for me, he would be okay.
The car was found in a ravine about three miles from the campus. After I left the party, I drove right home and slept in the old barn I had run away to a million times. I turned my phone off and had no idea anything had happened until the next morning. I had a zillion messages from people asking what happened and if Tyler ever found me. I was still so angry with him , so that I didn’t bother calling.
That night I got a call from his parents. The police found the car lying upside down. Tyler was barely alive and taken by helicopter to a hospital capable of handling his severe injuries. Not only had he broken just about every bone possible, but it was also freezing that night and he had hypothermia. He never regained consciousness, and was finally transferred to a long-term coma ward.
The doctors ran a zillion million tests and said that his brain was fully functioning, and that they were optimistic one day that he would wake up one day . It was a forty-minute drive to the hospital, in which I took every single day. Even during the heaviest snowstorm , our town has seen in ten years, I went to sit with him.
I would read to Tyler and talk about all of the good times we had. We were best friends and lovers for so long , but , somewhere down the road, something changed for me. Tyler and I had an unconventional relationship. We fought all of the time , because we loved each other so much. No matter what, we were always a couple and neither of us ever doubted that we would not end up together. Things had become strained for me though. I couldn’t deal with college life, parties parties, and schoolwork. Ty seemed to soak himself in it. I made the decision to end things, temporarily of course, but he never understood.
His daddy was a farmer, like a full-fledged works the farm himself, farmer. His parents had been together since they were thirteen. We had been together since we were fourteen. So naturally, Ty just always assumed that we would grow up and get married. When we started college, things became intense. Between the schoolwork, the new environment environment, and his pledging with a fraternity, our priorities were not on the same page.
When we entered into our second year at college, I began to really struggle. I figured if we just stopped worrying about “us” for a little while, I could focus on school and get through it, then and then eventually we could start our future together. I never broke up with him because I thought it would be forever. Tyler took it the wrong way from day one. His new friends, basically the football team, convinced him I was interested in someone else and that he should move on too.
They were wrong.
My main focus was school. My parents did not have money to pay for my tuition . , so Only through scholarships and grants was I , I was able to attend college. I was required to maintain a certain grade point average . If it fell, I lost my free ride.
and if it fell, I lost my ride.
On the day I found out about Tyler’s accident, my mother insisted on driving me all the way to the hospital. I was in shock. Apparently, he had stolen a car and when they first discovered the accident, they didn’t know it was Ty. Finally, they found his wallet at the hospital and the police notified his family.
Ty was not recognizable, and it wasn’t just from all the tubes and wires that were hooked to his body. His legs and arms were being propped up and they were covered in casts. He had a severe contusion on his head, and they had to shave his hair and operate to remove the swelling around his brain. His face was black and blue and both of his eyes were completely swollen shut, not that he ever opened his eyes.
I refused to leave when my mother left that night. Instead, I slept in a chair. I wasn’t supposed to, but the nurse was pretty nice and said that the more time I spent there, the sooner he might wake up. At first, I had this notion that if I stayed long enough he would open his eyes and I could tell him how much I loved him and that I would never leave again.
However, he never woke up.
His mother and father started to visit only only visit on weekends. With him not being able to help and now having the hospital bills, they couldn’t afford to hire someone to work the farm while they sat at the hospital. I promised them that I would spend every day there, except when they came, just in hopes of seeing those brown eyes that I loved looking back at me.
My friends tried to get me to go out and get my mind off of off things. My best friend Brina had been around for all of mine and Tyler’s ups and downs. Our town was tiny and everyone knew everyone. We all even attended the same church when we were younger.
Ty was never Brina’s favorite person, but she would never want him to be like that. I refused her offers each and every time. My mother took me to see a shrink, claiming I was giving up on life. She didn’t understand that Tyler Mitchell was my life. I couldn’t let go . , I wouldn’t.
The past six months had been hard for me. My professors were very lenient considering what I was going through, and I was the poster child for needing extensions, but I managed to keep up with my grades. I still had a few more weeks left before summer break. One good thing was that the hospital was about ten minutes from the campus. After my classes, I would go straight to the hospital. Some of the nurses had been nice enough to bring a folding table for me to do my class work on.
For hours, day in and day out, I would sit there talking to him. Sometimes I would even study aloud with him. For my literature class, I would read everything aloud to him . I held his hands, kissed his face , and cried against his chest, but he never even moved a finger. He just lay there lifeless, hooked up to machines.
When the accident had first happened, his parents were so kind to me, but as time passed, they began to blame me for everything. To say that I wasn’t their favorite person anymore was an understatement. The hardest part of that, for me, was that Tyler had bought me a horse a few years back that I happened to keep on his farm. When I made the drive home, I would always stop and see Daisy, my Morgan Quarter horse mix. She was only about sixteen hands high, but it was plenty enough for me, since I was only five-three.
five three.
Besides Brina, Daisy was my only friend. People at college even stopped talking to me. It hurt so much and the worst part was that I knew it was my fault. I caused all of this to happen, and every time I looked at him lying there, hooked up to so many machines, it made me want to die myself.
/> My new shrink had prescribed me some antidepressants when I admitted to her that I had thought up a plan on how I was going to end my life. I had planned it all out so that I would die in Tyler’s arms at the hospital. I had even managed to swipe enough pills to do it. My confession did not go over well. I had to spend twenty-four hours in observation for starters, and continue with therapy indefinitely.
When I had suicidal thoughts now, I kept them to myself.
No matter what anyone says to me, I know I caused this. They can use every nice word known to man and candy coat candy-coat their words, but it doesn’t matter. I broke Tyler’s heart and , after a fight at a party, I ruined his life.
Chapter 2
Savanna
I had set up a makeshift study area at the hospital. Exams were a week away and I needed to get good grades on all of them. The lighting was poor in the hospital room, and I could never get used to the damn beeping of the machines. I was halfway through reviewing my notes when I lay my head down on the desk. My body was over exhausted and I just wanted to take a nap.
I woke to a familiar voice calling my name. When I opened my eyes, I saw Ty trying to pull the wires off his face and body. I got up and ran over to the bed. “Oh my God, you’re awake. Ty, I missed you so much. I can’t believe you finally woke up. I am so sorry about everything. Please forgive me , Ty. I never wanted us to be over.”
“Shh, don’t cry , baby. What happened? What day is it?” He he asked while looking around the room.
“It’s Friday. God Ty, it’s been six months. You were in a coma.”
“Stop playing , baby,” he said as he laughed.
His eyes sparkled and I had forgotten how perfect they were. His dark eyelashes accented them as he blinked. “I’m not kidding. I have to get the doctor,” I said as I started to head out of the room.
“Wait! Please just come hug me,” he requested.
Hustle Him (Bank Shot Romance #2) Page 22