Wrapping Up (Novella) Mitchell Family 4.5 (Wrapping Up Novella 4.5) Read online

  Wrapping Up

  A Mitchell Family Holiday Novella Book 4.5

  By: Jennifer Foor

  Copyright © 2012 Jennifer Foor

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Art By : Wicked Cool Designs – Robin Harper

  This book is a written act of fiction. Any places, characters, or similarities are purely coincidence. If certain places or characters are referenced it is for entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Check out the other books by Jennifer Foor

  Letting Go - A Mitchell Family Series Book One (Contemporary Romance)

  Folding Hearts – A Mitchell Family Series Book Two

  Raging Love – A Mitchell Family Series Book Three

  Risking Fate – A Mitchell Family Series Book Four

  Hope’s Chance (Contemporary Romance)

  The Somnian Series (YA Paranormal)

  Book One Ascension

  Book Two Absum

  Book Three Attero

  Book Four Aduro

  Book Five Abeo

  Coming Soon

  Wanting More – A Mitchell Series Book Five

  This Holiday edition is for all of my readers that love and follow this family. Thank you so much!

  I would like to thank everyone that continues to support me with this series. Without you, I would never stay so determined.

  Thanks to all of my new friends on my FB, Twitter and Goodreads pages.

  Author: Amanda Bennett, Author: Elizabeth Buchanan

  Thanks to all of my Independent Author Friends. (you know who you are)

  Thank you to all the book bloggers out there spreading the word for me and others who write.

  Into the night Reviews, Book Bitches, Word

  Special Thanks to:

  Book Broads, Book Studs, Books Books Books, Reality Bites Books

  What to read after fifty shades,

  Beta Readers

  Amy Haigler, Glennis Ussery, , Jennifer Lafon, Jennifer Harried, Erica Willis, Karrie Stewart, Sarah Thompson, Mechelle Lovell Jackson,

  And everyone who has made this series the success that it is. I am forever grateful. Thanks to my family and my faith. With them, all things are possible

  Part 1

  Thanksgiving with the Mitchell’s

  Hosted By: Colt and Savanna

  Chapter 1

  Savanna

  Before I married Colt, I’d spent most of my holidays with my small immediate family. Sometimes we wouldn’t even make a whole turkey for Thanksgiving, since it was just the three of us. Back when I dated Ty, I would go over to his house, if he wasn’t with his family in Kentucky. I’d never had the heart to ask to go with him on account of my parents having to spend the holidays alone.

  It was probably a good thing I didn’t go, because just looking at Colt made me all kinds of crazy and everything could have turned out completely different if I’d made a fool out of myself when Colt just thought I was some scrawny kid.

  Now that we were married, holidays had become such a big deal to me. I loved his larger family and how they all came and wanted to spend time together. They had even welcomed my parents into the family so that I never had to choose between families.

  I have to admit that the first Christmas was awkward being around Ty, since we’d just broken up, but that’s what happens when you decide to date your ex’s cousin. It only took us all a few months before we were back to being the closest of friends and now that we were officially family, it made everything perfect. It was much easier since we had the kids and with our third one growing inside of my stomach, the importance of family meant the world to me.

  Normally, Ty and Miranda would bring the kids down once a month to visit, or we would go there, but since Bella’s birthday party, everyone had been too busy. Months had gone by and I found myself counting down the days to see our cousins and their kids.

  Their little twins were the cutest babies. Not only were they identical, but they looked like their father so much. Jake, who was born bigger than Jax, was now the same size. He seemed to favor Miranda’s attention, where Jax was all about his daddy. Their dark hair and brown eyes made it seem like Miranda had nothing to do with their conception. It was funny seeing them as a family though. Bella made them all fit together. Since she looked identical to her mother, it was only fitting that the boys were Ty’s little clones. Although, he liked to call them spawns.

  Our little Christian was a true mix of her father and I. Of course, like her brother, Noah, she had ended up with Colt’s eyes. Their whole family had such dark eyelashes that they always looked like they were wearing makeup, so naturally it made my daughter even more beautiful. Her hair was getting long and she was walking all over the place. Her first birthday was getting close and I couldn’t wait to plan the big event.

  Christian had been such a blessing to Colt and I. Noah fell in love with his sister instantly and he liked being around her. Of course, if you threw in someone his age, then she didn’t exist at all.

  It was really nice having my mother-in-law so close to us. She and Lucy were just across the ranch and ever since Colt had taken over the managing of the business, his mother was left to enjoy her life to the fullest. Of course, that meant she bought our children whatever their little hearts desired. Poor Christian could barely say ‘dada’ but she was wearing designer baby clothes. I was hoping that the baby was going to be another girl so that she could wear all of her sister’s cool clothes, but if it was a boy, I knew I’d have bags and bags from the twins.

  After I had cleaned up dinner, I found my husband in his office. Aside from his new Facebook addiction, where he and Ty constantly bantered on, he liked to play online poker. I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “What is my handsome man doing in this quiet office all by himself?”

  He grabbed one of my hands and pulled me around until he could tug me to fall down on his lap. “Waitin’ for you.” Colt kissed me once before turning his attention back to the computer screen. Let out a sigh before I turned around to see what had him so interested. Of course, he was shopping for college fan gear that happened to include Kentucky and North Carolina teams.

  “You aren’t?” Since the twins were born, Colt had joked that he was going to dress them in different teams and take their picture. It was an ongoing joke up until this very moment.

  “I already did. In fact, I just printed off the receipt.”

  “Ty’s going to love this one.” Knowing Ty, he would end up thinking it was pretty cool. It was Miranda who would think Colt was an idiot.

  I leaned into my husband once more and could smell the bourbon on his breath. The small glass sat empty on the coaster. Sometimes, when the weather got cold, Colt would have bourbon to warm himself up before bed. It relaxed him and seemed to help him fall asleep faster. All it did for me was keep me up. He seemed to snore a lot more when he drank it. I picked up the glass and sighed. He started to laugh. “Are you askin’ me if I want another glass?”

  I rolled my eyes. “No! I am reminding you that I will be smacking the crap out of you if your snoring keeps me up again tonight.”

  “It ain’t that bad, Darlin. Besides, you know it makes me frisky. He reached his hands around to my ass and squeezed my cheeks. “You feelin’ frisky tonight too?”

  I t
hought about my night.

  I’d made dinner, which included hand breaded pork chops, homemade applesauce and homemade mashed potatoes. Aside from my normal dishes, I also had to wash the mixer and the extra bowls I used to make the applesauce. After getting the dishes done, Christian crapped up the back of her pajamas and needed a bath to get clean. Once I got her out, she decided that she was hungry again, so while I made her food, Noah got into the tub. After feeding our daughter, I got her a bottle and laid her down for bed, while Noah fought with me over which of his favorite character pajamas he wanted to wear.

  I hadn’t looked at myself in a mirror since about noon and I was covered in every kind of food that my hands had touched all day, not to mention the foreign stains of things I didn’t even want to know what they were.

  I looked at Colt and smiled. “My frisky went out the door with my hairbrush and makeup, days ago.”

  He ran his hands through my hair. “I think you’re gorgeous.”

  “I think you just want me naked.” I went to run my hands up Colt’s chest, when the office door creaked open.

  Noah stood there in his pajamas and a pair of cowboy boots. “Hey Dad, can you come tuck me in. I found that story about the boy and the alligator.”

  He patted me on the butt and lifted me off of his lap. “Sure Buddy, give Mom a kiss goodnight.”

  Noah walked up to me and kissed me. I noticed right away that his lips tasted like bubble gum. “Wow, someone just brushed his teeth with superhero toothpaste.”

  He opened his eyes wide. “How did you know that, Mom?”

  I grabbed him in for another hug. “Because Moms know everything.”

  Noah stood there with wide eyes. He went running up to the bathroom so fast that I couldn’t help but know he had done something. By the time I got into his bathroom, he was flushing the toilet. He turned to face me, but put his hands behind his back and looked down. “Noah, what are you doing?”

  He shrugged his shoulders but wouldn’t answer.

  “You better start talking, young man, or I will have to get your father.” Threatening to get Colt was like telling him that Santa wasn’t real. It was devastating.

  “No, Mom, please don’t tell Dad.” He looked down and shook his head. “I accidentally dropped a couple marbles in the toilet.”

  I walked over to the toilet and looked inside. Sure enough, at the bottom of the toilet were at least twenty marbles of all different sizes. Since the toilet was still running, I knew he had already flushed it.

  We both leaned in and took another look. I turned my head toward my son as he turned to look at me. “So how many did you get to flush?” He shrugged again and I watched his face turning red. “Where is the bag that was full of marbles?” I asked because I knew I couldn’t figure out how many were missing. He had just got a bag of thirty new ones at the store with his grandmother.

  Noah pulled the bag out of his pocket and right away I knew it was empty. I grabbed it out of his hand anyway.

  “Noah, where are the rest?”

  He took his index finger and pointed in the toilet. Without speaking I looked in the toilet again. Half were already down the drain. I shook my head. “Why did you put the marbles in the toilet?”

  “It was an accident.”

  I put down the toilet seat and sat on it. “Noah, this wasn’t an accident. If it was an accident then the bag would be in the toilet too. I think you dumped the marbles in there. You better start telling me the truth right now.”

  “I was just trying to get the underwear to flush. I thought if I put the marbles in the water they would help the underwear go down the drain.”

  Oh shit! He flushed his underwear. Wait! What?

  I heard Colt cussing from downstairs and I got up to see what the fuss was about. He was standing in the laundry room as brown liquid was coming out of the drain of the utility tub. I put my hand over my mouth, knowing exactly what was going to happen next. “The septic is backing up. We need to call the guy to come out and get this fixed. Don’t turn on the water at all until I can get someone out here.” The smell of fecal matter filled my pregnant nostrils and I immediately wanted to vomit. “Didn’t we just have the tank cleaned out a few months ago?”

  I held my nose. “Yeah.”

  “Well, what the hell could be causing this backup?”

  A pair of underwear and a pack of marbles……..

  “I’ll call the septic guy.” I hurried out of the room before he could ask me any questions.

  “We need to get this fixed before everyone shows up; otherwise we will need to move Thanksgiving back to Mom’s house.” Colt’s words made me sad. This was my first time making dinner at our house. The whole family was coming and I was so excited about it. The last thing I wanted was to have to move dinner because of a drain problem.

  Since I knew that the family was coming in the morning, I had to find a septic guy that could fix our problem immediately. Just one accidental flush and we’d be looking at new carpet. I was mad at my son, but I was also afraid of what his punishment was going to be once his father found out what he’d put down the drain.

  Once I got a hold of a company, I went into my son’s room and found him pouting on his bed. “Are you going to explain to me why you flushed a pair of underwear down the toilet?”

  “I heard you saying that you had all of the laundry in the house done, so when something bad happened, I just flushed them.”

  “Something bad? What are you talking about, child?”

  “I sharted.” Now, I wasn’t sure what was more shocking. The fact that my child said the word or that he knew what it was.

  “You what?” I just needed to hear it once more, in case I was losing my mind.

  “I sharted and got poop in my underwear. I didn’t want you to be mad at me.” He looked down at his bed and traced the fabric. “It wouldn’t go down, so I put the marbles on it to make it heavier.”

  “Stop saying that word, Noah. That isn’t a nice word.”

  He looked really afraid. “Are you going to tell Dad?”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know what to do. I mean, the whole family will be here tomorrow and you have now clogged up all of the drains with marbles and underwear. There is no telling how much it is going to cost us. Why would you do something like that? You know better and who taught you the word ‘shart’?”

  Some little kid at school was really going to pay…

  “Uncle Ty.”

  Chapter 2

  Colt

  After paying out the ass for someone to make a service call after hours, to unclog my son’s underwear from our plumbing, Noah sat on the couch waiting for me. He knew he was in deep shit and refused to even look at me.

  “Son, why would you do something like that?”

  He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing.

  “Look at me when I’m talkin’ to you.”

  Noah looked up, but was still sniffling from when the serviceman came inside with a pair of little boy underwear and a handful of marbles. He knew right there, his secret had been revealed. I could have guessed as much. Christian was too small to flush a toilet and Savanna and I would never have done something like that.

  “Noah, you just cost your mother and I a lot of money. I just want to know why you chose the toilet. Why didn’t you just throw them in the trash?”

  Savanna came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. “He didn’t want us to know that he had an accident.”

  An accident? He was almost six years old. “Was he sick to his stomach?”

  Savanna held her hands up like she had no clue why he’d done it. We both looked over at Noah. “I wasn’t sick, I just sharted.”

  “Sharted? What the..? What is a shart?” Apparently I was getting too old for all these new terms.

  My wife put her hand over her mouth, unable to contain her laughter. Obviously, it was something I should have known. “Colt, Babe, think about the word.”

  Before I could
take her advice, my son started talking. “Dad, it’s when you fart and you accidentally shit yourself.” He just sat there with his head down, like he hadn’t used profanity in front of his mother and I.”

  “Boy, get your ass up into that bathroom, now!” Noah started crying and stomped up to the bathroom. Before following him, I turned around to see my wife hunched over, laughing even harder than before. “What?”

  “Before you punish him, I think you need to ask him where he learned that from.”

  I started walking up the steps, but stopped halfway. “Was it you?”

  She shook her head and let out a few more cackles. “Of course not! Just ask your son. It makes everything even funnier.”

  I was so pissed at Noah that I wasn’t even thinking about where he learned the word and its meaning. He was sitting on the edge of his tub, probably praying that I was going to forget he was in there. As I walked into the room, I saw him trying to scoot further away from me. I reached behind my son and grabbed the bar of soap. He looked up at me and I saw the tears in his eyes. “When I was your age, I said a bad word in front of my mother. Your granddaddy drug me up to the bathroom and washed my mouth out with soap. Do you understand why I’m doin’ this?”

  “But Uncle Ty said….”

  “What? Wait!” I pulled the soap away from my son’s face. “Did he tell you to say that word?”

  He shrugged his little shoulders. “I heard him ask Uncle Conner if he’d done it. Then I asked him what it was. Dad, I didn’t know it was a bad word, I swear. Please don’t make me eat the soap. I don’t even like the smell of flowers.”

  I leaned back against the sink and shook my head. I was going to kick my cousin’s ass when they arrived. “Go downstairs with your mother, kid.”

  “You mean, I’m not in trouble?”

  I patted him on the head. “I will let this one slide, but the next time you will be sittin’ here with this bar of soap, you understand?”

  He shook his head. “Yes, Sir.”

  Later that night, I found myself trying to get some paperwork done before the family started arriving. My in-laws were going to be staying with us, so I just wanted to be able to take a few days off without any interruptions.