Just Kidding
Page 16
I held the door open for her and exited in front of her, my eyes sweeping the street and our surroundings automatically.
“Anyway, my dad left me some benefits that my step-mother’s family tried to get a couple of years after he passed away. And we had to go to Todd for help. He ended up getting us everything we wanted. I just thought that was so cool, though. Like how freakin’ exciting is it that he could walk into a courtroom, lay out his case, and win it against one of the most aggressive lawyers I’ve ever seen?” She shook her head as she locked the door up and turned to me. “I try my first case tomorrow.”
My brows rose, and I grinned.
“Are you excited?” I asked.
She swallowed hard. “Yeah… and nervous. What if I lose?”
I pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “But what if you win?”
Chapter 14
Overworked and under fucked.
-Dax to Rowen
Dax
I looked at her face as she parked her car and immediately knew something was wrong.
Exiting out of my duplex, I marched down the length of the walkway that separated our two places and headed straight for her car.
As I got closer, it was only then that I could see her shoulders shaking.
Feeling something heavy lodge in my gut at the sight of her crying, I walked to her door and opened it.
She looked at me between the fingers that were covering her face.
I hunkered down so that I wasn’t leaning over her, then ran a single finger down the length of her jaw, catching a few stray tears.
Oh man.
Her sobs were making my stomach hurt.
“What’s wrong?” I rasped.
She sniffled, then leaned her head back and moaned.
“So I’m thinking that I’m a really bad person.”
I frowned at her words.
“What?” I asked.
There was no way in the world that I’d heard her correctly.
She brought her hands up and scrubbed her face roughly.
I leaned into the car and shut it off, then grabbed her purse from the seat next to her.
When I had the purse in my hand, I grabbed Rowen’s hand and helped her out of the car, too.
She moved like a sloth, but eventually I was able to coax her out of the car and into my apartment.
I sat her down at my bar, then rounded the counter to get her a drink.
“Beer, some wine that my sister bought two weeks ago and left, or lemonade?” I asked.
She looked at the fridge door and smiled.
“I like your magnets,” she murmured.
I closed the fridge door and rolled my eyes.
“My dad was here earlier,” I muttered as if that would explain the childishness that was displayed on the fridge door.
“I’m a bitch,” she snickered through her tears. “I’m honestly surprised that you had all the letters for that.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “Drink?”
“Beer now,” she answered. “Lemonade when I finish it.”
I nodded once and pulled both out, handing her the beer first but not before twisting the top off effortlessly.
“Guys always make that look so easy,” she said.
I shrugged. “I’ve been twisting those off since I was old enough to walk. I can’t tell you how excited and accomplished I felt the first time I was able to do it.”
“When was that?” she asked curiously, the tears slowly drying up.
I felt immense relief at the sight.
I didn’t like seeing her crying.
Not even a little bit.
“Ten or eleven, I guess.” I shrugged. “Wasn’t that impressive really. Harleigh was able to do it when she was six.”
Her lips twitched.
“So the magnets?” she pushed.
I shrugged.
“My sister got them for her kid the last time she was here,” I told her. “I’m not sure why they stayed when she left, but whatever. Everybody thinks it’s cute to put little sayings here and there.”
She got up and leaned over to start rearranging the letters along the bottom of the fridge.
I leaned back against the counter and watched her back.
“Want something to eat?” I asked.
She stood up straight then turned so that her back was covering what she’d just written.
“Did you hear about the case that we picked up pro bono?” she asked. “The one I mentioned I was trying last night?”
My attention immediately shifted from the fridge and what she’d spelled with the letter magnets to the expression on her face.
“The pro bono case where the woman was filing for custody of her children?” I asked. “And by the way, I love you, too.”
We both paused at her words. My heart, however, didn’t. It continued to rocket in my chest so fast that I was worried there for a second.
My gaze caught Rowen’s, and she licked her lips.
“I was cross-examining the man,” she continued, trying to finish her explanation. “Thinking that I had it in the bag. Then I asked him if he’d ever broken her leg.”
I waited, knowing that there was going to be more.
“He said, ‘fuck yeah I did. She was kicking the shit out of our child, and I stopped her by grabbing her ankle and yanking her away.’”
My mouth fell open in surprise.
“So this chick that I’ve been trying to win custody for over the last couple of hours forgot to tell me why she’d had custody revoked. I mean, we’d gone over the usual—her husband thinking she was an unfit mother because she was young—but she’d neglected to mention that there was more to the story.” She scrubbed at her face.
“I think I loved you from the moment you gave me the first hat,” she all of a sudden blurted out.
I took her change of topics like a champ.
“Yeah?” I asked. “I think I loved you from the moment I first saw your bald head.”
She ran her fingers over her head—which was now cutely stubbled and so adorable that I couldn’t help rubbing my fingers over it every chance I got.
“Anyway,” she said as if we professed our love for each other every single day. “This chick ends up getting visitation rights. Every week, for one hour a day, she’ll get to visit with her children supervised. And… I got that for her. I hate myself.”
I popped the top of my own beer and started drinking it, all the while flipping through a takeout menu of food that we had available to be delivered to us via Waitr.
“I’m not sure how it’s your fault that you believed a young woman that told you lies,” I said. “Now that you know, I bet you don’t offer to represent her again.”
She was already shaking her head. “No. Not bloody likely.”
“Bloody?” I teased.
She shrugged and scrunched up her nose. “I was watching a show where the main character is British. He always sounds so cool when he says ‘bloody.’”
I snorted and twisted the menu around for her to see.
“Find what you want and let’s order,” I said. “I’m starving.”
After we ordered, we were sitting on the couch watching reruns of Live PD when my phone went off.
I sighed and looked at my phone, which displayed a SWAT call.
“Fuck,” I groaned. “Why did I feel like joining the SWAT team was a great idea?” I asked aloud.
She snickered and pushed at me to get me moving.
“Because you like to make sure we’re all safe,” she said. “And I’ll try not to eat your food.”
I glowered at her. “You better not.”
Her laughter followed me out of the room. And the kiss she gave me at the door made all the bullshit of the next four hours worth it.
Chapter 15
Hey, trainwreck. This isn’t your station.
-Rowen to Katy
Rowen
Dax’s dad had a procedure today, and apparently Peyton, his mother, was freaking out.
Peyton, who I’d yet to meet.
Sure, I’d ‘met’ her met her, but not ‘met her’ as Dax’s girlfriend.
Meaning I would be meeting her today under less than stellar circumstances.
I just hoped she liked me.
Dax grimaced.
“You didn’t hear any of it over the scanners?” he asked warily.
I shook my head.
“After you left, I ate my half of our dinner and went to bed,” I said. “I didn’t even think to turn on the scanners.”
He sighed and rubbed his face with both of his hands.
“Rachelle decided to hold Jerry at gunpoint last night so he wouldn’t leave her,” he said, his eyes lighting on mine. “I spent two hours trying to talk my ex-girlfriend into not killing her husband.”
My mouth fell open, and I stopped in the middle of the lobby.
“You did what?” I gasped.
He nodded, hooking me around the waist with one arm as he led us toward the elevators.
“Come on,” he said. “I don’t want my mom alone for long. She gets nervous when one of us is hurt.”
I fell into step beside him, got onto the elevator, and waited for him to explain more.
Once the last of the people were off the elevator with us, he continued.
“Jerry finally talks her down, though. She hands him the gun, and he turns around and aims it at her. Then we have to do the whole thing over again but with him this time,” he continued. “And to top it all off, I was called into your dad’s office this morning and told to leave my personal life at home.”
I gasped.
“He wouldn’t,” I stiffened.
He winced.
“He did.” He nodded. “Told me not to ever let anything like that happen ever again.”
That’s when I lost my shit.
“How the hell are you supposed to ever let something like that happen?” I ranted, throwing up my hands. “Like you chose to have an evil girlfriend when you were seventeen! Holy shit, everyone makes mistakes at seventeen! I wanted to be a goddamn gynecologist! And I don’t even like people! How fucking weird would that be to have to deal with people and their vaginas all day? That would’ve been incredibly awkward! Not to mention that you did nothing wrong. What did he say you did wrong?”
Dax’s eyes caught on something over my shoulder, but I was so pissed that I didn’t realize we were no longer alone anymore.
“He didn’t say much. Just told me not to let the job get personal,” he said. “I should’ve let someone else handle the situation. And he’s right. I shouldn’t have placed myself between them. I should’ve allowed someone else to handle it. I think I only made it worse with my presence.”
She scoffed darkly at that.
“I call bullshit,” she finally said. “My dad is a butthead!”
“Glad you feel that way about me, baby,” my father’s voice, amused and low, came from behind me.
I turned to find him standing there with his arms crossed.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped.
He gestured to a waiting room. “Had a buddy getting something done today. Saw Peyton and started talking to her. Then heard you yelling, so I thought I’d see what the problem was.”
I wrinkled my nose at him.
“I can’t believe that you yelled at Dax,” I snapped.
“Rowen…” Dax started, sounding amused.
“No.” I held up my finger to shush him. “You yelled at him because of me, didn’t you?”
My dad didn’t bother to deny it.
“Was I more harsh with the situation than was warranted? Maybe. But Dax was in the wrong. We have a negotiator on that team, and it’s not him,” Dad replied bluntly. “He put himself out there as the point of contact, and both people in that situation are more than a little connected to Dax whether he wants to be or not. He shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and he knows it.”
Dax was nodding, which was pissing me off more.
“And did I care that my daughter’s new man, the one that she hadn’t told me about but that we all knew about, was out there putting his head on the line when it was unnecessary? Yes. I fucking cared. I don’t like seeing you cry.”
Dax’s lips twitched.
Mine pulled into a smile.
That smile fell off my face seconds later when he said, “And, to make matters worse, I just found out that Theo has moved back to town.”
My face went pale as those words settled in.
“With his new girlfriend,” he continued. “He applied at the PD today. Shondra was waiting for him in the lobby. He even told me he was inquiring about a room for rent in the duplexes that you’ve recently started living in.”
That’s when my mouth fell open in shock.
“You’re fucking shitting me,” Dax said, shocking me out of my silence.
“You’re goddamn joking. Tell me you’re joking,” I pleaded.
Dad was already shaking his head. “Not about this, sweet pea. Not about this.”
I groaned and covered my face with my hands, feeling the tightness of a noose around my neck.
“That’s… Jesus Christ.” Dax groaned.
“Dax?”
A woman’s shaky voice had us all looking up to find his mother, Peyton, standing in the entryway to the waiting room.
“Hey, Ma.” He held his arm out, and she walked right into his side. “I was just talking to my boss. You remember that he’s my direct boss now?”
Peyton smiled. “I do. Hey, Luke. How are you?”
Dad grinned and tapped her head. “Your husband’s in there?”
She nodded. “He’s getting a colonoscopy.”
My father blanched. “I have one of those scheduled for next month, actually.”
She grinned. “Good, then you can have this!”
We both looked at her holding out a chocolate bar.
“What is it?” Dad asked, not reaching out to take it.
“It’s an extra strength bar of chocolate Ex-Lax,” she said, shaking it. “Max demanded that we buy it just in case the stuff they gave him didn’t clean his bowels out like it was supposed to. But, even though I assured him it would work just fine, he made me get it anyway. And then made me take the wrapping off so nobody would know what it was. And I’ve been carrying it in my purse and I don’t want to accidentally get hungry and eat it on accident.”
I snickered and held out my hand, taking the chocolate bar that she’d extended. “I’ll take it and give it to him.”
Peyton’s eyes turned to meet mine. “You’re so pretty. Though, gotta say, your hair is my favorite feature.”
My brows rose.
“Really?” I touched the spiky mess absently.
“I’ve always wanted to go that short. Gosh, I bet the time it takes you to get dressed and out the door every morning is very minimal,” she continued.
I laughed then.
I hadn’t really thought about the positive side of having no hair.
I mean other than the time it now took me in the shower since I only used a bar of soap to wash my hair, I hadn’t really thought about it.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “I find that I’m a lot cooler. Oh, and now that I’m thinking about it, I’m a lot less aware of how I look. I mean, I used to always think about how my hair was looking. Fixing it when I got in front of a mirror. But I can’t even tell you the last time I looked in a mirror once I’ve left for the morning.”
Peyton beamed.
I’d never, not in a million years, thought about bonding with my boyfriend’s mother due to my lack of hair, but we did it.
“I gotta go,” my dad announced. “My buddy is finished with his surgery and I was
supposed to be at work fifteen minutes ago.”
I looked at him then. “And are you giving Theo a job?”
Dax grunted out a curse.
“Yeah.” He paused. “I don’t think so.”
I blinked. “Really? Dad, Theo’s an upstanding guy. His taste in girlfriends is questionable but… he’s good at what he does.”
Dad looked at me then. Really looked at me.
“It’s not just because of what Shondra did to you that I’m not hiring him.” He paused. “Theo’s a good kid. He just doesn’t have what it takes.”
I blinked. “What do you mean by ‘what it takes?’”
Dad looked at me. Then looked over at Dax.
“There’s just an air about a man when he’s got what it takes to make a good police officer,” he said. “Dax has it. Theo doesn’t.”
I looked over at Dax.
And saw it then.
Dad was right.
Dax did have it where Theo didn’t.
I’m not saying that Theo was a bad guy. He wasn’t.
He just didn’t have that same compelling energy about him as Dax did.
When Theo walked into a room, people noticed him.
When Dax walked into a room? People noticed, watched, and waited to see why he was there.
Dax was like a shot of warm whiskey straight to the heart.
Theo was like a quick gulp of Gatorade when you were hot. Good, but definitely didn’t affect you at all in the long run, and left you wanting more.
Dax would never leave me wanting more. He’d make sure that I got enough and keep making sure of that until he had nothing left to give.
“Ummm,” I said softly. “Okay.”
Dad laughed and pulled me away from Dax’s side, swallowed me in a quick hug, then let me go.
“We should go do dinner one night. Catch up.”
That was aimed at Peyton as he walked away, leaving none of us to reply because he was too far away.
Peyton finally looked at me then, her eyes alight with excitement.
“So tell me who Theo is, and why we hate him,” she ordered.
I fell in love with Peyton Tremaine that second.
I fell in love with Max Tremaine just a few short minutes after that.
It was sublime.
***