The Mitchell Family Series BoxSet 1-4.5 (59 page)

“Yes.” I laughed.

Sam finally jumped down and raced us to the ranch house. Noah thought it was funny how she was trying to keep up with us.

I parked in front of the house and we both started walking toward it. Lucy must have seen us pulling up because she opened the door as we approached. She put her hand over her mouth and gasped, saying something in Spanish. I grabbed her on the shoulder. “Where is my Mom?”

She pointed toward the kitchen, but just stood there staring. My mother was taking a sip of her coffee as we walked into the room. She took one look at Noah and started choking. While she grabbed a napkin and cleaned herself off, she never took her eyes off of Noah. I was still holding his hand as we walked closer.

“Tell me I’m dreaming, Son?”

I crouched down to Noah’s level. “Mom, I would like you to meet my son Noah. We just met today, but he will be staying with us from now on.” There was no sugar coating things.

She kneeled down in front of Noah and started to cry as she ran her hands through his dark hair. “How is this possible? Did you know? Where is the mother? Where is Savanna? Is she okay?”

“Calm down.” That was a bunch of questions. “I had no idea until about an hour ago. You know better than to even ask that. Krista
was
his mother and there was a terrible accident. She and her boyfriend were killed in a car accident. She listed me on the birth certificate, but never told me about her being pregnant. This is all a shock to me too, Mom.” I patted Noah on the head. “Savanna is home with the agents assigned to his case. They are doing the necessary paperwork so that Noah can live with us from now on.”

She cupped his cheeks and looked into his eyes. “There is no denying this child, Colton. My Lord, he looks exactly like you.” She reached over and kissed the top of his head, while still trying to contain her tears. “Would you like some cookies?”

“I’m not supposed to have cookies before lunch.”

Lucy was standing behind me, still in shock. My mother looked toward her. “Well then, I guess we need to feed you lunch first.”

I patted him on the back and whispered in his ear. “You ate an ice cream before lunch.”

He giggled and put his head down. “I won’t tell.”

“Me either, Buddy.”

Lucy made Noah a peanut butter and jelly with no crusts. He ate every bite while I explained everything that happened to my mother and Lucy. They were still in shock, but to be honest, so was I. This morning I left the house thinking it was going to be a normal day. I had no idea that somewhere out there I had a child.

Just as I had suspected, my mother accepted Noah immediately. She ran up to her room and got old pictures from when I was his age.

Lucy started feeding him cookies while my mother pulled me to the side. “Son, how is Savanna with all of this?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I haven’t had a second alone with her. She says she is okay with him living with us but, not to be ignorant toward her, I just could never turn my back on my own child.”

“Of course not. I didn’t raise you to be that kind of man. I just think you need to really sit down and find out how she is handling this. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get through. A child is a huge responsibility and with everything my daughter in law had been through this past year, I would say this could be a big breaking point. Don’t get me wrong, Colt, I couldn’t be happier for you, but Savanna might not be as okay as she is saying.”

My mother was right and it wasn’t Savanna’s fault. I couldn’t expect her to come out of this without some hard feelings. “I will talk to her tonight.”

Of course my mother dropped whatever she was doing and rode back to my house with us. She held Noah on her lap and talked all about the farm. He seemed interested and she was more than happy to keep him occupied. When we got to the house, we found Savanna on the porch swing. Shockingly, Noah jumped off my mother’s lap and went running for Savanna. She lifted him up onto the swing with her. That little kid wrapped his arms around her and stayed like that. Savanna hesitated then finally let her arm fall down over his body. She shrugged as we climbed up on the porch. I didn’t know what to say. Noah obviously really trusted her. He would need that to be able to adjust to the changes in his life.

I leaned down to kiss my wife and thankfully she kissed me back. “Hey, darlin’, Mom can’t get enough of the kid.”

“I knew that would happen. He is super cute.” Savanna looked down at Noah who was smiling at her.

“You’re pretty.” He giggled.

“Well, you are a cutie.”

“Are you going to be my Mommy now?”

Everything stopped.

My mother and I said nothing as we stared into Savanna’s shocked eyes.

Chapter 16

Savanna

I had no idea what to say to the child with his arms wrapped around me. He was the cutest little boy I had ever seen and I wanted to be completely in love with him. For the past two hours I had cried, laughed, called my mother, cried some more and then finally just sat in silence.

Was I even right to be feeling hurt?

Did I have the right to cry?

If Colt knew I was the reason our baby had died, would he have really wanted me to be a mother to Noah? I felt the vomit rising in my mouth as I tried to tuck that secret in the back of my mind. I was so tired of reliving it every single day. I needed to move on, but doing that would require me to live with the lie, with the knowledge of what I lost.

Noah continued to wait for me to answer and as the tears fell down my chilled cheeks, I brought my lips down and kissed the top of his head. This was Colt’s child and I could never abandon him. “Is that what you want? I mean, you don’t have to call me Mommy. Savanna or Van is fine with me.”

“Van is a funny name.”

“It’s my nickname.”

“Can we watch T.V. now?” Obviously, he was finished with our conversation.

“How about I take you inside and watch with you. I think your dad and Savanna have some things they need to talk about.” My mother in law took Noah’s hand and they disappeared into the house.

Colt sat down next to me, grabbing my hand and kissing it, before setting it down in his lap. “Are you okay, darlin’?”

I shrugged. “I want to be. It’s all just so fast. It’s just so overwhelming.”

He reached his arm around me and pulled me close to him. “Savanna, I love you with all of my heart, but you know I can’t turn my back on that kid. I wish we would have found out differently, but I can’t regret finding out about him.”

I reached up and touched my husband’s stubbly face. “I love you too, baby. I know what this means to you and I will do everything I can to help you raise him.”

He looked down at my hand and creased his face up. Without looking back at me he started to talk. “If we are goin’ to do this and add more children to this family, he is goin’ to need you to be his mother. Now, I know this is all so fast, but you are ready to be a mother. We talked about adoptin’ if you couldn’t get pregnant again. There is no difference. He already has my last name Savanna. I’m not askin’ you to replace his mother, but she is gone and you are here. Losin’ a parent as an adult is hard enough, but I can’t imagine what that kid is feelin’. He needs solidity. He needs us both.”

A knot was forming in my throat and I wanted to agree with Colt, I swear I did. Instead, I buried my head into his chest and began crying my eyes out. Of course, Colt pulled me into his chest tighter and held me there, placing kisses on top of my head. “I’m so sorry you have to make this decision, darlin’.”

“I just don’t know if I can do this, Colt.”

He pulled me away from him and looked into my wet eyes. “Don’t you dare think about givin’ up on me, Savanna. I couldn’t bear to lose you.”

I shook my head. “I will never leave you. I swear it.”

“Can we do this together? Please can we welcome this little boy into our family and keep with our plan of fillin’ this house with more children?”

He wiped my tears away with his thumbs. “Of course, Colt. I will do whatever I have to do for our family.”

He held me tight again and I could feel his body trembling. Colt was crying, which was something I had only seen a couple of times. He sniffled into my shoulder. “I can’t believe this is happenin’. Thank you, darlin’, thank you so much.”

Once Colt and I finally calmed down from our dual emotional breakdown, we remained on the porch swing in each other’s arms. We could hear Noah inside talking to his new grandmother about everything under the sun. Colt and I were also taking it all in, considering we knew nothing about the child.

When we finally went inside, my mother in law insisted that we were going to have a huge welcome dinner for Noah. The kid was ecstatic.

Soon Aunt Karen, Lucy and Conner showed up and we had a house full of people. Sheriff John showed up later and the older women went into the kitchen to start dinner. Noah was having a great time with all of the attention he was getting.

The most interesting part of the whole day was the way that Noah wanted to be around me. Colt hadn’t left his side, but he continued to favor my attention over everyone else’s.

At one point he tugged on my leg and I crouched down in front of him. “Can I have trains in my room?”

“You sure can. Would you like to go shopping with me tomorrow?” I asked.

“I want to go too.” Colt’s mother interrupted.

We were interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. Colt walked over and opened the door, revealing the two agents assigned to Noah’s case. “Sorry to barge in again. We have the temporary papers all signed and approved. When the documents are filed and the tests come back, we can get everything finalized and then you won’t hear from us anymore.”

“So, Noah can stay? Like...he can stay with us from now on?” Colt was beside himself.

“Our job is to find a home that is in the child’s best interest. You and Mrs. Mitchell can provide this child with a home and a stable environment. The courts will always side with the biological family first before they even consider putting the child into foster care. It will still be a few days before the papers are filed with the court system, but Noah is all yours.” He handed Colt a file. “This is all of Noah’s medical history, as well as a copy of his birth certificate and social security card. As you can see, he was given your name at birth.”

“How come I never found out about him? Why didn’t the state require child support?”

“The mother has to file for that. From what we gathered from the deceased woman’s father, she was involved and living a few towns over with her fiancée. There is no way you could have known unless the mother or someone told you.”

Colt reached out and shook the agents hand as they exited the house. He followed behind them and came back with a few suitcases full of Noah’s things. I watched the agents pull away from the house and turned back to Colt and Noah. They were opening up the bags to look through them. Colt got this look on his face and started fanning the bags. “These bags stink. I guess your Mommy started smokin’ again huh?”

Noah looked up at Colt. “Do you smoke?”

“Nope.”

I walked over and grabbed the bag, noticing the smell myself. “How about we wash everything so that when we get your furniture tomorrow we can fill your drawers with clean clothes?”

“That sounds good.” Colt agreed.

“I get all new things…and a new room too?” The little guy seemed shocked.

Colt patted him on the head. “Buddy, you can have whatever you want.”

Probably not the best thing to tell a little boy, but he was very overwhelmed.

The family stayed and had a huge spaghetti dinner for Noah. The child seemed to really fit right in. Colt made it a point to hug and kiss me even more than normal. I appreciated it so much that he was making an effort to be by my side during the transition. He had come so far from the man who used to shut everyone out. I never wanted to lose that.

As our family began to clear out, the three of us were left in the house all alone. I still couldn’t believe that we had just acquired a child in just one day. I had a feeling that maybe Sheriff John had made some calls on our behalf. I could hardly believe it was protocol to leave the child with strangers after one day. John knew the judge in town, and since he had been sheriff for so long, it made sense that people probably owed him a bunch of favors by now. It didn’t hurt that Colt’s family was the richest in the county and donated a bunch of money every year to different events and organizations.

It didn’t even matter how it all came to be. Noah was here with us and he didn’t have to leave. Colt was so happy and it made me happy too.

We tucked Noah into the guest room for the night, but after about an hour, I heard the door creaking open to our bedroom. A little boy in dinosaur pajamas came walking over to my side of the bed. “I’m scared.”

It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I suddenly realized how Ty could fall in love with Bella so helplessly. I reached my arms out and pulled the little boy into bed with Colt and I. Once I got him between us, I tucked us both in and accepted him into my arms when he cuddled his little body against me.