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Keith stood at the open door to the refrigerator and stared down. There, at the bottom, right in front of the veggie bin and wedged in between the water bottles sat the tiny blonde toddler, dressed in nothing but a diaper.
“I need you to please exit,” he told her sternly, a finger waggling directly at her.
The little girl looked at him, pigtails bobbing animatedly as she vehemently shook her head no.
“Please exit the refrigerator,” he told her again, his voice now laced with the slightest amusement.
Again, the toddler shook her head at him just as the onslaught started. Incoherent words came out of her mouth and she waved a hand in the air while nodding her head, then shook her head, then just stared at him wide-eyed and threw her arms in the air.
“Ma’am, please quit resisting.” He gave her his best Sheriff impression, a finger still pointed directly at her which he then moved from the fridge towards the door. “Get out of the refrigerator.”
She rose to her feet, clutching the shelf in the door to steady her wobbly feet as she once again just babbled away and shook her head enthusiastically.
“You’re resisting arrest,” he countered her, desperately trying to hide the chuckle that this adorable little human being was so skillfully evoking.
“Ma’am.”
Bright blue eyes stared up at him as a devilish smirk crossed the toddler’s face and her diaper-clad butt plopped down in the fridge again.
“Please exit the refrigerator.”
She stuck out her tongue and blew him a pretty wet raspberry.
“No, ma’am. You need to exit now.”
Rather vividly, the little girl continued her incomprehensible argument as she chattered, gabbled and quacked while waving a dismissing hand at her opponent and stomping her feet.
“We don’t have time for this. Exit the refrigerator.”
He knew he could just put an end to all this if he picked her up and closed the fridge door behind her, but the sight he was looking at was just too damn adorable. Fifteen months of age and a five word vocabulary did not deter this young lady from effectively standing her ground. She wanted to sit in the fridge naked, so she was gonna sit in the fridge naked.
“Ma’am, you’re resisting arrest, and you need to go,” he laughed, no longer able to suppress the delight this little interaction was bringing about.
Her short pigtails bounced in the air when she shook her head no. She blabbered on and on, arms flailing in the air, feet pounding against the kitchen floor. There was no way he was gonna make her leave her comfortably chilled throne in the fridge willingly.
“I’m going to call in the reinforcements now, ma’am.”
The babbling stopped for a moment and the baby’s lips pursed into a big ‘o’, eyes opened wide. Tiny fingers curled around the wire on the shelf and she pulled herself up on her feet. Her eyes darted from side to side, and when she noticed no-one was actually walking into the kitchen, she waggled a finger at her accuser.
“Honey?” he called out, and his gaze wandered in the direction of the living room for just a second. “Can you join me in the kitchen for a moment?”
When he turned back, he just caught a glimpse of tiny feet being pulled inside the fridge and arms clutching legs as the tiny blonde snuggled into the tight corner between the side of the fridge and the water bottles inside the door. Again, she stuck her tongue out at him, pouting.
"You hollered?” came the response a moment later when Veronica walked into the room and joined her father in front of the fridge.
“Did you put that one in my fridge?”
Keith pointed at his granddaughter who crooked her head to her side at the sight of her mother. Shaking her head vehemently, she babbled again, and this time, ended her tirade with a loud “no!”.
Veronica bit down on her lip, eyes rolling upwards, while desperately trying not to explode with laughter.
“Maybe you should ask that little Mars bar in your fridge how she got in there?”
Keith turned back to Ava, who first looked up at him wide-eyed, before the finger waggling started again and she was cackling enthusiastically.
“Ma’am, that’s your best defense?” he interrupted her, and the toddler’s eyes immediately darted to her mother.
“Don’t look at me,” Veronica told her and pointed her thumb at her father, “you deal with him. He’s the Sheriff.”
The little girl opened her mouth, gaped at her grandfather, then closed her mouth again without as much as a sound. She threw her arms in the air, and in doing so, hit her hand against the glass shelf above her. Her bottom lip started to tremble almost immediately, and both adults in the room knew what was about to come.
Veronica crouched down in front of the fridge, almost on eye-level with her daughter just as Ava’s lips turned into a silent wail. The little girl wriggled her butt against the veggie bin, before she pulled herself up. Arms spread wide, she waddled the short distance to her, and threw herself against her with a loud sob. She snuggled against her mother’s body and held up her hand for her to see. With a comforting smile, Veronica picked up the tiny hand and gently kissed her daughter’s palm.
“There, all better.”
Ava answered with a short nod and a hiccup and placed her head against her mother’s shoulder. Veronica’s hand cupped the back of the toddler’s head a moment later as she stood. Settling her comfortably in her arms, she swayed with her gently, trying to soothe the occasional sob that still escaped the little girl.
“I think it’s nap time for my little Mars bar. Do you want mommy to put you down or grandpa?”
Ava lifted her head from her mother’s shoulder, looked over at her grandfather, and immediately reached out for him.
“Guess you’re not as intimidating as you think, Sheriff,” Veronica smirked as she handed the baby over to her father.
“I can see a pattern of delinquency here,” he whistled as he slowly made his way towards the living room, softly cradling his granddaughter in his arms. “She sat in the fridge, you sat in the freezer…”
And with that, he vanished out of sight.