Page 100 of Hearts of Fairlake

I sighed heavily at the sound of my 'name' in that drawn-out, whiny tone that sometimes made me question whether using my uterus for its natural purpose had been that good an idea. Which then promptly came with a flash of guilt that I quietly shoved away, knowing thoughts like that were common with parenthood. Fuck knew how my parents, myrealparents, had got through raising me without wanting to throw me into traffic.

I turned, raising a hand as the towheaded boy came barreling up to me as if the world was ending, which, for him, it probably was. "Hold it."

Connor stopped and stared up at me with an unhappy expression that told me he knew he wasn't going to get what he wanted. “What?"

"You're going to take a deep breath and explain what's going on without yelling, remember?" I asked, raising a brow. "We don't use our words as weapons."

He let out a huff that spoke of the misery and suffering he was forced to endure. Whoever said teenage girls were themost dramatic creatures had never dealt with a seven-year-old...or at least hadn't met my son. "Maria took my book again! She says it's her turn, but she can't even draw!"

I sighed, pinching my nose and telling myself to breathe and remember it wasn't right to walk up to a six-year-old and chew them out. You waited until they were adults, and if they still acted like children, you gave them a piece of your mind. I also had to remember that Maria was a member of our whole cobbled-together, rather unusual extended family.

So, instead, I would go and speak to her father.

He wasn't hard to find, considering he was almost always with his girlfriend, and she could be heard as long as you were within a quarter of a mile. Sure enough, Eileen's voice drew me in, and I marched up to the young man who sat at a picnic table, bumping his feet together and chuckling at something his girlfriend had to say.

"Colin," I began, raising a brow.

He glanced at me, smile fading. "Uh oh, what now?"

Several things went through my head and I had to remind myself I wasn't as mad as I felt. It was just out of my two children, Connor was far and beyond the most sensitive. He’d been the fussiest as a baby, the one most likely to cling to my leg while his twin brother went off into the world without fear, the first to cry when something went wrong, and so many other things. It was exasperating at times to deal with because I simply couldn't relate, but that was myson, and I was not going to let someone make him feel bad merely because he had a hard time expressing himself.

"Would you be so kind as to speak to your daughter about taking things?" I asked in what I hoped sounded like a polite, perfectly calm voice. "She took Connor's book again, and we both know what will happen if Carter hears about it."

He blinked at that and winced. “And I appreciate you notsaying something because you've got that twitchy look in your eye."

"Colin."

"I'm on it."

Beside him, Eileen snorted. "He's only going to do it because he's afraid I'll deal with it my way. He thinks I'm too hard on her, but that little girl?—"

"Is a handful and a half, if not more," I agreed, winking at her. I liked her, and I had since Colin met her when they were fourteen, thinking they would grow up to be exceptional adults. Of course, I was surprised when, a year later, I found out that he'd gone and got her pregnant because he decided his parents' discussion about safe sex didn't apply to him. Six years later, the two were still together, and their daughter was so unlike her laidback, gentle father and more like her fiery, adventurous mother.

Adam and Bennett had been less than happy when they'd received the news, but I didn't blame them. If Connor or Carter knocked up their girlfriend at fifteen, my reaction would be more like Bri's. It had taken the combined powers of Adam, Bennett, and Keith to calm her down before she was allowed to talk to Colin. All four parents had been horrified and concerned, especially when Colin and Eileen decided they were going to keep the baby and raise it.

Still, they had come around, agreeing that they would help with the baby so the two teens could finish school, but they were required to get part-time jobs and actively raise their daughter when they were around. That weird part of the family got even more intertwined and weird with that one decision, but just like it had been when Bri had stuck around and brought Keith into the mold, so too did Eileen and Maria.

"Where is my other son anyway?" I asked as I felt thefamiliar weight against my leg and reached down to rub Connor's back to calm him down.

"He said he was going exploring," Connor told me.

I stiffened at that bit of news. “And why didn't you tell me?"

He shrugged, looking worried. "He was with Gray. He's an adult."

So he was, and I let my shoulders ease as I knew Carter would still find trouble no matter who he was with. At least with Gray, he was with someone who was exceptionally good at getting out of trouble when the need arose. With Gray, that need had arisen quite often in his teen years. Despite Felix and Luke's best attempts, they hadn't quite been able to fix the damage done to Gray when he'd been younger. There were still demons in his head that wouldn't go to sleep quietly, and they fought hard.

The result had been a string of incidents with the school and cops. There had been at least three attempts to run away, the third being successful when he disappeared in the middle of the night atseventeen. They heard from him three times over the next year, all notes in the mail, which nobody used for anything except packages.

None of us were willing to say it aloud to the heartbroken Felix or the worried Luke, but we'd assumed Gray was simply...gone. Maybe we would have if Luke and Felix had lost sight of the other kid in their house, the little girl they'd adopted when Gray was fourteen. They hadn't, though, and Rita had never been left to feel like she would suffer for her adopted older brother's decisions.

Yet Grayhadcome back. I wished I could say no worse for wear, but he’d been an emotionally vulnerable, angry teenager who didn't know how to survive on his own. I was never given the full story, but therapy and rehab had to come into the mix, and then life started to move on for Gray.Nowadays, he was still a pretty serious guy. He had covered himself in tattoos and piercings and generally just stared at people when they talked to him. But, according to Adam, he was great with his hands, and his apprenticeship at the shop had done wonders for him.

Plus, he adored the kids, so I knew Carter was fine.

"Please tell me you have access to a drink," I pleaded with her.

"I'm not legally old enough to drink," she said with a smirk. "But look, your hero has arrived."

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