Page 73 of Pooh

“Calm down and let’s talk about this.”

“What’s there to talk about? I take a five-minute catnap by accident and wake up tagged with a sharpie by that little devil’s spawn!”

Big Petey comes strolling into the room at that moment and stops by Axel’s side while looking him over. His eyes widen, his laughter booms across the room, and he starts shaking his head at his kid.

“Son, I think you should have thought twice about getting that tat.”

“It’s not a fucking tat! For Christ’s sake, Dad! That monster child drew this on me with ink that won’t wash the fuck off!” Axel bellows while pointing at Craig.

“You started it!” Craig insists from behind my legs while carefully peeking around to look at Axel.

“You asked about my tats! Said you wanted one someday, so I drew a little one on your arm! That’s a far cry from defacing my head, you little shit!”

“You wrote ‘I’m a brat’ on my arm and then laughed when you told me how many baths I’d have to take to get it off, you big shit!”

“How do you know what it says? You can’t even read yet!” Axel barks.

“I’m smart enough to ask someone who can! Duh!”

“I should beat your ass for this!” Axel threatens.

“Ha! As if! Pooh won’t let you touch me! He won’t let anyone hurt me! And you’d be scared if you saw his mad face!” Craig shouts back.

I grin at Axel and watch him roll his eyes.

“I could take Pooh,” Axel tells Craig.

“You wish,” Craig grins at him.

I reach down and pull Craig out the rest of the way from behind me and lift his arm to see the “tat” Axel gave him. Yeah, it’s going to take a lot of soap and water to remove it but, then again, so is Axel’s new tat.

“Okay, so here’s the thing. I don’t even want to know why you were taking a nap while babysitting him or any of the other details. You two are on a timeout from each other. And no more tats for either of you! Got it?” I inform them both.

“Yeah, Pooh. No tats,” Craig agrees easily.

“What-the-fuck-ever,” Axel spits before storming out of the room.

As soon as the door closes behind Axel, the guys in the room howl in laughter. Reno’s face is completely red and Petey has to wipe tears from his eyes. Even Craig is full on laughing at the chaos he caused. I hope for all of our sakes that the baby Bailey is carrying is a girl. Petey’s right–the world doesn’t need two Axels. Though, I do have to admit that Craig is a close second to Axel in creating trouble. We should probably have them DNA tested to make sure they’re not related.

-*- -*- -*- -*-

“When can I ride your bike with you?” Craig asks while we’re driving to the bakery to pick up Pippa.

“We’ll ask Pippa what she thinks. If she’s okay with it, I’ll take you for a short ride tomorrow. Sound good?”

“Awesome!” he shouts while bouncing in his car seat.

“Did you have fun today with Bella and the twins?”

“Yeah, Bella’s the best. The twins will be more fun when they can talk better. Gee and Loki played with me when the twins took their nap and Bella had to do her homework. When you move into your house will Pippa and me still get to see you?” he asks while tossing a look my direction.

“Of course, you will. I’m hoping you both will stay there a lot with me. You cool with that?” I ask him.

“Yeah, I like being at the clubhouse. Lots of people to talk to and the pets are fun. Chubs teaches me cool things and Bailey has been showing me how to draw.” He stops talking long enough to giggle for a moment. “We shouldn’t tell Axel that though.”

“No, let’s keep that our little secret.” I pause and then ask the question that’s been bugging me. “Why a dick? I mean, what made you choose to draw a dick on Axel’s head?”

“Axel called Gunner a dickhead earlier today. When I was thinking about what to draw, I remembered that. Get it? I drew a dick on his head.” Craig dissolves into laughter.

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