“You’re not,” Lily says calmly. “You’re finishing your dinner and then you’re going back to your room until your father comes home.” She might be speaking calmly, but her tone is lethal. It’s the tone I receive when she thinks I’m being a complete asshole. The tone that is one step away from pure anger.
“I hate you!” Cade roars. This is followed by the sound of what I suspect is his chair being shoved away from the table and then the back door sliding open and being slammed closed.
“Cade King! Get back inside now!” Lily yells before sliding the door open again.
I stride down the hall, through the kitchen, and into the dining room. “I’ll go,” I say, drawing Lily’s attention.
Her wild eyes meet mine and I see just how close to losing her shit she is. She widens those eyes as she says, “I thought you were going to come home early.”
“I tried. Shit came up.”
Still with the wide eyes, she says, “The next time shit comes up, ignore it if I’ve told you that day that Cade is acting up. Seriously, we are this close to me doing jail time.”
“I can see that.” I glance at the table that has none of our other kids sitting at it. “Where are Travis and Meredith?”
“Safely in their rooms.”
“Okay.” I jerk my chin towards the hallway. “Go and get in the bath. I’ll handle the kids.”
She looks outside briefly before giving me her stormy eyes again. “Cade’s out of control. You need to fix that.”
“Lily,” I say with some force, because fuck knows she’s past the point of taking note of anything less than force. “Go. I’m handling this.”
She pushes a long breath out, giving me that look of hers that says “you better fucking handle this”, and then leaves the room.
Christ.
I step outside in search of my son while working to control my temper. Out of all our kids, Cade’s the one who never fails to stir it. He’s too much like me with his temper and preference to deal with his problems physically rather than to sit and talk them out rationally. Raising him is teaching me all kinds of shit I’m fucking sure nothing and no one else could have because it’s like looking directly in a mirror when I’m with him.
“Cade,” I call as I walk down the stairs. “Come here.”
I’m down the stairs and halfway across the backyard when he meets me. The defiance written all over him is a trait I know well. One I feel in my bones. One that I’m learning is a fuck of a trait to deal with as a parent.
When he crosses his arms and glares up at me, I lift my chin at the wooden bench I built Lily years ago and say, “Sit your ass down. We’ve got a long conversation to have.”
Keeping his arms folded and his glare in place, he fires back, “I don’t want to talk.”
“Yeah, I get it, but neither of us are going to bed tonight until we’ve had this talk, so do me a favour and sit.”
His nostrils flare as his brows pull in. Those arms of his appear to hug his body harder, like he’s doubling down on refusing to budge. Cade’s a smart kid, though, so he knows this shit has to happen. After a few more moments of defiance he caves.
I follow him to the bench and sit next to him.
We sit in silence for a couple of minutes before I look at him. “Did you start a fight with Travis today?”
If there’s one thing I can count on from my boys, it’s loyalty to family to the end. They may argue and fight daily, but they’ll always be the first to stand up for each other and will never throw each other under the bus. Travis may only be six, but it’s clear to me that he’s already learned this. Just like Cade did from his older siblings. And while loyalty is something I value fucking highly, it makes conversations like this hard because no one wants to own up to anything or blame anyone else.
Cade stares straight ahead and doesn’t answer me.
“I asked you a question, Cade, and I expect an answer.”
He sits in silence and I watch as his brain works like fuck to figure out how to get out of this. I give him the space to think, even though giving anyone space in this way does not come naturally to me.
Finally, he meets my gaze. “We both started it.”
“How so?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know.”
