Risking Fate (16 page)

“I feel better, like we can really get away with this plan and never have to deal with this shit again. I just want to take care of my family.”
He put his hand over his face. “I hate feeling this way. It hurts so much.”

“I
know, Babe
.”

He reached around and cupped one of my ass cheeks in his hands, pulling my body up and
causing
my face to be even with his. “Please kiss me.”

I kissed him passionately, letting my love for him guide me. After a good few minutes he broke our kiss and hugged me against his body. “Ty, are you okay?”

“Please just don’t ever doubt me. I’d never want to hurt you.”

His words were so weird to me. Ty was usually so sure of himself, especially after sex. In fact, some nights I could have taped his mouth shut, I got so sick of hearing it.
“Babe, are you sure there is nothin’ else botherin’ you? You seem off.”

I set back and watched him slide off the bed and walk into our bathroom. It confused me how for the first time I felt like he didn’t want to talk to me. He’d always been so open and as much as I wanted to be angry, I felt hurt about it, like he didn’t trust me.

The shower turned on and I could
hear
him opening the cap to the shampoo. I walked into the bathroom and climbed in the s
hower behind him. My lips placed
kisses
over his back as I hugged him close to me. He reached his hands up to his chest and held both of
my hands there while he leaned against the wall, letting the water fall down the both of us.

Ty usually held his emotions on his sleeve, so for him to not want to talk was making me worry. His silence left me uneasy. “Ty, please talk to me. You’re scaring me.”

He turned around slowly and I watched the water, hitting his head and trickling down his face.  His wet lips opened to say something, but he closed his eyes and pressed them to my head instead. When he finally let go, he grabbed the shampoo and started washing my hair. His fingers massaged my scalp and I started to relax from the way he always tried to nurture me.

“
Everything’s
going to be fine, Baby. I promise.”

He put my head under the flow of the water and rinsed the soap a
way. I opened my eyes and saw him
looking
down at me. He was staring through me. “Make love to me.”

His lips found mine and I got ready for him to take me to our room and
emotionally
fill
the
void I was feeling, but instead he pulled away and grabbed me a towel. He wrapped me up and helped me step out of the shower. “I need to get some sleep.
Rain check
?”

I want
ed
to chalk this up to my pregnant hormones, because I have no other reason why tears started running down my cheeks. I love
d
rough sex, especially with Ty, but earlier we weren’t connected and I didn’t like it. Something was missing. Something was off.

I had a terrible time sleeping,  and when I heard my brother coming in, I met him in the living room. “Hey.”

He sat his keys down on the table and gave me a funny look. “You alright?”

I shrugged my shoulder and hugged a pillow on the couch. Conner sat down next to me and seem
ed
genuinely concerned. I could tell from his face that he had been drinking. “Are you drunk?”

He smiled. “Maybe a little. Your mother in law makes some good bourbon slushes.”

I traced the baseball on Ty’s pajama pants I was wearing. “How was the date?”

Conner sat back and ran his
hand
through his hair. “She’
s alright. Nothin’
to write home about. Seems like she’s a little needy.”

“Well you stayed over there for a while.”

“She left around nine. I was watchin’ a huntin’ video.”
I am sure my mother in law loved that.

“Thanks for goin’.”

He placed his hand on my leg and looked directly at me. “Randa, tell me what’s wrong.”

I turned so that I was facing him more. “I don’t know. Ty’s just been actin’ weird. Maybe it’s just me overreacting.”

“You need to keep in mind that right now he is scared of losin’ his bond to that little girl. He loves you. A
s much as I wished he didn’t
years ago, I know that it’s true.”

I leaned
over
and kissed my brother on the cheek before he stood up and headed in the direction of his room. I wanted Conner to be right about Ty.

After getting myself all upset, I climbed back into bed. Ty was lightly snoring and I cuddled my body up against him. One of his hands reached down and connected with me. Our fingers became entangled and I fell fast asleep.

Our morning routine was always hectic and I had little time to even say a single word before I climbed
in
the car with Ty and Bella. He dropped me off first like every morning and then took Bella to get her juice and donut before school. I got my normal goodbye kiss and a smile before climbing out of the car.

Amy was already in the salon, doing some paperwork when I walked in. “Hey girl. How’s those little boys treating you?”

“They are making me lose sleep.”

“Too bad you can’t have some real coffee,” she teased.

“You suck!”

“So Stacy called out and asked if you could take two of her clients today. You have
a Chelsea at nine and a Beth
at eleven. I tried to
give you room for your other appointments.” She closed the schedule and started walking toward me. “I think your belly is growing every day. You know I won’t hold it against you if you want to stop working for awhile. Your station isn’t going to go anywhere.”

I smiled and sat down in my chair. “Thanks. It won’t be much longer before I can’t take it. My feet kill me at night.”

“Why don’t
you just finish out this month
and clear your schedule. Your clients all know you are having twins. They aren’t going to judge you for it.”

“Ty will be happy if I do that. He keeps fussin’ at me to stop workin’. So how are things for you? Did anything bad happen last night?”

“Nothing that I can’t handle, little lady.”

Amy walked away without me being able to reply. I was sure he was beating her. She kept wearing shirts that covered her arms and wear
ing pants instead of the
skirts
that she used to wear every day
. I hadn’t told Amy about w
hat happened during our last visit to Kentucky
. I think she knew something was off, but with her own life being such a mess, I wasn’t exactly her first concern.

I hadn’t even realized that it was already noon, but when Ty walked in to pick me
up
for lunch, I felt relieved. I had packed us lunch, so we went outside and sat at a picnic table. “You think on your way home you could get some of those meatballs from the store that I like? I was thinking that Iz and I could make spaghetti and meatballs tonight.”

“You’re goin’ to cook?” He liked to cook, but I was usually the one that did it.

“Yeah, I want you to go home and relax. Your feet are starting to swell. I don’t mind and Iz likes to help.” He finished his sandwich and stuck his trash in the bag. “So are you going to pick me up at five?”

“Of course. You ready to head back to work?” His phone caught us both off guard when it started ringing. Conner had a specific ring on Ty’s phone so he knew to always answer and this wasn’t any ring I recognized. “Who is it?”

Ty ignored me and started to get up and walk away as he answered it. As quick as he walked away, he started heading back in my direction. I just sat there waiting for him to explain why he had to walk away.
“Sorry bout that, Baby.”

“Who was that?” I’d never been so up in his shit before and I didn’t even care if he didn’t like it.

“It was just work. There was a bunch of noise and I couldn’t hear good.” I could tell from the way he wouldn’t look at me that he was lying.

He leaned over to kiss me and I reached in his pocket and grabbed the phone. Before he could argue
,
I looked at the last number. It was a cell number, but no name was by it.

“Miranda, what the fuck is your problem?” He pulled the phone out of my hand.

My Ty didn’t keep secrets from me. He left his phone out and didn’t care who was calling him when he was with me. “You just lied to me.” It was almost a whisper as it came out of my mouth. I grabbed the car keys and started walking toward the car.

“Baby, wait! Please.” He jumped in front of the car door preventing me from getting in. “It’s not what you’re thinking. I swear to God it isn’t.”

“Then why
can’t
you tell me?”

He jingled change in his pockets. “Because it has to do with Izzy and because what I’m doing is illegal, I didn’t want you involved.
The
person called with the appointment. Conner and I go in next Thursday for the test.”

I tried to push him out of the way, but he stood still and grabbed my arms. “Baby, I swear it was about Izzy. I am telling you the truth.”

I did
believe
him, but I hated that he felt like he had to keep it from me. I wanted to be involved. She was my daughter too. “I’ll pick up Bella and get your meatballs before I come to pick you up.”

“You’re going to make me walk back to work?”

“It’s two blocks Ty.”

He grabbed my waist and pulled it into him. “Please don’t be like this. I can’t stand it.”

“You promised no secrets. I’m not your girlfriend, I’m your wife, Ty. I’m almost six months pregnant and I can’t take this stress right now. I’m scared too. Don’t you get that? This ju
st isn’t tearin’ you up inside, I’m feelin’
it too. I
can’t stand that you’re shuttin’
me out.” Of course I got myself all upset and started to cry into his chest. “You lied and said it was your work and
then you
expect me to believe you. You can’t lie to me Ty.”

“I’m just trying to protect you, I swear.”

I looked up at him. My eyes burned from the tears. “Don’t! Don’t you dare protect me from somethin’ that directly involves me.”

He scrunched up his face like he was in pain and kissed my
forehead
.
“Alright.”
He climbed into the passenger side and I drove him back to his shop. When he leaned over to kiss me goodbye, I didn’t react to his lips. He hurt me. For two
and a half
years we had no secrets. Even if it only involved Bella, he had no reason to hide it from me. I wanted to wring his neck.

I went home and ate a
whole quart of ice cream and then spent the afternoon throwing it up. When it was time to get Bella and Ty, I felt awful. Bella came running out with a book bag full of artwork and papers. She climbed in the car and immediately began talking. “We need to get meatballs.”

“How about a ‘hi Mom’ first.”

“Sorry, but Daddy says we need meatballs.”

“They are in the bag next to you. I went right before I got here.” I looked in the rear view mirror to spy on my daughter making sure I bought her father’s favorite kind. She got a smile on her face as she closed the bag.

Ty was leaning against the building as we pulled up. He smiled at Bella before climbing into his seat. “Hey ladies. Are you ready for a fancy dinner?”

“YES!”
Bella couldn’t contain herself.

Ty reached over the seat and grabbed my leg
. “Are we okay?”

I gave him a quick smile and started on our venture home. I wanted more than anything for us to be okay, but I was honestly still a little pissed at him. I didn’t understand why he would lie to me. I was a big girl. I could handle it.

Ty and Bella talked about h
er day at
school
, whi
le I drove home
in silence. He knew I was still angry at him and I appreciated that he didn’t
push
my buttons with our daughter in the car.

When I put the car in park and got out to go inside, he ran around to my side and stopped me. Bella had the bag of meatballs in her hand and turned around to wait for us. “Go ahead inside Iz, I need to talk to Mommy real quick.”

She did as she was told and went right into the house. Ty put one hand on either side of me and pinned me against the car. He stared directly into my eyes.  “Don’t do this
,
Baby.”

I wasn’t going to give him his way. “Do what
,
Ty? Give a shit about your feelin’s? Be mad at you for lyin’ to me?”

“You know this whole thing
has me all messed up. Everything I’m doing is for our family. I said I was sorry, Miranda. I can’t have you mad at me. I can’t stand it. I got nothing done all afternoon because all I could think about was you.” I could see the pain in his eyes. He never looked away from me.