Page 50 of Wandering in Darkness
“You are so pretty.”
I can’t even look over at him because he’s too busy patting his “pretty” face. “Thank you! I bet when I told you to think of people naked back there, you were thinking of me.”
I try my best not to blush. How successful I am depends on who you ask, because I sure as shit don’t think I’m successful at all. “Oh yes, that was my first thought, actually. Didn’t you see how quick I was to drop down and stare through a scope so I didn’t have to look at you naked?”
“You were definitely missing out,” he says with a grin.
“I’m sure I was.”
Grayson pulls into the parking lot of the bar and grill. “I feel like I gave you ample time to tell me everything amazing about me, and I only got that you would rather stare at a target than look at me naked.”
“I think that maybe you made that up.”
“Oh… so you’d rather stare at me?”
“You’re so funny. Hilarious, actually,” I say an instant before someone leaps in front of his car. He was already stopping to park, so it wasn’t like he would have hit him, but it still makes Grayson jump. Eddie, one of the others in our group, proceeds to fall onto the hood of his vehicle, as if Grayson really hit him. I can see people who’d been walking by stop to stare.
“Fucking hell… I should run him over,” he grumbles.
“He probably deserves it,” I say as I roll the window down. “Grayson, it looks like you might have gotten some shit on your hood.”
Eddie doesn’t lift his head but proceeds to flip us off with both hands.
“I just washed this car, too. That’s the kind of shit that lasts no matter how much you scrub.”
“Both of you… can suck my meaty dick,” Eddie says as we get out. He stops playing victim and instead comes over and gives me one of those bro hugs with a lot of hand smacking and a bit of crushing. “No hugs for you, Grayson.”
“I don’t want any of your hugs, trust me.”
“The only thing I trust is that you’ve conned sweet Cal here into thinking that you’re a halfway decent man.”
“He was making me tell him all the things I liked about him on the drive over,” I inform him.
Eddie’s buzzed head snaps back as he raises an eyebrow at the man in question. “What the fuck, Grayson? You know if anyone should get compliments, it should be me,” he says. “Cal, let me hear it. Tell me what you like about me.”
“I like how brutal you are to Grayson,” I admit.
That makes Eddie look quite pleased. “Aww… this is fun. Okay, what else?”
“I like how funny you are.”
“What the fuck?” Grayson asks as he follows us. “I couldn’t even get any compliments out of you and you’re shooting them off one after another?”
When I see Lt. Allen ahead of us, I hurry away from Eddie like I don’t want to be seen with him.
While I’m used to calling people by their last names in the military, they’ve assured me that I’m now “one of them” and will be calling them by their first names. The only one I struggle to do that with is Lt. Allen, and apparently everyone else does as well. But I think it’s his presence, honestly.
He acts like he’s one of us, but the way he carries himself and talks really makes me feel like I should still smack a “lieutenant” in front of his last name, and he hasn’t corrected me yet.
“Looking like model citizens, I see,” Lt. Allen says, holding the door open for us.
“It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen them do,” Audrey comments as she walks up. The last two times we’ve been out, she’s been my spotter, and a damn good one at that. I feel like I could shoot without even needing my eyes if she’s involved, even though her expertise lies in demolition.
“Is Devon coming? I got a special ‘fuck you’ for him,” Eddie says.
“What’d he do now?” Lt. Allen asks.
“He parked in my parking spot. The balls on that man have to be massive.”
