Oh, that wasNOTwhat Gryphen had expected.
In fact, he’d expected a slow-moving Michael who dragged this out because of nerves.
Not turbo-speed Michael.
He expected him to be uber cautious, making sure his heart stayed intact. That was anything but what was happening.
Something had gotten into him—or he’d gotten into someone—clearly.
“I said what I said,” Michael admitted.
Yeah, he’d heard.
“Seriously? Just like that? You show up, and you marry him ASAP? You’re going to charge right at it, and not think about what went down?”
He stared at him.
Was he kidding?
“You just came in here and told me I wasn’t to jerk him around. Then, I actually say I’m going to marry him and not do that, and you look offended. What the hell? Why do I get the feeling I can’t make this right either way with you? That’s the crazy part here. You, not me.”
Oh, someone was getting a little spicy, and needed to chill out.
Literally.
He turned the cold water on, and Michael yelped from the cold shower he’d been handed by his friend.
AGAIN.
“What the hell?” he sputtered.
Gryphen was to the point.
“He’s my friend. You’re my best friend, other than Ian. While I love you both, like I said, he’s in far worse shape than you. If you flake, he’s eating a gun, or jumping off a cliff—round two. Finding you again is literally all he has left, and you leaving will be his killing blow.”
He was well aware.
Only, that wasn’t why he was staying.
It wasn’t out of guilt or fear.
It was out of love.
“That day we broke up, he’d planned on proposing, and I was moving back to the States to make boku money to set us up. We were dirt poor then. Soldiers make shit money, even ones that did our kind of work.”
Oh, he was aware.
“I was just about to fall into my family, and a whole new life,” Michael admitted.
Gryphen knew the feeling.
For him too, this was the only time he’d been flush with cash, and that was because he started working for theBlackhawks. He had so much money now, he didn’t stress about anything.
He could retire tomorrow.
Would he?
Absolutely not, but he could.
