Page 27 of Cowboy SEAL Christmas

“Be safe, you three,” Becca said sternly, slipping Alex’s hat on his head.

“No bar fights or you’re paying me damages,” Rose added.

The couples exchanged kisses, and Monica and Gabe stood awkwardly, pretending like they didn’t notice they were the two singles in the room.

Then, thank Christ, they were out the door and on the way to the bar. Finally. Gabe hadn’t had a decent drinking night inweeks.

Alex and Jack talked about the fixes they’d done to the furnace at Jack and Rose’s place on the way to the bar, and Gabe mainly nodded along, pretending to listen. Montana was dark and stark outside the truck’s window, and Gabe appreciated that lack of red-and-green Christmas lights out here in the middle of nowhere.

Of course, once they got to Blue Valley proper, it was all lit-up storefronts, wreaths on doors, and those obnoxious pieces of tinsel and garland strung from streetlights on one side of the road to the other.

Even Pioneer Spirit was decked out in twinkling lights and ribbons. “The one hope I had for this town was its total lack of holiday charm.”

Alex laughed. “Everyone loves Christmastime, Gabe. Even Blue Valley. Perhaps even you, deep down.” He parked in the small gravel lot next to Pioneer Spirit’s somewhat shabby exterior, somehow made to look inviting by the red, white, and green lights decorating the storefront.

“Don’t confuse me with the Grinch. This cold, black heart ain’t ever growing three sizes.”

Jack snorted, sliding out of the truck in time with Alex. “Yeah, you’re a real hard-ass. That kid is terrified of you.”

Gabe stepped out of the truck, wincing at the cold and the pain in his hip, which was made worse by the temperature and the gravel beneath his feet. “Whatever, Captain Whipped America.”

They razzed each other as they made the short trek to the bar entrance, then stepped into the dim warmth of the bar. Alex and Gabe grabbed a table while Jack went and ordered them a round.

Finally, they all sat at the table, uncomfortably like old times that felt even older than they should. Because during old times their lives had been the three of them. Now it was more like couples and one solitary Gabe. Gabe raised his glass and did his best to pretend this was allfantastic. “A toast to the last days of the single man.”

“I think it’s supposed to be a happy toast, Gabe,” Jack replied. “Not one that sounds like a funeral.”

“Itisa death of sorts. At least for the guy downstairs.”

Alex shook his head. “The guy downstairs has no complaints.”

“Well, that is something to toast to.” They all clinked glasses, and Gabe ignored the way his chest tightened. Itwasthe end of something. Jack and Alex wanted to pretend like time wasn’t marching on, but Gabe knew what marriages and babies did. They separated people. Gave you new people to love, and the old people didn’t fit in anymore.

He drank deeply. “So, when are we going to toast you?” he said to Jack. “Make an honest woman of that girl you knocked up?”

“As if I haven’t tried. Rose has a timeline of her own, and I’m just following it.”

Alex shook his head. “You should put your foot down.”

Jack gave Alex a doleful look. “Since I like my foot, and Rose would chop it off if I tried to ‘put it down’ anywhere near her, I’ll stick to her timeline.”

That earned a laugh from both Alex and Gabe. Gabe couldn’t say he would’ve predicted either woman for his two best friends. Shy, skittish Becca, who’d come into her own and was nearly as much of a military leader as Alex himself. She had a softness to her, and it was good for all of Alex’s tightly controlled edges.

Then there was snarky, tattooed, take-no-shit Rose and Captain America Jack. As opposite as night and day, but it worked. Clicked. And because they were his best friends, the men he’d become a man with, a SEAL with, he wasgladfor them and what they’d found.

But he also recognized their trio was coming to an end. Everything would change. Marriage and babies and families. No matter how hard Alex and Jack tried, Gabe would be the odd man out. The one who didn’t fit. It was a place he was so used to it was somewhat of a shock to be hurt by the change.

“Before we really start celebrating, there is something I want to talk to you about, Gabe.”

Gabe sipped his whiskey suspiciously. “Is it a discussion I’ll need more alcohol for?”

“We just wanted you to know that if you need to take some time off and go back to New Jersey to visit your family for Christmas, we can make that happen.”

Gabe stiffened. It was quite the ambush, and one he certainly hadn’t seen coming. He’d been friends with and deployed with Alex for nearly fifteen years, Jack for more than ten. Alex had asked about his family a few times, but Gabe had never answered in any meaningful way. He’d thought both Alex and Jack had accepted long ago that Gabe didn’t have a family.

“You’re not going home,” Gabe said, nodding toward Jack. Deflection was always the best way to not have to answer a question.

“No, we didn’t think Rose would be up for the trip. Since my family just visited this summer, it didn’t seem imperative, especially with Rose’s family so close. I imagine next Christmas, we’ll find some time to go there, or they’ll find some time to come up here.”

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