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There was a little flurry of footsteps and then Martin climbed up onto Way’s lap, giving him barely any time to move his laptop out of the way before it could get trampled. “Mama!”
“Oh, Martin.” Way adjusted the pup so he was sitting down instead. “Aren’t you supposed to be in bed? Pete said he would read you a story.”
Pete came through the doorway, following after Martin. “Little one, why are you rushing off? Weren’t you going to ask Papa something?”
Martin shook his head, “No! I wanna ask Mama.” His little cheeks puffed out in frustration.
“But Papa can answer,” Pete tried, sounding desperate. Way had no idea what was going on. He looked between the two and hoped he wouldn’t be forced to settle some kind of parent-child argument. Pete was supposed to be good at conflict resolution with his son. He had mind-reading. Way was pretty sure he hadn’t been Martin’s stepparent long enough to have the experience necessary to solve an argument between a four-year-old and a thirty two-year-old in a way that wouldn’t potentially upset the pup. “I can find a book to explain the answer,” he tried again.
Martin just shook his head even harder. “Nooo!” he insisted. He turned to Way, and Way saw Pete mouth that he was sorry. “Papa will just lie! Like he did with Santa! Mama’s never lied to Martin.”
Way winced. Just a week earlier he had accidentally told Martin that Santa Claus wasn’t real, and it seemed the pup was still upset with Pete about it. To be fair to himself, Way thought, it wasn’t his fault. He’d had no idea that Pete had told Martin that Santa was real, so when Charlie had told Martin to behave or Santa wouldn’t give him presents, Way had laughed and said Martin didn’t believe in little kid stuff like that and Pete didn’t need fake stories to get Martin to behave. Only for the pup to have his worldview shattered. He’d been very upset that Pete had technically lied to him.
“Okay… what’s up, Martin?”
“Where do babies come from?” the pup asked him.
Way didn’t get why Pete looked so apologetic. He blinked, confused. Martin should have known that, especially since Babe was pregnant and he’d thought Martin understood that that meant a baby was growing inside of him. “You know that already.”
Martin sighed. “I know they come from mamas’ bellies. But how does the baby get in there? P’Charlie said love but that’s not a real answer. And P’North said P’Babe ate his baby, but that’s dumb. And Uncle Alan started saying something about a bird-”
Way gave Pete a wide-eyed look, “You weren’t going to tell him the stupid stork story, were you?”
Pete tried to defend himself, “Baby, Santa and the stork are two very different things-”
Martin interrupted him. “How do they get there, Mama?”
“When two people have sex.”
The pup made a face. “Oh… ew.”
“Way!” Pete cried, aghast.
“What?” Way asked, confused as to why Pete looked so shocked.
“Wait, Martin, how do you know what sex is?” Pete asked weakly.
“Mama told me.”
“When?”
“Uh… at the race.”
The answer was obviously not enough for Pete. Way elaborated, “When I took him to the track a month ago. He really wanted to see Charlie and Babe, but they were busy, and I had to tell him why so he wouldn’t get upset.”