Unbreak My Heart (Fostering Love 1)

“I got in a fight,” he mumbled, meeting my eyes.

The mask of indifference he’d been wearing for the past few months anytime he was in trouble slowly disappeared off his face, and he burst into tears.

“Why the heck would you do that?” I asked gently, pulling onto the freeway.

“Nathan called me Little Orphan Annie,” he bit out, swiping a hand over his face angrily.

“Well, that’s ridiculous,” I stated. “You’re not an orphan. Orphans don’t have parents.”

“And I’m not a girl!”

“That’s also true,” I said, trying not to laugh at the disgust on his face. “But you can’t get in fights, little man, because then you get in trouble.”

“Daddy’s gonna be mad at me,” he replied softly, making my heart ache.

We were silent for the rest of the drive. When we finally reached the house, Keller jumped from his seat and crawled out of the car, running inside as I pulled my cell phone from my purse.

“Hello?” Shane answered after a few rings.

“Hey, so I just picked up Keller from school…”

“Shit.” He sighed. “What happened—is he okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. According to Keller, he got into a fight because some little snot called him Little Orphan Annie.”

“Well, that’s not much of an insult.”

“It is when you’re six.”

“What did the office say? Is he suspended or something?”

“I don’t know—they wouldn’t fucking talk to me,” I answered in exasperation, frustrated all over again by that snotty counselor.

“What? Why?”

“The counselor wanted to talk to you.”

“But you were already there.”

“She wants you to go in after work and talk to her.”

“Fuck. I won’t be off work until after four.”

I climbed out of the car as my mom stepped out onto the front porch. “Yeah, she said she’d wait.”

“Okay, then I’ll meet you there at like four thirty. Shit, I have to go. See you in a few hours.”

The phone disconnected, and I dropped my arm down to my side. I guessed I was going to have to deal with Snots McCauley again that afternoon.

* * *

“Hey, beautiful,” Shane called, opening my door as I put the car in park. “How was the rest of your day?”

“Eh. Keller spent most of the day playing Legos with Aunt Ellie. The poor kid looked like he was waiting on the executioner; he’s so terrified about seeing you.”

“I don’t know why—you’re way more scary,” he said, putting a hand on the small of my back to lead me inside the school.

“Hello, Mr. Anderson. I’m Susan McCauley, the counselor here.”

“Nice to meet you,” Shane replied politely, reaching out to shake her hand.

“Why don’t you come on into my office?” she said, waving her arm toward a door to the right.

Shane gently pushed me forward, and Susan barely looked at me as we passed her. Fun times.

“I asked you to come to see me because it seems Keller has been having some behavioral issues for most of the school year.”

“What?” I asked in confusion. “We only got one note.”

“At first it was name-calling, but today it progressed into actual physical violence,” Susan said to Shane, completely ignoring me. “We have a no-tolerance rule. That’s why we sent Keller home with Ms. Evans. But I wanted to speak to you one-on-one so we could work together to help Keller.”

“From what Keller said, some boy was calling him names—”

“That’s the story I heard, too,” Susan said with a nod. “But we really can’t excuse violence because of a little name-calling.”

“Keller has scratches all over his arms. Did you send the other kid home, too?” I asked, clenching my hands in my lap. The woman acted like a robot—I didn’t understand how she was supposed to be a counselor for little kids.

“Ms. Evans, please let me speak to Mr. Anderson,” Snotty McCauley chastised, glancing at me briefly before turning her eyes back to Shane.

He made a sound of disbelief in his throat, looking over at me in surprise.

“Kate has just as much to say here as I do,” Shane defended, his brows pulling together.

“In situations like these, I find it more beneficial if I speak directly to the child’s parents, Mr. Anderson,” she said simply. “I meant no disrespect.”

“She’s his mother,” Shane argued, making my breath catch. “I’m not sure why you’d have an issue talking to her.”

“Oh.” Susan looked thrown for a moment and glanced down to shuffle through some papers on her desk. “Keller called her aunt when she picked him up earlier, and I was under the impression that Keller and Sage’s mother had died in a car accident two years ago.”

The breath left my chest at her nonchalant mention of Rachel’s accident. When she looked back up from her desk, her eyes widened at the looks on our faces.

“Yes, she did,” Shane agreed softly. “But Kate has been taking care of Keller since he was born. She’s his mother in every sense of the word.”