Page 4 of Stay with Me
“Still haven’t made up your mind?” Drew asked from the doorway of his roommate, Rick’s, bedroom.
“Have you?” Rick shot back. He spun in his chair and looked at the ceiling. “What wussies we are. Can’t even decide which branch to bid for. Should’ve put in our choices back in September.”
“You know which you want. Don’t lie. Infantry has your heart and soul. I could tell when we went through Advanced Camp last summer. And I’m pretty sure that if you have your choice, you’d opt for Airborne or Air Assault.” Drew moved over to Rick’s bed and sat down, dropping his chin to his chest to stare at the floor. Watch him cover up his shortcomings. He’d been doing it for years so what would another hour matter?
“What’s going on with you? You’ve been a bit withdrawn. Even snapped at Dowd during PT yesterday.”
Drew flew up from the bed, hands on hips. “Oh, Dowd deserved it. Jackass showed up late, didn’t have his gear, and tried to lie about it all. Moron needs to man up and stop his bullshit. He thought ROTC was an easy, all-paid solution for a college degree that he wouldn’t have to put any effort into.Wrong, motherfucker. You’ve got to earn the respect of your soldiers, not just expect it because you’ve got a bar on your uniform. He needs—”
Before Drew could blink, Rick was on his feet and putting his hands on Drew’s shoulders. “Whoa, there, big fella. Dial it back.” Drew closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. “Okay, you ready to tell me what the real issue is here? Dowd has been a pain in the ass since he showed up in the fall. He won’t last passed this semester. His grades suck and he’s got the ethics of a clump of dirt.”
Drew opened his eyes, blinking fast. He was not going to cry, really he wasn’t. “What if I’m not good enough? What if I let everyone down with my branch? What if I don’t want to do twenty and retire? What if I never wanted to go into the military?” Drew whispered.Holy shit, did he really just say all that out loud?
As he watched, Rick opened and closed his mouth. Then he was pulling Drew down the hall, pushing him into one of the chairs in the kitchen. “Hey, what’s with the manhandling?” Drew groused as he moved to stand. “I’m just going to—”
“Sit your ass down and do some MDMP with me,” Rick commanded. Across the top of a white board, he wrote,‘What does Drew want to do?’“Okay, let’s start with the easy part. What branch do you want to go into? Off the top of your head, no thinking, no stressing over what your dad or uncles or brother want you to do. What do you want to do?”
“I want to work with military dogs,” Drew said with no hesitation.
“Ummm, best buddy of mine? Dog handlers aren’t officers. That’s an enlisted job. Dog outranks the handler… sound familiar?”
“You asked what I wanted to do from my gut. I want to work with dogs. Work with them in search and rescue, saving people.” Drew let out a huge sigh. He’d finally done it. Told someone what he really wanted to do with his life. Of course, he was currently stuck with a six-year commitment to the Army that was going to prevent him from doing that.
“All right. Then let’s work that into the grand scheme of your time in the Army. MWD teams are part of the MPs so, there’s your branch.” Rick wrote that on the board. “Now that you’ve chosen your branch, let’s see what else we can plan out.”
Chapter One
“Dude, you are about to get your ass kicked,” John whispered as he leaned toward Brody.
Brody Walker turned and glared at his soon-to-be-former friend. He never should’ve told John about his crush. Of course, Brody had been drunk off his ass when he confessed. Currently, he was sitting in the first row of seats as Master Sergeant Coffey paced the stage. Sue him, he was distracting himself by staring at his crush, one Andrew Nolan. Christ, he just wanted to pin on second lieutenant, graduate, and get to Brooke Medical. Maybe then he could get over Drew.
“What the fuck? It’s not like he’ll notice me, anyway. Did you see the blonde he brought to the ball? I think it was the same one from last year.” Brody tried to keep his voice down. “Listen, we graduate this weekend and then I’ll never see him again, unless I’m stupid enough to come to a reunion years from now.”
“What blonde? I thought he brought—” John was cut off by Master Sergeant Coffey.
“Listen up, cadets. We’ve got a bit of a situation and I hate that it’s going to impact your ceremony. It seems that our guest speaker, Colonel Howard, has come down with a case of food poisoning and won’t be able to attend tomorrow’s ceremony. I know that you were all looking forward to having someone other than Lieutenant Colonel Robbins talk, but I don’t know that we’ve got many options.” Coffey shook his head. Brody couldn’t remember seeing the master sergeant looking … lost before. He blew out a breath and said, “Rehearsal first. Join me on stage, cadets.”
Brody stood, along with his classmates. There really weren’t many of them. Eight seniors this year. “Let’s get this over with.”This past year had been hell. And Brody was so ready for his heart to stop hurting. Faster they got done, faster he could get out of Drew’s presence.
§ § § §
Drew stood on stage with his fellow seniors waiting to be released when his cell phone chimed. Shit, forgot to put it on silent after talking with his mom earlier. He reached into his pocket to quiet it. Just as he pushed the side button, Master Sergeant Coffey yelled.
“Nolan! You would think after four years you know the rules.” Coffey stopped in front of Drew and glared.
“Sorry, Master Sergeant. I thought I’d silenced it,” Drew apologized as he pulled out his phone, which promptly jumped out of his hands to skid across the stage, stopping in front of Brody. “Shit.” Drew moved to pick it up and lost his balance right into Brody’s legs. All Drew could do was close his eyes and shake his head. He tried not to moan at the whiff of scent he got from Brody. Okay, yeah, he’d noticed his fellow cadet, but he had no idea if Brody was gay. Not that Drew’d gone out much, anyway.
“Are you quite finished, cadet?” Coffey asked. Drew had no idea where this bout of clumsiness came from and he could do with it leaving. He picked up his phone and saw a message from his father lighting up the screen.Heptad all here. Uniforms pressed. Call when you’re out of rehearsal.
Drew looked to the ceiling. Maybe he had a way out of this fuck up? He could throw his father and uncles under the bus. They’d do it for him. Oooh, or his brother. Yeah, surely Tris owed him for something.
Nothing like the present.
“Master Sergeant, would you like an option for the guest speaker?” Drew asked. He’d kept quiet about his father anduncles his whole time at ECU in the ROTC program, but since he was graduating now, it wouldn’t make a difference.
Coffey looked at Drew with narrowed eyes. He could see that Coffey was trying to figure out the catch. “Yes,” he finally said.
“What if I could get you a retired command sergeant major or four? Or just a retired sergeant major? Or if you’d rather, a retired first sergeant or two? Or an intelligence major?” Yup, he was pulling out all the ranks.
