Join the Club (SWAT Generation 2.0 7)

Even after all these years, she was still my everything.

“Daddy, what’s a seven-letter-word for totally devoted to someone?” my youngest, Devon, asked.

Devon was seven, going on twenty-four, and acted so much like Asa that it was kind of terrifying.

Having one genius in the family was okay. Having two was downright terrifying.

When the two of them got together, I saw dollar signs. Not because of what they would one day accomplish, but of the schooling and education that I’d have to pay for.

Making sure that they could have everything so that they could succeed in life, to be all that they could be, was expensive.

“Whipped,” my oldest, Taylor, said.

Taylor was exactly like Booth and me. Brash and a brawler. Everything that we hoped our children never would be because we were wild hellions.

Taylor was us, though, reincarnated. And had the school record to prove it.

“That’s not seriously it,” Booth said as he looked at the paper that Devon had in his hand.

Booth and his children were shoved between my mom and dad.

Bell, Priscilla, Heath, Daniella, and their significant others were there, too.

Cousins and their families.

Our whole entire family.

We took up eight fuckin’ rows.

“…With that, I would like to introduce you to this year’s Kilgore Bulldog graduating class!” someone called.

I looked forward in time to see the entire student body throw their hats in the air.

All except for Asa who tucked his underneath his arm and started walking our way.

“He’s too cool for school,” Taylor joked.

I grinned at her.

He was.

Hours later, when I was finally getting my shower that I so desperately needed, I watched through the glass shower doors as my wife moved about in the closet.

Today marked the first day of June.

The day that she moved her calendar over.

“When are you going to stop that?” I called out.

Delanie grinned.

“You’ll always be my Mr. July, you know,” she teased as she moved my photo—the one that I’d posed for in the calendar all those years ago—to cover the photo of the newest month.

Every year she bought the SWAT calendar.

And every single month, she put my picture over the top of that month’s.

It was something that she’d done for such a long time that I didn’t even give it much thought anymore.

But, when I’d gotten home from bootcamp and discovered my photo hanging in her closet with Mr. August cut out and me covering him, I’d laughed.

At this point, I would like to say that nothing surprised me anymore, but I’d be lying.

Every single day she managed to surprise me.

And every single day, I loved her for it.

“Did you hear the news?” Delanie asked as she stripped out of her t-shirt.

My eyes took in her body.

Her sexy, beautiful body that had given me more children.

The body that didn’t have as tight of skin anymore, but still managed to bring me to my knees with just a touch.

“What news?” I asked as I opened the shower stall door for her.

We’d moved into our new house years ago, but the shower stall was new.

Delanie had begged for a door on her walk-in shower because she claimed she got cold when I was gone and not there to shower with her.

So I’d surprised her with it right before I’d left this time.

She hurried inside and plastered her body to mine, my dick instantly getting hard at the press of her body.

“Ellie had her baby,” she said. “And she and her man are finally getting married.”

Ellie had gone to jail.

For years.

In fact, I thought she’d be there a whole lot longer than she had.

But something had happened—something that she wouldn’t discuss—and she’d been able to get out.

And we hadn’t seen her in a very long time.

Then one day, she just popped back up.

She had a man, and she was happy.

“I’m glad that she’s happy,” I said honestly.

And I was.

If anyone deserved it, it was Ellie.

She’d been through a lot.

“My dad has decided to run for mayor,” she continued, rolling her eyes.

I sighed and pulled her into my body, loving the way she felt.

It’d been two weeks, but it felt like forever.

“I don’t want to talk about your stupid father,” I said.

He’d moved away after he’d seen shit go down with Ellie and the murderer, and he never contacted us again.

We only knew half the shit we knew because Delanie and Dillan were stalkers and every once in a while decided to check up on their dear old dad.

Most of the time it was to find him struggling.

Which always made me happy.

He may not have had anything to really do with Jason’s death, but it’d been enough for me to realize that I didn’t want him around, either.