Page 35 of The Wounded Warrior

“Wow. If I let her wait on us and don’t make her cry, do I get our pie for free?” Luke reckoned Rory couldn’t not make a deal. It must be in the man’s bones.

“You’re on.”

They ended up at a table in the back, out of the way. Bless her red head, Sue Ann didn’t want his chair messing up the flow, but that worked for Luke. Less gawking.

“Good deal. About the meatloaf,” Luke added when Rory looked at him strangely. “Now I don’t have to think of getting it just to impress you.”

“Nope. You get whatever you’d like. I am splurging on meat and cheese and amazing onions.”

“I like a patty melt, but breakfast all day is gonna be my choice.” He peered at the menu.Migasand pancakes. Maybe gross, but that was what he wanted. Hey, eggs went with pancakes, right? God, he’d missed the wholemigason demand thing. Life was good.

“You’re grinning wide,” Rory said.

“Migas. People outside of Texasno comprende.”

“No shit?”

“Nope.” Wait. Okay, that was weird. Rory had to have traveled, right? Fairly extensively? He was rich, did business all over the world, right?

“Huh. People are strange.”

“You know it.” Luke nodded solemnly. “They had something similar in the Middle East, but it was weird and tomato-y.”

“They have a restaurant in Austin that has falafel and hummus that’s amazing.”

“I love falafel. I swear, it tastes like breakfast sausage.” The food had been one of his favorite things about being deployed.

“And the tzatziki. Uhn.”

“Yep. Cucumber and dill so strong it draws up your lips.” He hummed. “Yeah. Not gonna find that here.”

“Next time I go to Austin, I’m totally stopping. What’s your position on the Live Music Capital of the World?”

“No clue. I mean, I’ve been through there.” Luke felt a little small town at that.

“Maybe one day we could go. I go for business a lot and my sister is at UT.”

“Yeah? That would be cool.” In fact, it would be more than. A little road trip. Matty could feed for one day on his own, right?

“So, I really did come out to apologize. I think someone spiked my beer.”

“How?” He tilted his head, trying to figure out how someone could do that at such a busy party. With a longneck.

“I don’t know. I was the only one sick, but man, I thought I was fixin’ to die.”

“Sick how?” He knew a little bit about the kind of chemistry meds gave versus bad food.

“Well, it wasn’t like just food poisoning with the puking and pooping. I was hallucinating. Sweating. My head felt three sizes too big. I couldn’t coordinate my body parts. Obviously, I couldn’t shut my mouth up.” Rory went bright red and Luke had to admit it was pretty damn cute. “Don’t get me wrong, I meant every word. I don’t have a wheelchair kink, but I’ve had some lovers who made me a very happy man who were in chairs. Still, it wasn’t appropriate.”

“It sure was a surprise.” Luke chuckled. “I assume you were under the influence of adrenaline and pain when you kissed me.”

“No. I did that because I wanted to.”

Now it was Luke’s turn to have hot cheeks. And ears. Along with his crotch. “Good. I mean, I damned well liked it.”

“I did too.” Rory just looked at him, straightforward as fuck, unashamed.

“Okay.” He leaned his elbows on the table. “So, before we go anywhere with this, I have to ask you something.”

---