Page 54 of Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

“I’m not. They’re both for you.” He flashed a smile and was a little too pleased by the blush that crept over her cheeks. He needed to get away from her. “I’m going to check out the jukebox. Be back.”

He slid off the old stool and walked over to the machine. He pulled two quarters from his pocket and took his time figuring out what song he wanted to play.

Most of them were old, a lot of them rowdy bar songs. It seemed he couldn’t go anywhere without being reminded of Dad, because half the available songs read like the man’s record collection—Hank, Cash, Waylon. In a fit of sentimentality that made him more than uncomfortable, he picked one of Dad’s favorites.

He stayed there for a few minutes, letting the familiar strains of the Hank Williams song roll over him. Maybe he had to face the memories to get through them. Then he’d be able to move on. It was a theory anyway. A purpose.

Finally, he moved to head back to the bar and Becca. Gabe and Jack too, not just Becca. The guys were important, after all. He was here with them just as much as he was here with Becca. So he’d keep telling himself.

But as he walked back, he stopped short. There was a man talking to her. It wasn’t Jack or Gabe. Jack had disappeared, and Gabe had finally caught the full attention of one of the bartenders, though not the one he’d originally been aiming for.

So there was some other guy, looming over Becca. Something uncomfortable reared in Alex’s gut. It would be irresponsible for him not to step in and say something. Giving her space when she was clearly being bothered would be unconscionable, and if Jack had been around and Gabe hadn’t been busy with his own agenda, Alex was certain they would have stepped in and done the same thing he was about to do.

“Excuse me.”

The man reluctantly looked up from Becca. Like every damn person in this place and in Alex’s life right now, he looked vaguely familiar.

“Alex Maguire! Heard you were back in town.” The man smiled and offered a hand.

Alex knew the polite thing to do would be to respond and shake his hand. Instead, he just looked at the man who clearly thought he could…whatever he’d been doing talking to Becca.

“Mac. Mac Parker. You were friends with my big brother? Tyler?”

Tyler Parker. Yes, Alex had been good friends with Tyler growing up. He tried to think back through his recollections of Mac. A good deal younger, if Alex remembered right. Which put him much closer to Becca’s age than Alex was.

He pushed that thought aside.

“He’s over at that table in the corner,” Mac said, gesturing toward a table Alex couldn’t quite see. Okay, maybe he didn’t try to. “I bet he’d love to see you.”

Alex smiled grimly, though it flattened completely when he looked back just in time to catch Mac winking at Becca.

“It’s been a while. Don’t think I’d know him if I saw him,” Alex said, making sure his tone was devoid of any emotion.

“Oh, well, you won’t be able to miss him. He’s in that table and I bet he’ll recognize you. Your face was in the paper not all that long ago.”

Fully aware Mac was trying to get rid of him, Alex stayed exactly where he was. Unfriendly and unyielding.

“You should go see your friend,” Becca said, smiling encouragingly.

He only glared in response. Did she not have a clue what was happening here? Sure, she was sheltered, but she had to know a guy who winked did not have good intentions.

But apparently she didn’t know that because she gave Alex a cocked-head, confused look for not scampering away as Mac suggested.

“So, Mac, what are you up to these days?” Alex asked, turning his glare to the young guy. He was wearing a button-up shirt and one of those rubber-band bracelets around his wrist. Alex didn’t think it said WWJD based on Mac’s glance down Becca’s shirt.

“Not much. Work with Dad and Tyler on the ranch. Things are good for the Parkers these days.” He smiled wide, and Alex wanted to punch him right in the target it made.

“I just bet they are.” Alex stepped around Mac and took the barstool next to Becca, where he had been sitting not all that long ago. Mac looked at him, then at Becca, and then back out at the crowd. Alex took a sip from his near-empty beer bottle.

“Well, I guess I’ll get back to my group. Come find me if you want that drink, Becca.” He winked again and then sauntered back toward the corner table.

“You know only douchebags wink, right?”

“What do you think you’re doing?” Becca demanded.

It was his turn to give her a cocked-head, confused glance. “Saving you from that turd.”

“I didn’t need saving from anything. I think he was flirting with me!”

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