Ask Me If I Care (SWAT Generation 2.0 4)

After my explanation of a family friend, he’d been quite content to let it go.

Only, when my order of grilled chicken hadn’t come out, but a medium-rare steak, and I’d actually told the waitress not to take it back when Hayes had actually ordered it, he’d gotten pissed.

Like, beyond pissed.

So pissed, in fact, that he’d asked for the check.

When only his steak had come out on the ticket, his eyes had gone cold.

Which was why I was laughing now.

Because Errin had seen and heard my upset dining partner. And, since apparently she knew him from the police station, she’d tried to soothe him.

Which was how he and Errin had ended up leaving together, leaving me to tag along wondering how in the hell I’d gotten left on my date when Hayes had been the one to leave.

Honestly, I was more upset with myself than anything.

I sure the hell knew how to pick them.

Even worse, I was kind of giddy over the fact that Hayes had been paying enough attention to me while on his own date that he saw I wasn’t happy with what I ordered on mine.

An hour later found me once again at the store buying tampons.

I’d managed to get all the way home, changed out of my date clothes, showered and into my slouchiest of sweatpants and a tank top that was so tight and short that it showed off a sliver of my belly. I covered that up with a sweatshirt of my dad’s that had been his in high school.

That was when I’d discovered I didn’t have any tampons.

Like, none.

I’d actually entertained the thought of going to my mother’s house and picking those back up, but then I’d have to explain how my date went, and I wasn’t in the mood for that.

Instead, I found myself at my favorite grocery store.

I pulled the hood up high over my head and tucked my face as far back as it would go, so nobody that I might know—or might know my father—would recognize me.

I got to my desired aisle and froze when I saw a very familiar man staring blankly at the diapers that the tampon aisle shared with the baby aisle.

“I don’t know,” Hayes rumbled softly. “Do you think we should go with the fours, or the fives?”

My lips twitched when the boy who was sitting in the curve of Hayes’ arm slapped him on the chest.

“I don’t know either,” he mumbled, as if the boy had agreed with him. “Fuck your mother.”

I covered my mouth with my hand but couldn’t quite stop the laughter from bubbling out.

Hayes stiffened and turned, his eyes narrowed.

But apparently, he had no problem seeing through my disguise because he released a breath of tension that I hadn’t realized he’d inhaled.

“It’s you.” He sighed. “You know anything about diapers?”

I pushed the hood back on my hoodie and felt my hair fall free and go wild around my face.

Normally, when I was heading out somewhere, I tried to get my hair into some semblance of control. I’d blow dry it, spend twenty minutes straightening it, and still get somewhat of a wave into my hair by midway through the day.

But when I didn’t? My hair turned into a riot of curls. Think Shirley Temple but with hair down past the small of my back.

Like fuckin’ Merida off of Brave.

His eyebrows went up the moment that he saw my hair.

“You have curly hair,” he said, eying it.

I stuck my hand into it and shook some of the curls out, pulling the majority of it out from beneath the sweatshirt.

“Yeah,” I said. “I spend a significant amount of time straightening it every day. But I’m just not in the mood to deal with it right now.”

His eyes took me in, his lips tipping up at the ends.

“Why?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it before shrugging.

“When I was in high school,” I admitted. “I hated my hair. I guess it’s just become so much of a habit at this point that I don’t really pay attention.”

“I like it,” he said.

The little boy in his arms started to scream.

“Umm,” I hesitated. “What’s wrong? Why are you looking for diapers?”

He sighed.

“Christiny is a dumbass,” he admitted. “She thought that it would be a grand idea to go out on a date…but leave her son at home while she did. Alone. The neighbors called the cops because Raj was screaming his head off. He has a fever.” Hayes paused. “Ryan’s out of town. So I’m doing him a favor, taking Raj, until he gets home.”

I smiled slightly.

“Did you get him some Tylenol?” I asked.

Hayes shook his head.

“No, but the CPS—child protective services—chick did. She said he can have more in about two hours.” He paused. “I have to buy some. Along with diapers…”

I moved forward until I was close to Hayes.