Page 10 of SEAL Mates

Derek

I’d been back home only a week, and somehow yesterday had been a long day, it wasn’t the first and certainly wouldn’t be the last. It was as if boredom had kicked in and as much as I tried to rest and be happy I wasn’t in Hollywood. It resulted in thinking time. That time meant either hanging out in my room aka depression or being with the guys and playing a card game or two.

Carol, the cleaner and cook wasn’t in today. That was her golden rule, when she was here that we left her to it. She had other clients and she couldn’t be cleaning around us. She was one of the top cleaners and cooks in town. We had to get her, and once we did, Alec made it clear we had to abide by her rules, not the other way around.

I decided today should be about resting before I’m back on the set. Sure, I was only thirty but I’d been burned, broken my leg twice, my feet a lot more and who knows with some of my injuries that I ignored. I was discharged from the Navy due to my lack of vision. Yet, being a stuntman made me feel important. Something I desired so badly.

Dad used to say I was a freak as a child, it was as if I never grew up as I got older.

“You up?” Alec knocked on the door and shouted loudly, that if I wasn’t up, then I sure as hell was after the way he’d screamed the house down.

“Yeah. You're not on today?” I asked once he opened the door then popped his head around it.

“Nah. Shut for the day. Nothing doing and besides the snow’s crazy and I’m kinda bored. Blake’s working as usual.”

I chuckled, “Sometimes I think your brother sleeps in the garage.”

He nodded in agreement. Alec’s twin, Blake was a workaholic, you would think she was a medic or something the way he was so dedicated to fixing cars. They not only looked nothing alike, but didn’t act it too. Alec was a fantastic sheriff, but he was a sucker for routine, he needed to be in and out by his set hours. Then again, he had to do everything by routine. Even when we were on the field together he was the only one who worried about the time. Most of us in his squad were more concerned about surviving, rather than the hour of day.

“What do you mean that because of the snow, that everyone would be calling the station?”

I didn’t get what he was saying, didn’t that mean he should be working, if people were going crazy. That was the time they seemed to call the station more.

“Yep, that’s why there’s a deputy and besides it feels as if there’s less need for a sheriff once the snow settles like this. Especially in Alaska. They tend to stay in more and not worry about getting up to mischief. Not that there’s much mischief here anyway.”

There was a look in his eye as he said it, we moved out here for a quiet life, this is what he wanted to come back home to the town that he was brought up in. The one he used to live with his mom, before she died. Yet, I’d been getting the impression lately that it wasn’t enough. That Alec wanted something more. More than being in Burlington, which was weird, because when we bought this place, he said to me that home really was where the heart is, and he couldn’t think of himself anywhere else.

I laughed, “So, you came to bug me, because you’re bored and have no old ladies chatting you up.”

He hated it when I mocked his job, the one he normally took so seriously. So, he walked in and folded his arms as if he was sure he would beat me in the let’s take the mickey out of each other’s jobs discussion. The game we played once in a while, but somehow I’d always won.

“Excuse me, for not having a sun tan and risking my life, by breaking my neck and doing some dumb shit just so that no one knows it is me doing it, but other people. Some famous idiots that get awards.”

“We get awards too. Just not as many as they did.”

I didn’t know why was defending the life of a stuntman. It was stupid, and shit. But hey someone has to do it and with my experience in the Navy I fit the bill, but then again so did so many other guys which was why we had award shows. So, we could show our bravery but we knew deep down we weren’t brave, we didn’t drink or take drugs like some others did to ease the pain we just risked our lives every day for some fucking pay check.

I sighed, thinking if we kept on with this game then my day would be over before it began.

“Can we start again?”

I asked as I got off the bed, and moved towards him. We’d been friends long enough to know each other and when not to push each other’s buttons. This was why he was my best friend and the reason I moved out here in the first place, to be with him after the limited family I had all died.

“Nope. Greg gets here later and tomorrow’s the meeting, so I thought seeing as you’re taking a break..”

“I’d like to do some more work, but I have no choice. The joys of getting older.”

“Shit man, you’re only thirty. Don’t act like such a bitch. Your body needs a break.”

I nodded in agreement. “I know, but it was cool when that break involved coming home and renovating this place. Now, it’s all done. It’s like what the fuck do I do. I know for a fact that the jobs are going to reduce. It’s like the first time I’ve ever thought about the future, you know. Like what it really means for me.”

He shrugged, “Yeah, Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

He put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“You have your health. A lot more than some of our friends have so be grateful and snap out of it. Anyway, let’s get out and do something. Better than staring at the ceiling all day, no?”

I was about to deny that I was doing that before he came in, but he knew me better than most people in my family. So, I knew better than to pretend I was doing something else.

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