Keeping Him (Learning To Love Him book 2) (Boyxboy)

Chapter 33.

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"So, you guys can have pancakes, waffles or eggs." I shrugged turning to look at the three children in front of me. They all just glared back at me.

I was trying to steer them into... well, something other than being depressed in their rooms, but they took that as me telling them to forget about Corey, or act like it was normal without him.

"Waffles it is!" I smiled at them after a while of no one speaking, just glaring. "Tammy, can you get –" I was saying.

"Daddy, I'm not hungry... I said so already..." she cut me off giving me a little frown.

"I can hear your tummy rumbling, so yes you are, Princess. Please get me some strawberries." She slid from her seat slowly and walked to the fridge, her frown not wavering. She opened it and ran her dull hazel eyes over everything slowly.

"I want salad..." She eventually mumbled while looking at me, I knew she wanted it the way Corey always made it, the difference was she had never willingly eaten it before. I was happy her frown was gone, but now she was just giving me a blank stare. I looked at the two boys, raising my eyebrows to ask them if they wanted something else as well.

"I want waffles," Ashton spoke.

Our eyes shifted to Eli.

"I'm not eating." He said.

"Eli –" I began.

"I'm not hungry, so I'm not eating, Dad." He said through grit teeth.

I bit my lip before I dropped my smile and bent down beside his chair so that I was at his level.

"I know you're hungry and I'm not going to let you make yourself sick, so it's either you eat now, Eli, or I'm getting Sean to take you to Crab's Kingdom all day until you've eaten something there." I knew there was no way Eli wanted to go out, especially not to a place filled with loud, playful, happy children. Usually, he would have loved to though.

He gave me a fiery glare before he jumped off his seat, grabbed an apple, banana and a box of juice and he walked out of the kitchen. He was definitely headed back to his room.

I let out a sigh feeling worried but figured I would check on him later and smiled at the other children who did not respond to my expression before I began to make their breakfast and my own.

Thirty minutes later I was done swallowing food I had no taste for and settled on watching Tamia and Ashton eat their food slowly. They were not even half finished, most of the time Ashton was pushing cold waffle pieces around his plate and Tamia was just staring at her salad without any movement. Occasionally though, they would take a bite of the food, which I figured was a win.

I looked away from them as Eli walked back into the kitchen avoiding my eyes before he climbed onto my lap and rested his head on my shoulder without saying a word. The others glanced up before returning back to their food. I patted his back softly until I heard his breathing slow as he sunk into me and realised he had fallen asleep. Though I was glad to have him close, I was dreading leaving the kitchen. They were so heavy now and I would have to carry him all the way upstairs. No, wait.

"Trent," I spoke.

"Uh-huh?" His voice came from somewhere upstairs.

"Help." Tamia looked up and gave a small, tired smile to me and I stuck my tongue out at her making her small smile stretch a little, though her eyes did not light up like they usually would before they returned to her salad.

Trent walked into the kitchen and nodded. "Got it," he said pulling Eli off me gently as he tried not to wake him, though I knew there was no way he was waking up because it was Eli and he slept like... me.