Gotit.
“Mikko, you go with Holly so I can help Josh put your car seat in hercar.”
“No.”
You might think “no” means no—and for the most part that’s usually true. But with Mikko, it was all in the inflection of his voice. And in this case he wasn’t screaming the word, so his “no” could be loosely translated to, “Okay, Daddy. That sounds like a greatidea.”
Jyri successfully handed Mikko off to Holly, then he and I walked over to hisSUV.
“Kari and I really appreciate this,” he said. “I can’t remember the last time we hadsex.”
Huh? So that was why Holly and I had to meet them here? So he and Kari could go home and havesex?
Nice.
And in case you missed the sarcasm, there was more in that single word than there was animal shit at thezoo.
He fastened the car seats in Holly’s Corolla. Why not my Nissan GT-R? Have you ever tried squeezing a car seat into a twoseater?
And don’t even say it. I wasnotgiving up my baby. If you had ever ridden in one, you would understandwhy.
We returned to the women. Jyri and Kari said good-bye to the twins and told them to have fun. I could have sworn Jyri’s words held a secret message—reminding the boys to be little hell-raisers and make their daddyproud.
Or maybe that was me beingparanoid.
“Okay, guys,” I said. “You ready to see theanimals?”
“See bear.” Tomas growled like one, then took off running toward the front gate. Not wanting to be left behind, Mikko ran afterhim.
“You corral them and I’ll get the tickets,” Holly said, before walking away and not giving me a chance torespond.
For little guys, those two sure could move. It took me a minute to capture them. With each holding on to my hands, we walked over to join Holly inline.
Thirty seconds—that was how long they lasted before they got bored of waiting. They released my hands and ran toward the gate again. Holly stepped up to the cashier window to buy the tickets, and I hurried after the boys a secondtime.
Once I caught up with them, I crouched in front of them. “Hold on you two. Holly’s getting the ticketsnow.”
“See lion.” Tomas tried to duck past me, but I scooped him up before he got far. Hegiggled.
“Nice try, dude.” Luckily Mikko decided not to run off, so to stall him, I asked, “What animals do you want tosee?”
“No.”
One corner of my mouth jerked up. “Is that a type ofanimal?”
“No.”
“Ah, so it is a biganimal?”
“No.”
“A small onethen?”
“No.”
Meanwhile, during this enlightening conversation, Tomas discovered my nose and grabbedit.
“Do you know what that is,Tomas?”
