“But why?”
“Michael, I already told you why,” Bruce Walker said, staring at his son, quirking his brow.
“I don’t remember.”
Bruce shook his head. This kid. “Because it makes things harder than they have to be.”
“But how?” Michael asked. Bruce looked out over his three children. The youngest of them all, little Marie, was playing with her food. She barely knew what coffee was, let alone caring about why her father was trying to give it up. She was more interested in seeing whether she could pool all her syrup in one spot with the little square of pancake she had left. She had just turned two.
Greg, the middle child at age five, was staring at Bruce, highly interested in his older brother’s line of questioning. He was always trying to impress Michael and was curious about the matter simply because he thought it would win him points with his brother. At least, that was Bruce’s suspicion. They were all bear shifters, through and through, and with a young alpha as his oldest child and an omega like Greg in the mix, they had quite a troupe among them.
“Because caffeine is bad for you. It makes you anxious. And I have enough to be anxious about without inviting any more stress onto myself.”
“What are you anxious about, daddy?” Michael asked. Ever since he’d turned seven, he had been full of questions, and Bruce wasn’t sure whether that was a good or a bad thing. Still, it was good to know his son had an interest in the way things worked. He was shaping up to be quite a little leader. Bruce was proud.
“I’m anxious about a lot of things. Adult things. Nothing a kid needs to worry about. You’ll understand when you’re an adult too.”
“Yeah,” Michael said decidedly. “Adult things are hard.”
Bruce nodded and stood from the table to collect everybody’s breakfast dishes. “Everyone needs to get ready for school,” he said firmly.
He braced himself. This was when things began to get impossible. His kids were great, sure they were. But they were also little hellions in their own right. They took after him; they were stubborn to the core and if they didn’t want to do something, they just wouldn’t do it. To be truthful, they were a little bit more than he could handle. In fact, as soon as he got the boys off to school, he was going to go with his daughter to speak to his good friend Alice. She had told him she had something useful to talk to him about that might be helpful with the kids.
Ever since Jane had left him, unable to cope with the pressures of motherhood, everything had been unbelievably difficult to juggle. Between making a living and trying to manage being a single father to three beautiful little hellions, Bruce was overwhelmed. Sometimes, he resented his ex-wife, but for the most part, all he really cared about was taking the best care of his kids he possibly could.
Truth be told, he wasn’t exactly the best at showing his emotions and dealing with the highly-sensitive children at the ages they were at. That was more the kind of thing a good mother would be able to deal with. Unfortunately, his children no longer had that possibility. Jane had abandoned them. She wasn’t fit to be a mother and hated all the baggage that came along with raising kids and being a devoted wife.
In fact, Bruce had already suspected that Jane would have a tough time being a parent. But she had insisted on having children, even though he had been the one who was standoffish at first. Now, here he was, saddled with the responsibility of caring for three tiny lives outside his own. He hadn’t anticipated the fierce devotion he felt toward his children. But now that he was a parent, he couldn’t imagine feeling any other way about them. Even if they were a handful sometimes.
How his ex-wife had been able to give birth and abandon their three beautiful children was beyond Bruce, but he was grateful to her in a way. She had given him an opportunity he hadn’t realized he could want. Being the single care provider for his kids gave them a special bond he hadn’t shared with them previously, when his ex-wife was doing a good bulk of the childcare work.
And yet, he was definitely clueless when it came to the emotions of his little ones. They were always fighting, and always begging for validation, and it seemed like one or the other of them had a tendency to cry about things Bruce just couldn’t understand. It was overwhelming, and in that sense, he really did miss having a woman around. They seemed to have a natural touch when it came to navigating these types of situations. It was a knack Bruce simply didn’t have for himself. It needed a feminine touch, and his touch was decidedly masculine. Alpha, in fact.
“Come on and get ready, guys,” he said, crossing the room. The phone was ringing, and he answered quickly.
“Bruce, are you coming?”
“Yes, Alice, I’m on my way. Just have to drop the boys off at school and Marie and I will be over in about twenty minutes.”
“Oh good, tell her I bought some new puzzles. I know how much she likes them.”
“She really does, she’s such a smart little girl.”
“She’s a doll. She takes after you. You know Jane isn’t that bright,” Alice responded.
Alice’s disapproving voice made Bruce laugh. “Alice…”
His tone was a gentle warning. As much as it amused him to hear Alice unleash her passive-aggressive perspective on his ex-wife in an attempt to make herself feel better−she had known Bruce since he was a child, looked after him as if she were an aunt−the idea of a woman leaving him seemed unfathomable and her bitterness toward Jane was unparalleled.
“I’m sorry, I know how you feel about me badmouthing her. I don’t know how you manage to keep such an even outlook about the whole thing.”
“You can’t change someone’s nature just by giving them kids and the life they think they want. I guess I just don’t really find it surprising. You have to accept people the way they are. That’s the reality and that’s all there is.”
“I guess so. You’re a good man, Bruce.”
“Whatever you say, Alice,” Bruce said with a low chuckle. “Anyway, I’ve got to go. We’ll be over in a bit.”
“Okay, Bruce. See you then.”
“Yep.”
He hung up and cast his gaze over his kids, raising his brow so that their lethargic movements quickly became more urgent. Finally, he laced up his daughter’s shoes and headed out to the car, piling the kids all in.
“We want to see Aunt Alice too!”
“Not today, Michael. But we will go next weekend. The pond will be ready to swim in by then. No more ice.”
“Yes!” the boys shouted together. Marie stared at her brothers, bright-eyed, and Bruce couldn’t help but smile. Anything that made his kids happy made him happy. It was a good feeling.
“All right, buckle up,” Bruce said, getting himself comfortable in the car. “It’s time to get this day started.”