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“A good rabbit,” Noah said. “Like things you do automatically.”
“A good habit?” I asked. “Is that what you mean?”
“No—a good rabbit,” Noah said, sounding impatient. “Like, good rabbits give you happy things, and bad rabbits give you sad things.”
“Right, of course. Where are the rabbits again?” I asked.
“They’re in your brain,” he said.
He was so confident in himself, I couldn’t bear to correct him again. This would just be another one I’d have to leave alone until he faced ridicule about it. It was too damned cute.
Noah climbed into the bath, sat down, and let out a little yelp when he completely vanished into the mountain of bubbles. Marley and I laughed so hard, we had tears in our eyes.
What followed was a chaotic mess of a bath where the three of us, armed with washcloths, started swatting down the ever-increasing mass of bubbles coming from the water. By the time we’d finished and gotten down to only a slightly ridiculous amount of bubbles, we were all panting and tired. Noah looked up at me with bubbles all over his curly, damp hair and shoulders.
“I think I actually did use too much bubbles, Dad,” he admitted.
“That’s alright, little man,” I said. “You’re going to be cleaner than any boy has ever been when we’re done here.”
He giggled and beamed up at me. “Squeaky clean, like a little duck.”
“That’s right,” I said.
Truth be told, the bubbles were so invasive to the bathing process that I wasn’t even sure he did get properly clean. But he was just a little kid. As long as he didn’t stink up the room when he went to school, his hair being a little underwashed wouldn’t be the end of the world.
While I got Noah toweled off and dressed, Marley ordered the pizza, getting a few extra pies to give to the shifters staying in the dorms. Then we went to one of the rooms Marley had recently finished, the den.
It was furnished with a huge couch, one with a big round bottom to allow people to lie down...or shifters to come together in a big cuddle puddle. We’d put a big screen and a projector in the room for movie nights.
Marley had washed the blankets from the night on the roof of the beach house and put them in a few tasteful chests in the room for people to use at their leisure. We all climbed up onto the massive couch. While Noah and I were discussing what movie we should all watch, a shadow appeared in the doorway.
Noah gasped and climbed over to Marley, sitting on her lap and looking over at the figure with a protective glare.
When I looked over, Ashton was standing in the doorway, holding a stack of pizza boxes, looking awkward.
“S-sorry to interrupt,” he said. “Uh, these just came for you guys. I didn’t mean to break up family time.”
“Oh, no,” Marley said, smiling and rubbing Noah’s back soothingly. “Actually, some of that pizza is for you guys, too. We’re about to watch a movie if you and the others want to join us.”
“What movie?” Ashton asked, looking almost like a kid with the way his head perked up.
“I think we settled on...” I said, looking up at the screen again. “Rocco Rocket?”
“Oh, shit—I mean, crap,” Ashton said. “That’s the Studio Jimbli movie, isn’t it? I love that movie!”
“Really?” I asked. “We’ve never seen it.”
“Dude, what? Hold on, I’m gonna go grab everyone. Every person should see that movie at least once. It’s fricking amazing.”
Ashton hurried over to place the pizza boxes on one of the side tables before turning around and bolting back out the door. I sometimes forgot he was just a kid in his early twenties. But now, he was certainly acting like it.
“I don’t want to watch a movie with Ashton,” Noah said, his voice small and bitter.
I blinked, looking over at him. “Why not, buddy?”
“Because he’s mean, and he tried to hurt Momma,” he said, squeezing Marley even tighter. She winced, his little arms squeezing her midsection a little too tightly.
“I know he’s a little scary,” I said, “but sometimes we have to let people make up for things when they make mistakes. And Ashton made a really big mistake when he ran at Marley. But he apologized for it, so we gotta give him a chance to show us he’s doing better than that time.”
