There are too many voices in my house.
Penelope is giggling somewhere in the kitchen, high and bright. Dana’s voice follows, warm and patient. That part is normal lately. But then I hear Cole. Then Maddox.
My hands clench around my keys, and I drop them a little too forcefully on the side table before walking into the kitchen to find the damn firing squad waiting for me.
Dana stands at the island with Penelope, helping her stick raisins onto celery filled with peanut butter. Cole leans against the far counter with his arms folded. Maddox is posted near the patio doors, looking far too casual for whatever this is.
Penelope looks up first. “Daddy!”
I force my face to do something human. “Hey, bug.”
She holds up a piece of celery. “Ants on a log.”
“I can see that.”
“I made you one, but I ate it.”
“It’s the thought that counts.”
“Gray,” Cole says, and I’m immediately on alert again.
I look at him. “No.”
Dana wipes her hands on a dish towel, then bends to Penelope’s level. “Hey, Penny, why don’t you take your snack upstairs and pick out a book? I’ll come read with you in a few minutes.”
Penelope pauses with a raisin pinched between two fingers. “Why?”
“Grown-up talk.”
Her little face pinches. “Is Daddy in trouble?”
Cole coughs once into his fist.I shoot him a look sharp enough to draw blood.
“No,” Dana says smoothly. “Daddy is not in trouble.”
“Debatable,” Maddox mutters.
“Maddox,” Dana warns.
Penelope looks between all of us, suspicious because she’s four, not stupid. Then she slides off the stool with her plate. “Fine,” she says, trotting out of the kitchen and up the stairs, humming to herself.
I wait until I hear her bedroom door close.
“She’s going to get fucking peanut butter on the carpet,” I grunt to Dana, rubbing my face with my hand.
“Yeah, well, if you’d have just listened to us from the start, you wouldn’t need to worry about that,” she fires back.
“I’m not doing this today. You all can leave.”
Dana gives me a look. “You don’t get to decide that.”
“I absolutely can.”
“We went to see her today,” Cole says.
My hands flex at my side. “Excuse me?”
“We went to her friend’s cafe,” Maddox adds.
