Page 1 of Peer & Coco

Chapter 1

A foul odor filledthe hallway. Peer Nyland strode forward and quietly pushed his son's bedroom door open, looking inside the room. Tyr held onto the side of his crib, trying his best to shake his bed apart.

He went into the room, pride filling his chest as he grinned at his son. His smile fell as he looked lower at the mess on the sheet. His gaze traveled higher over Tyr's bare legs and stomach.

The disgusting smell came from Tyr.

"Shit," he mumbled, sliding his hands under Tyr's armpits and holding him away from his chest. "What did you do, son?"

Tyr babbled happily. He carried him an arm-length away to the bathroom, trying to breathe in and out of his mouth and not through his nose.

Looking at the shower and back at his son, he was stuck. He couldn't put Tyr down on the floor and spread the mess, and he couldn't hold him in one arm without getting the stink on him.

Tyr kicked his bare legs. Knowing he needed another set of hands, he yelled, "Coco?"

His son stopped struggling to get down and looked toward the bathroom door, anticipating Coco coming to save him. Peer exhaled harshly. "Don't get your hopes up. She's not going to help you escape."

"Yeah?" said Coco behind him. "Oh, ...sh—poop."

"Can you turn on the shower." He stepped closer to the wall, giving her room to get past him.

"Tyr? Sweet face? What in the world did you do?" She glanced at Peer as she kept a wide berth around him, navigating the bathroom. "Give me a second to get the temperature adjusted."

"No hurry." He swallowed, struggling to not breathe through his nose. "I'm not going anywhere."

Coco looked over her shoulder at him, leaving her hand under the running water. The impish grin on her face only made him scowl at her. She was enjoying his discomfort. Changing dirty diapers wasn't his idea of fun, but what Tyr had done by pulling the sticky tabs off his diaper after his nap and then shitting in his crib wasn't normal.

"The water is perfect now." Coco straightened and looked him over and shook her head at the sight of Tyr. "How are you going to do this?"

"I'm going to set him in the tub and hose him off with the showerhead." He stepped closer.

She pressed her back against the wall. He almost handed over Tyr to tease her, but he needed to get his son in the shower and cleaned up.

"This is the second time he's taken off his diaper after his nap," said Coco.

Her squeaky voice got his attention. He looked over his shoulder. She'd pinched her nose closed with her fingers. Her big, brown eyes alert for any sudden movements.

"You're wimping out on me, Collette Lewis," he said.

Holding Tyr's arm with one hand, keeping him on his bare feet in the tub, he wrestled the soiled T-shirt of him. Sweat dripped down his temple. Undressing a wiggling one year old covered in shit in a slippery porcelain tub was harder than it looked.

"I'll work on training him to go on the toilet." He grabbed the showerhead and brought it down to the tub.

"He's too young. I think people potty train their kids when they're two or three years old." Coco held out the bottle of liquid baby soap.

Spraying off every inch of Tyr's body, he soaped up his son from head to toes. Coco placed a towel over his shoulder.

"I don't know what to do." He gritted his teeth.

Parenthood was hard. Despite all the books Coco had bought him on the subject and being warned about all the different stages from his Nordic brothers in Slag Motorcycle Club, he found himself frustrated half the time.

The other half, he couldn't think of a better responsibility to have.

"I'll strip his crib down and get the disinfecting wipes," said Coco.

He picked up his clean bundle. "Thank..."

She'd already left the bathroom. He inhaled deeply, smelling nothing but fresh boy. When Kelli had left Tyr at the gate after he was born and hightailed it out of town, he never imagined himself being a single father. Over the months—renting a house, feeding, changing, overseeing his son's care—Coco had stepped up and offered to move in with him to help out.

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