Page 1 of Cowboy SEAL Christmas

Chapter 1

Gabe Cortez liked to think of Christmas as a ritualized torture simulation that would ultimately prepare him for any horrible war zone he found himself in.

If I can survive Christmas, I can survive anything.

And he’d survived his fair share, but this Christmas was seriously testing his limits, even with all war zones firmly in his past. Because the only thing as tortuous as Christmas was awedding, and he was smack-dab in the middle of preparations for both.

“I don’t see why Jack and I have to sit through this,” Gabe announced, crossing his arms behind his head and kicking his legs up on the coffee table in front of him. Like the little army general she was, Becca was standing in front of the group discussing timelines and the chore schedule for a wedding that was something like weeks away and after Thanksgiving at that.

Becca’s green eyes moved to him, and if Gabe hadn’t spent almost fifteen years in the military, many of those being a Navy SEAL, he might have wilted at that look.

“You and Jack are part of this wedding,” Becca replied calmly, though her gaze was fierce and not at allcalm. “Anda part of this ranch.”

Gabe didn’t allow himself any time to dwell on the soft, weak swell of pleasure that gave him.Part of this ranch. Well, of course they were. He, Alex, and Jack had shown up on Becca’s doorstep over six months ago to start this little venture—Revival Ranch, a place for wounded veterans to heal and find purpose—and all five foot nothing of this shy little woman had whipped three injured former Navy SEALs into shape.

Mostly though, she’d helped Alex out of the depression and PTSD that had plagued him after their accident and injury discharge. Gabe could only ever be grateful to Becca for that. He’d spent nearly all of his fifteen years in military service at Alex’s side and he’d never had a better friend, a better SEAL brother.

And now he’s Becca’s.

Well, so be it. Gabe had learned a long time ago that people didn’t stick, especially when loving someone else was involved. At least Alex had chosen wisely. So had Jack, much as Gabe was loath to admit it. Rose might be all mouthy, sharp edges, but she made Jack happy, and Jack deserved that happiness.

If it left Gabe on his own, well, he’d been used to that before he’d joined the navy. He could get used to it again.

“Think of this like a mission, Bec. You give us orders. We’ll follow them,” Jack offered, sitting on an armchair, his increasingly pregnant woman sitting on his lap. “But we don’t need discussions or meetings.”

Becca frowned. “I will not think of my wedding as a mission.”

Alex grinned at her from his seat on the far side of the couch Gabe was on. “You know you want to.”

Becca grunted in frustration.

“That’s actually smart,” Monica offered from her seat on the other chair. “Weddings are a bit like war, at least in my experience.”

Gabe tended to forget that Monica Finley, Revival Ranch’s on-site therapist, had been married before. No matter that her ten-year-old was currently wrestling with Star and Ranger, the two ranch dogs, over by the fire. She seemed like such a solitary, no-nonsense figure to Gabe. It was hard to think of her getting caught up in all this wedding planning.

Mostly, he tried not to think of her at all. She didn’t belong here. Oh, she might be helping Alex and Jack with their PTSD, but she wasn’t part of thegroup, their unit. She was an outsider. Ashrink. Even before his military discharge, Gabe had learned to distrust mental health professionals and the lies they were willing to spew when the right pressure was applied.

He hadn’t realized he was glaring at Monica until her gaze turned to him and she smiled that empty therapist smile. Blue eyes blank and vast as the Montana sky. He returned it in kind, because he knew how to deal with nosy people who thought they could tell you what you thought and felt.

“Besides,” Monica continued, turning her attention back to Becca, her blond ponytail swinging with the movement, “this isn’t wedding by committee. It’s your wedding, and whatever you and Alex want is what matters. We’ll do whatever you two need.”

“Could you tell that to my mother?”

Monica laughed. “I’ll try. But don’t lose sight of the fact it’syourday. And it’s a symbolic day, but it’s not a do-or-die day.”

Becca blew out a breath. “Okay. You’re right, and the best maid of honor ever.” Becca smiled. “Maybe I’ll just have Alex make up one of his binders with instructions.”

Gabe groaned, and so did Jack. Alex’s binders were legendary. Even though Alex had relaxed a lot in the six months since his iron grip on controlling everything had nearly killed him, figuratively and maybe even a little literally, he was still his uptight self.

“I’m going to need a beer if we’re going to start talking about binders. Anyone need anything?” Gabe got to his feet, committed everyone’s drink request to memory, then headed for the kitchen.

Once inside the small room, he gave himself a minute of quiet and silence to just breathe. He felt…tense, and he wasn’t sure why. An edginess had been creeping into him for months now, and he was having a harder and harder time being his pretend-nothing-matters self.

If he told anyone, they’d assume it was PTSD and insist he have a session with Monica, but Gabe knew better. While Alex and Jack grappled with the aftereffects of the accident they’d survived, Gabe only suffered physically. He didn’t have nightmares of the grenade being thrown into their vehicle and Geiger shielding them from the blast with his own body. It had caused Alex to crash the vehicle, and so all three of them suffered either from the blast or the crash. None of that, not even Geiger’s death, affected Gabe mentally the way it had Alex and Jack.

But his shoulder and hip still bothered him off and on, more so since winter had set in. He’d left military life behind, and while he missed it like a lost limb, it didn’t haunt him.

But other things did, and it seemed living civilian life brought them all back to the forefront.

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