Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(31)

Theo’s face went soft.

“Rowen…” he began.

I was already shaking my head.

Heading into the kitchen, I came back with a towel and wiped the cream off of Dax’s arm.

His hair came off smoothly.

Theo looked at the paper towel, then Dax’s arm.

His eyes were worried when he once again glanced at me.

“I…” He paused. “I’ll talk to her.”

I snorted out a laugh. “You can talk to her all you want.”

With that, I grabbed my keys and gestured toward Theo. “Now please leave.”

Theo reluctantly did.

“She told me that you punched her in the face,” Theo grumbled as he walked out.

I snorted out a laugh. “That woman also told me that she was giving me conditioner. The bad thing is, I paid a hundred bucks for that shit. Shit that made my hair fall out. I paid for my hair to fall out, Theo. All because Shondra thought I had a thing for you.”

Theo paused with his feet on the last step leading down to the walkway and his truck.

“And you don’t?” he pushed.

I gave him a sad smile.

“I might could have,” I admitted. “But I’m beginning to see that you’re not the man I once thought you were, and I’m not the woman I once thought I was.” I paused to allow my eyes to connect to his. “Thank God for small miracles.”

There was a short, awkward silence as everybody took a moment to digest that bit of words that’d just come from my mouth.

Then I felt Dax’s hand on my shoulder. “Ready to head to the tattoo parlor?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I told him.

Theo made his way to his vehicle.

I made my way to Dax’s.

Dax got my door for me and I climbed in.

He rounded the hood of the truck, and my eyes stayed on him as I tried to get my head on straight.

Had that really happened?

Had I just said those words to Theo? The man that I’d once thought was going to be it for me?

Dax got in and slammed the door just as his phone chirped, alerting him of a message.

“I haven’t thought about Theo since the night of the SWAT meeting,” I told him.

I wasn’t sure why I was telling him.

I just felt like he should know that I was no longer hung up on someone.

You know, just in case Dax decided that I wasn’t the worst thing to ever come into his life.

His eyes met mine for a couple long seconds, and I saw acknowledgment there. Understanding.

His phone beeped again, signaling another message.

He sighed and pulled it out of his pocket and read what was written.

“Shit,” he grumbled, looking all of a sudden a hundred years older.

His shoulders drooped and his face went blank.

“What is it?” I asked worriedly.

He groaned and put the phone into the cup holder, starting the truck up and putting it into reverse.

He looked at me before he put it into drive. “The calendars are out.”

I looked at him with wide eyes.

“Really?” I asked. “That’s kind of fast, isn’t it?”

He shrugged. “Apparently there was a woman that worked for a big promo company that’s close to someone at the department. She worked some magic and had about five thousand of these bad boys made without any cost to us. That means more money for all the charities each officer chose.”

I was excited.

Dax? Not so much.

“You okay with that?” I wondered.

He grumbled out something under his breath.

“Yes,” he sighed. “I guess I was just hoping for more time so I could prepare myself.”

“Did they show you what your month looked like yet?” I wondered.

Dax shook his head once, his jaw tight.

“You want to talk about what’s got you so nervous?” I tested the waters, knowing that he was either going to lose his shit on me, clam up, or tell me.

I was hoping for the latter.

He surprised me by actually answering.

“It’s hard for me,” he admitted. “My old girlfriend, Rachelle, really fucked with my trust. Putting those pictures of me out there for the world to see. Then the way everyone—even people I called friends—spread that shit like wildfire. It just chapped my ass. Let me know really fucking quick who my actual friends are.” He paused. “And Rachelle.” He shook his head. “I wanted to fuck her up like she’d done to me but couldn’t. I… shit. What she did was wrong. My parents wanted to pursue charges against her since I was a minor at the time, but when I heard that by doing that, if she got convicted, she’d have to register as a sex offender, I couldn’t go through with it. She was eighteen at the time… and that would’ve fucked her entire life up.”

I was nodding.

I’d actually put those pieces together myself. As a lawyer, I knew all the laws. I knew what would happen to her if he’d pursued it.

And she wouldn’t have liked it. Not even a little bit.

Her entire life would’ve been ruined at eighteen. She wouldn’t be able to have her teaching degree like she did today, and she sure as fuck wouldn’t be so hoity-toity if she had to register herself in her fancy-schmancy neighborhood.