Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(27)

I didn’t have to come over.

I met her at the halfway point between her side of the duplex and mine again.

“Ready to ride?”

She nodded once, looking worried now. “I guess so.”

I frowned at her sudden change in demeanor.

“What’s wrong?” I wondered.

She sighed and ran her fingers over her head.

“I…” She licked her lips. “I got a text from Theo while I was in there. He asked if I was around for him to stop by.”

“Theo?” I asked.

She shut down after that, leaving me to believe that this Theo guy had hurt her in some way. And for a guy to be able to hurt a girl, the girl had to have feelings for him in some way.

And why the hell did that just burn a hole straight through my chest?





Chapter 7


The dick is real. The smile is fake.

-Dax’s secret thoughts

Dax

We were a couple of hours into our drive when I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to know more about this Theo character.

I looked over and glanced at the woman at my side, watching her fingers tap against her exposed thigh as she bobbed her head to “Old Town Road.”

Personally, I hated the song.

But seeing her dance and wiggle and sing to it? Yeah, it was beginning to grow on me.

She was cute.

That was for sure.

I wasn’t really sure what I was doing with her, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

She was just so full of life, and she was so positive about everything despite her hardships.

“So tell me about this Theo guy that I keep hearing about,” I ordered.

She instantly lost the smile on her face.

And I almost regretted asking the question.

Almost.

“Theo is…” she hesitated. “To tell you anything about Theo, I have to start from the beginning.”

“Okay,” I said, not upset by that in the least.

Anything she wanted to give me was okay with me.

I would literally take tiny scraps of information over nothing at all.

And what did that say about me?

“Theo originally dated my sister,” she started. “But Katy had been in a bad relationship before Theo, and Theo was just a rebound guy of sorts. But, while they were ‘dating,’ I began to spend a lot of time with them… and I thought I fell for him.”

“Thought?” I asked.

She waved that off, her cheeks heating slightly, making me curious.

“Fast forward to when Logan, my sister’s husband, came around and Theo is devastated. He, I guess, had held out hope that Katy would come back to him. But it was never like that for Katy. And meanwhile, I’m still having these feelings for Theo. Anyway, it turns out that Theo was transferred to San Antonio. He’s a game warden. And that happened to be where my internship was. So I thought… this is perfect! Only, Theo really wanted nothing to do with me. He made it painfully obvious that he didn’t feel anything for me, leaving me feeling stupid for having feelings for a man that would rather date Shondra than talk to me.”

“Shondra?” I asked.

She touched her head.

“Shondra is a co-worker from my office,” she explained. “We’ve been competing for the same position at the office. And one day after work, I went to meet some girls from the office for a quick drink and found Theo sitting there. Theo who for some reason started to pay attention to me. Only, Shondra arrives and I find out that he’s been ignoring my calls and invites to hang out and do shit all because he’s been with Shondra. My mortal office enemy.”

She continued to explain what happened that night, and how she thought that Shondra had been the one to switch her hair stuff.

“You don’t have proof?” I asked curiously.

She shook her head. “Nope.”

“It’s pretty damning,” I admitted. “Oh, I’ll go get them for you, and then hands them off and all of a sudden your hair is falling out? Yeah, no. I call bullshit.”

She was already nodding her head.

“I agree.” She leaned backward and pulled her feet up into the seat, wrapping her arms around her knees. “It’s suspicious as hell. My mom said that I should sue her.”

“No proof,” I admitted. “Just guessing really. I’m not sure that you’d get anything out of it in the long run.”

She sighed. “I hate her.”

The next couple of hours I was regaled with stories of what Shondra had done to her over the last year. By the time we’d pulled into her old job, I was ready to walk inside and rip Shondra’s hair out myself.

“Let me just run in and get the box,” she said. “I had them pack up my office.”

I nodded once, intent on letting her do it alone.

In fact, I even pulled my phone out after that long drive, got out of my truck, and locked it.

I intended to stay right where I was.

But then I decided that she’d gone through a lot already.

She didn’t have to do this alone.

So… I went inside.

And was damn glad I did when I hit the foyer and saw Rowen, blank-faced, staring at an older man giving her a tongue lashing.

“…you can’t just walk out like that,” he said. “Not only will you get a very bad review if any potential employer ever calls me but…”