Page 14 of Be With Me
“One date? You’re claiming him from one date?” Debbie watched as Stacy rolled her eyes.
“Well, the kiss at the end of the date had me weak in the knees.” Stacy’s excited ‘ah’ had Debbie smiling.
“There’s more you’re not telling me,” Stacy coaxed, pushing on Debbie’s shoulder.
Debbie stood and pulled Stacy off the couch. “Not really. Now let’s get some food in here before the madness starts tomorrow. We need to put our schedules on the whiteboard too so we don’t wake each other.”
“Yeah because why would we get the same rotation schedule. Let me grab my wallet and phone.”
Debbie looked at her ratty sweats. “I’m going to change then we’ll go to Kroger’s?”
“Food Lion. They’ve got better produce and I need to eat better this semester. I worked hard to lose that ten pounds from the spring and I don’t want to put it back on.”
“Sure, whatever you say, Stac,” Debbie teased as she headed to her room.
§ § §
When they got to Jack’s, Kevin hadn’t arrived yet so they grabbed a table in the bar area and ordered beers. There weren’t too many patrons this time of day at the end of a three-day weekend, so they weren’t overly stressed with no wall at their backs. Well, at least he wasn’t. He could only assume that Mackey and Danny had some of the same issues.
Mooney was glancing at the menu, trying to decide if he was hungry or not when someone slapped him on the back.
“Luna, right?” the voice attached to the hand said. Mooney looked up and saw the Special Forces sergeant standing there.
“Casper?” Mooney offered back. He thought that was the guy’s name.
“Right on the first shot. Just thought you’d like to hear about the razing that the Deltas received. It was fantastic.”
“Ahem,” Mackey cleared his throat pulling Mooney’s attention away from Casper. “Going to introduce us?”
Shit, Mooney forgot the guys didn’t know Casper. “Staff Sergeant Casper, Staff Sergeants Jeff MacNamara and Danny Glenn.”
They all held out their hands. “Eric Casper,” he corrected.
“Jeff, please,” Mackey said and Danny corrected, “That’s Mackey.”
“Oookkkaayy,” Eric seemed unsure about that.
“Danny likes nicknames,” Mooney filled him in.
“Why not? The teams do too. Soooo, the Deltas have an office they’re assigned right now. Beatle, Blade and their captain, Chase. A few days after the incident, Chase had the office door all decorated when we arrived for PT. UFC paraphernalia all over it and when they opened the door, a voice called out ‘now entering the ring’. It was epic.”
“Oh there’s more to this story, I can tell. But first, you need a nickname…” Danny tapped his chin for a minute then said, “I know, you’re Spook. You here alone?”
“Spook?” Eric just rolled his eyes before answering the question. “Yeah, just grabbing something. Need to hit the rack early. I’m helping with some training tomorrow,” he answered.
“Have a seat then. We’re just waiting for our friend to smack him upside the head,” Mackey told him.
“That’s a story too.” Eric sat down.
“Kevin’s not thinking with the correct head at the moment and we’re going for an intervention. You know the story, lonely soldier finds a not-so— how to phrase this nicely?” Mooney stopped and looked toward the door; he’d heard the door open. “There’s our vict— misguided friend. Let’s get some appetizers and lull him into thinking we’re not ganging up on him.”
“Kevin! Over here,” Danny called out.
“This is going to be fun to watch. Sure I’m not in the way?” Eric went to shift off the chair.
“Oh no, you’re fine right where you are,” Mooney instructed as Kevin pulled up another chair.This wasn’t going to be fun… but they had to at least try and help Kevin, right?
