Just Kidding (SWAT Generation 2.0 #1)(41)

She looked at me with amusement on her face. “I have five kids. I have everything but the kitchen sink in there.”

She did.

I’d dug past a Lunchable, a full-sized flashlight and a tub of Vaseline before I got to the keys.

Once they were in my hands, I led her four eldest children outside.

When they were all in, I got in myself, and felt like I was in a boat.

“This is big,” I announced.

“It’s a van,” the younger version of Jenny said from her seat beside me. “Not a boat. Exactly like your car. No wider or longer.”

I’d have to agree to disagree. When I was in my car I felt like I could fit anywhere. Sitting here behind this beast, I felt like there was too much space. Like I could host a rave inside of the cab.

“Everybody buckled?” I asked, turning to look at the other three in the back.

Jenny’s twins both nodded. Twin boys that looked exactly like their daddy.

The one in the very back was impatiently waiting with his arms crossed over his chest.

Turning back around, I put the van into reverse and backed out.

“Hey, I can see everything.” I pointed at the backup camera.

“Look at this,” Caley said. Then she pressed a few buttons and I could all of a sudden see everything that was surrounding the car.

“Oh, cool,” I breathed.

“We’re going to be late,” the surly pre-teen muttered.

Realizing that the kid was right, I pulled forward then went farther into the road and started the short drive to school.

“Mom usually takes the back way,” Caley said, pointing. “But if you want, you can go the front way like Dad goes. He swears it’s faster, even though there’s always more traffic this way.”

Since I only knew the one way—the front way—I did what I intended to do and started toward the school. The closer I got to the school zone, the worse the traffic got.

Stopping at the stop sign that was the first obstacle that would lead to the school, I waited. Then waited some more for the car in front of me to pull out.

“Jesus Christ!” Caley popped in. “Fucking pull out!”

I looked over at the girl with surprise in my eyes.

“Ummm,” I said. “We should probably watch your language.”

She waved my concern away. “Mom lets us cuss. As long as it’s in the car or at home. We’re not allowed to do it in public, though. Especially not around Grandma.”

That came from the young twin in the seat behind me.

I glanced at him in my rearview mirror, then turned my eyes back to the road.

“Interesting,” I said, still waiting for the moron in front of me to pull out.

“Go,” I said. “Go. Go. Go. Go.”

After his fourth missed attempt, I started to creep forward.

Then I just started getting pissed.

“Listen, dude,” I said to the car. “These people are going twenty. You can pull out in front of them. Go.”

Still the car didn’t go.

Suddenly a truck horn sounded from behind me and the car finally decided to go, realizing that he was holding up the line.

“I think he was shaving,” Caley said. “I can’t be certain, but that’s what it looked like to me.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Idiot,” I growled.

Now I could see why Clancy had been frazzled when he’d come back from school drop-off.

“Just wait, it gets better,” Caley continued.

It did get ‘better.’

But not in the way that she meant.

The highlight of my entire drop-off experience was seeing Dax, full SWAT gear, directing traffic.

“Ho, boy,” I said to the teenager at my side.

The fourteen-year-old said, “Hubba, hubba!”

I snickered and looked my fill of the man.

Dax had his hands up. One was raised in the air, his palm flat, directed at the line of traffic. The other was waving the little kids across that were all of four at most.

“Aren’t they a little young to be walking to school?” I wondered.

Caley shrugged. “Yes.”

I watched, flabbergasted, as two young kids much younger than the two in the car with me crossed the street. One stopped to hug Dax’s leg, and he patted the kid’s head before he urged her on her way.

“He’s here a lot,” Caley said. “Do you know him?”

I was already nodding. “I do.”

“Have you slept with him?” she asked.

I nearly choked on my spit.

“Caley!” I cried. “You can’t ask people questions like that!”

Caley shrugged, unrepentant.

“It was just a question,” she pointed out.

It was just a question. An invasive one at that.

“There’s your turn.” Caley pointed.

I saw it and began to creep forward as the school’s drop-off line moved at the speed of a snail.

“I can see why your father was having problems the other day when he came into the office.”

The traffic was moving until we got to the actual line to enter the elementary school.

I was at least thirty cars back, and the line wasn’t even moving.

Growling in frustration, knowing that I had to be somewhere in thirty minutes, I worried that I wasn’t going to make it.