Mrs. Billings
My wife
My princess
My love
My world
Lost for a moment, still staring at the tattoo he’d gotten on his upper arm just over a year ago, Brandon’s train of thought was derailed as Regina gasped and Buddy, their six-month-old beagle, barked.
“Artie baby, not so fast!”
Brandon glanced up at the tall slide his son was now rushing up the ladder of. He tugged on Buddy’s leash to calm him then smiled. “He’s all right,” he assured her, wrapping his arm around her from behind and rubbing her pregnant belly.
“He wants to keep up with all the other boys, but he’s the littlest one,” she said.
Brandon watched as his son effortlessly climbed the ladder and reached the top, holding his hand out for him to see. He gave his son the thumbs up and smiled. A few years ago, having a family of his own was the furthest thing on his mind. Now here he was with a wife, a son, another one on the way, and a dog.
Artie grabbed hold of the pole on top of the slide and swung himself out over the open slide, laughing and making Regina gasp again and pull away from Brandon.
“Arturo Stephen Billings, don’t you dare do that again!”
Brandon made eye contact with Artie and shot him a warning look. His son sat down on the slide and slid down hands in the air. He came down so fast he flew into another boy at the bottom and they both fell into the sand. The other boy, at least two years older and twice his size, got up then shoved Artie back into the sand. Artie rolled around, laughing.
Regina started to charge. “Hey! That’s not nice!” she said to the other boy who’d already started walking away but turned to look at her.
“Relax,” Brandon assured her again. “He loves that shit. It’s just horseplay, baby. It’s what boys do.”
Artie was already running back to climb the ladder of the slide. One of the other boys pushed him aside and climbed up before him.
“No pushing!” Regina yelled out, glaring at the other boy.
Artie didn’t even flinch as he rushed up behind the other boy, laughing. Brandon watched, chuckling and calming Regina the whole time. It was the same thing every time they came to the park. By the time they packed things up, Brandon could see his son wouldn’t even make it out of the parking lot awake. As usual, he made Dad proud, playing hard and keeping up with the big boys the entire time.
Brandon chased him down and tackled him on the grass. Buddy joined in the fun, jumping all over them both. This was something he’d never had the pleasure of doing with his own dad, and it was something he knew Artie loved. It was now one of his most favorite things to do with his boy—wrestle and see how much Artie enjoyed their time together.
“Time to go,” he said as Artie tried to squirm away, laughing hysterically, and Brandon tickled him. “I said it’s time to go. Hey,” he said as his son continued to squirm. “Who loves you?”
“Mommy!” Artie laughed.
“Who else?”
“Buddy!”
This was a game they played, and Artie loved teasing him. “Wise guy, huh,” Brandon tickled him even more making him squeal loudly. “Who else?”
“You!” he finally screeched. “You love me, Daddy.”
“You bet your butt I do,” Brandon said, standing up and pulling him up with him. “You have fun today, champ?” He asked him as he sat him on his shoulders.
“Yeah, fun!” Artie said, and Brandon felt him kiss him on the head.
“Next time maybe we leave Momma Bear home,” Brandon said with a smirk, and Regina peered at him menacingly. “She doesn’t get it.”
“No, Mommy come too.” Artie said.
“All right, all right,” Brandon said with a conceding smile in Regina’s direction. “I guess she can come with us next time.”
Once they had Artie in his car seat and they both sat up front, Brandon checked his rearview mirror and could see his son was already having a hard time keeping his heavy eyelids open. When he saw Brandon looking at him, he opened up his eyes wide in an effort to fight the inevitable slumber. His big blue eyes stared at him for a moment before the lashes came down again slowly.
“I don’t know why he tries to fight it.” Brandon smiled as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“I don’t know why he tries so hard to do everything those other boys do.” Regina frowned. “They’re all so much bigger than he is. Maybe there’s a park somewhere else for just little kids his age.”
“No way,” Brandon said, smiling. “He loves it. Besides, if we go somewhere with little kids, he’ll be doing all the pushing. Then you’ll have to hear it from all the other momma bears.”
“He’s not a bully!” she said.
Brandon laughed. “I know, but he doesn’t know his own strength. He just bulldozes through a crowd of kids, so it’s better that it’s a crowd of bigger kids than smaller ones.”
“That’s your fault for always wrestling with him. It’s all he ever wants to do, even with my brother and sisters—girls.”
Again Brandon couldn’t help laughing. “Well, we’ll just have to teach him some manners with that. It’s not okay to push girls around, but with boys, it’s fine, even bigger ones.”
Regina sighed, rubbing her swollen belly, then groaned. “I can’t even imagine two of them.”
“Yeah, that’s gonna be fun,” Brandon agreed with an even bigger smile.
Regina’s brother had given up trying for a boy after three girls. Regina mentioned it would’ve been nice if her brother had had a boy and they’d named him after her brother and her dad. So when their son was born, Brandon insisted she name him after her dad. She then insisted if they were doing that his middle name would be after Brandon’s dad. Now that they had another boy on the way, she’d already told him this one would be named Brandon. He’d agreed, though she’d balked at the suggestion that if they ever had a girl she’d be named Princess.
“No way,” she’d said. “Girls are evil. She’d probably have a miserable time in school with all the other jealous girls hating on her just because of her name.”
As much as Brandon had talked shit about families like the Moreno’s who were way too overprotective about the princess in their family, he already knew he was going to be a total hypocrite about it. He made no apologies. How the hell was he supposed to know what it felt like to love someone so much you’d be ready to kill if anyone messed with him? He felt this way about both Regina and Artie already, and he was damned sure it’d be even worse with a little girl.
Now that they were going to have two bulldozing boys, maybe if their third was a girl, he could convince Regina that, with brothers like Artie and little Brandon, no one would pick on their daughter, not even girls. Brandon still had time to work on her.
They got home and started their nightly ritual. Regina finished changing their half-asleep little boy into his jammies, saying she didn’t have the heart to put him in the tub now as sleepy as he was.
“He can take a bath in the morning,” she said. Artie stood a little wobbly, holding on to Regina with one hand and rubbing his eye with his other. “Say goodnight to Daddy.”
“Goodnight, Daddy,” Artie said.
“Goodnight, champ.” Brandon smiled, his heart swelling as it always did when his little boy smiled at him. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Artie said as he took Regina’s hand and they began to walk away.
Brandon waited to see if his smartass kid would ruin the tender moment like he always did by saying something to take from it. As young as he was, Artie already knew how to make a funny, but Brandon thought he might be too sleepy. Just when Brandon thought he was home free and he’d gotten an “I love you” from his son with no follow-up wisecracks, Artie turned and smiled.
“And Buddy too.”
Brandon jumped from the sofa, making Artie squeal and take off running to his room. He heard Regina groan as he ran past her to catch Artie.
“Brandon!” she whined. “He was almost out for the night. Oh my God, I already have two of them.”
Brandon laughed as he tackled Artie on the floor, shushing him because he was suddenly wide awake. “I think we’re in trouble,” he said as Artie scrambled to his feet.
Just seeing his son’s bright smile as he leaped into the air to make a flying tackle onto him had him smiling big. Artie landed on Brandon’s stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of him, but he still had to laugh. “Good one!” he said with a groan.
Maybe they would be in trouble, but this was totally worth it.