Page 75 of Dreams Do Come True

I shake my head. We might have to stop him using that word.

“Eat some scrambled eggs, little man, it looks like you’ve not had any yet,” Kean says, putting some on Lyric’s spoon and feeding him.

Lyric promptly spits the eggs out. “No,” he shouts, putting his hands in the eggs and throwing them at Kean.

There is stunned silence for the moment.

“As much as I want to see how this plays out, Doobs, we need to leave for school,” Nix says.

“I’m ready, my shoes are by the front door,” she says, standing up. “Thanks for breakfast, Nana. Bye, everyone.”

Nix stands and drops a kiss on Cam’s head and walks out with Nora.

Throughout all this, Kean and Lyric have been having a staring match.

Lyric moves his hand into the eggs again.

“Do not throw any more eggs, Lyric,” Kean says gently.

Lyric moves his hand and flicks more egg on the floor.

“No more food for you then,” Kean says, picking the plate up and putting it on the table. “Also, you and I will stay behind today as Titus and River, Uncles Jude and Sal and cousin Connie go to the children’s group.”

“No,” Lyric shouts. “I go.”

“Not with your bad behaviour, you’re not. Do you see Connie acting rudely?” he asks.

Lyric points an angry finger at Connie. “Baby,” he shouts, then thumps an angry hand down on his tray.

Kean growls at him. “Are you done?”

Lyric’s bottom lip starts to wobble. “I go,” he says softly, as tears start falling down his cheek. He turns to me and holds his arms out. “Tus.”

Should I take him out?I ask Kean.

Yeah, just reinforce what I said.Kean asks.

I’ll always do that, handsome.

I pull the tray out, lift Lyric out and sit him on my lap, so he can still see Kean. He leans into my chest and cries.

“Can you stop crying for me?” I ask him gently.

A few moments later, he sniffs and hiccups. “Clean mean.”

“Not really. You were rude. You threw eggs at him, shouted at him and spat out your food. We have rules Lyric. You can express yourself, but politely, and we never spit out or throw food at people,” I say gently.

I hear a snort from someone at the table. Pretty sure it was Cassie, as I suddenly remember the short-lived bread roll fight we had not long before Cassie and I moved in.

Lyric sniffs. “I bad?”

“Yeah, little man, you were,” I tell him. “You should say sorry to Kean for being rude and throwing eggs at him, some of which are still in his hair.”

I smile to myself when Kean starts checking and picking the egg out.

“You should also help clean up the mess you made.”

Lyric nods and I drop a kiss on his head. He looks at Kean and holds his little arms out. “Clean.”