Bichonmom – Thanks for taking the time to review, but I will not be changing my story line in response to your "ultimatum" for you to keep reading. This is a story about a family thrown in to a difficult situation, so yes, their emotions are mixed up, Sara's a bit testy, and Riley has just lost her mother. And, if you look closely at some of the of the other chapters, you will see clues that Riley has been through much more than she's letting on to Nick and Sara right now, which is part of the reason for her personality. Also, generally on this site, writers are reluctant to consider the suggestions of people who do not review at all until they have a problem with the story.
Thanks to everyone else for your reviews!! Without further ado, here's the next chapter…
Nick closed the door to Riley's room after having a bit of a talk with her later that evening. He didn't think she was used to being called on her inappropriate language and gestures like Sara had been doing lately. Nick was again feeling like the peacemaker between his wife and his new daughter. Sara was being protective of their own children, which he understood. He didn't want Carly getting in trouble at school and becoming as mouthy and attitude-ridden as Riley was now. The father was hoping that with love and a lot of patience, Riley would eventually come around. Nick also didn't want to push Riley away by being too strict all of a sudden.
The man sighed as he opened the door to the master bedroom to find Sara folding laundry a bit vigorously, if that was possible. She was still ticked off about something, he could tell. He assumed it was about Riley, their favorite teen.
"We need to talk." She informed him, letting a little pile of washcloths drop onto the comforter as she glared at him a bit. Nick raised his eyebrows – he was the object of that look, he realized.
"Sure. What's up?" He asked, walking closer to where she stood by the bed, wondering what was on her mind.
"Riley." She started simply.
"Babe, I know you're worried about her mouth and everything concerning Carly, but…"
"You're letting her manipulate you." Sara told him, emphasizing the word 'manipulate' a bit. She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes at her husband.
"Manipulate me? How?" Nick countered at the accusation, putting both hands on his hips. It was rare that they ever had a disagreement about Carly or Nolan, so this was new territory.
Sara scoffed. "Downstairs, after you came back from dealing with Carly, she was mouthing off to you, and you just let it go." She pointed out.
"She was not mouthing off, she was debating with me."
"No, she was mouthing off to see how much she can get away with." She deposited a stack of shirts on the mattress. "And you're just screaming for her to walk all over you, and walk all over me too."
"Am I?" He asked a bit sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest now.
"Yes, you are. You let her challenge you on how you deal with Carly, and then when you tell her you guys need to talk, she has some smart-ass comment about penciling you into her schedule?" Her face showed how completely disturbed she seemed by this.
"Sara…"
"Not an hour earlier, I was telling her she needs to shape up, and watch her language, and she didn't like it but she was listening to me."
"You were biting her head off, according to her."
"She needs her head bitten off every once in a while around here, and if you won't do it, I will." She informed him, matter-of-factly.
"She's confused right now." Nick defended.
"Yeah, she is. And she needs more clear-cut boundaries. She needs to know we're not gonna tolerate her mouth and dismissing our rules. What she needs is more consistent consequences, like Carly gets." Sara told him.
"Are you suggesting I start putting her in time-out and spanking her every now and then?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.
Sara shot him a look. "You're just as sarcastic as she is, aren't you? No, she needs privileges or things taken away. And have you ever heard of grounding?" Riley had not been punished once since they'd been living with them, and there had been several occasions when Sara thought she should have been. But alas, Nick didn't want to push her.
"And have you? You're her parent now, too, you know." Nick pointed out.
Sara slammed down a pile of socks she had been matching. "No, Nick! Don't you dare! YOU'RE the one who couldn't keep your pants zipped up fourteen years ago, so she's YOUR responsibility primarily! I'm happy to support you, but you have to be the main parent here! And she knows that! She doesn't listen to me as much because I'm the stepmom, and her real father is being a pushover!"
Nick didn't say anything and tried to take in what she was saying. It was hard to listen during an argument, because they were both seemingly very passionate about their side. He ran his tongue around his teeth inside his mouth a little in thought.
"Fine." His voice was soft and a little hurt. He dug one of his feet around a bit in frustration and gestured to nothing in particular. "You know, this is hard for me too, but I'm trying my best."
With that, Nick turned and left the bedroom to go back downstairs for a while, leaving Sara in their bedroom. She slammed another pile of Nick's t-shirts on the bed and put her hand up to her mouth, trying to keep from crying, but it wasn't working. Sara hated it when they fought.
CSI CSI CSI CSI CSI
It was a lonely night for Nick and Sara since they were mad at each other. Normally, they slept spooning, but last night, they faced away from one another and didn't touch. Both hated it, but both were being too stubborn to apologize just yet.
That morning, they both moved around the kitchen doing their normal routines of starting and making coffee, and getting breakfast ready for the girls. Today, as Carly watched, she noticed that her daddy wasn't touching her mommy at all. Normally, when they almost bumped into each other, he'd put his hand on her back or shoulder as they moved to another spot, but today he just shuffled out of the way and didn't even look at her. There were no kisses and no light-hearted teasing. Carly figured they were both still mad at her from what she did yesterday. She realized that what she did was wrong, and she'd been punished for it. Her daddy always forgave her, though, and today he was barely saying a word to her.
"Carly's got ballet practice after school today." Sara reminded him as she poured the coffee, since it was her day to work, and his day to stay home.
Nick looked up from where he was pouring a bowl of Cheerios for Riley, who still wasn't up, and nodded. "Thanks." He said shortly, then placed the bowl along with the gallon of milk at the empty spot at the breakfast bar. It was then that he noticed Carly was doing her red-faced silent cry number that always happened before the waterworks started.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" He asked gently, immediately walking around the island to go to her. At her father acknowledgment, Carly started crying harder and dropped her spoon into her bowl.
"You'restillmadatmeeeee!!" She sobbed, rubbing at her eyes with her little hands. Nick and Sara had figured out that she had a magical power to blame everything on herself. They'd kind of forgotten that this morning since they were so caught up with their own disagreement.
Nick gently rubbed her back as she cried. "No, sweetheart." He promised her. "I'm not still mad at you. What do you think that?"
Sara watched from the kitchen, feeling bad about Carly's breakdown herself.
"Cuz you're not talking to me, and you and mommy both still look really mad and 'sappointed in me!" She confessed, trying to take deep breaths, but failing miserably.
Nick made a sympathetic sound and looked over at his wife, who looked just as sorry as he probably did. He gently scooped Carly up in his arms so he could give her a big hug, and she wrapped her little arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder.
"Baby, I'm sorry if you thought we were ignoring you." He explained as he rubbed her back soothingly. "You were punished last night, but you know after that I always forgive you right?"
Carly nodded into his shoulder. "Uh-huh. So why're you mad still?"
Nick looked at Sara again from where she was mixing the sugar into both mugs. She gave him a 'we screwed up, didn't we?' look. "Well, Mommy and I had a disagreement last night about something else, so we're both a little sad about that still." He tried to explain without saying too much. Nick didn't want Carly having to deal with adult problems just yet.
"Didn't you say you're sorry?" She asked him innocently, turning her head towards his neck.
"It's a little more complicated than that." Nick told her. Sara put down her spoon and walked over to where her husband was holding their little daughter. She stood next to him and reached out to gently stroke Carly's hair.
"Carly, sometimes adults have disagreements, but that doesn't mean we don't still love you. And it's not your fault." She tried to explain to the five year old.
"I don't think you should fight." She told them honestly, picking up her head and rubbing her eyes.
Sara looked into Nick's eyes, and suddenly fighting seemed like a really dumb thing to do.
"Well, we don't like to fight, but sometimes parents do." Sara put her hand on Nick's upper back, as if to assure him that they were going to talk and work this out. "Daddy and I will talk about it, don't you worry."
Carly reached out for her mother, wanting to be transferred. Nick handed her over, and he and Sara shared a smile of compromise.
"I love you, Mommy." She murmured from her spot in Sara's arms. "And Daddy."
"We love you too." Sara smiled, rubbing her back. Nick stepped forward and kissed the top of Carly's head, and then leaned up to kiss Sara's forehead.
"We can talk later." He whispered, "I need to go get Riley moving."
Sara nodded, and then her husband disappeared towards the back of the house to go wake up the teenager.
Nick knocked on his daughter's bedroom door, and heard nothing coming from inside. He opened it up anyway to find her still sprawled out on her bed, her legs caught up in the sheets and comforter. She was a very deep sleeper. Her alarm clock was beeping, but she was apparently ignoring it. Nick cleared his throat and shut it off.
"Riley, come on." He grabbed her hand and shook her arm a little bit. "This is your third call. Out."
She mumbled something incoherent and tried to roll away from her father, but Nick pulled on her arm a little more. The third call was past the 'being nice' phase of loving kisses to the forehead and gentle words. Riley was now in the 'get your ass out of bed' phase.
She continued to ignore him, and Nick thought about what Sara had argued about last night. He never disciplined her, and she was apparently heading quickly into the stage where she completely ignored his commands, like she was doing now.
"I'm gonna start counting, and by the time I get to three, you better be up, or I'll be taking your cell phone and your tv privileges." He threatened. Nick didn't understand why it was so much easier to threaten Carly than Riley. He guessed he had more history and practice with the five year old.
Riley quirked one eye open and furrowed her forehead. "What?" She picked her head up slightly.
"One…" Nick crossed his arms and began. Riley's eyes both opened and she sat up on her elbows, looking at him to see if he was serious.
"Two…" She sighed and pushed the covers off.
"You're insane." She muttered as she swung her legs over the bed.
"Three." Riley was standing with her arms crossed, mirroring Nick's stance.
"Jeez, you don't have to start counting and go postal on me." She told him, scratching an itch over her ear a little bit. "I was about to get up."
"Let's lose the attitude." Nick told her bluntly. "Calling you three times is ridiculous, and I would like a little more respect from you around here. We're leaving in fifteen minutes. I better see you at the breakfast table in five. Move it." He told her, then walked towards her door.
Riley scoffed but didn't say anything more as he left and shut the door. What the hell had just happened? Did he threaten to take her cell phone away? Riley went to her drawers and angrily fished out a pair of socks and threw them at her door.
She clenched her fists together. "Bite me."