Page 61 of Her Big Bad Wolf

I pulled a stack of coloring sheets and told him to go put one at each seat of the three-year-old table.

He wasn’t gone long before Mason and Noah came in looking to help too.

“Are you sure?”

“We don’t mind,” Mason said. “Right, Noah?”

“Yeah sure. Whatever.”

I knew he tried to play the tough guy part, but really, he was a sweet boy who’d been thrown a shitty hand in life. I couldn’t blame him for being mad at the world, or for wanting to keep his family together.

Without questioning it, I handed them each of stack of papers to do the same on the pre-school and two-year-old tables.

By the time Mary arrived for the day everything was set up and ready to go.

“It’s all done?” she asked when I told her.

“My helpers were quite efficient today.”

She looked down at the three boys and smiled.

“They must be. She never finishes this early,” Mary told them.

They all stood up a little prouder and my heart swelled.

I loved these boys. I’d loved each of them individually when I had them in my class and they’d stolen my heart with their courageous, though not too bright, decision to stay together.

I didn’t have siblings, but I knew that if I did, I would have stopped at nothing to ensure we stayed together if we were in their situation.

Mary gave them each another task. When they ran off to do it, she linked her arm through mine and squeezed.

“I can’t believe you found them. And I’m shocked Noah is going back to school without a fight.”

“We’ll see. So far, so good. I doubt he’ll run off without his brothers and Cam won’t be leaving my sight today.”

“Good plan. Kyle told me they’re staying at Isaac’s. Is that right?”

“Yes. Apparently, I don’t have the appropriate room for them to stay with me.”

“Did you want them to stay with you?”

I nodded, honestly.

“Did you convince Isaac to let them stay there?”

“No. It was his idea.”

“Really? I didn’t peg him for a kids’ guy.”

“I doubt anyone would think that.”

“Wonder why he agreed to it?”

I suspected it was because I couldn’t take them and he knew how worried I was about them. It made me curious to know if he even realized why he was doing it. On the one hand he warned me to stay away, but on the other he was doing all the right things to pull me in. It was highly confusing.

But I wasn’t about to explain that to Mary, though there were so many things I wished I was brave enough to askher about, like if it was normal to want to blow off all other responsibilities and just be with him.

The thought of sitting here all day long felt daunting in a way I’d never experienced before. I adored my kids. This was my happy place, but my head and heart just weren’t in it as I thought about my mate all alone on his farm in the woods.