Ask Me If I Care (SWAT Generation 2.0 4)

So close that I could smell his cologne.

“May I?” I asked, gesturing to the small boy.

He shrugged and thrust the kid forward.

“Usually the size of the diapers are written on the front of them,” I said as I pulled the front of his sweatpants down and glanced at the diaper.

The very full, in need of a change at least a couple of hours ago, diaper.

“It says three.” I paused. “But I think that it’s kind of tight. You could get away with moving him up to a four.”

The boy laughed at me, and I tickled his stomach before pulling away.

Hayes tucked the kid into his arms like one would a rolled-up rug, then glanced at the boxes of diapers.

“How many does a kid go through?” he wondered.

I gestured toward a box that had ninety-six in it.

“They’re almost the same price as those,” I pointed to the bag. “And if you don’t use them all, you can donate them to the local shelter.”

Hayes picked up the box and threw it in the buggy that I now saw was filled with more stuff.

“He’s still using bottles?” I asked curiously.

Hayes looked at the bottles, then at me.

“He’s not supposed to?” he asked.

I opened my mouth, then closed it.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just think they’re done with them at about a year. And then they move up to a sippy cup.”

Hayes put the little boy—Raj—into the seat of the cart, then went back to the plethora of bottles and tossed them all onto the first shelf he saw.

I rolled my eyes and walked past him to the cups, pulling two off the shelf.

“I think they’re allowed to have whole milk now,” I admitted. “Apple juice, I think, if you can water it down.” I paused when I looked at the toy he’d bought. “And I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to let him play with this just yet. There are too many small parts and he might choke on them.”

Hayes looked at the ceiling and groaned. “Goddamn Christiny.”

I felt my lips twitch, then started taking the things out of the cart that I didn’t think he needed.

“What else do you think I need?” he asked when I got it all put back—in the right spots, might I add.

I looked at the wall of baby shit.

“How long will you have him?” I asked.

“Until tomorrow night.” He paused. “At the earliest.”

I walked to the baby wash and pulled the smallest bottle they had down off the shelf.

“I’d only stay with the basics. Baby wash. Sippy cups. Diapers and wipes,” I admitted. “I don’t think that he’ll need much of anything else. You can feed him what you eat.”

He grumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like, ‘great.’

I barely refrained from laughing at his plight.

“Where do you think I should put him to sleep?” he asked.

I frowned.

“The floor?” I paused. “I just don’t know if he’ll fall off if you put him on the bed. And you’re not supposed to sleep with them in bed with you so…”

Hayes was already shaking his head. “I don’t sleep well. And when I do… yeah, no sleeping with me. That could go badly.”

I wanted to ask him to tell me what that meant so badly, but I refrained.

Instead, I walked back to the box of tampons that I’d originally come into the store for.

“Didn’t your dad just buy you an entire box?” he asked, looking at me worriedly.

“Yes,” I said as I tucked the box underneath my arm. “But if I went over there to get them, I’d have to explain to my mother why I’m done with my date so early. And let’s just say I don’t have the energy.”

His eyes narrowed. “Did the date go badly?”

I shrugged, pushing my hair out of my face.

“It didn’t go great,” I admitted. “After eating the rest of your pretzel—yes, all of it—he kept giving me disgusted looks. Then your steak and baked potato came and let’s just say that he wasn’t impressed at all when I ate all of that.”

He chuckled deeply, the sound making the little boy in his arms grin.

“Glad someone got to enjoy it,” he admitted. “I’d have given it to Errin, but she eats like a fuckin’ bird.”

“Errin your date?” I asked. “Because I’m fairly sure they ended up leaving the restaurant together. They were talking about work? Does Errin work at the police station with Kelly?”

He snapped his fingers. “That’s where I know him. He’s a private investigator now. He used to be a cop.”

I nodded. “Yep.”

He fell into step beside me as we made our way to the front of the store.

“Guess I did you a favor,” I admitted. “Got rid of your date and mine all at once.”

My brows rose. “You didn’t want to be on your date?”