Blinding Trust Read online

  Blinding Trust

  Jennifer Foor

  Chapter 1

  Savanna

  I couldn’t believe that it had been five years. None of us expected Conner and Amy to end up with a house full of kids, probably because we remember how he was before Amy came into the picture. When that happened, everything changed.

  They’d gone through a lot to be together. Between her still being married and the fact that they hid their relationship, it wasn’t exactly easy for them.

  I think once Amy got pregnant with their first child, Cammie, was when they knew that they were going to have to start making decisions.

  Our family had been through so much, so the drama with Amy was nothing new to us. It was unfortunate what they all had to go through, but they persevered and came out stronger than ever before.

  I was especially sad when they made the choice to move back to North Carolina. I understood that Conner wanted to be near his sister, so that they could raise the kids together, but I had become so close with Amy that I knew I would miss her terribly.

  Lucy and my mother-in-law kept me busy, when I wasn’t running after the kids.

  Noah was very athletic. I found myself taking him all around the state of Kentucky. Colt was great about making his games. He even coached him during football season.

  The girls usually tagged along. They played so good together and Noah was always a big help.

  Due to one of his games, we were late getting to Cammie’s birthday party. By the time we got there, the whole family was there, already celebrating. It was great to see everyone together. Actually, it was great to be out of the darn car. You know it’s a long drive when you have three kids that have to pee more than physically possible.

  Ty was the first one to greet me, like always. He grabbed me and pulled me into a spinning hug. “There’s my sexy cousin.” He kissed me on my cheek.

  Bella was still wearing her uniform from a game she must have had earlier in the day. She saw Noah and the two of them wandered off together. It was amazing how close they still were. It was also hard to believe that Noah was almost eleven and Bella was ten. Since coming into our life, Noah had been such a blessing. He taught me how to be a mother and, since his mother had died when he was three, I was the only one he had.

  Colt loved all of our children, but I think he shared a special bond with Noah. Maybe it was because they were the men of the house. It could have been that Colt still felt guilty for not being there the first three years of his life. It wasn’t his fault. We didn’t even know he had a child.

  Through the years it was almost like I forgot that I hadn’t birthed him myself. I love him just as much as my own girls. Our family just wouldn’t have been the same without him in it.

  Ty smacked me on the butt and grabbed Christian. “There’s one of my pretty nieces. Uncle Ty missed you!” He kissed her on the cheek, too.

  Miranda came out of the house and walked up to me, while Ty met Colt on the other side of the truck, to wait for him to get out Addy, who was almost four and still had to be secured in a booster seat.

  “Hey, cuz.” Miranda always smelled of the best shampoo. Since her and Amy’s salon was here at the house, they never really had to leave the kids. Ty’s mother had her own daycare center between Ty’s kids and Conner’s. She seemed to be in heaven when she was with them.

  After our hug, I pulled away to look at how beautiful she was. “What is your secret? You look ravishing. Your hair is so shiny.”

  She played with her hair. “If I told you, you may throw up.”

  “Seriously? It can’t be that bad.”

  Ty walked past quickly, spatting out one word. “Cum!”

  I almost threw up in my mouth. Miranda started to laugh as she followed her husband. “Told ya. It’s full of proteins. You should try it.”

  Still trying to not throw up, I shook my head. “No thanks!”

  Colt cocked his eyebrow, while carrying Addy. “Sick! That’s what they are.”

  “Yeah, but there are family and we have to love them, right?”

  “Sometimes, darlin’, that’s debatable.”

  I loved my mature husband. Ty and Conner still acted like teenagers. Miranda and Amy seemed to like it. After a while, it got on my nerves. Colt and I were settled and content. We didn’t need to act like them to be happy.

  Our family was huge. Growing up, mine was so small. Even when I married Colt, his family wasn’t that large. It was now. All of our children had made it triple in size.

  I heard screaming and went running toward the sound. A mother knows her own child’s screams. Colt and Miranda had just got into the house, which was full of people being loud. I knew he couldn’t hear what I was hearing.

  Jake had Christian by the ponytail and was swinging her around. He saw me and dropped the bunch of hair. “Hi, Aunt Van.” Just like his father, when he did something wrong, he’d look so innocent.

  “Jake, why were you pulling your cousin’s hair. You know that’s not nice!”

  “She said that my breath smells like skunk.”

  I wanted to giggle. Christian had been on this kick where she told everyone how she felt. Sometimes her truthful confessions were downright offensive. “Well, that doesn’t mean you should pull her hair. How about telling an adult next time.”

  He shrugged and went to pull away, but his father grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him back. “Not so fast! Did you brush your teeth, like I told you to?”

  “Yeah!”

  Ty looked at me and then bent down. “Let me smell your breath.”

  The things we do for our children. I watched Ty make a face like he was going to throw up.

  “Your breath smells like the dog took a crap in it. Boy, how many times did I tell you to brush your teeth?”

  He shrugged again and wouldn’t look up into his father’s eyes.

  Ty looked over at me. I had nothing to say, since he was already embarrassing Jake. “Go tell your mother what you didn’t do. I’m sure she will have a good idea what to do with you.”

  I laughed with Ty as we watched one of his sons pout his way into the house. “That poor kid. You probably didn’t brush your teeth when you were his age either.”

  He put his arm around me as we walked into the house. “Even as kids you have to admit that my breath was always fresh enough for you to want to kiss me, Van.”

  I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the house full of family. Miranda was walking around the living room, talking to her mother, with her hand in Addy’s. We talked or text messaged just about every day and she was just crazy about my girls. I missed seeing all of them, but we all had lives. We still got together often; it was just never often enough.

  Cammie was wearing an outfit that was both cute and an eyesore. I was positive that she must have picked it out herself. Josh was playing on the floor with his cousin Jax. They had a Lego tower over two feet high. I followed the southern accents to the kitchen, where Colt and Conner were already talking about work.

  Colt smiled when he saw me walk into the room. We didn’t get a lot of alone time with the kids always running around. Usually, the girls would end up in bed with us. There had even been several times where we ended up having our alone time in one of their twin beds. For my tall husband, it wasn’t the most comfortable of situations.

  One thing I never had to worry about was my husband straying. Since he worked at our family’s ranch, he never even went anywhere except on our property. When we went into town, we were always together, with our children in tow.

  Even through the years, Colt was still as handsome as ever. Some of his whiskers had a couple grays, but I kept quiet about it. Ty already gave him enough grief about being over thirty, even though we were a
ll hitting that pivotal mark.

  It didn’t matter to me if Colt’s whole head turned gray. He would always be the hottest man that I would ever know. He knew it too. When we were alone and I gave him that look, like nobody else in the world existed, he knew what it meant. I was still madly in love with my husband. He was an excellent father and a great partner.

  Through the years, Colt had built a beautiful life for us. Our house was perfectly designed for a family, even though we hadn’t even come into Colt’s life yet when he built it. Even through out minor struggles, our love always saw us through. The longer we were married, the more I believed that we could get through anything.

  With his arms wrapped around me from behind, he kissed the side of my cheek. “What was wrong with Christian? That was her screaming, right?”

  I turned to look at him. “You didn’t run when you heard it?”

  “I did, but I saw that you and Ty had it under control. Once I knew who the culprit was, I went back inside. You know how Ty’s sons are.”

  “Actually, it was Christian who started it. She told him he had terrible breath.”

  Colt made a face, like he wasn’t surprised. “That kid is goin’ to get herself into trouble, if she keeps this up.”

  “I told her!” We’d both told her. She just had to tell people the truth, all of the time.

  “Maybe you should just teach her to lie,” Conner teased.

  I reached over and pushed him. “Don’t even joke about that!”

  “You guys joking about shit without me in here?” Ty walked into the kitchen, followed by Amy. Her belly was so cute. I caught Conner giving her a look, like they were the only ones in the room.

  I poked him in the arm. “I saw that! Now I know why she’s always pregnant.”

  The room filled with laughter.

  “She’s just jealous cause she never gets any.” Ty made Conner and Amy laugh, but I could tell the look on Colt’s face without even looking at him. He didn’t like the fact that I talked about our sex life to Miranda and Ty when he was listening in on our conversations. It wasn’t like I directly called him to complain.

  “Shut up! Colt and I are perfectly happy.” I was afraid to look at my husband, so I backed my body up into his. Thankfully, I felt his large hands reaching around my waist again.

  “I happen to like waking up to a bed full of family.” I think Colt realized how that came out the second he’d said it. But, it was already too late.

  Ty was on him like a fly on shit. “Dude, that’s just wrong! I’m out of here!”

  Conner covered his face and laughed, while Colt got mad and walked into the living room.

  Amy was putting candles in her daughter’s princess cake. She was shaking her head and laughing as well. “He does it to himself, you know. Ty and Conner just wait for him to say the wrong thing and they pounce every time.”

  “I know. You’d think after all these years, he’d learn.” I grabbed the matches and started lighting the candles. “Sorry we were late getting here.”

  “It’s no biggie. You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

  I followed behind Amy, who was carrying the cake, while attempting to sing ‘Happy Birthday’, so that everyone else would join in. Finally, the chaos that filled the house, turned to give their full attention to the birthday girl. Her face lit up when she saw her cake. She ran over toward the dining room table and sat down in front of the lit up masterpiece.

  All of the kids filled in the chairs around the table and got excited that they would all soon be eating cake and ice cream. Our family loved sweets. Jake and Jax had the cavities to prove it.

  Noah and Bella came walking inside together, halfway through the song. They were too caught up in each other to care what was going on with their younger cousins. I didn’t mind, since they didn’t see each other very much. Well, not counting talking on their matching iPads, that my mother-in-law had to buy them for Christmas.

  The kids were spoiled, all of them. Colt’s mother had nothing else to do with her time. Aside from taking trips with my parents and her own sister, she spent her free time taking the kids different places. She even treated the whole family to two trips to Disney. It was what she lived for, so we didn’t get on her about it.

  Even with being spoiled, mine and Colt’s children knew their place when it came to being home. They knew they couldn’t get away with things like at Grandma’s house.

  We stood around, getting each child situated with plates of pure sugar. I think only the females realized what was going to happen in thirty minutes. The boys were going to be bouncing off the walls.

  When I was growing up, one Ty was hyper enough. Now there were two of them running around. One drop of sugar and they could bring down a house. God, they were so ornery.

  Once the kids had finished eating, I helped Amy and Miranda clean up the mess. Ty’s mom took Addy and put her down for a nap, which was nice of her. Through the years we’d built a new kind of relationship. I’d learned to love her and appreciate what she’d always done to protect her child. There wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t do for mine. It sort of puts things into perspective when you have one of your own.

  Speaking of parents, mine moved to Kentucky last year after my father retired. I thought they would be more sad about leaving their life here in North Carolina. Instead, they were thrilled to move close to us. When I say moved, I mean they moved onto the ranch.

  Colt’s mother offered for them to move into her huge house, but they insisted on not being a burden. They paid for a nice modular to be built near Karen’s old house. Karen had also offered her house, but my parents wanted Miranda and Conner to always have a place to come with all of their kids.

  It worked out great. My mother still worked everyday. She got a job working at one of our produce stands. Actually, she sort of fell into managing it. She loved the job and it gave her the opportunity to meet people from town. They also started attending our church, which gave them even more new friends. I swear they socialized more nowadays then ever before.

  Since we were staying at Ty and Miranda’s, we got the kids gathered up and headed over. It was just across the Mitchell property, but far enough where you had to drive.

  Ty came over to the vehicle and helped Colt carry our bags. He smacked me on the butt when he walked past me.

  “Is it necessary to touch my wife every time you’re near her?” Colt seemed offended, which was weird to me. He’d hadn’t been like that in years.

  “Dude, it ain’t like that. I’m just messing around. She likes it.”

  I walked in the house and left the two of them to their conversation. They were too old to start rolling around in the dirt, like they used to. Besides, they had no reason to fight. We were all completely happy.

  So I thought.

  For the rest of our visit, Colt seemed on edge. I had no idea why and I didn’t want to stir the pot by asking. I figured that when we got home, we could discuss it in private. Except when we got home, all Hell broke loose.

  Chapter 2

  Colt

  I didn’t tell her because I didn’t want her to worry when it could have just been nothing. Savanna considered Noah hers. It wasn’t a secret to anyone that Krista was his birth mother. We just didn’t talk about it anymore.

  It wasn’t until I got the phone call, a week before we went to North Carolina, that things started to worry me.

  When Krista and me were a couple, her little brother came to live with us. Their dad was too drunk to even care. He wasn’t a bad kid. In fact, as soon as he got the chance, he got out of Kentucky to pursue his dream of being a rockstar.

  Apparently, big things had happened for him and suddenly his band, which I didn’t know he was a member of, had made it big. Since I didn’t follow that kind of music, I had no idea who his band was. I certainly didn’t recognize his name when he left the message with Savanna. All she could tell me was that someone name Zeke Marlo had called and said it was urgent.
/>   Even after I dialed the out of area number, I still didn’t recognize the voice of the person that picked up. He had to actually explain who he was. We talked for a while, catching up and talking about how he’d been for the past ten years. The topic of his sister dying was short. I could tell it was a sore subject.

  Zeke, which is what he legally changed his name to, told me that they were coming to Kentucky for a big charity concert. He asked if I would come out and visit with him while he was there. I didn’t see any harm in it, until he asked if I could bring Noah.

  Now, for some reason, that bothered me.

  Noah had never met Zeke. I didn’t even own a picture of him except from when he was a kid. So, I did what every curious parent would do. I went on the internet and checked him out.

  He hadn’t been lying. Zeke was a big star. His band, Dodging Bullets, had even had a platinum song called “Gutter Love”. I was proud of him for his accomplishments. He’d come from nothing and made a life for himself.

  Here was the problem.

  After reading about his success, I discovered that his road to fame hadn’t been as harmonic. He got into drugs so bad that he was hospitalized and been to rehab three times in the past five years. His first wife left him and the second one was also an ex-addict.

  I wasn’t a fool. Living in that kind of life had to be hard. I just didn’t think I was ready to school my son about it. I also didn’t want him idolizing his uncle. I wanted more for my son and he already had a vivid imagination. Thinking that he could be a rockstar too, would have been right up his alley.

  I think Savanna sensed right away that I was keeping something from her. I became on edge and it showed even more when I got around my cousin Ty. His constant flirting with my wife had always just been in fun. He loved to tease her. I shouldn’t have gotten offended about it. Except I did.

  I felt like jacking his ass up in front of the whole family.

  I pretty much avoided him the whole time we were visiting and by the time we left, Savanna was even giving me the cold shoulder. I knew once we got home, she was going to give me hell.