Page 1 of Hearts of Fairlake

BENNETT

Warmth. Comfort. Peace.

A crash. A shriek.

With a jerk, I sat up in bed and stared at the opposite wall, blinking slowly, trying to wrap my head around the noises coming from the opposite end of my house. A week of night shifts followed by attempting to crunch in parenthood had left me with a brain filled with fog and confusion as I winced at another shriek. This one, I figured out, was filled with outrage.

“Mine!”

That would be Amber.

“Mommmmyyyyy!”

Colin.

“Waaaahhhh.”

And Brendon.

Which did little to clear the confusion filling my thoughts. Why were they even here? My son and daughter weresupposedto be being watched while Colin’s half-brother was cared for by someone other than me. My husband was supposed to be at work, and I wassupposedto be catching a few winks of sleep before I dragged myself out of bed to gather my children.

“Alright, you three,” I heard Bri’s sharp voice speak up, echoing down the hallway. I’d left the bedroom door open so I would actually hear any noises because I’d collapsed on the bed after coming in from the night shift. “We’re just here to pick some things up. Colin, you’re not supposed to take… give it back to Amber.”

With a heavy groan, I rubbed my face as I heard Colin give a low whine of protest. At five, he was well past the ‘mine’ stage…in theory. The reality was that since the age of two, if he saw something, he was prone to grabbing it. For whatever reason, five was the year he decided that meant it was his if he got his hands on it.

So, I guess it was still a ‘mine’ stage.

Amber gave another cry, this one unintelligible. She was far less grabby than her brother but wasextremelyprotective of things she considered hers. In all fairness, generally, she had a right to whatever she was protesting over. It was just the delivery of her outrage that typically found a way to the center of my brain and drilled deep.

Sighing, I rolled over and was quickly reminded I’d collapsed on the far edge of the bed to sleep. Gravity was a harsh mistress, and its accomplice, the floor, was no more forgiving. A grunt was ripped out of me as I slammed into the floor noisily, barely keeping my head from bouncing off the hardwood and the nightstand my dear, sweet husband had built a year before as a side project.

Where was Adam? Not shepherding the children, that was for sure, which begged the question of why Bri was here.

“Hello?” Bri’s voice was sharp and demanding, which came from her personality and years as a lawyer. “Adam? Bennett?”

I could only groan as I lay staring under our bed andcontemplating my life choices. I had no idea how much sleep I had gotten, but it was nowhere near enough. Then again, I probably needed an entire day of sleep before I’d feel human again. But to even function somewhat, I just required a few more hours.

Bri’s steps were as heavy as ever as they came down the hallway, and I didn’t move, even when they stopped in the doorway. There was a pause, and I was sure she was wondering what I was doing, lying face down on the floor, still wearing my uniform pants, one sock, and my undershirt.

I thought about explaining but instead sighed. “You know, Adam and I really need to remember to clean under things more often. There’s a dust bunny the size of a pit bull under here.”

“Why…are you not at work?” Bri asked, clearly ignoring my state and my words. Ever since she came to my lovely hometown of Fairlake just over five years ago, she’d dealt with me a lot. I doubted there was much I could do to faze her, especially after five years of motherhood on top of it.

“I’ve been working the night shift all week,” I whimpered. “Didn’t Adam tell you?”

“No, he did not,” Bri said, and I could hear the frown in her voice. What was funny was that when I first met Bri, I pretty much convinced myself she was a royal bitch. Not too far off the mark, she could be cutthroat and vicious when necessary, but…she generally wasn’t, only when provoked. “Something heshouldhave mentioned because I would have waited till later to come by. Honestly, he doesn’t think sometimes, which should beyourjob. But here we are.”

Of course, I first met her after her and Adam’s divorce. My childhood best friend had returned to our hometown, tail between his legs, and looking to start anew, start on a good foot. Of course, that got a little complicated when he found out that I, his gay best friend, had been crazy abouthim since puberty and then found out he was a little less straight than he thought.

A dream come true for me for a while…until Bri showed up pregnant. In my mind, she had come to take Adam back to Boston with her, ruining the dream come true and turning it into my worst nightmare.

And now she was standing in the hallway of the house my husband and I had bought, her hands probably on her hips, annoyed not with me, but with Adam…in defense of me.

“It’s okay,” I said with a sigh, rolling over to look at her. “Sleep is for people who don’t have kids.”

“Like hell it is,” she said and winced, knowing her voice had echoed.

“Bad word!” Colin proclaimed from down the hallway.

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