Raging Love (27 page)

A half smile was displayed on one of his cheeks. “I won’t forget, Darlin.” He lifted my chin up. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Miranda and I grabbed the kids and headed to the house. Neither one of us talked about her brother. I could tell she was
anxious about her brother, but she focused on the kids and nothing else.

Chapter 21

Colt

The last thing I wanted to do was some kind of intervention on my cousin.

Ty and Miranda hadn’t come here to visit to deal with something like that, but we couldn’t let it go any longer. Ty and I had been working hard to try and expand the family cattle business. Conner was the biggest part of the operation. Without him, our plans would have to be put off until we could afford to find someone with all of the knowledge that I had trained Conner with.

I knew Ty was frustrated, but I wasn’t sure of the extent until
I started paying attention to Conner’s actions. His stunt at breakfast was the last straw for me. He
blatantly
had brought a complete stranger into our home and didn’t even have the decency to introduce her, or thank my mother.

By the time that Ty and I walked the girls out, Conner had already taken the girl and gone back to his house. We hopped on the golf cart and rode toward my Aunt Karen’s place.

Conner’s truck was in the driveway, as well as a car I didn’t recognize. Ty and I looked at each other before walking right into the house. I led the way through the kitchen, until I reached the living room.

Conner was being straddled by the girl. Thankfully, they were both wearing clothes. I would have liked to say that was the worst part of us barging in on them, but I was wrong. A tiny bag of white powder was laying on the table, along with a rolled up dollar bill and a half snorted line of coke.

They obviously hadn’t noticed us walking in, or the door shutting behind us, because they were steady making out. My cousin
’
s hand was slipped down into the front of the girls jeans. She sat up and began rocking back and forth. I looked to Ty to roll my eyes, but he was just staring at the drugs on the table. I nudged him with my arm, grabbing his attention.

At the same time, we each headed over and grabbed the couple by the arm
s
,
separating
them. Ty was closest to the girl. He pulled her by the arm, shoving her into the kitchen, while I held on to Conner.

“Get your hands off of her!” He yelled.

I could hear Ty yelling from the kitchen. “Get your shit and get out of this house. Did you know that Conner’s mother is dating the sheriff? How
about we call him and have him come over right now.
I’m
sure he wouldn’t see too kindly about the drugs all over the living room.”

Conner looked down at the table and turned his gaze away from me.
A lou
d crash sounded in the kitchen and Ty came walking in. “She’s gone.” A car motor started outside, followed by someone skidding away from the
house
.

Ty came into the room as I shoved Conner onto the couch. I stood up preventing
him from moving while Ty dusted
the paraphernalia off the table. I watched him walk toward the bathroom and then heard the toilet flushing. He washed his hands and came back out to stand next to me, shaking his head at Conner the entire time. “Do you have any idea how much of my money you wasted?” Conner said rudely.

“You have got to
be kidding me right now. We just caught you doing drugs and you are worried about how much money we wasted? Dude
,
you need help.” Ty was so frustrated.

Conner wouldn’t look at either of us. He just sat there laughing for no reason. I leaned over and smacked him straight in the jaw, his face turning as my hand made impact. “How long has this been goin’ on?” I asked.

“There ain’t nothin’ goin’ on. Me and that girl were just havin’ a good time. Not everyone is as uptight as you two pussy’s.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked from Ty to myself. “You were using illegal drugs.
How long has this been goin’ on?”

“What? Me havin’ a good time? Livin’ my life to the fullest? Givin’ the ladies a good time?”

Ty looked at Conner and shook his head. “You need fucking help!”

“Fuck off, Tyler.
I’m
so sick of hearin’ your mouth. Why don’t you take your perfect little family and go the hell home. This ain’t any of your business.” Conner’s eyes were halfway open when he was speaking to us. The drugs were obviously kicking in.

“It is my business when your sister is crying herself to sleep over you. Do you have any idea how much she wants you to come stay with us? It’s killing her seeing you like this.” He shook his head again. “Shit, man, you didn’t even come to say hello yesterday. Izzy talked about seeing her Uncle Conner and you didn’t give her the time of day. You’re pathetic, man. How could you pick some strung out chick over your flesh and blood? How could you hurt Miranda?”

Conner put his hand over his face and leaned his elbows on his knees. “
Whatever man.
Please just leave.
I don’t feel like hearing any of this right now.
” He never moved his hands.

I sat down on one side of my cousin, while Tyler sat in the chair across from us. “We ain’t leavin’.
It’s ten thirty in the morning and you are drinkin’ a beer and snortin’ coke.
”

He started to laugh. “That shit ain’t even mine. My girl likes doin’ that. It makes her all freaky and shit. Not that either of you two fuckers would know what a good party with a girl looked like. You walk around with your fingers up your asses all the time. You wouldn’t know a good time if it hit you in the face.”

I was losing my cool, clenching my fists to try and hold in the anger. Conner was shit faced. It wasn’t even noon. How could I not h
ave seen how
bad
off he was?
This
was a disaster. A fucking nightmare.

“You can either get your act together, or get the hell off the ranch. Those are your options Conner.”

“Screw you Colt. You ain’t gonna do shit to me. Just get out of here.”

In one leap, Ty was on top of Conner with his hands around his throat. Conner was punching the hell out of Ty, but he kept holding him by the throat. Somehow, Ty had managed to flip him around in a head lock, while Conner pounded on Ty’s face. I pried the two of them apart and sat between them. Ty said nothing as he got up and walked out of the house. I don’t really think it was about him, it was the fact that he was hurting Miranda.

I stood up, ignoring the look on Conner’s face. “You have twenty four hours to get your ass clean, or you need to find somewhere else to live and work. I will not have drugs on my property and be an
enabler
to you and your habits.”

Conner said nothing as I
walked
out into the kitchen, but I did hear the loud sound of a beer bottle smashing against a wall.

Ty was outside sitting on the golf cart. I hopped on and he immediately started driving away from the
house
. “It’s much worse than I thought.
I’m
real glad you brought it to my attention.”

“He ain’t coming to my farm like that Colt. This could ruin everything you know.” Ty had wanted to branch out the cattle business for over a year, so this problem with
Conner
was a major issue for him and his family.

“It won’t ruin everything, but it will definitely set us back. I can’t
believe
his mother knew nothing about this.”

“She is so serious about John now and besides, Conner is a grown man. He should be able to be
responsible
for his own actions.
I think she has a right to finally enjoy her life. It had to be hard to not date for all of those years. She had to do it for the kids.”

We pulled up at the cabin and saw the girls sitting on the porch swing. Noah and Bella came whipping around the corner on two Hot Wheels vehicles. One was a Tractor and one was a Mustang. They were giggling, trying to race each other. “Sorry ya’ll had to deal with this on your visit.”

Ty put his
hand
on my shoulder as the kids flew by us. “Hi Daddy!” Bella waved.

“Hey Sweetie!” He turned to look at me. “This isn’t your fault Colt. Conner just needs an eye opener. He
needs
something that will change the person he wants to be. You and I both know what that is like.”

I nodded. He was right. Ty and I both knew what it was like to find something that made us want more out of life. I don’t know how much I had changed for Savanna, but Ty was a different person. I’d hate to tell him that he turned soft, but it w
as true. All he cared about was
being with his girls.

“How’d it go?” Miranda asked from the porch.

Ty skipped all the steps but the last and hurried over to where she sat. He leaned against the railing as I came up to meet him. “Not exactly how we pictured it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Oh my God, Ty, your face.” Miranda stood up and approached Ty, holding her hand up to her
husband’s
face. “Did he do this to you Babe?”

Ty grabbed her hand and pulled it away from her face. “I’m fine. I pounced on him first. He was just trying to get me to let him go,” he explained.

“I think he was still drunk from last night.” Miranda thought she knew the worst of it.

“He was drinking when we got there, Baby.”

Ty pulled Miranda into his chest and kissed her on the head. “He can’t come stay at the farm like this. I can’t be pregnant and
responsible
for him too.”

“I know, Baby. Don’t worry about it right now. He obviously didn’t hear us mention it, so we can focus on you having a good first trimester and
then figure out what to do about Conner. As of right now he isn’t our problem to fix. Colt gave him an ultimatum and hopefully he does something about it.” Ty stroked Miranda’s hair as he spoke to her.

“If he
knows
what’s good for him he will cut his shit out. I wasn’t lyin’ when I said those things Ty.”

He looked over at me. “I know, Cuz, I know.”

Miranda was really bent out of shape about her brother. After Ty and I finally dropped the conversation, she went inside and called her mother. We could hear her
raising
her voice in the office. I don’t think that my aunt was saying she wasn’t concerned, but I think she just didn’t know how to
handle
her grown son. Aside from drinking and driving, we really weren’t sure what else he was doing. Sure, he was caught with drugs, but Ty and I couldn’t prove they were really his.

Savanna stayed outside with the kids, while Ty and I started watching a ball game and drinking some beers. The kids came in yelling that it was time to ride the horses, but we still had about a half hour left in the game we were watching. They went back outside huffing and puffing that we were meanies. A few minutes later we heard them outside laughing and playing again.

Miranda finally came out of the room and winked at Ty before she went outside with Savanna.

“It’s pretty cool we are both going to be
Daddy’s
’ again.
” Ty announced.

“Yeah, it is. I just can’t wait to be there for the birth. I missed out on so much with Noah.”

“The birth is crazy. It is scary and disgusting and beautiful all at the same time. Do you have any idea what their shit looks like?” I had to remember that I was talking to Ty. Of course he was going to bring this up.

“Yeah, I hadn’t put too much thought into that part of it.”

He started laughing. “As much as I wanted to be with Miranda that first night we were finally together, there was this flash r
ight before of what it looked
like down there the last time I had
seen
it. Dude, I was scared shitless.”

“Not that I want to even talk about Miranda like this, but I have to believe that you of all people would have still gone through with it.”

He shook his head and busted out in a loud uncontrolled laugh. “Yeah, there is no way I could have said no to her. She had me from the first kiss. Everything else was just a bonus. Besides, it ended up looking nothing
like I remembered. Trust me when I say I have it memorized in my head. Every little inch of it.”

The
grin on his
face showed me he was just playing into my disgust of hearing about it. I tossed a pillow at him. “You’re sick.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I decided that talking to Ty about Savanna’s birth was a mistake. He was lucky to have been there for Bella to come into the world. If it weren’t for that day, he and Miranda probably would have never gotten together.  Looking at Noah now, made me regret not seeing him as a baby. All of those first experiences that I had missed out on. I knew we would have a lifetime of new ones, but it still hurt to know I could never have those back. I would never try to replace that with our new baby, but I was very excited to experience them. I wanted to see those first steps, or hear the first words.