Rachel
“Brady.” Rachel was only yay-far from losing her shit. “Where did you put Mr. Pretzel?”
“He ate my gummy bears.” Brady shoved his index finger toward his brother.
This was the response Brady was giving to everything.
“We don’t point like that.” Rachel glanced to Dave and Travis,who were tearing apart the closet in search of the missing stuffed pretzel toy. “It’s rude.”
Apparently, if Rachel was following the train of activities correctly, Kellan had eaten into Brady’s special stash of gummy bears. The ones Rachel didn’t know existed that someone had bought in Confluence.
In retaliation, Brady had held Mr. Pretzel hostage in an unknown location until Kellan replaced the candy or came up with a suitable alternative.
So far, none of Kellan’s suggested resolutions had been acceptable to Brady and his demands.
“Fine. How about you can have all my underwear, you jerk.” Kellan said this with not an ounce of concern that his mother was standing right there.
Rachel did not have time for this.
Or patience.
She opened her mouth to explain to Kellan the consequences for name-calling—no electronics for the rest of the day—when there was a throat clearing from the doorway.
“There are my boys,” a deep male voice said.
Gavin?
Rachel turned and, sure enough, Gavin was standing,arms wide, waiting for one of his boys to run in for a hug.
Neither of them did as he expected, seeing as they were currently in a standoff.
No, they did whatRachelexpected. They took their argument to the new authority figure in the room.
“He stole Mr. Pretzel.” Kellan ran to Gavin, but not like he clearly had hoped. There was no hug, no welcome, just more finger pointing.
“He. Ate. My. Gummy. Bears.” Brady clenched and unclenched his fists.
On any other kid, it would’ve been cute because it wouldn’t have been Rachel’s issue to deal with. As it was, the clenching and unclenching was not cute. Not at all.
“They. Were. Left. Out.” Kellan went into a showdown with his brother.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Boys.” Rachel strode to them. “Separate.”
Kellan had a look in his eye. She knew that look. It came right before he got physical with his brother.
“What’s going on?” another voice asked from behind Gavin. Female. Damn.
Yes, that would be Dakota and her impeccable timing.
“I’m not sure,” Gavin said with a misplaced chuckle. “Sounds like there’s a problem with gummy bears.”
Kellan took that moment to shove Brady right into the wall.
Brady shoved him back, harder.
Rachel gave a heavy sigh.
