Some Alone Time, Part 7 (Patreon)

Todd licked his chops, ears perked alertly forward on both sides of his baseball cap, and despite being clumsily smeared with grease paint, his brown eyes were alight with mischief. As sneakily as a young German shepherd can manage, he reached across the back seat of the minivan, carefully gripping the lid of his prize and starting to peel the top open. 

Steam escaped from within, along with the intensifying scent of cheese, pepperoni, and way too much grease. With all the care of a bomb technician, he held the lid with one hand and reached over with the other, barely inches away from his quarry before-

“Hands off, young man.”

His mom ended her phone call and caught him red-handed, squinting at him through the rear-view mirror as the minivan rumbled to a stop at the red light nearest home. Todd froze, his neckfur bristled up, and a dumb, surprised look overtook his covert ops expression. The maternal shepherd had to laugh, noting just how much her son looked like his father when he got caught sneaking snacks on a diet. 

“C'moooon, mom.” Todd groaned, as if he'd been given the worst news imaginable, but he acquiesced, letting the uppermost pizza box close and sitting up in his booster seat. He was almost too big for it, but despite questions from both parents, he seemed reluctant to get rid of it; much more reluctant than he was to get out of pull-ups. “Lemme have just one slice. I'm so hungry!” 

“Todd, we are literally two minutes from the house, and I know Shawn's dad brought snacks for you guys after practice.” It was hard to keep a smile out of her voice. Todd was comfortably bigger than her, by this point, but he was still so much like a puppy in many ways. Fortunately, easy distractions hadn't quite lost their sway over him. “I can't believe you hit a ball out of the batting cages. You were like just like, uh... Dusty Bones out there!”

“You mean Rusty Bones, mom.” Todd rolled his eyes, still with some residual teenager in him, but that didn't stop his tail from beating out a rhythm where it rested on the seat. Being compared to his favorite player always managed to get him wagging. The noise of his pull-up under his pants too, reminded him to pull out his waist and take a look down the front of his pants, then reach down and feel for wetness. “I'll hafta ask Dad if Rusty ever did that. He said they went to school together.” 

“I'm sure he'd know, in that case.” Todd's mom wasn't sure how true that was. Her husband had a way with stories sometimes, but stranger things had happened – and would soon happen again. Another glance in the rear-view mirror revealed Todd checking his pull-up. “Todd, gentlemen don't do that kind of thing in public.”

“I'm not in public, I'm in the dumb minivan.” He rolled his eyes again, satisfied that he was still dry, and let his waistband pop shut over his training pants. “When are we gonna get a cool car? I don't wanna have to drive this thing.”

“Soon, if your father gets his way.” It was a question she fielded often, now that Todd was grown up. Either way, it stayed at that as she turned the minivan in question into the driveway and pulled up into position. Todd was already out of his booster seat by the time she turned off the ignition, and grabbing up the boxes of pizza to barrel up the sidewalk.

“Todd, be careful, don't drop dinner!”

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Uh oh. :)