Page 23 of Defending Casey

No, his father didn’t curse at him or beat him, that might have been easier for Hale. Anger was a good bedfellow. Hale knew that his father kept his grief bottled up inside of him. He didn’t share it with anyone, not even his son who understood just how much he’d lost.

His father had seemed resigned to a long, bone-numbing death and Hale? He just couldn’t watch it happen. He’d been there through his mother’s short, but soul-crushing fight with cancer. Hale just couldn’t stand to see his father wither away in front of him.

Zeke was the tallest of his team, but to Hale, he walked the softest. Maybe it was because he had a higher center of gravity than the rest, but no matter what caused it, that was how Hale recognized the tread of his friend’s footsteps on the worn wooden floor of the bar.

When Zeke leaned down to nudge his shoulder, Hale didn’t even move or startle.

“You know,” Zeke’s voice held more than a little humor in its tone, “one of these days I’m going to actually sneak up on you and you’re going to jump out of your skin.”

He pulled out the chair beside Hale and sat down.

From the other side of Hale, Bodie leaned in. “What’s going on between you two?”

Hale waved off his friend’s question. “Zeke is telling me that he’ll sneak up on me one day.”

“Again?” Bodie blew out a breath. “I wish he would. No matter where we are, that topic always comes up at one time or another. I think you guys just say it back and forth like some kind of punchline.”

Hale leaned back in his chair as Zeke leaned forward, leaning his arm on the tabletop.

“Are we boring you, man?”

Bodie took a sip of his beer. “Who? Me? No. I think you guys need new material, that’s all.”

Zeke’s laughter made it easier for Hale to join in. “Come on. Admit that you’d miss it if we stopped.”

“I think I’d cheer if it did.” Bodie’s gaze drifted to the dance floor and smiled.

Hale followed his friend’s gaze and saw Sophie and Evangeline dancing together to some old Toby Keith song.

Zeke’s voice was softer when he spoke again. “Maybe you’re just grumpy because the girls are dancing without us.”

Bodie laughed off the idea, but with the way he was looking at Sophie, Hale knew that Zeke wasn’t that far off.

When he turned to look in the other direction, Zeke was also watching the women.

Things were changing for his team, rapid fire.

Leaving the military had been a huge change for all of them. Hale had been happy to stay away from Fool’s Gold as long as possible, but the promise of a job was too much to pass up. And at first, it was meant to be a visit to see how he fit in with Hank Patterson’s company: The Brotherhood Protectors.

The very idea had been tempting even if he knew he wasn’t ready to return to his hometown. Hale knew there would be so many ghosts lurking around corners for him to feel comfortable and like he was truly home.

But he’d been with his team long enough that they had become a kind of home for him, so where they went, he did too.

It wasn’t easy to drive into town after so many years. If there had been an alternate route to get himself there, he would have taken it, but with a town like Fool’s Gold there were only so many ways in and even fewer ways to leave.

“Hey.”

Hale was slow to return to the visceral world around him when he’d been so mired in his thoughts. He felt Zeke nudge his arm and point to the beer he’d been nursing for the better part of an hour.

“Hey, Hondo. You want another beer?”

He shook his head before he’d come to the conscious decision. “No, I’m good thanks.”

Hale saw the look that passed between his friends. Their expressions weren’t subtle.

“Okay,” Bodie leaned an elbow on the table, “what’s going on with you?”

Sure, he could shoot the shit and tell them that nothing was going on.

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