Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(19)

There wasn’t a single thing about Dax doing it that was adorable.

Sexy as fuck? Yes.

Adorable? Hell no.

“Everybody here already?” he asked conversationally.

I shrugged. “Honestly? I have no idea.”

He eyed my head.

“You have some peach fuzz,” he said.

I did.

“Oh!” He paused with his foot halfway into the entryway. “I found a hat!”

I watched as he jogged back to his bike then bent over it to retrieve something from his saddlebags.

I may or may not have watched his ass the entire time.

I wasn’t admitting to anything.

He stood up straight moments later with something in his hand.

I narrowed my eyes and stepped out onto the porch, trying to get a better view, but when I went to look at it, he moved his arm so whatever it was was behind his back.

“No peeking.” He laughed as he jogged back up the walkway.

That was when I watched as his pectorals bounced with his movement.

Jesus Christ on a cracker.

Was there anything this man could do that wasn’t sexy?

He stopped directly in front of me, then produced a hat from behind his back.

That was when I burst out laughing.

“Ahhh,” I said as I ripped it from his hands and settled it on my head.

It was a little tight, likely because it was sized for a child, but that didn’t matter.

It was the best thing ever.

“How do I look?” I asked as I flipped the braid that was hanging off the back of the hat around so that it was resting on my shoulder. Then I did a little pose for him.

He grinned.

“Best yard sale find ever,” he admitted. “It looks cute on you.”

He tapped the bill of my hat with his finger and I felt my cheeks heating.

“Oh, man,” I heard said. “That’s rich. You know that Anna is her most favorite Disney character ever, right?”

I heard my mother’s voice from behind me and turned to see her staring at me with adoration on her face.

“She used to watch it on repeat even when she was a teenager,” my traitorous mother said.

Dax’s amused eyes came to me.

“If you were going to come to the door anyway,” I said, trying not to appear upset. “Then why am I here?”

She gestured toward the road where a man had pulled up without my knowledge.

I blinked, surprised to see him halfway up the drive.

Then turned to Dax who was scowling hard.

So obviously I hadn’t been the only one that’d been caught up in my own little world.

One where Dax and Dax alone was the center of it.

“The pizza delivery guy bringing our pizzas,” she said.

I blinked, surprised.

“I know you said twenty pizzas, but that looks like enough pizza for the whole police department!?” I remarked.

Dax walked down to meet the delivery driver, nodded his head in thanks, then walked back with his own stack from the delivery guy’s car.

It was obvious that he heard my question, though, because he came to me with a grin on his face.

“We’re growing boys,” he said to my comment.

I just shook my head and walked inside, feeling the tail of hair snake down my back.

I’d always wanted long hair like Anna’s.

Maybe one day I’d be able to have it.

Not any day soon, mind you.

But one day!

It was hours later when Dax and I were once again reunited for the night.

I’d done my level best to ignore the living room, not sure that I could handle all the hotness in it.

Instead, I’d made myself useful in the kitchen on my mother’s laptop.

I’d looked at furniture on Amazon and started making plans with my mother on some areas to look for a new place.

Though, plans for my new place also stemmed off what I was able to find in this area. None of the stuff from my old place was coming with me since I had rented it furnished, but I still had some knick-knacks, kitchen items, and clothes in San Antonio.

My old place that still needed to be dealt with. Sooner rather than later.

“I can drive down with you in two weekends,” Mom said.

“Mom,” Derek said as he came into the kitchen, arms loaded down with pizza boxes. “Nobody is going to really get anything out of you being there. No offense, but Dad won’t even let you carry a box up the stairs anymore.”

That was true.

A while ago, my mother had been walking up the stairs when she’d nearly tripped and fell straight down them. Granted, it was because she was carrying a laundry basket up them that she’d overbalanced, but that hadn’t mattered to my father.

From that point forward, he’d made sure that she didn’t need to go upstairs.

Upstairs was where my brother’s room and Katy’s room had been.

Derek and Katy had been forced to never allow their rooms to get to the point where my mother needed to intervene with anything heavier than a dust mop. If they did, there was a lot of hell to pay.

“Well, I can offer moral support then,” Mom said.

The kitchen door pushed open once again and my father and Dax came inside, empty tea jugs in their hands.

I felt myself respond to Dax’s closeness, even though his eyes were on the ground and not me.