190 - Barbershop

190 - Barbershop
A barber lathering a man’s face is like a lion that thinks every man is a wildebeest—careful, yet daring. - Benjamin Franklin

Ty looked in the mirror at the barber shop and appreciated the smooth skin left after a straight razor shave. He reached up and touched his neck and did not feel any of the usual bumps. Grinning at the barber in the mirror, he stood up out of the barber’s chair.

“Damn, that’s nice, Reese,” he said moving closer to the mirror for a thorough inspection. “Bunny is really going to like this.”

“I’m not shaving all of mine off,” Jaxon warned.

Chuckling, Ty walked over to where his partner sat in a different chair. He brushed a little shaving cream off Jaxon’s lips and leaned down to lightly kiss the other man. “I like your beard.” He smeared a bit of the white cream onto the tip of Jaxon’s nose, “And so does my wife.”

“Yes, she does,” Jaxon agreed.

“Don’t act like that in front of the children,” Neo said with a straight face and teasing glean in his eye.

“You don’t want Gabriel and Abraham to see two men in love?” Reese asked. He recognized the mischief that his friend was stirring up and wondered where it was headed to. Neo was not a prejudiced man, but he obviously had something else he wanted to add.

“No, Cooper and JD. Those two have no self-control around each other.”

The two men in question flipped Neo off and a giant smile broke out across his face. They were all laughing at the friendly teasing. Ty walked over and sat between the two boys and looked up at his father-in-law who was texting with the wedding coordinator.

“You realize that it’s usually the bride doing all the last-minute crap, right?” Ty asked.

“Who did the last-minute crap for your wedding?” Reese asked.

“Bunny and her moms the first time,” Ty admitted. “And Helen the second time.”

“Uh-huh,” Reese agreed as he sent the message. “Neo, who did the last minute crap for your wedding?”

“Your lovely wife,” Neo answered as the barber prepared to give him a straight razor shave on the side of his head and clean up his Mohawk.

“Right, and JD?”

“I’m going to say that for the first one it was mom –“

“Right up until you decided to go Captain Hook,” Cooper interrupted.

“Shut up, Peter Pan. I’ll go get those tights.”

“Please don’t,” Ty pleaded.

“Bunny has been trying to get us in those tights since Halloween,” Jaxon added.

“There’s children present,” Neo reminded them. “This time, I am talking about my boys.”

Using the mirror across from them, Ty watched the two boys as they reacted to being called Neo’s boys. It was a little bit of a confusing reaction because there were sadness and pride at the same time. He wondered if their dad had never claimed them so easily before.

Reese would claim them with no hesitation because he knew how it felt to not be claimed. Jaxon and JD would claim them since they knew what it was like to be abandoned. Neo would claim them because he wanted a large family and would trust the snake or universe or whatever to bring him his large family. Ty had heard of the cat distribution system, and he wondered if Neo knew of a child distribution system. It would be appropriate with this family.

“… know that mom did all the last-minute things for our wedding,” JD’s voice pulled Ty out of his thoughts and back to the conversation at hand.

“Exactly, she’s done all this planning and prep work for all of your weddings, and I just want her to enjoy her own wedding.” Reese said as his phone chimed with a new incoming message. “So, when we leave here, and I give you jobs to do…”

“Do the job with a smile and no complaints or your children will all be given espressos and the promise of a puppy,” Neo warned.

The barber was running a comb through Jaxon’s freshly trimmed beard when he sat up, eyes wide with fear. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“That’s, um, some serious fear you have there,” Philips said as the other men chuckled at Jaxon’s reaction.

“Yeah,” Ty agreed, “Bunny wants a dog, but our landlord says no pets. We even offered to pay an extra deposit and she still said no.”

“Who’s your landlord?” Reese asked absently as he responded to another message.

“If you tell him,” Neo warned, “he’s going to try to buy your house.”

“Good luck,” Jaxon sat back and the barber adjusted the headrest of the chair to do his haircut. “We’ve tried to negotiate buying it.”

“The old biddy won’t budge,” Ty added, “that’s her retirement income.”

“Please tell me that she’s not some thirty-year-old or something ridiculous like that,” Phillips said.

“No, she’s in her seventies and a widow,” Jaxon told them. “She’s nice but set in her way. She let’s us paint and we’ve done some improvements out of our own pocket, but the pet issue is a hard no.”

“Her daughter will inherit it and she won’t sell,” Ty shook his head. “She’s already told us that after her mom dies, she’s raising our rent.”

“Start looking for a new house,” Reese told them as the door opened and Waylon walked in.

“Not sure if I should apologize for being late,” Waylon admitted, “or ask what I just walked in on.”

“Reese is trying to buy us a house,” Ty said as he watched the barber working on Neo’s hair begin to braid the long mohawk.

“Yeah,” Waylon chuckled. “He’s a good landlord. I don’t even know how much we pay in rent.”

Reese chuckled, “You don’t. Why am I going to have you pay me for something that my daughter will inherit?”

“Never thought about it like that,” Waylon admitted as he handed the two boys bright red backpacks with the fire department Maltese cross on them. “If the shirts don’t fit, let me know and I’ll get different sizes.”

Their eyes went wide and they looked at each other and then at Neo. He chuckled and told them to go ahead. They reached out with excitement and a little hesitancy to take the bags. Abraham touched the embroidery of his name on the large pocket and Gabriel gave a small sniffle.

“I know that Neo won’t let you use them for school because of safety issues,” Waylon looked at his brother-in-law who merely shrugged. “But I thought that they would be good for when you go for a sleepover at one of our houses. And apparently four kids in the house are not enough, I am supposed to let you know that she wants them next weekend when I’m off and don’t have a wedding.”

“Just wait until the not-so-baby bug hits her,” Reese warned.

“Wait?” Waylon shook his head. “I found a website on her computer for adopting teens.”

“Do we need to add a room onto your house?” JD offered.

“We know some guys,” Cooper added.

Waylon glared at his brothers-in-law.