Folding Hearts Read online

  “Thanks for stopping by.” I said before hitting play on my game.

  She slid down next to me on the couch. “Can I stay for a while?”

  Reluctantly, I hit pause again and looked toward her. She was already zipping up her shirt. “Heather, we talked about this.”

  “I drove all the way out here. I just wanted to stay for more than a half hour Ty. You keep getting worse instead of better. I just thought that after all of this time you would feel something for me.” She said sadly.

  I rolled my eyes and brushed the hair out of her eyes. “Look, I can’t help it I still love her. You knew this was all we could be Heather. I know it isn’t what you want to hear. Why can’t you just move on to someone who can give you what you want.?”

  “Because I love you Ty. We are so good together. Why can’t you just see that? Nobody can satisfy you like I can.” She started to cry.

  I shook my head. The truth was that neither of them really satisfied me. That was my problem. I just never saw it that way back then. It was like the pussy was the devil and it kept calling me. I never could say no. It was a big problem that I didn’t know if I could ever change, or even wanted to. I always pictured Van, every time I had cheated on her, but when I was with her, it just didn’t make me feel fulfilled. I was always looking for that one person that could leave me completely speechless.

  I liked to fuck, but it ended as quickly as it started.

  Every time.

  “Why do you keep doing this?”

  She looked right at me with those sad eyes. “You know why.”

  I ran my hand over the back of her arm. My brow creased and I suddenly realized I had no reason to sugar coat things with this chick. Maybe if I was mean enough she would be able to just let go. “You beat the shit out of my girlfriend. You are one of the reasons that she fell in love with my cousin. She left me for him. Do you know how much that fucking hurt? How much it still hurts? I can never feel anything for you Heather.” She gasped and more tears seeped out of her eyes. “We fuck. That is all it is. To be honest with you, I still have to picture Van to get off…..”

  She stood up and threw the remote at my face. I put my hands up and blocked the impact. “What the fuck…I am just being honest!”

  “Screw you Ty. Lose my fucking number you prick! I hate you!” She stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

  I let out a laugh. Five minutes ago she loved me. Within a week she would be calling again. Her desperation was a real turn off. When I heard her car pulling away, I hit play and went back to my game. I wasn’t going to let her ruin my night.

  Chapter 3

  Miranda

  “Your daughter is nine months old now Tucker. I was just wonderin’ when you were going to step up.” I was enraged. He hadn’t even talked to me in two days. I had sent texts several times with no reply. I had even gone so low as to text his friends. The idea of them making fun of me pissed me off more.

  “Don’t start this shit with me again Miranda. You know I have a bunch goin’ on right now. I don’t even know why you keep buggin’ me about it. Your family is loaded. You know why I haven’t been callin’. I need money. Why don’t you just ask your aunt for some. If you helped me get out of some of this trouble than we could be together more.”

  I looked down at my phone and considered throwing it across the room. “Tucker I can’t ask my family for somethin’ like that. I don’t want their money. I just want you. We don’t need it. Things will work out.”

  “Look Miranda, I don’t have time to argue about this right now. We are gettin’ the Chevy ready for the race this weekend. I need to figure out how I am goin’ to make some fast cash. I gotta go.”

  “Wait! When will we see you? You need to come visit with your daughter. She needs diapers,” I said desperately trying to get him to come over.

  “You know I don’t have any money for that shit right now. Just ask your mother for her credit card.” He said rudely.

  “What happened to your job?” He was working at a body shop outside of town.

  “I quit. Ain’t nobody goin’ to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

  I felt so angry. We had a child to think about. I was helping part time at the farm, but it wasn’t enough to start a life with. Why couldn’t he want to start our future together? “Now what are you goin’ to do? You can’t keep livin’ like you are right now.”

  “Don’t worry about me. You just keep livin’ on that ranch with your rich family. I will figure somethin’ else out babes.”

  “She is nine months old Tucker. I am startin’ to feel like we are never goin’ to be a family. She needs her daddy ya know.”

  I could hear him sighing through the phone. “She don’t know any different. She is just a baby. Listen, I gotta head over to Charlie’s. He is havin’ people over later, so I will just call you tomorrow.”

  “I want to go with you,” I stated.

  “It’s just a bunch of guys. Just stay home and hang out with your daughter. I will call you tomorrow.”

  My daughter? She was also his daughter….

  “Fine, I love you.”

  “Yeah, me too…bye.”

  I hit end on the phone and set it on the table. There wasn’t a second to consider he had just blown me off, because I heard Bella crying and made my way to her room instead. When I saw her in her crib, just laying there, waiting for me to pick her up, all I could do was cry.

  I had been so stupid to think that he would drop what he was doing to come hang out with me and our baby. In the past nine months he had spent the night less than ten times. I picked up my beautiful baby daughter and started comforting her to still her cries. “It’s okay baby. Momma’s got you now. I will never choose anything over you. I promise.”

  She settled quickly and began her daily cooing and raspberry blowing, while it took me a little more time to calm myself down. I hated being a wreck around her.

  After I changed her diaper, we headed into the family room to play. Ever since my uncle passed away suddenly, the house just seemed empty. Even with Van moving into Colt’s place and them having dinner at least three nights a week here, it just wasn’t the same. My aunt was an empty shell of a person. She tried to keep herself busy during the day, but nights were the hardest for her. Many times, when I got up in the middle of the night with Isabelle, I found her in my uncle’s study. She would just sit there in his chair and cry.

  My mother had a house on the ranch too, but she and Conner were fine by themselves. I insisted that Bella and I stay here in the main house. We basically had an entire wing to ourselves since only my aunt and her housekeeper Lucy still lived here in this big mansion. Her daughter had just left to go to college, so it was just us girls left here. Because there was little cleaning to do in the house, Lucy spent her days in front of the television watching soap operas. During intense parts she would sometimes yell at the television, or come into the kitchen talking all about these characters as if they were real people. “Can you believe he cheated on her? I knew he was the father. She isn’t really dead ya know.”

  I had heard it all.

  Today was no different. I heard her arguing with the television again. Friday’s were the worst for her, because they always left with some major cliffhanger. She came walking into the kitchen shaking her head. “I just can’t believe he did that,” she said as she approached Bella. “How is my favorite baby today?”

  “Say…..I am just fine Auntie Lucy,” I said in a baby voice. Bella smiled with a mouth full of pureed bananas.

  “Have you heard from her father lately?” She started wiping off Bella’s face.

  My family hated Tucker. My mother begged me to dump him, but he was the father of my child. I loved him and he loved me too. He just had his priorities all wrong. One day things would change and we would be a family.

  “We talked this morning.”

  “You don’t sound very happy about it missy,” she said sarcastically.

  I gave her a
quick fake smile. “I just wish he would grow up. I want us to be together.” I wiped off Bella’s mouth and turned around to face Lucy. “Hey, do you think you could babysit tonight for me? I want to surprise Tucker.”

  “Sure. Not that I want you hangin’ with that riff raff, but I would love to spend quality time with this little cutie.” She said as she approached Bella and talked in a sweet voice.

  “Thanks Lucy. I don’t know whether my mother would say yes considerin’ she wishes he would drop off the face of the earth. I just wish I could make him see what he is missin’.”

  She patted my shoulder. “Sweetie, I think some men just never grow up. Your mom just wants more for you and Bella. That man is no good for you. Bella needs a daddy who wants to be around her, not one that can’t make the time to.”

  I gave her a smile and started cleaning up the mess on the high chair. I had never planned to get pregnant and lose out on the college life. I didn’t want to spend my whole life on this ranch. I wanted more for me and my daughter. I just couldn’t do it alone.

  I never expected to get pregnant with Bella when I did. I met Tucker at a party. He broke up a fight between two guys that were fighting over a girl. Everyone was pretty drunk and I was the sober person to clean up his bloodied nose. We hung out after that, taking shots and groping all over each other. That night he looked at me like nobody else ever had, and after a few hours, we ended up in the back of his pickup truck.

  It was hard for me to date with my brother and Colt always threatening everyone that was interested. Those two were like the country songs about fathers waiting at home with a shotgun loaded up, ready to tear a guy a new ass.

  Tucker wasn’t afraid of anyone, but I didn’t show him off at first anyway. Instead, I snuck out to meet him. I found out I was pregnant about a month later. I knew it was Tucker’s baby because I hadn’t been with anyone else in months. We had been having such a good time that I thought he was really into me. When I told him, he freaked out and begged me to get an abortion. After I refused, he didn’t speak to me for three months. When he did start coming back around again, he was distant.

  He made wise cracks about my weight and the stretch marks that I had across my stomach. He refused to have sex with me during the rest of my pregnancy, even after my doctor confirmed it was perfectly healthy to do so.

  I heard from one of my friends that Conner saw Tucker out one night racing and gave him hell. He must have really laid into him, because after that he came around a lot more.

  My family still begged me to just dump him. Every day they had some new reason that it needed to happen. I couldn’t help but hope that one day he would see how important family was to me. I lost my dad when I was a little girl. We did everything together. It was so hard for me to believe that I would never see him again, or sit on his lap again. I remember coming home from school and waiting for him to get home at night. When I heard his car pulling into the gravel driveway I would run to the front door and open it up. He would pick me up over his shoulder and plop me down on the couch and tickle me. He did that every night.

  When he died I refused to sit on that couch. The memories were too painful for me. Soon after, my mom moved us to the ranch. My aunt and uncle put a nice double wide on the property so that we wouldn’t have to worry about money. We had been here ever since.

  Tucker knew what losing my father did to me, so I couldn’t fathom how he couldn’t understand why I needed him to be here for me and Bella.

  I realized I had completely dazed out. “I just want Bella to have her daddy. It means so much to me.”

  “Bella will be loved no matter what,” Lucy said as she stood up and started washing a dish. “Before I forget to tell you, Tyler is coming to stay for a week. He will be staying in one of the guest rooms here.”

  I knew he didn’t want to stay with Colt and Van. Those two couldn’t keep their hands off of one another. “Okay. I am sure Bella will like the attention.”

  “It still amazes me how he acts around her,” Lucy admitted.

  “Yeah, it weirded me out at first. It isn’t even like we were really close before. I guess it all changed after he helped deliver her.”

  “You be careful with that boy. I hear how he is with women,” She warned.

  I laughed. “Seriously Lucy, we are just friends, almost cousins even. I have never considered him anything but family. I am sure he feels the same. He even has me telling Bella to call him Uncle Ty. I hardly think there is anything more to our friendship in his eyes.”

  She didn’t need to know that Ty would listen to me cry over Tucker sometimes late at night. We video chatted a few times a week and it was almost always so that he could talk to Bella and act like a moron to get a smile out of her, but several times we stayed connected and talked for hours. He gave good advice, probably because he was such a womanizer himself. I heard what he did to Van and I also knew he still loved her.

  “When is he gettin’ here?” I asked.

  “This afternoon I think.”

  “I guess I will see him before I go out then,” I said as I carried Bella out of the room. I needed to pick out something hot to wear. I had tried everything else. Maybe seducing her daddy would get him to see what else he was missing. I was willing to try anything at this point.

  Chapter 4

  Tyler

  I packed up my Jeep and headed to Kentucky. Part of the reason was to hang out with Colt and Van, but the other was to see Izzy. She was getting so big. All of the pictures I had from text messages and internet video chatting did nothing compared to how she was in person. She was turning nine months old and her cheeks were so chubby. I swear the child smiled constantly. She had two matching dimples on either side of her cheeks that made you just want to kiss them. That little girl was the only thing to take my mind off of my totally fucked up life. Maybe using a baby to bury my problem was selfish, but things were difficult.

  I’d lost everything. I just needed something to look forward to.

  Van and Colt had expected me for dinner at the cabin, but I had stopped at the main house first. I wasn’t sure if she would recognize my voice, but when I walked into that house and said hello, in my best baby talk voice, she got the biggest smile. After it got dark, I realized I had been there for hours. Miranda kept me company, and called me a weirdo for playing with Izzy for so long.

  When Miranda said she had to get ready for a night out, I volunteered to hang out with Izzy. We sat watching a video with a bunch of brightly dressed adults dancing and singing. I moved her hands around to act like she was dancing. She giggled and made squeaking sounds the faster we danced. Her little teeth were the cutest thing about her smile.

  Miranda came out of the bathroom smelling like heaven. She wore a tight tank top that pushed up her already large breasts and low rise skinny jeans. She did a spin in front of me. “How do I look? I still feel like I am so fat.”

  We had become pretty good friends in the past few months. I think sometimes I freaked her out always asking about Izzy and even giving her my own nickname, but she still called every now and again to catch up or vent about her douche bag boyfriend.

  I had to admit, this was the first time I had really looked at her as a woman and not a family member. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her, especially her tits. Her curves were perfect and I imagined how fucking awesome it would feel to bend her over something.

  I needed to shake that feeling.

  It didn’t help that she was blonde, which was so sexy to me. Van was the only brunette I had ever been attracted to. Today Miranda had curled the bottom of her hair. It flowed down her back. She could have been the sexiest Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. I pictured her in that little outfit they wear and got a big smile on my face.

  I tried to hide my expression, so that she couldn’t tell I was mind-fucking her. The idea of doing that to her just seemed wrong, but I couldn’t stop. Having a baby had caused the girl to have never ending curves. “Uh, you look fine.”

 
That was all I could say.

  She turned around again and ran her hand over her ass. “I was hoping I looked better than just fine. These jeans are new. Are you sure they don’t make my ass look fat? They are so tight, but I need to be sexy. Tonight is important.”

  I kept my smile to a minimum. Did every woman ask that question? “Are you going for a sweet relaxing good time, or more of a ‘I want to get laid’ look?”

  She turned around and rolled her eyes at me. “Seriously Ty, I wanted your opinion. You have been with a lot of people, you know what guys like. Do I look sexy enough? How are the boobs?”

  A lot of people?

  The idea of her being with that little dickhead made my skin crawl. She obviously wanted to fuck him tonight. I wasn’t going to help her do it. “We are related. I am not answering that.”

  She turned around to face me, leaned over and put her hands on my knees, teasing me with those breasts.

  Close your eyes..do not lick your lips.

  “We are not really related. Look at me and be honest. So…….I need to know if I look hot? Do you think he will want me?”

  If he doesn’t than he is a fool.

  She was too close. I could smell whatever she had put on her body and it smelled delicious. I wanted to lick her skin. Her tits were pressed together in her shirt and I had to put my hands into fists to keep from reaching up and trying to touch them. I couldn’t do this, for so many reasons. She was something I could never want and never have. I stopped staring at her tits and looked straight into those beautiful blue eyes.

  Oh God that was just as bad. “We are family. I can’t answer that.”

  She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Picture me as someone else then. If I had a bag over my head and you didn’t know it was me would you want to hit it?”

  I laughed out loud.

  God, her use of words were killing me. “Miranda you look really hot. I am sure you will have a fantastic night.” I smiled and tried not to look at her rocking body anymore. It was wrong to look at her the way I was. She was just so beautiful. No wonder Van felt threatened, even when she was pregnant. Now we were such good friends. In fact, I knew too much about her to look at her like I was.