Risking Fate

by Jennifer Foor

  I knew her mother would be pissed at me, but I cleared my throat loudly so everyone would give me their attention. “Sorry to interrupt, but Miranda has something that she needs to do and it would mean a lot to both of us if you let her have her first minutes with our sons alone.” I saw my mother in law opening her mouth and even my mom looked upset. “Look, you can all come in after a few minutes, but you’ve all had time with them already and she hasn’t.”

  Everyone cleared out of the room without much said. I was glad, because I didn’t feel like getting rude with our family. Once everyone walked out into the hallway, Miranda hit her red button and told the nurse she was ready.

  When they rolled each of the little plastic beds into our room, Miranda started to cry. She held her hands over her face as I stood by her side. The nurses wheeled them in on either side of her bed and lifted Jake to her first. They were still hooked to a couple tubes, but the nurses had wrapped them up good enough that you couldn’t notice. I got my phone out right away and took a picture of her holding him. She looked terrible and would kill me later for saving the photo, but I loved how happy she was.

  I grabbed little Jax and sat on the edge of the bed with her. “Hey guys, this is your mommy. She’s been waiting so long to see you.”

  Miranda looked up at me with her soaked face. “Ty, they’re so perfect.”

  I leaned down and kissed her head. “We did good didn’t we?”

  She opened Jake’s little blanket and looked at his fragile body. “I can’t get over how much they look like you.”

  That made my lifetime. I loved my sons, even if they looked nothing like me, but to hear her say that was just unexplainable. “I told you I had super sperm.” I leaned down and sat Jax next to his brother, between Miranda’s legs. I could tell from the way she was sitting that it wasn’t the most comfortable position for her. “You okay? You want to adjust?”

  She shook her head and stared at the boys. “I’m fine. I just want to be close to them. I wanted to see them so much, Ty. I can’t believe they are both okay. I thought they didn’t make it. It was horrible.”

  I crouched down beside her bed and rubbed her cheek with the back of my hand. “I felt the same way when I thought I lost you.”

  She really started to cry as she looked down again at our twins. “I just want to be a family, Ty. I want to go home and be happy.”

  Before I could answer someone knocked on the door. I was ready to get pissed until my dad came in holding Izzy’s hand. “Somebody wants to see her mommy.”

  Miranda looked toward the door and saw our very frightened little girl slowly approaching. My dad waved and walked out to give us some alone time. “Bella.”

  “Hi, Mommy.”

  “Iz, come on over here with Daddy so you can be close to the boys and Mommy.” She came running over to where I sat and I pulled our chair close to the bed. I let her stand on my lap so she could lean over and kiss her mother. Miranda started crying worse. “Baby, everything’s going to be okay, I promise.”

  She shook her head and looked down at the babies. “What do you think of your brothers?”

  Izzy reached out and touched Jax on the cheek. “They’re real little, but Daddy says that they will grow fast. Mimi says that I can help her change their diapers and she says they look like Daddy when he was a baby, but Grandma says that they look like Mommy too.”

  Miranda giggled. “Well, who do you think they look like?”

  Izzy leaned over and looked at her brothers. She shrugged, “They just look like babies to me.”

  I started laughing. “Yeah, they do.”

  Our quiet time was cut way too short when the family began taking turns peeking through the door. I turned to Miranda and she shook her head. “You know they are just going to keep doing it.”

  I reluctantly waved for them to come into the room. “Here comes the party.”

  Party was an understatement. The room filled with so many ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’, that I instantly got a headache. Since the boys were still hooked up to a tiny machine, they couldn’t just be passed around. Cameras flashed from every direction and after at least thirty minutes of chaos, I walked out of the room to get some air. Conner followed behind me.

  “You doin’ alright, Bro?”

  I ran my hands over my face. “I don’t know my ass from my face right now. I mean, I know she isn’t leaving me, but she’s never going to be able to look past it. I told her everything.”

  He looked shocked. “Really? How did she take it?”

  “Due to the fact that she is hooked up to all kinds of shit, I still have my balls. She thought I was lying to make her forgive me. She said my story was too easy.”

  Conner chuckled as he leaned against the wall. “Well, it does make things seem a lot less scandalous. Listen, I meant what I said about helpin’ you. I have a plan, but it’s goin’ to take some time to work out. You need to get her home and keep her content until I can get you the proof you need.”

  “How the hell are you going to do that? You going to sleep with the devil?”

  Conner put his head down and said nothing. I stood in front of him. “Dude, you don’t want to do that. She’s a crazy whore who will become obsessed with you. I know it will take a while, but I will get Miranda to forgive me. You don’t have to throw yourself in front of the bus for me. I can’t believe you’d do that in the first place.”

  He looked up at me and seemed genuinely mad. “Listen, you need to understand that Miranda is my sister and it is my job to protect her. I stood over our Daddy’s grave and promised him that I would take care of her. What I’m doin’ ain’t a big deal. It’s just pussy. I’m not attached to anyone and if a few nights with a good lookin’ blonde saves my sisters marriage than it’s a risk I’m willin’ to take.”

  “So, are you just going to knock on her door and get it on? I have to admit that even Heather isn’t that desperate.”

  Conner laughed. “Ty, don’t doubt my ability to get pussy. I’ve never had a problem in that department and you know it. Anyway, I know people and they know Heather. In fact, last night once I knew Miranda was okay, I went out and purposely ran into her. She thinks I just moved into town and I need someone to show me around. It won’t take long to have her eating out of my hand.”

  “Or sucking your dick.”

  “Maybe.”

  We both started laughing. “I admire your determination. I mean, it takes a shallow prick to take one for the team like you’re doing. She’s an awful bitch, Dude.”

  “Call me whatever you want now, but when I save your marriage your ass owes me big. I can deal with the girl, it ain’t nothin’ I haven’t dealt with before.” Conner cocked his eyebrow and let out an air filled sigh.

  “So are you just going to ask her for the truth while you have her bent over?” I hated that I was picturing it in my head. Not in an erotic way of course, but it was still disturbing either way.

  “Fuck you, Ty. I ain’t an idiot. If you must know, I planned on showing her a good time and gettin’ in her good graces so that she tells me about her past lovers. Like I said, it’s goin’ to take me a while to get it all worked out.”

  I held my hands up in the air. “I don’t care what you do. Just let me know when you find out anything we can use against her. I want to nail that bitch to the wall.”

  “Will do, Brother.” He shook my hand before I walked back into the hospital room.

  Colt and Van left that night, on account of them needing to get back to the kids, while Karen, my mother in law, along with Conner and my parents stayed for two more days. Harvey couldn’t run all the new duties at the farm so Conner and my dad left the following day. With just our mothers lingering around, we didn’t have much alone time, but they did help with Izzy.

  After the fourth day, Miranda was able to finally start breastfeeding. Her poor tits burned and were engorged with milk. In fact, the first time she tried to feed Jake the milk filled his mouth faster than he could swallow
it and he started to choke. The nurses came right in and made her pump both sides a couple of times to relieve some of the built up pressure.

  I couldn’t help but watch when she’d whip out her giant melons in front of me. “If they weren’t my boys, I would be so jealous right now.”

  “Ty, don’t turn somethin’ natural into somethin’ perverted,” Miranda growled. Every day she was getting stronger, as were our boys.

  “Sorry, it’s just that they are mine and I don’t like sharing, especially when they are so gigantic and make my mouth water.”

  “Until you taste the milk. Do I need to remind you about the last time you tried it?”

  I had Jake in my arms, but I leaned down and put my lips against her ear anyway. “I bet yours tastes better than the milk that’s left in the bowl of my sugar smacks.” Okay, maybe comparing breast milk to cereal milk was wrong, but I couldn’t help be curious.

  “Don’t do that, Ty.”

  “Do what?” I was being myself.

  “Don’t pretend like nothing happened. I’m not ready to joke around like that, Ty. Can’t you just be happy being with me for right now?”

  I pulled away from her and looked into her eyes. “Anything you want, Baby.” It hurt me so much.

  She must have sensed it, because she reached over and touched my arm. “Ty, I do love you, no matter what.”

  “I know, otherwise you wouldn’t be coming home with me; coming home to the house I built out of love for you and for our children. Everything I’ve done is for our family, even the things you don’t want to think about.”

  I laid my son back down in his portable bed and walked out of the room. The more days that went by the more it killed me that she didn’t want me to touch her. I think sometimes I would have rather been in another state than right beside her and not show her how much I wanted her.

  I felt rejected and I supposed in some ways she felt the same way. How was I supposed to fix it? I didn’t know where to begin, because the truth was, I didn’t even know if I had slept with Heather. My future was completely in Conner’s hands and I had to believe that somehow things would work themselves out. There was no way that I could live without my family. There had to be a way to make everything go back to the way it used to be.

  Miranda ended up being released from the hospital after nine days, unfortunately, the boys had to stay for another four. To make Miranda comfortable since she was breastfeeding, they set us up in one of their new family friendly rooms, but it was less than comfortable. The couch was rock hard and the chair wasn’t much better. I had to help Miranda in the shower three times and all of them were torturous. Even after having twins, she was still so beautiful to me. Her giant belly had shrunk down so much already, I assumed most was because she had been so ill. Even her clothes that she had packed were too big and her mother had to go out and get her new clothes to wear before she went home.

  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.”

  For the past week we had been putting a blue hat on Jax and a red one on Jake. Jax was sound asleep, but Jake was wide eyed, look
ing around while Ty kept talking. “You know, daddy wasn’t always the best guy. I didn’t always think with the right head, if you know what I mean.” He paused for a second and laughed at himself. “I guess you don’t know yet. One day I will teach you not to make the same mistakes that I made. Never think with your dick and always tell the truth. That is how you should always live your life.”

  I put my hand over my mouth and tried to hold in my laughter. Ty was being serious and I was laughing at him, but the next thing he said stopped my laughter immediately.

  “The hardest part is that she didn’t believe me. I told her the truth and she believed someone else instead. I’m never going to give up on her, but it’s so hard knowing she doubts me.”

  I ducked away from the door and kept my hand over my mouth.

  I could hear Ty sniffling as he continued to talk. “Daddy is trying so hard and if it wasn’t for you two, I think she would have left me by now. Knowing that hurts me so much. I promise I will keep trying. I won’t give up until I have her back completely. I promise.”

  As the tears fell down my face, I ran into my bedroom. I was suddenly so confused. Did he know I was standing there? If he didn’t know then why would he be talking like that? Why would he say that he was telling the truth?

  Oh God, what if he was telling the truth?

  Even if I believed him, there were still the pictures, which meant if she did drug him, they still could have done all those things. It should have made me feel better because Ty really didn’t want to be with her, but it felt the same to me.

  Seeing my husband eating another woman out was not something I would want any wife to see.

  Van came in the room a little later with Christian. Noah had been calling her Chrissy and it seemed to be catching on. She was so cute with her one big dimple and her mouth full of teeth. I remember when Bella was that size and she was also so much fun to be around.

  “You okay in here?”

  I pulled my knees up to my chest as far as I could get them without being uncomfortable. “Yeah, I’m just really tired.”