Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(14)

People weren’t going to care if I was wearing leggings or jeans, to be honest.

Mom clenched her hands into fists as Katy walked up to her and gave her a peck on the cheek.

“Chill, Mom,” Derek said as Katy walked to the kitchen cabinet and pulled herself a mug down.

Logan dropped a kiss onto Mom’s forehead, and I smiled.

“Where are the twins?” Mom asked.

“Daycare,” Katy sighed. “They’re doing so well. It sucks. I expected them to miss me more.”

I snorted out a laugh.

Katy and Logan’s twins were adorable… and handfuls.

Instead of moving away from my mom, Logan stayed and draped his heavy arm over her shoulders.

He was already dressed in uniform and ready to go on shift, so I wondered why he was here so early in the morning when he could’ve spent a few more minutes at home instead.

But then I rolled my eyes.

They were all here for one thing and one thing only.

My bald head.

“You do look cute,” Logan said as he studied me.

I rolled my eyes again, this time so hard that it made my head hurt.

“Whatever,” I said. “How’s the morning sickness, Katy?”

Katy gave me the stink eye and sighed.

“I only threw up on one corpse yesterday,” she said, sounding proud of herself. “Luckily, it was only his hand. I had to do an autopsy for an insurance company. The jerks. I guess it could’ve been worse and been one of the murder investigations I’ve been working on.”

Mom looked at her.

“You’re going to have to learn to control it a little better,” Mom suggested. “It’s not going to go away any time soon. Which you should know since this is your second pregnancy.” She grinned then. “When I was pregnant with Derek, I threw up in the middle of the police station. Everyone saw it. I was never more embarrassed in my life.”

Katy made a sound in the back of her throat, then took a sip of coffee.

“You’re not supposed to be drinking coffee, either,” Mom continued.

Katy shot my mother the stink eye over the rim of the coffee cup.

“I’m making it for Logan,” she paused. “And taking a drink of it.”

I rolled my eyes and walked up to the cup that was to her lips.

“That’s why it’s halfway gone?” I asked.

She turned and studied me, her eyes narrowed.

“I don’t remember you being this mean when you left,” she pointed out.

I grinned at her.

“I’m not being mean,” I countered. “I’m being real. And you’re allowed to have caffeine. Just not copious amounts.”

Mom sighed from behind me and started ticking off the merits of eating healthy and following guidelines while you were pregnant so that the children didn’t come out acting like hers.

I rolled my eyes and waited for her to finish.

Katy held out the coffee cup to me, and I took a sip of it before passing it to Logan.

Logan took the cup, glanced inside, then snorted.

“This is like a quarter of the way full now,” he pointed out. “A swallow at most.”

I took the cup back from him and finished it off.

He huffed out a laugh and took the cup from me, bumping his wife out of the way with his hip as he got himself a cup of coffee.

“That’s probably what you should’ve done in the first place,” Derek suggested. “Never trust a woman to do something for you. There are always hidden agendas underneath their ‘kind’ gestures.”

Katy threw her arm around my neck, and we both stared at Derek as if he was a bug.

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right?” she whispered.

“That he won’t retaliate against you for what I think you want to do?” I asked just as quietly.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “I’ll get him. You distract him.”

Derek’s eyes narrowed on us.

“What are y’all whispering about over there?” he asked, tensing.

I moved forward, feeling Katy’s arm drop from around my shoulders, and walked right up to my brother.

Katy gave it a few seconds before moving, too.

“Derek,” I said. “Does my head make me look like a boy?”

Logan choked behind me on the swallow of coffee he’d just partaken in.

Derek looked panicked for a few seconds as he said, “No.”

“Are you sure?” I asked as I took his hand. “Feel how soft my head is.”

Derek allowed me to take his hand and rub it along my head.

“It feels like a hairless cat,” he said.

I frowned. “What does a hairless cat feel like?” I asked. “And why do you know what one feels like?”

Katy snuck around to his other side while I had him distracted.

“Puppy, monkey, baby!”

I watched out of the corner of my eye as she leaned down, then licked him on his face, across his cheek, over his eye, all the way to his forehead.

Derek reacted instantly, but since I still had his hand and was holding on for dear life, Katy was able to get away and hide behind Logan before he’d even made it out of his seat.

That was how I made my mistake.

I should’ve run while he was distracted.