Tabby and I made eye contact and raised our brows at each other and then went back to watching them. Just then, DB made a move with his arms out, no doubt to take Liv, and I stiffened and scowled at him. When he glared back, I just mouthed ‘fuck off’ at him, and moved her a little higher up my chest. “Ok, both of you are pissing me off. Give me the baby,” he pointed at me, “and you stop calling me sheriff.”
“I’ll stop if you stop calling me Josephine. You started doing it out of the blue and I know fine and dandy that Tabby told you I hated it, just like I hate being called Jo,” she informed him coolly, telling me something that was news to me. Leaving them to argue it out, I tried to think if I’d ever called her that but I was sure I hadn’t. Her name was already an abbreviated version of her full name, so I didn’t see the point. Throughout all of their bickering, though, I didn’t once give him any indication that I was going to let him take Olivia – the guy could shove his badge up his ass before that happened. “Fine,” he sighed, and as he gave into Jose, a big smile split his face and he moved again to take the baby.
“I didn’t give you any indication that I was giving her up, now back away. You’ll get your time but this is mine with her just now, so go get back in your box,” I growled at him, making Liv giggle as she felt the vibrations of it against her back.
“If you weren’t holding her, I’d shove the stuffed bunny next to your foot up your ass,” he muttered.
“If I wasn’t holding her, I’d shove your badge up your ass,” I replied simply, and then rubbed it in. “But I am, and you’re not, so…”
Tabby jumped in before he could reply back. “Dave, you’ll never guess what happened at school today,” she started, grabbing his hand and getting his full attention, leaving me to get back to where I was at before the big hemorrhoid interrupted.
Keeping the little princess held securely against my chest so he couldn’t sneak up and steal her, I twisted in my seat and turned to face her. Her expression was priceless, like she was waiting for me to repeat something embarrassing to her. Maybe this counted as that, I didn’t know, but I was going to use everything I could to get her to take a chance. I wasn’t going to force her, but I wanted to open her eyes.
“I heard a story today about how you had an issue with turning down a dare.”
Her head snapped toward where Tabby was still standing with DB. “Oh, you little b…”
“Ah, ah, ah. Now that’s not nice,” Tabby interrupted, nodding her head at Liv who was now chewing on her foot as she watched us all. Apparently teething was a bitch for babies so they chewed on everything. This caused me huge amounts of anxiety if I was honest. I knew the dangers of germs given what I did for a living, and I knew exactly how many and how far they got. I also worked tattooing people which obviously involved breaking skin open with a needle, so I was paranoid about whatever ‘mist’ could come about because of the blood and ink and land on my forearms. Because of that and the fact Liv chewed my wrists and arms, I now wrapped a paper towel around my forearms when I worked, and then I cleaned it all with soap and applied two rounds of hand sanitizer before I even went near her. It still wasn’t enough, so her chewing on her own limbs right now was a relief, but the bacteria thing was definitely an issue for me. I’d spoken to my mom about it, though, and she’d told me that babies had been doing it since the dawn of mankind, so to let it go. “I told you that in confidence,” Jose hissed, drawing my attention back to what was going on. “Oh, please,” Tabby waved her hand in the air and snorted. “It’s funny. And it’s about time you had some lighthearted stuff going on in your life. You mother, you work, you adult, you work, you mother some more, you work, then you sleep for a couple of hours, wake up to parent, and sleep again,” she ticked off each one on her fingers, and then gave Jose a sad smile. “Honey, you need to live life a little. Life is short, and it’s full of emotional ups and downs, so if you can get more ups into it, then do it.”
I knew what she meant, but it was depressing as hell all the same. Taking over, I tried to figure out how best to proceed to convince her. In the end, I went with, “She’s right, but I feel emotionally bruised just hearing it worded like that.” Just then, Liv lifted her hand and tugged on my bottom lip, dragging my attention onto her and making me smile as I watched her mom out of the corner of my eye.