“Are you going to tell me what the therapist said?” Sebastian asked as he grabbed a fresh pair of socks from his bureau and pulled them on.
Nodding, Jonathan said, “Just as soon as you tell me what you’re hiding.”
“I’m not hiding anything,” Sebastian said, pulling on his shoes only to bite back a wince when the movement caused sharp pain to rip through his hand.
“That’s not what your therapist said,” Jonathan said in a taunting tone that was going to get him hit.
“What does Mom and Dad think is going on?” Sebastian asked, reaching for his sweatshirt only to remember that the little bully stole it and grabbed an old one from the closet.
“That you’re jealous of me,” Jonathan said with a sad shake of his head, which was followed up with, “Not that anyone can blame you.”
“That really just went without saying,” Sebastian said absently as he pulled on the sweatshirt that was a little tight. “Anything else?”
“Oh, you mean besides the therapist telling Mom and Dad that they might want to consider sending you to military school?” Jonathan said with a look that told Sebastian that it was time to stop screwing around.
Chapter 8
“Why are you doing this to me?” Mikey asked only to end up groaning when Nathan, her two-year-old brother, decided to stand up so that he could immediately drop back down on her back.
That was followed by his twin brother, Zach, throwing himself across her legs and pinning her to their bedroom floor so that her one-year-old twin brothers, Toby and Thomas, could shove their tiny feet in her face in silent demand as they finished off their bottles. With a glare, Mikey obediently kissed the proffered toes, noting the huge smiles on her brothers’ faces as she did so.
They were lucky they were cute, Mikey thought only to release a whimper when Nathan dropped back down on her back, reminding her that her brothers were evil.
“Daddy stories!”
“I just read you three stories,” Mikey reminded him, sighing heavily as she debated her next move only to obediently kiss her baby brothers’ toes when they offered the other foot. That was followed by Happy, her three-legged dog that loved to follow the twins everywhere, rolling over onto his other side so that he could lick the twins’ toes.
“Daddy stories!” Zach demanded as her baby brothers upped their game and settled on jostling her, hoping that it would be enough to make her give in to their demands, which of course, she would gladly do.
There was only one problem…
“Dad’s not home yet,” Mikey said only to grunt when her announcement was met with more bouncing and another, “Daddy stories!” as her baby brothers made her regret offering to read them a bedtime story.
Granted, she knew better when she did it, but she’d been hoping to use the distraction to get her mind off what was going on with Sebastian. Well, that and she really didn’t want to read that damn book. Why couldn’t Mr. Rose pick an easier book to read? she wondered only to mumble, “Thank god,” when the boys suddenly climbed off her back.
“Daddy!” Nathan and Zach yelled in unison while Toby and Thomas dropped their bottles and held up their arms, smiling hugely as they waited for Reese to pick them up.
Chuckling, Reese sat down on the floor next to her with his legs stretched out so that the boys could climb onto his lap. With a groan, Mikey managed to sit up and?
“You want to tell me about your book report?” Reese asked, making her wince.
“I love you, Daddy?” she said with a hopeful smile that had his lips twitching as he helped Thomas and Toby climb onto his lap while the older boys settled in next to him and Happy, the traitor, moved closer so that he could snuggle against Reese’s leg.
“I bet you do,” Reese drawled, looking exhausted as he accepted the book that Nathan had been hugging.
Nodding, Mikey said, “I really do.”
“You want to tell me about this book report?” he asked again, leaning down to kiss Toby’s cheek while Thomas traced the words Bradford Construction written across his shirt.
“I would rather you tell me what you know so that I don’t accidentally say something that will get me in trouble,” Mikey said, noting the way that his green eyes that were a lighter shade than hers, narrowed on her, which prompted her to say, “I love you, Daddy,” again, because at this point it really couldn’t hurt.
“Start talking,” he said with a look that told her that it would be in her best interest to do just that even as he smiled down at Nathan, who was trying to get him to read the book.
“There was an issue with the book report that I turned in,” she said even as she wondered how he found out about it only to remember that he went to school with her teacher, which apparently meant that she wasn’t going to be able to get away with a hell of a lot this year.
“What was the issue?” Reese asked, glancing at her as he opened the book so that the boys could look at the pictures.
“That I didn’t read the book?” she admitted with a wince only to add, “He’s letting me do a new book r