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The pitter-patter of tiny feet echoed through the otherwise silent kitchen. There was a swoosh , followed by a pop , then the cluck cluck of ceramic against tile. A rather long bout of silence followed, occasionally broken by low smacking sounds, before a cluck , a bang , and then a swoosh rang in another round of pitter-pattering pajama-clad feet on the tile floor.
She’d made it about halfway down the hallway, and was almost at the door to her room, when two hands grabbed her off the floor and lifted her up in the air.
“Hands up,” Logan instructed as he sat the toddler on his hip. Chocolate was smeared all across her mouth, cookie crumbs spread across her cheeks and nose, and there was no mistaking who the so-far unidentified cookie thief in the Echolls-Mars household actually was.
Ava raised a hand in the air, waggling her chocolate-covered fingers innocently, while she hid the other hand behind her back.
“No cookie,” she replied sweetly, knowing exactly what it was her father was looking for.
“How about the other hand?”
She brought the hand she'd held up behind her back, fidgeted for a moment, then held up the other one, waving it from side to side so her father could see she wasn't hiding anything in her palm.
"No cookie," she repeated.
"Really," Logan chuckled as he reached around the tiny body in his arms and plucked the chocolate chip cookie Ava was hiding behind her back out of her hand. "Wow. I found a cookie behind your back."
Ava giggled delighted, then pointed at the cookie in Logan's hand.
"Daddy, you found a cookie!"
"I did! I wonder how it got in that little hand of yours. Do you know how it got there?"
The toddler shook her head, "You're mat-shick, daddy!"
"Did you eat a chocolate cookie?"
"No," she replied and licked the remnants of the chocolate off her lips.
"Ava."
He gave her a stern look, and was immediately countered with a feisty shake of the head.
"I eated no cookie, daddy."
"Really. Where does this cookie come from then?"
"You found it here."
She twisted in his arms and made a deliberate point of indicating the spot behind her back where she’d hidden the cookie only a minute before.
"And how did it get there?"
The toddler tugged her head to her side, held her hands up and shrugged, "I dunno."
"Are you sure you didn't eat a cookie?"
"Yes, I eated no cookie."
"I wonder where all those cookies you baked with mommy went, then."
"I eated no cookie."
He wiped his thumb across his daughter's cheek, scrubbing off a bit of chocolate and cookie crumbles as he started carrying her back towards the kitchen.
"How come there's cookie and chocolate all over your face then?"
Again, she shrugged her shoulders at him, "I dunno."
"Ava."
"I eated no cookies, daddy,” Ava replied, dramatically drawing out the word no and emphasizing it with a vigorous head-shaking, first to the left, then to the right.
"Remember when mommy and daddy told you that it's important to always tell the truth?"
"I eated no cookie."
Logan sat her down on the counter in the kitchen and reached for a paper towel to clean off his daughter’s face.
"Where does all that chocolate come from?" he inquired, wiping it off Ava’s cheek.
"I eated shock-lit," she proclaimed triumphantly, “no cookie.”
"And where was the chocolate?"
She grinned at him mischievously, "It was in a cookie."
"I thought you ate no cookie."
"I eated no cookie. I eated the shock-lit in the cookie. But no cookie."
"Did you pick the chocolate chips out of the cookies?"
He chuckled as he placed a hand on the counter top on either side of Ava’s tiny body, then gave her his serious daddy-face. There was silence between father and daughter, the toddler just gazing at him, biting down on her lip as she squirmed on the counter.
“Ava?”
“I - I wanted shock-lit. Not the cookie.”
“Sweetie pie, mommy put a lot of work into baking those cookies. You can’t just pick them apart because you want the chocolate chips.”
“But I wanted some.”
Logan lifted the lid of the cookie jar and peered inside. Lo and behold, every single cookie left in the jar had been skillfully picked apart and left behind was a huge crumble of cookies.
“You picked apart all the cookies?” he laughed, no longer able to contain his amusement about his daughter’s latest attempt at I can outsmart both my parents . “Mommy will be really sad if she sees what you did to her cookies.”
“Uh oooh. Mommy don't be sad!”
“Look at the mess you made.”
He held up the cookie jar for her, and Ava peeked inside, studying the contents intently as she swept her tongue over her lips. Suddenly, the toddler's head snapped back, and she looked at her father expectantly with a pair of big, blue eyes.
"We bake cookies for mommy!" she exclaimed, nodding her head at him in approval.
"Daddy can't bake, peanut," Logan laughed at his daughter's enthusiastic nodding. The resourcefulness of a Mars never ceased to amaze him. "Daddy's the cook, mommy's the baker."
"I bake! You help, daddy."
She wriggled in her spot, holding up her arms, letting Logan know she wanted to be put down on the ground. Instead, he hoisted her on his hip and pointed a finger up in the air.
"Now here's an idea. Ava doesn't bake new cookies to replace the one she picked apart. Instead, Ava fesses up and tells mommy she's sorry."
"No!" Ava shook her head vehemently and continued to wriggle in his arms. "We bake cookies so mommy don't be sad."
"You have to tell mommy what you did, peanut."
The little girl pouted, sticking her bottom lip out and giving him her best puppy dog look. If there's one thing she's perfected in her nearly three years of age, it's that adorable look of you'll just love me nonetheless mixed with just a hint of mischief.
"You tell her and then you say you're sorry and mommy won't be very sad," Logan explained to her, trying not to give in to his daughter's begging expression. He just couldn’t help it - the moment that adorable little human being had entered the world, he’d been whipped. He’d do anything for her, even if it meant hiding the cookie mess she’d created from Veronica and telling her he’d had some late morning chocolate cravings. But he knew already that she’d chew his head off if he, as usual, cleaned up the mess their daughter had made without there being any consequences for Ava. For once, he intended to be strong and not give in to his daughter’s merciless begging.
"But I wanted shock-lit."
"If you want chocolate, you ask for it nicely and then you might get some. But you don't steal cookies and most of all, you don't pick them apart."
"I want shock-lite, daddy." She crooked her head to the side and gave him an adorably sweet smile. When she noticed the look her father gave her, she added a mumbled "please" to her request.
He took a deep breath and sighed, "I think you've had enough chocolate for today."
"But I want some."
"No more chocolate.”
“Please.”
“Ava,” he admonished her, earning an exasperated huff from his daughter in return. “When mommy finishes her shower, you’ll tell her what you did to the cookies and that you’re sorry.”
“No!” the girl pouted, and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I want shock-lit!”
“And daddy said no more chocolate.”
“But I want some!”
“And daddy said you can’t have some.”
Immediately, arms and legs flailed in the air as Ava shouted from the top of her lungs, “Shock-lit!”
“Daddy’s gonna put you on a time-out if you don’t change your attitude.”
“No! I - Want - Shock-lit!”
“And daddy said no!”
“SHOCK-LIT!” the toddler screamed, repeating it over and over while her little fists hammered against her father’s chest.
"Ava!" he admonished her, trying to get her to stop before he'd had to put her on a time-out. He reached for her hands, one after the other, stopping her from hitting him as his fingers curled tightly around her small wrists
"I - WANT - SHOCK-LIT!" she wailed, continuing her assault with a headbut against his shoulder.
“That’s it!”
Logan marched towards his daughter’s room while she continued her temper tantrum in his arms. He picked up a kiddie chair as he entered, placed it in the middle of the room, then sat Ava down on it.
“Two minute time-out!”
The toddler harrumphed loudly and turned her gaze away, thus deliberately avoiding looking at her father. Time-outs had become more of a regular occurrence ever since the terrible twos had brought out not only the Mars tenacity in Ava, but also her outright stubbornness. Usually, it was Veronica who put her down on the time-out chair in her room, simply for the fact that mother and daughter shared that same stubbornness which more often than not encouraged the younger Mars to put down her foot with the same energy her mother put forth. And that usually resulted in what Logan jokingly referred to as a classic Sergio Leone standoff.
He plopped down in front of the chair, and waited until Ava’s dramatic huffing and puffing had died down.
"It's okay if you're angry with daddy for putting you in the chair," he tried to calm her with a soothing voice, "But it's not okay not to listen to mommy and daddy and make a huge mess and it’s not okay to throw a temper tantrum and hit daddy. Daddy's gonna sit with you, okay? When you've calmed down, daddy's gonna be right here for you, peanut."
“Sowwy,” she finally mumbled, lowering her head and resting her chin against her arms that she had folded against her tiny chest.
“No more temper tantrum about wanting chocolate?”
“No.”
"No more hitting daddy?"
"No."
“Are you gonna fess up to mommy what you did to the cookies?”
She nodded affirmatively, “yes.”
“Fine, then let’s find mommy.”
He held a hand out towards his daughter, but instead of reaching for it, the little girl bolted from the chair and was out of the room faster than Logan could react. He jumped up and dashed after her, just in time to catch a glimpse of pink pajamas vanishing into the master bedroom. When he reached the door, a smile lit up his face at the sight in front of him. Veronica was sitting at the foot of their bed, clad in nothing but her fuzzy robe, hair still wet from her recent shower while Ava stood on her thighs, arms wrapped tightly around her neck and smothering her with kisses.
“Care to share what this little kissing spree is all about?”
“I eated no cookie!” Ava exclaimed immediately, shaking her head at her mother.
“You tell mommy what you did instead,” Logan said as he leaned against the door frame.
“I eated the shock-lit in the cookie,” she confessed and snuggled against Veronica's body. “I’m sowwy.”
“Do I want to look inside the cookie jar?”
“We can have cookie crumbles for dessert tonight.”
Veronica sighed, “How many?”
“Every single one,” Logan replied, earning an annoyed eye-roll and short huff from her. “She’s already been on a two minute time-out for that and for the temper tantrum she threw afterwards.”
As if on cue, Ava's head popped up and she glared at her father, “You nawty, daddy. You put me in the chair."
“Daddy put you in the chair?” Veronica looked over at her husband who just bobbed his eyebrows at her. Giving him an appreciative smile, she turned her attention back to the little girl bouncing in her lap who looked up at her with big, round eyes. "Are you better now? No more angry Ava?"
"Yes. No shock-lit. No cookie. No nawty chair."
She kissed her daughter's forehead, then smoothed over the messy jumble of blonde locks on the top of her head.
"We'll see how long that no more naughty chair actually lasts this time."
"Fowevaaaaah!" Ava exclaimed and hopped off the bed. Like a little whirlwind, she dashed out of the master bedroom and was out of sight.
"You put her on a time-out, Mr. Echolls," she crooned as she got up from the bed and headed towards the dresser.
"The tenacity of a Mars," he answered her with a genuine smirk as he flicked his eyes heavenwards.
"You're still in her good books if she's talking to you." She opened the top drawer and pulled out a pair of panties and a bra. "The last time I put her in the chair, she didn't even look at me for the rest of the day."
"I thought I'd give you a break and be the naughty daddy for once."
"I've got naughty down to a T," she snickered as she undid the belt of her robe and let it slip from her body. Flashing him her naked backside, she flashed him a wicked smile over her shoulder while she put on her panties.
"Don't I know that," he mused, licking his lips absentmindedly as he watched her reach behind her back and close the clasp of her black bra. "Can you get the Mars bar ready while I take a shower? We better not be late for brunch with Wallace and Shae for a change."
"You should have just showered with me like I suggested," she winked at him.
He pulled his shirt over his head and, throwing it onto the bed, took two large strides and met her in front of their walk-in closet. A coy smile on his face, he bent down to place a quick kiss on her lips.
"But then I wouldn't have caught our little cookie thief."
"Remind me to put the cookie jar where she can't reach it next time." She kissed him again, then swatted his butt playfully. "Now hurry. Or we'll really be late for our brunch date."
"Yes, ma'am," he chuckled and gave her a mock salute. "Maybe we can continue this discussion in bed tonight because I've been a really, really naughty daddy, honeybun."
"Hurry!" she laughed, shaking her head slightly. "And hey," she called after him as he disappeared in the bathroom, "you've got yourself a date tonight!"