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I grab my keys and dial the elementary school to see if he’s
picked up Michael and Gabby.  "Overland Park Elementary, this is Rose.”

"Hi, this is Dylan Monroe, Gabby and Michael’s
brother..."

"Ah yes, we were about to call you."

"So they are still there?"

"Yes, they’re waiting in the main office."

"Thank you, I’m on my way.”

I hang up and haul ass, first to the high school since Cassie is
by herself. I sincerely hope Luke is okay, so I can nail his ass to the wall
for this.  Unless he’s got a damn good reason, there will be hell to pay.

Cassie is waiting outside and quickly climbs in, “Have you heard
from Luke?"

As soon as her door is closed, I speed off to the grade school.
She shakes her head, "No, he hasn't answered any texts or calls. Dylan,
what if something happened to him?"

Damn it.
I hate that the
first thing to worry about is if something bad happened to him. "I'm sure
he just forgot."

"He wouldn't forget us, Dylan."

Cassie stays in the car while I go in to pick up the other two.
When I walk in I can tell Gabby has been crying. Michael is sitting in a chair
with his arms crossed, and I can’t tell if he’s worried or pissed or both.
"Here I am guys."

Gabby sees me and begins
crying
again. "Where is Luke? He's supposed to pick us up. Is he gone now
too?"

I kneel down so that I'm eye level with them both. Obviously, Luke
being a no-show triggered memories of the accident. "I haven't talked to
Luke yet, but I am sure he is fine. You know Luke and how he forgets
things."

Michael shakes his head, "Not us. He never forgets us."

Right then the door slams open admitting our lost brother. "I'm
sorry, guys. Shit. I know I'm late, but I'm here."

Michael runs to him, but Gabby stays with me. I’m happy to see
he’s alive, but now that I know he is, I'm going to kill him.

I turn to face him, and say low and slow through gritted teeth,
"Get in your car and drive straight home. We’ll talk about this
there."

He nods and leaves quietly, leaving Gabby and Michael to walk out
with me. On the drive, Gabby is too quiet. Since her one question asking about
Luke, she hasn’t said a word.

Once inside Luke immediately starts, "Dylan, let me
explain."

Now he wants to talk.
But I’ll
be damn if now I’m listening.

I shake my head, "Not now. Go to your room, and I'll be down
in a minute."

He doesn't argue and walks out of the room. I need to take Brookes
advice and calm down a little.  I try to breathe in and out slowly for a minute
as she suggested, but it takes more than ten before I think it’s safe to
finally face Luke.

Michael looks up at me, "Don't be too hard on him. He did
come to get us."

Cassie huffs, "Yeah, forty minutes late."

I pat Gabby on the head. "Don't worry, I'll be back. You guys
grab a snack."

Once downstairs I stop outside his door and count to 10 one more
time. When I finally walk in he’s leaning back against the headboard.   I rub
my chin and try to figure out how to start. Oh, what the hell, I’m swinging for
the fences. “Don’t even think about not talking today, Luke. Where were you?”

"I was here."

"Then why were you late?"

He looks me square in the face and gives me a satisfied smile,
"I wasn't alone, and I lost track of time."

I look at the floor thinking about what he just said, and that’s
when I see it, an open condom wrapper, "You had a girl over?” I yell. 
“You were here fucking some girl while you were grounded? What the actual fuck,
Luke.  You’re grounded, damn it.  And why in the hell wasn’t she in school?”

"Hey, motherfucker, you’re the one who locked me up and said
I couldn’t go to my party tonight. She decided to help me out and bring the
party to me. Happy birthday to me,” he finished snidely.

"Have you lost your fucking mind? They were scared to goddamn
death when you didn’t show up, but you obviously don’t give a shit as long as
you get to dip your dick, do you?"

"Please, it's not that big of a deal."

"It is, Luke. Do you know what they thought when you weren't
there? They all thought you were dead or hurt. They have abandonment issues,
Luke. They are fucking traumatized. And what if the school would have called
Brooke?”

"The schools don’t know what happened. Hell, they probably
think I had car trouble or some shit. They aren’t going to call Brooke about
this, so just get off my ass.  And the kids seem fine to me.”

"You didn't see the look on their faces or hear how scared
Cassie was when she called me. She was at the school by her damn self for over
40 minutes. They were sitting there worried while you were getting your rocks
off, and you think they’re fine? How the fuck can you not give a shit?”

He fucking shrugs which does nothing but piss me off more.

I stand up, "You’re grounded two more weeks, no exception. No
prom, no graduation parties for your senior buddies, not a fucking thing.”

He jumps up,” You can’t fucking do that!"

"Actually, I
can. You think you’re
a badass? Well, little boy, you haven’t seen anything yet.  You won't tell me anything
about the fight, so I’ll just assume it was for no good reason, add that to the
fact that you show no remorse for today. I told you the one thing you had to do
was pick them up without fail, and surprise, baby brother, you failed. That was
the one thing you had to do, pick them up. That's it, and you fucking
failed."

I almost take that last part back. I’d heard it so many damn times
from my father that I feel like choking as they leave my mouth. But right now,
I’m pissed, and there’ no way my pride will let me. And I have to punish him. 
His behavior and attitude are out of control, and I know if I don’t reign him
in then shit is going to hit the fan, and this year of living under the judge’s
orders is going in the fucking toilet.

He sits back down drilling the full force of his anger through his
stare. He doesn't apologize or beg me to change my mind. He's exactly like me
at that age, so I know that this is never going to be an easy ride. I just hope
I don’t turn into my father.

I shake off those thoughts and leave him stewing.  I think we’ve
said all that we can tonight without probably coming to blows. Back upstairs
Michael and Cassie are watching TV, "Where is Gabby?"

They point outside, and I see Gabby swinging on the swing set I
bought for her when we moved. Outside I approach her hoping that things aren’t
as bad as I’m imagining. "Hey, you wanna talk?"

She just keeps swinging.

Shit, don’t let this set her back.

I get in the other swing, barely fitting, and hoping it holds my
weight. Feeling confident that it’s pretty sturdy I gently kick my feet and
swing next to her in silence for a while. "I know today was scary Gabby,
but Luke is safe.  He just got busy, and time got away from him, and he’s very
sorry.”
This is one lie I don’t want to choke on because it’s not a lie, in
all honesty, I think.

She just continues swinging staying low to the ground.

I go on, "Gab, things like this are going to happen because
everyone is so busy.
You can’t always think
the worst, or you’ll be sad and scared all the time, and you don’t want to live
like that. “

She crooks an eyebrow at me. I hope I’ve just explained that so a
six, no seven-year-old, can understand.  I smile thinking about the small party
Brooke planned for just a normal family dinner, and Gabby had loved it.  She
loved the presents and the cake, but I think she loved it more because Brooke
was there.

"Basically kiddo, bad things are gonna happen, but not all
the time. Life is mostly good with a little bit of bad sprinkled in, and when
things happen like they did today you have to try to assume everything is okay,
because it more than likely will be.”

She smiles, I think that part got through. "I was really
scared. Luke is always there at the same time every day."

"I know."

"I thought he went to be with mommy and daddy."

My heart aches for her. No child’s mind should ever go to such a
dark place. "Luke's not going anywhere. He just made a mistake."

She nods, "He should have been there."

"Yeah, he should have, but he didn't mean to scare you."

She nods, "I know."

We swing for a little while more before heading in for dinner.

Monday all of the kids are back in school, and I’ve never been so
happy to send them off.  Luke and the kids made nice, but things between us are
still tense, and tempers are straining to be let go.  I wish I knew the magic
to fixing it.  I kind of think giving it time so that we can both cool down
will help. Then maybe we can sit down and discuss everything calmly. It’s just
too bad that we are so much alike in temperament. And as much as my pride holds
me back, I know his is the same.  Neither one of us wants to be the bigger of
the two. Besides, in my mind, he’s the one in the wrong.  I’m doing what I have
to do by punishing him. I didn’t ask to be put in this position, but I
willingly accepted it to keep my family together, and by God, I’m going to make
this work, and my brother needs to get his ass on board.

When I told Brooke about it all, she encouraged me to sit down and
talk calmly. She thinks there is more to his behavior, and I think he's just a
rebellious little shit. Maybe she’s right, but then she hasn’t been around this
weekend, and I don’t think she fully gets how tense things are between us right
now.

Hell, I may be overreacting, but after coming this far in getting
guardianship and also being to claim Brooke openly. I’m more than fucking ready
to be out from under this secrecy.

I only make it a couple of hours at work before I’m pulling out my
phone to text Brooke.

Me: You think we can have a meeting around one today?

Brooke: Please tell me something else didn't happen with Luke.

Me: No, I just need to see you.

Brooke: Well Mr. Monroe, I happen to have some time today around
1. Where should we have this meeting?

Me: My house.

Brooke: I'll be there.

I smile, I didn’t think I could convince her, but damn if she
didn’t come through for me. She must need to be with me as much as I need her.
I haven't seen her since the day Luke got in a fight, and I don't want to wait
until tomorrow's meeting.

I’m home before 1 and ready and waiting when she finally knocks.
Our lips are fused before we get the door closed, and we’re hanging on tight to
each other as we work ourselves to my room. We have until 3:30, hopefully. That
is if she doesn’t have to rush back to work, which I hope to God she doesn’t.  It’s
been too damn long, and I need my woman, especially after the hell that was
last week.

Both of us are impatient, and our clothes are quickly shed in order
to get to skin with hungry mouths and soothing touches.  I push her back on the
bed and crawl up her body with open-mouth kisses, finally latching on her hard,
rosy nipples. Slipping a hand between us, I test how wet and ready she is, and
as soon as I touch her throbbing clit her arms reach to pull me down to her.

“Please don’t wait, Dylan.  I need to feel you inside me right
now.”

“Yes, baby,” I whisper against her lips. I glide my cock through
the wet lips of her pussy a couple of times causing a deep moan to escape her
before driving myself home deep inside her.  We both find our rhythm quickly,
rocking against each other until the pleasure becomes too much and we come
together, her screaming my name, and me groaning loudly into the soft skin of
her neck.

Afterward,
we just lay together
spent. I press kisses into her skin wherever my lips can reach without having
to take my arms from around her. "God, I needed that."

Brooke grins, "So did I."

She managed not to have to turn in the report on Luke's fight just
yet by telling Janice she's behind on paperwork, but she is going to have to
report it, and I know it's on her kind. She plans on talking to Luke tomorrow.

"How are things going with Luke?" I know that she’s
managed not to have to turn in the report of Luke’s fight, and I also know
she’s planning on talking to Luke tomorrow at the home meeting before she has
to write it.

"Shitty. He hates me right now, but if I let him off the hook,
he won't respect me, Brooke."

"But if you're too hard it’ll be the same.  You have to find
a balance. Getting in a fight was wrong, having a girl over and forgetting to
pick up his siblings is also wrong, but grounding him from prom and for a month
may be extreme.”

She's probably right, and it may be my stupid-ass pride keeping me
from admitting it. "I'll think about it."