Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(13)

He hadn’t said ‘you left your job and came all the way here without having a place to live or to work?’

I felt my back stiffen.

“I was interning for a firm in San Antonio,” I said. “My year was up today, actually. So I wouldn’t have had a job there much longer anyhow.”

Understanding dawned.

“You’re a lawyer?” he asked, looking intrigued.

“As of three days ago, yes I am.” I popped my collar, making a grin tug at the corners of his mouth.

“Congratulations,” he said. His eyes went to my head again. “I know some lawyers.”

My brows went up.

He pulled a pen out of his pocket—where had he hidden a pen?—then began to jot something down onto a business card that had also been in his pocket.

I frowned at the business card.

It was hot pink with little black embellishments on it.

The back, however, was completely blank. Leaving him room to write down—sloppily might I add—a name and a number. Then he handed it to me.

“Go here,” he suggested. “This is the man and wife team that took over for one of my dad’s buddies. They’re good. They got kids. You’ll like them.”

I blinked, surprised to see the card he was holding out to me.

“I’ll do that,” I said softly. “But, ummm, why do you have a lawyer’s number memorized?”

His lips twitched again.

“The male part of the lawyer duo is a friend of mine. We met while I was deployed. And they won’t care about your hair if you explain what happened.” He paused. “The wife? Her name is Janet Tolbert. She’s a badass. She just fought a case of bullying at the local high school. The minute that you meet her and tell her your story, she’s going to tell you all about it, I’m sure.”

I flipped the card over and blinked rapidly at it.

“Umm,” I said. “This is for stripper and pole dance lessons. Are you sure you don’t want to keep this?”

Dax’s face tipped up into a real grin this time, the edges of a few white teeth poking out as he did.

“I got the number in my phone already,” he admitted.

I wouldn’t ask. I wouldn’t ask. I wouldn’t ask.

Seriously, I wouldn’t.

But it sucked, honestly.

There he was getting a business card—that was likely for a date—from a stripper who taught pole dancing lessons.

And there I was with my head bald as the day I was born.

“Thanks,” I said as I glanced at the other side again. “And thank you for the ride.”

Dax winked. “Welcome.”

Then he started the bike up, leaving me standing in my parents’ driveway, watching him leave.

He didn’t look back.

I would’ve noticed.

I watched him until he disappeared out of sight.

The funny thing was, during the entire encounter that I had with Dax Tremaine, not once did I think about Theo.





Chapter 3


All you need is love and a hamburger.

-Rowen’s secret thoughts

Rowen

My mother was staring at me with murder in her eyes.

“I’m going to fucking kill her,” she snarled. “I’m going to revive her, and then I’m going to kill her again.”

I would’ve laughed had she not been completely serious.

“Mother.” Derek came into the kitchen, his eyes wide and on me. “You can’t admit those kind of things in front of your Alexa. She’ll send that data she just picked up to the cops and if Shondra winds up dead, you’re gonna be the first person that they come to look for.”

We all three turned to look at the Alexa sitting on my mother’s kitchen counter.

Dad hadn’t wanted the Alexa.

He’d said it was just an invitation for the government to come into our home and listen to whatever we said.

It was only after Derek had pointed out that our phones had the same capabilities that Alexa did that Dad finally allowed her to plug it in.

And Mom loved it.

Dad? Not so much.

He still thought it was an invasion of privacy.

He was also convinced that the Alexa was the reason that he got so many ads in his browser telling him to buy a certain product that he and my mom were discussing at some point the night before.

Which, on that note, I believed him.

How the hell did Facebook and Instagram know that I was in need of wigs and hats if they weren’t listening in on my conversations in some way? I mean, it wasn’t like I’d actively searched for the products.

“I don’t care,” Mom finally said. “I’m livid, Derek. Livid.”

Derek’s eyes took in my bald head, and I saw his hand clench around his coffee mug.

Yep, he was pissed, too.

“If you didn’t have such a cute head.” Katy came into the kitchen then, her husband, Logan, hot on her heels. “I would be a lot more worried about this. But honestly, you look adorable with your head shaved.”

That was the only thing on my body that looked ‘adorable.’

I looked down at my simple black leggings, dressier blue top, and ballet flats.

They were my comfort clothes.

If I was still in San Antonio, I would’ve tried to be a little dressier. But this was Kilgore, Texas. Not San Antonio.