Blinding Trust (9 page)

She sounded relaxed and I didn’t even care if I had to get the kids ready for school the next morning. Maybe her time away had helped.

Noah was looking at me when I hung up the phone. “Mom says she loves you and she’ll see us all tomorrow.”

Noah smiled and I saw love in his eyes again.

Chapter 11

Savanna

I was reluctant, at first, about going to visit everyone in North Carolina. With all of the drama happening with Noah, I hated leaving. Still, I needed a break from it all. Colt, being Colt, offered to take Christian to her friend’s birthday party and Noah to his game. Addy was so excited about seeing her cousins that she totally forgot about her sister not being with us.

I think once I hit the North Carolina state line, I felt like I could breathe.
When I pulled into the farm, I actually felt excited.

After sending a text to Colt, letting him know we had arrived safe
, I could hardly keep Addy from busting out of her booster seat. “I want to see Cammie and Callie, Mommy. Hurry!”

“Just a second, honey. We aren’t at their house yet.”

She looked around and pointed. “There they are!”

Sure enough, the girls came running out of the barn toward my vehicle.

With Addy being drawn away from me, I headed toward the house to see my family. Loud music was coming from inside as I entered, I found out why.

Ty and Conner where standing in the living room. They had spiked their hair and put on black makeup all around their eyes.
They both wore black ripped up outfits and in their hands were cardboard guitars. The music was something that I’d never heard, but I noticed the CD sitting on the table and saw that it was Zeke’s band. As the two of them continued to jam out and play the air guitar, I walked over and turned off the stereo.

Laughing filled the room. “Pretty rad, huh?” Ty stood there like he was famous.

Conner just kept smiling. I knew which one of them thought this little bit would be funny.

Ty came up and tried to hug me, but I pushed him away. “You are an ass!”

“Miranda gave me permission to sign your tit.” He pulled out a black sharpie from the front of his pants. I cringed as I watched him open the cap with his teeth. “Left or right?”

I backed away from him more. “Get your nasty ass pen away from me!”

“You really are against famous people. Some people would kill to have me sign their tits.”

“Where are the girls?” I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore him.

Ty lifted up his shirt to display his abdomen. “You want me, don’t you?”

“Stop it!”

He cornered me in the room. “Conner is into pregnant chicks, but I have room for a groupie like you.”

I took my knee and brought it up between his legs. He did this thing where he laughed and moaned at the same time, as he hunched over and tried to catch his breath. “You can’t take a joke, Van! You suck!” Ty grabbed himself between the legs and held his hand there as he walked toward the kitchen.

The house filled with female voices as Miranda and Amy came walking in. Amy looked like she was about to burst at the seams. They each walked up and hugged me at the same time. “It’s good to see you.”

Miranda turned around and took a look at Ty and Conner. “I told you both not to do that!”

“We couldn’t help it, sis. It was a kickass idea!”

“You both are asshats!” Amy pointed at them and shook her head.

Miranda’s scorning did nothing to make Ty wash off the makeup and change his clothes. In fact, he and Conner walked around for the rest of the day like that.

I spent the night in the guest room at Ty and Miranda’s, while Addy chose to stay with her cousins. Even
though the mattress wasn’t as soft as mine, it was a great night’s sleep.

I woke up to the smell of cooking bacon and a conversation between Miranda and Ty having to deal with nipple sizes.

“I’m telling you, baby, their like fingerprints. Each set is different,” Ty said as he flipped the bacon.

Mira
nda sat in a chair with her knees against her chest. She had a cup of coffee in her hand and was reading something on her tablet. “That’s ridiculous! How would you know anyway?”

“I am the master of tits, that’s how!”

They didn’t look at each other as they talked and they didn’t notice me standing there, holding my hand over my mouth.

“The master of tits?”

“Shit yeah! You put a picture of your tits in a line up with a hundred other sets and I guarantee I can pick yours out!” I couldn’t help but start to laugh. They both turned and looked at me.

“Van, can you please tell my husband that he’s full of crap?”

“Honestly, I think you should take him up on the challenge.”

“And let him look at ninety nine other sets of breasts? You’ve got to be jokin’. The last thing this man needs is permission to be a pervert.”

Ty held up his arms like he couldn’t help himself. “It was worth a try, right?”

“No!” Miranda and I said at the same time.

They retreated into the living room shortly after, while I made a cup of coffee and sat in silence. It was nice to have a little time to myself, but also made me think of the reason that I wanted to leave town in the first place.

I felt like my happy little bubble was being jeopardized and I didn’t know how to make things better. With my health being in question, no matter how much I was told not to worry, I still couldn’t see a way out. I think Ty being obsessed with breasts was making my morning worries heightened. As much as I tried to separate my problems from my visit, they were clearly one in the same.

In just a short time, Colt was going to take Noah for a weeks visit with Zeke. Maybe I would have felt better about it if I were included in the decision. To be honest, I felt like I didn’t belong. Maybe I was being selfish. I’d known all along that I wasn’t Noah’s birth mother. I shouldn’t have been surprised that this kind of conflict had come in to play.

Once the kids woke up, the house filled with chaos. I went outside to the barn, where I sat down on the couch and looked around, thinking of all the happy memories that we’d all shared in the place.

I don’t know how long I’d been out there, but a man clearing his voice caught my attention.

Ty came and sat down next to me. He put his arm around me and I nestled my head into his chest, like I did when we were teenagers. “You going to tell me why you’re here?”

I shrugged. “I just needed to clear my head.”

“Van, I know you. This can’t just be about Noah.
You know you can talk to me. I’m not always a complete dick.”

I couldn’t believe that he could tell something else was wrong. “I’m fine, really. I think I am just being sel
fish. I mean, Noah has a right to know his uncle, doesn’t he?”

Ty looked straight out at the wall, never really paying attention to me being so close to him. I appreciated that we could be like this and it didn’t harbor any feelings
between us. He really was a good friend to me.

He cleared his throat again. “Don’t get me wrong, Van. I think it’s cool and all that Noah has a famous uncle, but from what I’ve seen, he’s not really kid friendly. What made him come around again?”

“He was in town and said that he’s trying to turn his life around. I get that. I can’t imagine what it’s like to not have family. I just wish he didn’t want to be a part of mine. I sound like a selfish bitch don’t I?”

“No! You sound like you don’t want to share your son with someone you don’t trust. I know exactly how you’re feeling.”

I smiled and looked up at him. “Colt said you would.”

“That’s surprising, considering that when you last visited he practically ripped my head off for teasing you.”

“He knew about Zeke and hadn’t told me. I guess he had a lot on his mind and you were an easy target.” I almost felt bad for Ty, except he was forever tormenting poor Colt.

“He’s doing that shit again, where he shuts you out. You’d think he’d learn.” Ty shook his head and patted me on the l
eg. “Maybe if you performed annilingus once in a while, he’d be more open.”

“Anni what?”

“You know, where you lick each other’s assholes.”

I slapped him in the arm. “You are so sick!”

“Come on, Van. Don’t even tell me you never did it before.”

Whether I had or hadn’t, it was none of his business. Besides, Ty knowing my sexual secrets was not a good way to keep Colt happy.

“No comment!”

“It’s all good.” He stood up and put his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know if Miranda told you, but today is the church picnic. I think Amy and Conner already told Addy she could go with them. I know the pastor would love to see you.”

I shrugged and stood up with him. “That sounds like fun. I mean, what else am I going to do if you’re all there?”

I hadn’t been back for the church picnic since before my parents had moved to Kentucky. One thing was for certain. The people would still be the same ones that attended when I was a little girl.

After calling Amy, and finding out that they were already getting ready to head there, I agreed to catch a ride with Ty and Miranda and meet them. I guess they knew all along that I would want to go, or maybe they weren’t really going to give me the option to decline.

When we first got there
, I was surrounded by a bunch of elderly people that remembered me, but I had no clue who they were. All of the children congregated on the big playground, while the adults mingled around evenly lined up picnic tables on the grass.

It was a perfect day for a picnic. The sun was shining and there were just enough clouds to give us random breaks from the hot rays.
I got myself comfortable at a table with my family. Watching them all interact with their children was still a hoot, considering that Ty and Conner were never the type of guys that anyone could see being in devoted relationships and raising families.

I happened to look over at Ty, just as he spotted someone that he obviously didn’t care too much about. “
Look what the damn cat drug in. Miranda is going to flip her lid.”

I followed his eyes across the lawn to a blonde looking down and talking
to a boy that was about the age of Addy. It wasn’t until the woman looked up that I realized who it was and why Ty had made his comment. I kept my voice as low as possible. “Oh my God, is that Heather?”

She didn’t look that much different. She gained maybe ten pounds, but was still skinny and her hair was as perfect as it always had been. She was too caught up in the conversation with the child to notice Ty and me looking at her.

I turned around and looked at him instead. “I thought she moved far away?”

“As far as I know she did. Her mom still lives here. She must be visiting.” Ty kept looking at Miranda, just waiting for her to notice Heather.

After the whole episode with Amy’s ex, she and I had forgiven Heather for her flaws to the extent of being able to tolerate her. She had risked her life for our family, but no matter how hard she tried, Miranda would never forgive her for what she had done to her and Ty. I wasn’t even sure if Miranda had seen her since that all happened.

It had been years, and with time, the wounds of her wrecking my relationship with Ty were long gone. I got that she was in love with him and sometimes people do desperate things for the people they love. I didn’t agree with her actions, but we were all adults now. If the child holding her hand was her own, then she’d obviously found someone to love her.

I didn’t mean to keep staring, but when she caught me, all I could do was walk up and say something.

Except…I didn’t know what to say.

We were never friends.

It was always more like
frienimies. We loved to hate each other.

Heather smiled, but I could see her concern as I got closer. Instead of speaking to her first, I bent down and looked at the little boy. “Well, hello there, cutie. Where’d you get those brown eyes from?”

He shrugged and buried his face into his mother’s side.

“He’s shy,” Heather announced.

“Is he yours?”

She smiled and looked down at him. “Yep. He sure is.”

“He’s very handsome.” I was still trying to make conversation with someone that I never should have approached.

“Thanks. He gets his looks from his daddy.” I noticed that she wasn’t wearing a ring and I think she saw what I was doing. “We..um…it’s complicated.”

I tried to play it off like I wasn’t being nosey. “I just wanted to come over and say hello. I never got to thank you for what you did for Amy.” I looked over at Amy. Conner was telling her something in her ear and she was smiling. “I’m sure she’d like to say hello.”

“I’ll wait until Ty and his wife aren’t around. I didn’t come here to make drama. My mom hasn’t been doing well
, so Jacob and I made the trip to come visit. I promised her we would stop by today, but I don’t want to cause trouble for your family. We’ll just visit later.” She started to turn around and head back toward the parking lot.

I don’t know what got in to me, but I ran after her, grabbing her by the arm. “Heather, wait!”

She turned around and looked as shocked as I did for doing it. “You don’t have to be nice to me, Van. I’m not that same person anymore, but I will never forgive myself for what I did to you and your family. I ask God every day to forgive me.”