Irritation crossed Knox’s face and he gritted his teeth. “Say what you have to say, Axel, and then don’t talk to me until you apologize.”
The little motherfucker laughed and rolled his eyes. “I got enough motherfuckershereto talk to, Uncle Knox. I don’t ever got to talk to you for the rest of your fucking life.”
“The kids call me Pop.”
“Luckily,I’mnot a kid. Andyou’reonly called Pop ‘cause Lolly is Lolly. She’s sweet. You’re you. If you wantmeto call you Pop, you got to earn that.”
“What the fuck do you mean I’m me?”
“Do you ever look in the mirror?”
“Every fucking morning.”
“It must not be long then,” Axel said. “Otherwise, you’d see the mean fuckhead that I see.”
Knox gasped. “I’m mean in your estimation?”
Axel smirked. “I’m a kid, so what do I know?”
Tapping out his cigarette, Christopher puffed out his chest, so fucking proud that Axel already knew how to gaslight.
“You just said you were a man.”
“I’m turning eleven soon. How does that make me a man?”
CJ tipped his head down trying to hide his smile, although Ransom and Ryder laughed outright.
Knox snapped his brows together. “You aren’t as smart as you think you are, mister.”
“I’m not the one looking like a confused donkey.”
“I look like a donkey to you?”
“Would a beautiful girl like Lolly marry a fucking donkey, Uncle Knox?”
“Your grandmother is not a girl. She’s almost sixty!”
“Your woman not fifty-four or fifty-five?” Digger asked, frowning.
“Both are close to sixty,” Knox said defensively.
Axel’s mouth dropping open interrupted whatever anyone else might’ve said. Clearly, anyone over a certain age fucked up his entire worldview. He looked at Christopher. “She’s older than you, Dad?”
Christopher sipped his beer. “Yeah, boy.”
“But she has a lot of sense and she remembers things. Plus, she’s so pretty. What happened to you?”
The snickers didn’t bother Christopher in the least. Megan thought he was a god. He didn’t give a fuck if Axel saw him as a shriveled prune found at an excavation site.
“You hard on a man’s ego, boy,” Christopher said, drinking more beer.
“If you talk to your own father with such disrespect, I don’t stand a chance,” Knox grumbled. “What do you have to say and who is the Blonde Warrior?”
“Mom, and I don’t disrespect Dad, Uncle Knox. I talk to him how he got to be talked to. Man to man.”
“Didn’t you just say you were a kid?”
“Do you believe everything you hear?” Axel asked. “Or do you trust your fucking eyes to tell you the truth.”
