Saving Us (10 page)

There, that should shut him up.

“Bullshit! You know I’m good at what I do to you, so don’t even try to deny it. How about I cut you off then. You think you’d still be sayin’ that?”

Oh, he was so good. That man had a God given gift.

“It’s alright. Nothing to write home about, though.”

He sat up and leaned his arms on his knees. Since Conner was shirtless, I tried my hardest not to stare at his chest. We
played this sort of game all the time. The who wanted who more game. Each time, it made us both crazy and super horny. “You want to marry me, don’t you, Blaze? Go on girl, you can admit it.”

It was a question that he always knew the answer to. Still hearing him ask me that caught me off guard. I sat there with my mouth open for a minute. This could be one of those tests, like I gave to him. “
Maybe.”

“Maybe, my ass. I bet you can’t wait.”

He was right. “Like I would ever tell you.”

Conner leaned in and got so close to me that I could feel his breath on my face. “The sooner you get a divorce, the sooner you get my last name. Keep that in mind darlin’.”

My heart literally skipped a beat. Was he actually offering me a forever with him? “Did you just propose to me?”
Oh my God, Conner Healy just proposed I think.

He smiled and brushed his lips over mine. “I ain’t talkin’ anymore about it until I know you’re all mine. You know what you need to do, Blaze.”

“I am all yours,” I said as I pulled away.

“Not according to the state of North Carolina.”

Sometimes, I needed to not look into those eyes of his when we were talking. They messed with my head and distracted my train of thought. My mind went to his family and how wonderful they all were. I wanted to not only be Conner’s wife one day, but also be a part of that family for real. I needed to get a lawyer. “Will you go with me to talk to a lawyer?”

“Do you want to go home right now?” He stood up and reached out his hand for me. Once I was lifted off the ground, he walked over to put on his shirt.

I located my clothes and started putting them on. I probably had bark and leaves in crevices that I didn’t know I had. As excited as I was to get out of my marriage, it hurt my feelings that we were going to have to leave this amazing place. I could have spent forever and a day on this ranch. “We can stay another day.”

“That child needs to have his daddy’s last name, Amy. His mother needs that name too. I know earlier we were jokin’ around, but I am serious about this, right now. If I would have knocked up a girl in my past, I probably wouldn’t have even been responsible about
it. This is how serious this is to me. I want this with you and I’m going to have it.”

I smiled. “I wasn’t arguing.”

“Good, because you wouldn’t win, if you were. Now, let’s get back before they send out a search party and find out where I took you.” He grabbed my hand and started walking us back to the golf cart. Our ride back to Colt’s was too short. As the cart came to a stop,  Conner turned to look at me. “Amy, I want you to know that I’m crazy about you. I want to be a good father to our child, but I can’t stress enough the fact that I need you to be all mine. I ain’t goin’ to ask you if that’s what you want, because I already know the answer. When we get back, you’re goin’ to that lawyer, even if I have to drag you in there.”

I leaned over and kissed him. “You can be so romantic.”

“If that was romantic, you just wait until later.”

I didn’t want to wait, but no matter when it was, I’d be ready and willing for this man. Bent over or not, he could have me every which way he wanted.
    

Chapter 12

Conner

If I wanted Amy to myself, I knew I had to push her. She was the type of woman who would procrastinate. I couldn’t have that. Aside from the house I was getting ready to bui
ld for us, it was important for her to be free of that asshole of a husband. My child never needed to know what his mother had to go through. All he would need to know was that he was made out of my love for his mother. It was a love that I never thought I would experience.

Once we got inside, Colt pulled me into the office. He closed the door behind us, which made me concerned that we were going
to have a serious talk. “I need your help.”

“No problem, what’s up?” Colt was pretty much the leader of the family. I had so much respect for the man.

“I’ve waited patiently for Ty to let his guard down. Savanna and I have devised a plan, but I’m goin’ to need your help to pull it off. We need to act fast. Right now he just fell asleep on the couch.”

This was going to be good, I just knew it. “What do I need to do?”

Colt gave me instructions to head out to the pool shed. He told me where I could find the large blowup boat and the pump. I grabbed Amy without telling her what was going on. If Miranda caught wind, she would sure take up for her husband. Colt wanted payback and it was going to kick ass.

Once we were back on the golf cart, I could tell that I had to convince Amy that Ty deserved this. “Are you going to tell me what we are doing? We just got there. I promised Bella and Noah that I would help them.”

“We’re goin’ back. I just wanted you to help me get somethin’. You know how Ty is always playin’ jokes on everyone?”

“Yes. Why, what is going on?”

“Colt has a plan to get him back good. We need to hurry before he wakes up.” We pulled up at the pool shed and I immediately jumped off the golf cart. Amy followed close behind me.

Since it was winter, most of the pool supplies were packed inside. It took me a while to find the damn boat and then finally the pump. Amy waited outside while I brought the two items out. I plugged in the pump and started blowing up the boat. “Conner, please explain to me how you are going to play a prank with a giant blow up boat? It’s cold outside and the pool is closed up.”

I had to laugh. I had no idea what she could be picturing. “We’re goin’ to fill this bitch up with water and put it next to the couch. Colt’s goin’ to set off the smoke detector next to Ty’s face, so that he falls right into the boat full of freezing water.”

Amy shook her head and smiled. “Do you all realize how crazy this is? It’s going to make a mess.”

I started laughing again. “I don’t think they care. It’s just water anyways. Listen, Ty deserves this, so don’t you go tellin’ my sister. She will wake him up and spoil the fun. You know how she gets all defensive over him”

She kneeled down and helped me hold the boat while I pumped it up. “Since you have forced me to be an accomplice, I think
it is fair to say that I won’t be divulging her with any information. It’s best if I’m just a silent helper in all of this. Being that I am living with her, I don’t want her all pissed at me. This was not my idea.”

“You know it’s goin’ to be funny, Blaze.”
It was going to be hilarious. I couldn’t wait to see it all play out.

“Yeah, until Ty decides how to pay ya
back.”

We got the boat all blown up and started on our way back to Colt
s. He had directed me to come through the back door which led to the kitchen. Colt was there waiting for me as I carried it in. Van had taken Miranda upstairs to lay down the babies for their naps.

We quietly entered into the living room and placed the boat right against the couch where Ty lay snoring away. It was hard not to laugh, especially when we pulled the hose from outside through
the front window and started filling it up. Van came into the room with four bags of flour. At first I thought she was going to flour him again, but she started pouring them into the boat, making a thick concoction.

This was going to make a mess, but she didn’t seem to care one bit. She ran out and grabbed one more bag of flour. Only my family would have concocted this plan up and bought this stuff ahead of time. He must have been waiting for this moment. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if she slipped him a sleeping pill so that they could do it.

Miranda came walking downstairs just as Colt was holding the lighter up to the smoke detector. I assume he had been waiting for her to get finished with the kids, even though it would most likely wake them up. She took a double take and gave us both the evil eye. Van ran over and whispered something in my sister’s ear. She crossed her arms and just shook her head. I had to keep myself from bursting into laughter. I’d do anything for my sister. I think I proved that when I went after Heather to save her marriage. I still got a kick out of seeing her get pissed off. She may have been little, but she was spunky when she was mad.

With the creamy white, thick mixture in the boat, the smoke detector started blaring next to his ear, Ty
jumped off the couch and rolled right into the boat of goop. When he pulled himself up, the entire front of his body was covered in mush. The room filled with laughter and Van was beside herself. “How do you like that, fucker?” I think we were all surprised to hear her using profanity. Since the children came into the picture, she tried not to curse at all.

Ty took his fingers and
removed the white substance from both of his eyes. We could see the stuff going inside of his mouth when he opened it to speak. “What is this shit? It tastes horrible!”

“I made you a human paper machete project.” She giggled up until the moment that Ty got ready to lunge himself at her. In just a small instant, Colt jumped right in front of him. The white mixture was pouring off of Ty as he stood there looking pissed.

“This ends right here, cuz. Savanna didn’t do this to you, I did. I’ve had to get naked in front of your parents and run around in a thong.  You did this to yourself. I let you think I was over it, so that I could get you real good. You got a damn problem with me beatin’ you at your own game?”

It was just getting good. I half expected Ty to jump on Colt and them start rolling around on the living room floor. Ty just stood there, looking around at all of us. His shoulders sunk and he shook his head while letting out a laugh. “There is only one person that I know can kick my ass. I need all my body parts to work so I can keep satisfying my wife. I call truce.” He
held up his hands like he was giving up.

Colt held up his fist and pounded mine, before turning back to Ty. “That’s what I thought. Now get this shit cleaned up so my wife doesn’t have to.”

Ty looked over to my sister. “Baby, can you help me?”

She put her hands on her hips. “You’re on your own.”

While laughing, I looked over at Amy. She seemed so amused by my family and the way we communicated. It was hard imagining not having a family, when I was raised with such a great one.

Ty began whining and everyone cleared out of the room, leaving him with a pile of towels and a bucket. It was going to take him
forever to get that boat drained enough to move it on his own.

I walked over to Amy. “That there was so
me funny shit.”

“So this happens all the time?” She seemed shocked.

“It gets worse every time. Knowing Ty, he will plan some revenge on Van the next time they visit. It never fails. Someone is always doing something to each other. We’ve been doin’ it since we were kids though.”

Most of the time, Colt would pick on Ty or myself. We were always too pussy to mess with him since he was so much bigger than us. By the time we got as big as him, the idea of playing a prank on him seemed juvenile. That was until Van came into the picture. She wedged herself right between Ty and Colt and even
though they all three loved each other, it started a lifetime of pranks.

“But it was Colt’s idea. Why does he want to pick on Van?”

“Van is the easiest target and gets the most offended. He likes picking on her. It doesn’t matter what Colt says. Now that he has initiated retaliation, it’s definitely not over with.”

“W
ill they do that to me, or is it just between them? I don’t want to have something like that happen to me.” Ty didn’t ever seem jealous of Colt winning Van. I think he liked that the two of them found each other. Van was always special to him, but not in the way she needed to be. After he fell in love with my sister, it was obvious that what he and Van shared had been a deep friendship. They grew up together and had a past, but appreciated that they were now family. I don’t know if either one of them could have been happier with the turnout.  When all of that went down, I felt so left out. They were all so happy, while I was miserable. It was the reason I turned to the parties and the pills. I’d been so darn immature. Amy made me want more. She was what I always wanted.

“If he knows what’s good for him, he won’t go near you.”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around me, pulling my body close to hers. “You are always protecting me.”

It amazed me that she had to be reminded of that. After all this time Amy still thought I was going to just leave her. She was wrong. I’d die before I let someone hurt her. “I always will, Blaze.”

Chapter 13

Amy

If I thought the ride to Kentucky was rough, well the ride home was ten times worse. The twins were in rare form and Bella was exhausted and cranky herself. I sat in the backseat with Miranda on account of Conner’s legs being so long. I think the ride to Kentucky had been extremely uncomfortable for him.