Page 4 of Broken Chorus

“Not every Christian is like the folks your grandparents raised you around. You should know that by now! I know you know that the Amish aren’t cultists. They just choose to keep themselves separate and steeped in the past.”

“Whatever.”

“Face it, Aaron, you’ve got issues with openly religious people.”

“No, I just think people should keep their religionandtheir politics, to themselves,” Aaron snarked as he stormed through the living room and out the front door, slamming it behind him hard enough to echo down the hall.

“Uncle Hawk, tell Dani to give back my bear!”

“My bear!”

“It’s not, it’s mine!”

“My bear!”

Biting back the urge to plead with them to knock it the fuck off and go to bed, Hawk headed down the hall towards the commotion, hoping he wasn’t about to find some poor, hapless stuffed animal in pieces,again, after they’d played tug of war with it. He’d barely managed to stitch together the last one, whose paw, Ella had pointed out, was sewn on backwards. She’d balked at his offer to cut it back off and try again, hugging the bear to her chest and fleeing to her room bawling when he’d suggested it.

Damnit all, if he wasn’t careful, he was gonna traumatize these kids before he got his shit together and figured out how the whole parenting thing worked. Fortunately, no fluff covered floor greeted him when he reached the room. Just Ella’s tear-streaked face and Dani’s angry one.

“Guys, it’s getting way too late to be arguing. Both of you are supposed to be picking up your rooms so you can get ready for bed,” Hark said.

“I was, Uncle Hawk,” Ella protested, “Until Dani came in, picked upmybear and tried to take it toherroom.”

“Dani, is that your sister’s bear?” Hawk asked, feeling a headache coming on.

Dani’s lower lip trembled as she hugged the bear, her face no longer furious but fearful. Even her voice lost some of its defiance when she answered him. “My bear.”

“Are you sure?” Hawk asked as he knelt to almost eye level with her. She’d need to grow a few inches before that worked out properly.

Her shoulders slumped, a sure sign that it was, in fact, Ella’s bear.

“You both mean!” Dani declared as she tried to throw the bear at Ella only to hit Hawk in the face with it.

Blinking, he stared down at the bear that now lay on the carpet, trying to determine how the hell he was supposed to respond.

“Dani, it isn’t nice to throw things,” Hawk said as he pointed to the bear. “Now you need to pick him up and hand him to Ella nicely.”

Pouting, she stood with her arms crossed, her features twisted into a furious scowl even as the waterworks started. Anger he could deal with, but he never quite knew what to do with tears. He was half temped to give her the damned bear and buy Ella a new one, only that wouldn’t solve anything but starving off a tantrum and making Dani think she could take whatever she wanted and get to keep it if she protested returning it loudly enough.

“Dani, would you like to sit in the time out chair and miss story time?” He asked, keeping his tone even, but stern.

“Not fair!” She whined, stomping her foot.

“It will be very fair if you keep behaving the way you are now,” Hawk told her. “Now please, pick up the bear and give him back to your sister, then go back to your room and put your toys in your toybox like I asked you to. If you don’t have them picked up by story time, you won’t be able to listen.”

Huffing, she finally uncrossed her arms, picked up the bear and handed it to Ella, if a little roughly. Still, it was better than throwing. “You still mean!” She declared before rushing from the room.

Well, that went a little better than expected, he thought as he straightened up.

“Thank you, Uncle Hawk,” Ella said before giving her bear a little kiss on its fuzzy head and setting it on her bed with several others.

“You’re welcome, kiddo, now get this mess picked up or no one will be getting a story tonight,” Hawk said as he let his gaze linger around the room.

Hers wasn’t as messy as Dani’s but there were still crayons on the floor and her bed and several coloring books that needed to be put away, along with scattered pieces of paper from where she’d been drawing.

At least with them cleaning up in separate rooms, there was a chance he could sit at the kitchen island for long enough to finish the ever-growing grocery list. Of course, the universe had other plans for him, as his phone started screeching from his pocket the moment he sat down.

“Kelly, this isn’t a good night for me to listen to anything,” Hawk said by way of greeting. “Just email me the links and I’ll get you some feedback as soon as I can.”

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