Page 138 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

“Anything. School. Dancing. Clothes. Makeup. Boys. I don’t care. I want to hear about what’s happened since we last spoke.”

“Dad…”

And that was all he got.

He sighed, but left out the drama, and glanced in the rearview mirror. “What about you, bud? How’s baseball going?”

“Good.”

“That’s it?”

At a stoplight, he turned and glanced at his son. Dylan was the spitting image of himself at that age. Both of his children had his gray eyes, but Chloé took after her mother with both her facial features and her lighter brown hair. Hopefully, she didn’t end up inheriting Sasha’s personality.

“Mom gave me a copy of your schedule. So you know, I plan on attending as many games as possible.”

“You don’t have to,” Dylan mumbled.

Crew’s fingers choked the steering wheel tighter. “You’re right, I don’t have to. But here’s the thing, I want to be there. You’re my son and I love you. I want to see you do well in life. I want to be there for you and support you in all your endeavors. Even if it’s something like baseball. I’m proud of you, bud.”

He glanced over at Chloé. Her nose was still buried in her phone. “Same with you, Chlo. I’m proud of you and please make sure to tell me when you have dance recitals. I want to be there.”

His daughter grumbled something.

That response meant he needed to call Finn’s mother and get an updated schedule directly from her.

He pulled in a breath and focused on the road ahead when the light turned green. “What do you two want for dinner tonight?”

“Pizza,” Chloé answered at the same time Dylan said, “Burgers.”

“How about I swing by Bangin’ Burgers on our way home? And then we can grab pizza tomorrow night. Will that work?”

Neither answered.

He sighed again. Otherwise, he was just going to get pissed. Not at them, but at Sasha. And he didn’t want to risk taking out his frustration on them.

“Dad, can I sleep over at Megan’s house tonight?” Chloé asked more nicely than normal.

“What? No. You’re sleeping over at my house tonight.”

“But she invited a bunch of our friends.”

“You’ll have to do it another night. I hardly get to see you. I don’t want to miss out on even a minute.”

“You should’ve thought about that before you divorced Mom,” she said sharply.

Jesus fuck.

He opened his mouth to explain why he divorced her, but quickly slammed it shut again. They did not need to know their marital problems or that their mother cheated. He would never bad mouth his ex like that, even though Sasha said shitty, false things about him. And fed them all kinds of bullshit. He refused to stoop to her level. If she wanted to admit what she did to the kids, that was on her.

Children should not be used as pawns in a broken marriage. No matter how tempting it was.

“So… I have something really cool planned for Sunday. Do you want to hear it?” he asked.

He didn’t get an answer. A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed Dylan staring out of the passenger side window at who knew what. And Chloé, of course, was texting up a storm, probably telling her friends what an asshole her father was for not letting her sleep over at Megan’s house.

“No interest in seeing Uncle Nox and the rest of your uncles?”

Chloé’s fingers stuttered to a stop and Dylan turned his head to ask, “Are we going to the clubhouse?”

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