“Remember what happened last time,” Pike warned, but there was a softness to his voice. Yeah, that night hadn’t turned out so bad after all, starting them on the road that led straight to here. And here was a pretty darn fabulous place, no matter what happened tonight.
And he didn’t care what Pike said, passing on what he’d thought of as his dream job was a big deal, one Zack wasn’t going to ignore. If he could do that for them, then Zack could do this. He headed toward the bar, Pike following closely behind him.
“Nelson!” someone called out behind him, and he swiveled to find Morrison next to him. “Hey, man, great to see you among the living. And Pike, right?” He gave Zack a back-pounding hug and extended a hand to Pike.
“Yeah. I hear I owe you a thank-you for saving Zack’s life.”
“Oh it wasn’t me.” Morrison waved off the praise. “He’s a stubborn bastard. He wasn’t going down without a fight. But, man, don’t ever do that to us again.”
“Word,” Pike said.
“So what are you guys drinking? First round’s on me.” Morrison led them to the bar, where Zack got a soda, deciding that maybe Pike was right about his stomach, and Pike got a beer. “Come on. Shelia and the gang’s over here.”
Moment of truth. Zack followed behind as Morrison wove his way to a cluster of tables in the corner.
“Hey, guys, look who’s back!” Morrison announced to the group, causing heads to swivel his way. There were several guys from the team along with assorted women. No Harper or Cobb, these were mainly the older SEALs Zack didn’t know as well, but that didn’t make his stomach settle down any.
“You remember Shelia, right?” Morrison indicated his girlfriend, the same woman he’d been with at the vet’s office. “Let me introduce you to her friends.” Morrison rattled off a bunch of names that no way in heck was Zack remembering. “And this is Petty Officer Zack Nelson, and—” Morrison shot Zack a questioning look, clearly tossing the ball into his court with a nice soft lob.
“Pike. My boyfriend. He’s a professor here in town.” Wow. He managed to get all that out without his voice shaking. Go me.
The whole table went silent for a long moment, during which Zack’s stomach staged an all-out revolt.
“Hey, Pike.” Reyes, a chief who specialized in explosives, extended a hand across the table. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Emmett lifted his beer in their direction. “Thanks for not dying on us, Nelson.”
And that was that. Reyes and Morrison were enough of talkers that anyone not at the table would know soon enough. But really, it was kind of anticlimatic. He’d built it up into this huge milestone, and in the end, the guys at the table simply followed Morrison and Reyes’s lead, ribbing Zack about almost dying on them, then letting their girlfriends pepper Pike with questions about what he taught and going back to watching the game on the TV closest to them.
He didn’t delude himself into thinking that it would all be this easy—there would probably be some rumors and whispers over the next few weeks and not everyone was going to be thrilled, but right then, Zack finally felt like one of the team. They knew. No one had stalked off or called him names. He’d count that as a victory. He slugged back his soda, letting it cool him down.
They ended up with seats between Morrison and Shelia and Reyes and his wife, a diminutive woman with very red lips and very pink hair. Shelia and Reyes’s wife apparently knew some people who worked at Pike’s college and kept up a running conversation with him. Reyes kept a proprietary arm around his wife while they chatted. Someday. Someday soon that was going to be Zack here, casually touching his guy. He could see that future now, and he wanted it, no matter the cost.
“Hey, Nelson,” Reyes, said pitching his voice low. “I...uh...didn’t know.”
“No one did,” Zack said carefully.
“I...that is, I may have said some things...jokes, you know. And I...well, I can do better.”
“Thanks,” Zack said, warmth spreading out from his chest. “I appreciate that.”
“Anyone gives you shit, you point them at me or Morrison, okay?”
A waitress brought huge orders of fries, wings and onion rings right then, setting them in the center of the table. Morrison pushed some fries Pike’s direction, and Zack’s heart grew painfully tight.
Eventually he had to use the restroom, but he felt okay leaving Pike with Reyes and Morrison. This was all going to work—
“Nelson.” Harper stepped in front of his path as Zack made his way past the pool tables toward the restrooms at the back of the bar.
“You need something?” Zack might be feeling better about the rest of the team, but he wasn’t going to forget how Harper sneered at him in the jungle.