Unbreak My Heart (Unbreak My Heart #1)(16)

“You want to rephrase that, bud?”

“I want pancakes,” he said again stubbornly before lowering his eyebrows. “Now.”

My jaw dropped open, and my skin flushed as I took in the little man. I couldn’t believe what he was doing, though I probably should have. Keller had been getting slowly worse and worse as the weeks went by, no matter how I tried to redirect or correct his behavior.

“In your room for five minutes, Keller,” I said calmly, my heart thundering in my chest as I climbed to my feet. My stomach clenched, and I was on the verge of tears, but I didn’t let my impatience seep into my voice. “You know better than to talk to me like that.”

“I don’t wanna go to my room!” he whined as I hoisted Gunner onto my hip and led Gavin toward the kitchen.

When I didn’t acknowledge Keller’s whine, his voice grew louder until he was screaming.

“I don’t wanna go to my room!” he yelled, his fists clenched by his sides as I strapped Gunner into his high chair and Gavin into his booster at the table.

“You guys want some oatmeal?” I asked the little boys quietly while Keller continued to yell.

“Yes please,” Gavin answered while Gunner signed the word for “eat.”

“Do you want brown sugar or blueberries?” I asked Gavin as I turned toward the fridge.

I didn’t even make it a step before I was being pushed forward with the force of a little body slamming into the back of my legs.

“You’re mean!” Keller cried, hitting at the back of my thighs. “I don’t like you!”

“Keller, stop it!” I yelled over his screams, making Gunner start crying. I was trying to get ahold of his sturdy little arms without turning around, because I couldn’t bear the thought of his fists hitting my nauseous stomach.

“Keller Shane Anderson, what the hell are you doing?” Shane’s voice rang out over the noise of the kitchen.

Keller and I froze as Shane came stomping into the room, and the only thing that could be heard was Gunner’s sniffles.

“Daddy!” Keller cried pitifully, running toward Shane and wrapping his arms around Shane’s thighs.

“What’s going on, bud?” he asked, looking at me in confusion.

“Auntie Kate won’t make me pancakes!”

“This is about pancakes?”

Keller nodded, his face buried against Shane’s side.

“You couldn’t just make him pancakes?” Shane asked in exasperation, putting his hands under Keller’s arms and lifting him onto his hip.

That was all she wrote.

Within a second, I was racing to the bathroom, and I made it just in time to slam the door behind me and vomit nothing but bile into the sink. I started crying, then sobbing as I braced my hand on the counter and rinsed out the sink. I hadn’t even made it to the toilet.

Keller was acting like a pod person had stolen his body. Shane ignored me. Sage was still worried I wouldn’t pick her up from school. I wasn’t sure that Gavin was talking as much as he should be.

And I was pregnant and too sick to even make it to the toilet to vomit.

It was too much. I felt like I was slowly unraveling.

I took a deep breath as I heard Shane talking to the boys in the kitchen and pulled one of the hand towels off the rack to dry my face.

Nothing would get done if I hid in the bathroom, and I had no idea why Shane was even home. I needed to get myself together.

I walked back into the kitchen to find Gavin and Gunner just finishing up little cups of yogurt and Shane pouring himself a cup of coffee. Damn, that coffee smelled good.

“Sent Keller to his room,” Shane told me softly, handing me the cup of coffee he’d just poured. “You wanna explain what that was about?”

“Pancakes,” I replied bitterly, pulling a package of wipes off the counter so I could start cleaning the boys’ hands and faces.

“I didn’t mean—”

“You can’t do that stuff, Shane,” I cut in as I helped Gavin out of his seat. “That’s why Keller acts like that. I mean, we all know you’re the boss, okay? We all know. But every time you bitch at me because one of the kids is throwing a fit, they think they don’t have to listen to me.”

“I don’t—”

“You do.” I picked Gunner up out of his high chair, and he snuggled his face into my neck, obviously still a little overwhelmed from all the noise.

“I’m their dad. They should come to me.”

“I’m not saying they shouldn’t—” Dammit, my eyes started filling with tears again, and I cursed the stupid pregnancy hormones racing through my body. “I’m saying that you keep undermining me, and now Keller thinks he can boss me around like I work for him or something.”

Gunner wiggled to get down, and I set him on the ground so he could crawl into the living room where Gavin had turned on some cartoons.

“You treat me like shit, Shane.”

“No I don’t! I barely f*cking see you.”

“Exactly! You barely say a word to me unless you’re asking me to do something, and anytime I’m disciplining the kids you step in—”

“They’re not yours to discipline,” he stated flatly, making me suck in a sharp breath.