Chapter 3 #2
“In all fairness, I’m never home,” she countered.
Still, A.J. wondered if that was the only reason.
“Well, that fool challenged me to a race on a John Deere later.” Chris swiped the beads of water from his hair, his eyes taking a slow journey up the length of Rory’s legs before meeting her face.
“Does he seriously want to race lawnmowers?” He grinned.
“No cow tipping? Wrangling bulls or something?”
“Is that what you Northern boys think we do down here?” Rory’s hand went to her hip as if she were about to challenge him to something herself, or maybe throw a Bless your heart, his way.
“What makes you think I’m a Northerner?” Chris stepped closer to her, a teasing smile plastered on his face. A.J. knew that look . . . Echo Three was preparing to move in and amp up his flirting game.
“I detect a Boston accent you appear to be working hard to disguise,” Rory answered.
Chris full-on grinned now and peered at A.J. “Who is this girl?”
“Someone you don’t want to mess with, remember?” She returned his flirty smile, then started for the firepit, a little bit of sass in her step. Chris slapped a hand to the back of his head and turned to watch her walk away.
“And she’s good with animals? Holy hell.” Chris pressed his hands into prayer position and lifted them toward the sky. “Thank you, God.”
“Off-limits,” A.J. reminded him as he watched Rory greet her brother down yonder at the firepit.
“My favorite two words. Or does the hyphen make it count as one word?” He shrugged and snatched a towel off the lounge chair.
“Trust me. The one guy you don’t want to mess with is Jesse. Super protective of both Rory and Ella.” A.J.’s brow scrunched when a thought struck him.
“What’s that look you’re wearing right now?” Chris waved a finger in front of A.J.’s face.
“Just wondering if Jesse doesn’t think anyone is good enough for Ella because—”
“He’s got the hots for your sis?” Chris nodded. “That much was obvious like five minutes into breakfast this morning. Good luck trying to get him to admit it, though.”
Huh. A.J. stroked his closely trimmed beard, trying to wrap his head around the revelation as Rory laughed at something Shep said.
“Well, back to Rory.” He had too much on his plate right now to think about the fact one of his lifelong best friends might be into his sister.
“Rory doesn’t need her brother’s protection, but—”
“That won’t stop him from trying.” Chris sounded a bit too nonchalant, as if he’d already given up on the idea of pursuing Rory. But when did Chris ever turn down any kind of challenge?
A.J.’s arms tightened over his chest with a pinch of irritation as he studied Brian climbing out of the pool, his focus back to the main subject at hand.
“We might seriously need to access all the CCTV footage in Vegas from last weekend. Maybe use our facial recognition software to see what he was up to there.”
“You don’t think that’s taking it too far?”
A.J.’s brows rose, the movement probably hidden by the brim of his hat.
“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Chris caved before A.J. had a chance to school him on what it meant to have a sister since Chris was an only child.
A.J. removed his hat and dropped his eyes to his cowboy boots, his thoughts traveling back to the forest once again. To how real Marcus had seemed, as if he were still alive.
He’d met Marcus at college when they’d both worn crimson and white, the University of Alabama’s colors, while playing ball.
They joined the Navy together after that.
Different classes at BUD/S, but they managed to wind up on the same squadron.
After their stint in the military, they were brought back together when Luke Scott and his sister, Jessica, recruited them to join a different kind of team, one that completed off-the-books missions the military or government agencies couldn’t or wouldn’t handle for whatever reason.
Amigos por siempre, Marcus used to say to A.J. Friends forever.
And it did end. Way too early for Marcus Vasquez.
“When was the last time you talked to Savanna?” A.J. tried to pull his thoughts away from the day he had pounded his trident into Marcus’s flag-draped casket.
“It’s been too long,” Chris answered, a look of regret in his eyes.
“I need to reach out. See how she’s doing.” Savanna was back in Birmingham. She’d remained single since becoming a widow. Surely struggling to move on from Marcus’s death.
“Yeah. Time keeps slipping by.” Chris’s eyes thinned, and his forehead tightened as if the conversation was sobering him up.
“And we have no idea how much time we’ve got.”
When it’s my time to go, it’s my time. Don’t you dare shed a tear, Marcus had said to A.J. a week before he died as if eerily knowing the future. Ve al cielo y ve a mi padre otra vez.
Your father doesn’t want you up there with him. Not anytime soon, he’d replied to Marcus’s words about joining his dad in heaven. And what makes you think you’ll go before me, brother?
“What brought on the question about Savanna? Coming back home and seeing everyone?” Chris asked.
A.J. tore his head out of the past. “Something like that.” He swallowed the lump the size of the Talladega National Forest down his throat. “Can you call Harper about Vegas after you dry off?”
Harper worked with the teams, in a similar capacity as Jessica, handling most of the intelligence and investigative components of their operations. The two women were the best of the best at what they did, and A.J. wouldn’t spin up without their intel backing the missions.
“I’ll go call her now. I’m not too worried about interrupting a Saturday-night date.” Chris secured the towel that started to slip. “Harper is holding out for a certain someone. Same as you.” He slapped A.J.’s chest and walked away.
A.J. focused on Roman in the pool. Maybe Roman would work up the nerve to ask Harper out someday.
It’d taken Asher, Bravo Three, nearly losing Jessica to get his head out of his ass and share his feelings.
But Jessica was the more stubborn one when it came to their relationship—and now they had twins.
A.J. supposed anything was possible.
Seeing ghosts, for example.
Calling Ana for a date . . .?
“I think I’ve had enough of this BUD/S drown-proofing or whatever your buddies said they were having me do,” Brian griped once out of the pool and did an about-face as if mocking those who served.
Or maybe he really was just that stiff and uptight.
“Not sure what family I’m marrying into.
Does Ella have any idea the kind of hell you all planned on putting me through today?
” Brian snatched a crimson red towel off the lounge chair. “Not sure if it’s worth this.”
A.J. puffed out his chest and stabbed a finger in the air, unable to hold back. “I reckon you better go unfuck yourself right now, then come back over here and decide if you want to take back those words.”
“I didn’t mean it’s not worth marrying Ella.
Damn, man.” Brian scowled. “I think it’s you who needs to—” Brian dropped his words as if sensing he was on the verge of getting decked by a man whose job it was to take down bad guys, and as far as A.J.
was concerned, Brian was ranking high up on that list right now.
“Nothing happened in Vegas,” he shot out before retreating into Caleb’s house, probably to change and cool off.
Maybe I need a moment to calm down, too?
A.J. pivoted to see Chris exiting the house, work phone in hand. Did he already have news about Brian from Harper? The woman was a goddess behind the keyboard, but that’d be pretty fast.
“Don’t say it. Don’t even say it,” Wyatt called out as he hoisted himself out of the pool.
“Just talked to Harper,” Chris announced, a nervous grin on his face.
“I’m guessing it wasn’t about Vegas,” A.J. said on a sigh.
“You bloody jinxed us, didn’t you?” Wyatt scoffed as he joined them, water dripping off his body.
“Time to sober up, boys. We gotta get to the airport in Birmingham.” Chris sounded like a kid who’d just been told summer vacation was canceled. Since when was he ever anything but ready, willing, and excited to spin up?
And then A.J. followed Chris’s line of sight to Rory, who was standing in the glow of the fire talking animatedly to Caleb now. A.J. shook his head but kept his mouth shut. Another one bites the dust.
“Shit, if I don’t make it to my wedding on time . . .” Wyatt growled out while grabbing a towel and drying off, Finn and Roman quickly doing the same.
“Our ops rarely take a month,” Chris said with an upbeat tone that had A.J.
cringing as he glanced at Wyatt. Echo Three grimaced as the significance of his words hit him.
“Aww, fuuudge,” he said as if Bravo Four’s daughter was around, and he was trying to watch his sailor’s mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“I think we need to throw your arse into the pool,” Wyatt said, only half-kidding. “Hey, A.J., is there a swamp around here?”
“You got gators down here, don’t ya?” Finn grinned.
“A few here and there have made their way to our neck of the woods.” A.J. peered at Chris.
“So, anyway. D.C., at least we’re heading toward your fiancée.” Chris’s smile broadened as he focused on Wyatt. “You know, bright side.”
“Seriously, brother.” Wyatt waved a finger in Chris’s direction with one eye closed as if prepping to snipe him, but he was struggling to keep a straight face because, well, Echo Three had a habit of making all the guys laugh.
And as far as A.J. was concerned, that was a good thing.
He’d take humor any day over the wicked darkness that threatened to spring up on them from time to time.
“I guess my brothers and Jesse will need to wrap up Brian’s interrogation,” A.J. said, disappointed he’d have to leave home so soon after just getting there. Plus, part of him felt like he was leaving Marcus behind, too.
“Maybe Rory should give us a lift to Birmingham since we’re all too drunk to drive,” Chris suggested.
“We can Uber it.” Wyatt rolled his eyes at Chris’s lame attempt to spend more time with Rory.
“Hate to break it to y’all, but there ain’t any Ubers out this way.” They’d probably end up asking Rory, and Chris would get his way. Although, A.J. doubted they’d all cram into one SUV. “I’ll have to call my dad to drive a few of us.”
“And what will you tell him?” Finn asked, obviously curious as to how that conversation would go.
“He knows I work crazy hours. We’ll be fine.” A.J. turned back to Chris. “You happen to ask Harper about the Vegas thing?”
“She said, and I quote, ‘You frat boys are on your own with that, and while you’re at it, leave A.J.’s sister the hell alone,’” Chris repeated her words in a high-pitched voice, sounding nothing like Harper, but eliciting a laugh out of everyone nonetheless.
“There’s someone I can ask,” Wyatt commented. “If she can hack the CIA without getting caught, a few Vegas cams should be no big deal.”
A.J. assumed Wyatt meant his cyber genius, twenty-one-year-old daughter, and he was on the verge of saying yes when Finn held both hands in the air, dropping his towel.
“She did what?” Finn’s eyes widened in surprise as he grabbed the towel off the ground.
“You boys do remember we work for Uncle Sam, right?” Roman chuckled before heading inside Caleb’s place without another word.
“Why does he always remind us of that?” A.J. smiled. “But yes, please ask Gwen,” he said before starting for the firepit to say his goodbyes, promising himself he’d come back sooner rather than later this time.
Family was important.
The guys on Bravo and Echo were family, too.
But as he approached the firepit, his eyes moved to the flames licking the night sky, and his thoughts drifted to Marcus yet again.
Doesn’t it feel like we’re always chasing daylight? Marcus had asked the night before his final mission. Just trying to make it to see one more sunrise? One more day? Sometimes I get tired of it.
Yeah, and you’d be bored to tears doing something normal like finance or selling insurance, and you know it. We live for the chase, A.J. had said, a huge-ass grin on his face. He’d patted Marcus on the shoulder, both of them unaware that night was the last moonlit sky Marcus would ever see.