Page 118 of Stage Dive: Short Stories & Novellas
Tommy giggled.“No, Aunty Ev.No!”
“Are you threatening my child with vegetables again?”Mal tickled his son, making him wriggle like a worm.“That’s just sick and wrong.How could you, Child Bride?”
“Chide bwide,” repeated Tommy dutifully.
“How long are you going to continue with that?”I took a sip of my drink.“I’m heading toward thirty, for heaven’s sake.”
Mal just winked.
David had no sooner handed the boy over than Tommy squirmed to be set down.Little legs pumping, he was off and running.Mal shook his head.“They never stop.And that’s why he will be an only child.”
“Yeah?”asked David.
Mal shook his head.“Oh, yeah.Phew.One and done.”
Pale arms wrapped around Mal’s middle as his redheaded wife Anne joined the conversation.“I didn’t know you felt that way.”
“But we discussed this,” said Mal.“I know we did.”
“Was this like the time we discussed turning one of the bedrooms into a giant ball pit?Or was I actually awake when this conversation happened?”
He shrugged.“Maybe not, now that you mention it.Tommy was around six months old, and he had one of those diaper explosions where it went right up the back.Never been so traumatized in all my life.”
“I thought one more might be nice.”Anne rested her head against his arm.“Maybe you could think about it.”
“We do make pretty babies.”
“This is true.”
“And you get incredibly horny when you’re pregnant.Once you stop puking, that is.”
“That’s not my fault,” said Anne.“There’s a lot of hormones going on.They stir things up in me, in both cases.”
Mal grinned.“Then the tit fairy visits.I love it when that happens.They get so sensitive.”
Anne looked to heaven, but there was no help forthcoming.
“But enough about you,” said Mal.“Really, the world deserves, nay needs, more of my DNA.Think of it, a legion of ridiculously good looking drumming artistes.”
David snorted.
“Shut up, Davie,” griped Mal.“Petty jealousy is beneath you, bro.”
“Hold on.A legion?”Anne’s brows rose.“I was just thinking of a sibling for Tommy.”
“Only one?How could you be so selfish, Pumpkin?”
A little line appeared between Anne’s brows as she stared at her husband in wonder or maybe bewilderment.Possibly both.
“If we had three then they could start a band and be like Hansen or the Jonas Brothers.”
“Oh, that’s definitely worth considering,” I added.Because encouraging the lunatic drummer sometimes was just an honor and a privilege.
“Thought they were all going to be drummers?”David tucked a strand of long hair behind his ear.“How’s that going to work?”
“Awesomely,” said Mal.
Anne held back laughter.
