“I’d forgotten that you didn’t want me to discipline the kids,” I answered bitterly. “No problem, boss.”
“Don’t. Don’t do that. I’m trying to fucking talk to you.”
“You probably should have done that before you made me feel like shit,” I said, silently cursing the way my voice wobbled. “I didn’t want to make him stay there, Shane. But if I’d let him down, he would have known that he could pull that shit again.”
“I didn’t know—”
“You didn’t ask. You just came in and made me look like the bad guy—once again overruling anything I fucking said. I thought we’d moved past that shit. So stupid.”
“I’m sorry!” he growled. “But you don’t help the situation when you just walk away. You were gone for hours, Kate!”
“Well, I needed a fucking minute to breathe.”
“I could have used some help with our six-year-old who was completely fucking silent the entire time I tried to talk to him.” His voice rose as he jerked up in bed, and suddenly Iris’s wails filled the room.
“I’ll get her,” he grumbled, throwing the blankets back before I could climb off the bed.
His voice changed to a soothing croon as he laid her on the bed and changed her diaper, and I had a lump in my throat the size of Texas by the time he handed her to me and lay back down—turning his back to me.
“He didn’t say anything when you tried to talk to him?” I asked after a few minutes of silence.
“Nope. Just stared at me like I was an asshole,” he answered flatly.
“God, I wonder what the heck is going on with him?” Iris slipped off my breast, her mouth slack. I guessed she wasn’t hungry, just pissed that her dad had woken her up.
I laid her back in her bed and crawled in next to Shane, facing his back. I wanted to reach out and touch him but I was still so mad—so disillusioned by his attitude when he got home.
“Sometimes I say shit before I think about it,” he said quietly, his voice apologetic. “But I figure it out, and I apologize. I can’t apologize to you when you’re not here, Katie.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek as my eyes watered and my nose started to run. “I need you to back me up with the kids, Shane. No exceptions.”
He didn’t turn around. “I will. It’s instinct for me to step in—I have a hard time stopping myself. Especially when it comes to the kids. The shit I saw in foster care—”
The meaning behind his words hit me like a sledgehammer, and I clenched my fists so hard that my nails bit into my skin. I moved forward and wrapped my arm around his waist, molding myself to his back.
“I trust you, Katie. I don’t know why I jump to conclusions—”
“I get it,” I murmured, kissing his back. “I’m sorry I left.”
“Please don’t do that anymore.” The ache in his words made my breath catch.
“I won’t,” I promised, kissing his back again.
“I’m beat,” he finally said, lifting his hand to cover mine against his belly. “Let’s figure out the Keller stuff in the morning.”
I nodded and closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of the man in front of me.
* * *
Keller was grounded off all electronics indefinitely, but he was still refusing to talk to me or Shane about what was going on. I didn’t know what to do with him.
For a while, things went back to normal.
Then one day while I was folding laundry on the couch, the doorbell rang.
Keller and Sage were still at school, Gunner and Iris were napping—Lord, how I loved nap time—and Gavin was sitting at the coffee table coloring quietly. I hopped off the couch and practically sprinted to the door, afraid that whoever was there would ring the bell again and wake up the babies, ruining the few moments of quiet I’d come to relish.
“What the heck?” I exclaimed happily as my cousin Henry wrapped his arms around me and spun me in a circle.
“Hey, Katiebear!” he said, grinning broadly.
“What the heck are you guys doing here?”
I looked past him to see Bram, Anita, and Trevor standing around with bags spread at their feet.
“Came to celebrate your dirty thirty,” Anita announced, stepping forward to shove Henry out of the way so she could hug me. “Now where is my beautiful niece?” She pushed by me into the house, and I had to let her go because Bram and then Trevor were hugging me hello.
“I can’t believe you guys are here,” I called, grabbing Anita’s bag before Bram pulled it from my arms. “This is so awesome. Come in.”
The guys followed me into the house just as Anita came down the stairs carrying Iris. “She was awake,” Anita told me happily, making faces at the baby.