Maybe Swearing Will Help (SWAT Generation 2.0 3)

Which reminded me.

“Have you missed your period?”

She scrunched up her nose.

“Two.”

My lips twisted into a small grin. “How did that not flash a big neon sign at you?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t even think about it, to be honest. I was so focused with school, and work, and you, that I didn’t stop to think about anything else.”

My lips pursed in thought.

Then I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I knew by heart.

“Who are you calling?” she asked curiously.

“Zachary,” I answered.

Her eyes went hopeful.

Zachary was an OB/GYN. He was also the third of our trio. Our co-conspirator. The boy that turned into a man that turned into a girl doctor at first just so he could see more vaginas.

But, just sayin’, that backfired on him because it turned out that he really liked the job.

Oh, and he was a sucker for babies.

“Hey, man,” Zach said as he answered on the third ring. “What’s up?”

I hadn’t spoken to Zach in weeks.

“I heard from Ashe’s mom that you’re home,” I said. “And that you’ve got a practice now.”

I could practically hear his teeth grinding in the background.

“I do,” he confessed. “Kind of. I decided to do reserves for the time being. Get my bearings. Figure out what I want.”

Zach had spent his years before he joined the Army getting a bachelor’s degree in science. He spent his years in the Army becoming a doctor. Something had happened earlier this year to make him get out. Which, I assume, was why he was here now, trying out the civilian life while also keeping his foot in the door with the reserves.

“You could’ve called and told us,” I grumbled.

“I did call,” he hedged.

I wrinkled my nose “You didn’t.”

“You sound like a girl,” Zach muttered.

I looked over at Ashe, who was listening to my side of the exchange with a smile on her face.

“I need a favor,” I said.

“Name it,” he replied immediately.

“I need to bring my girl in. Get her checked out. She’s missed two periods, and she doesn’t want anybody to know until we know it’s official,” I said.

I didn’t bother telling him who my girl was.

I wanted to see the look on his face when he found out.Chapter 18

I see no reason to act my age.

-T-shirt

Ashe

“Are you sure about this?” I asked when we walked through the doors of Zach’s office. “He’s going to knock your teeth in.”

Ford grinned.

“He would never.” Ford paused. “Though, he’s going to think that I’m using you. And he’s also gonna think that I’m not serious about you. But I want you to know that I am. I so am.”

I continued the walk into the doctor’s office, thinking it was incredibly weird to be in an office when there was nobody there.

“This is like the ghost of gestating vaginas past,” I mumbled. “Like I know that there should be pregnant people here, but there’s not.”

“There should be,” Zach said, coming into the waiting room upon hearing our voices. “But we’re not open yet. We have it pretty much done, but a few tweaks. And we have to hire office staff.” He paused when he saw both of us. “Where’s your girl?”

I walked up to Zach, admiring how sexy he was like always, and he opened his arms for me to wrap mine around him.

He squeezed me hard, and I squeezed him back just as hard.

It’d been a long freakin’ time.

And now I was crying.

“It’s so good to have you back,” I blubbered.

Zach’s dark rumble of laughter had me crying harder.

I hadn’t heard that laugh in a really long fucking time.

It was great to hear it.

“You’re holding my girl,” Ford said to Zach’s earlier question. “The woman I want you to check out is Ashe.”

There was a beat of silence before Zach exploded.

That’d partially been why I moved into his arms the way I had.

I knew with me right there, Zach wouldn’t lose his shit.

But he surprised me.

His explosion wasn’t of anger.

It was of hilarity.

He was laughing.

No, correction. He was laughing so hard he was now crying right along with me.

I stepped out of his arms, rolling my eyes as he went down into the tripod position with his hands on his knees and tried to draw in a breath.

“Oh my God. This is rich. You and him. Together,” Zach wheezed.

I only smiled.

Zach really was sexy.

He was tall, just like his father, Cleo. He had light green eyes the color of green sea glass. Thick, wavy black hair. Tanned, almost perfectly bronzed skin that every woman hoped to have by the end of summer. Full, plump lips. A perfectly shaped nose, and a perfectly trimmed beard.

He had the type of beard that every man dreamed of.

Even Ford.

When we were growing up, Zach had been able to get his beard to grow in thick and full, while Ford’s had grown in patchy and scruffy. Even now, Ford had to work to maintain his beard. While I imagined Zach only had to keep it trimmed neat and tidy.