Page 32 of Wolves' Midlife Reunion
“What a great idea!” Vanessa squealed. “You could help your daddy!”
There was no hope of getting out of it now. Dex looked at Sage. “This isn’t a party you would get to go to. It’s only for high school kids.”
“Can I blow up some balloons?” she asked.
“Absolutely! It wouldn’t be a party without balloons!” Vanessa replied.
Now, his plans were solidified, all without making a decision himself. “Then I guess we’ll see you this weekend!”
“Yay!” Sage cheered. “Are you going to be there, Lily?”
“No, I’ve got gymnastics practice.”
“You do gymnastics? I play soccer.”
The girls were having such a good time that Dex hated to pull them apart, but it was starting to get late. He made sure he had Vanessa’s contact info and then loaded Sage into the car. They talked on the way home, and even though he wasn’t crazy about the idea of helping Vanessa, he was glad that he and Sage had this evening together.
“Oh, no!” Sage said when they got home and walked into the living room.
“What’s the matter?”
“Look!” She held up her snake. The plastic pieces were jointed together so the snake could be held by the tail while it slithered in the air. One of those joints, however, had snapped.
“Hm. How did that happen?” Dex gently took it from her hands to get a closer look.
“I buckled him into the car with me to make sure he was safe!” she whined.
Dex fiddled with it for a moment, hoping to make a repair, but it just wasn’t possible. “I think that might’ve been too much for him.”
“No!” Sage snatched the two halves of the snake from his hands. She smashed them together, but of course, they didn’t stay. “I didn’t mean to!”
“It’s all right, honey. I know it was an accident. Sometimes these things happen.” He did his best to soothe her, but Dex could tell it would only go so far. Sage had finally hit the wall and was beyond tired. “Let’s get you ready for bed, and we can talk about it in the morning.”
Tears were running down her face now, and she didn’t make any move toward her room. “But I liked that snake!”
“It was a very neat toy,” he agreed. The thing was made of the cheapest plastic possible, and it was no wonder that it’d broken under only a slight amount of strain, but he’d enjoyed those sorts of toys when he was a kid, too. “It’s a real bummer that it’s broken.”
“It’s not fair!” she screamed, still holding the snake in her trembling hands.
“I understand,” he said softly.
“No, you don’t!” Her brow scrunched up, her mouth pursed tightly. The two halves of the plastic snake lifted up out of her palms.
“Sage,” he warned, trying to keep his voice steady. “You need to stop that right now.”
She didn’t listen. With a flick of her wrist, she chucked the broken toy at the wall.
“Sage Marie Heywood!” Every last drop of patience was wrung out of him in a split second. “You donotuse your magic to be destructive! You know better than that! Go to bed, right now!” He pointed down the hallway for emphasis.
She charged down the hall, screaming and crying, and her door slammed behind her.
His muscles twitched at the sound, and he wanted to yell at her all over again for slamming her door, but instead, he threw his hands into the air. “What the hell,” he said to himself. “I’ve tried her whole life to be patient, caring, and nurturing, just to get this in return.”
Dex crossed the room to retrieve the broken snake. Ironically, it wasn’t any more damaged than it’d been before Sage had thrown it.
The toy, however, wasn’t the problem. Sage’s control of her magic was.
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