Ouch. He winced at the idea of being in the same Venn diagram circle—grown-ass men who have dumb nicknames—with Dingo. “Yep.”
Shayla took out and opened her laptop. “Let’s have it. The story. I’m sure Maddie would love to know.”
“It’s not all that exciting,” he said. “The official story is that there was an incident with a Dumpster, shortly after I joined the Teams.”
“Witha Dumpster?”
“Inside of a Dumpster. The tango—terrorist—we were pursuing thought he’d try to hide, and I said nope and went in after him. When it was over, no one wanted to get too close to me. I’m lucky I didn’t get calledStinky.”
“So what’s the unofficial story?” she asked.
He glanced at her, and she was looking steadily back at him.
“You said that was theofficialstory, which means there’s an unofficial, i.e.,realstory.” She smiled. “So spill.”
Pete sighed. “I heard that coming out of my mouth and I knew you’d catch it.” He shook his head. “You know how Lisa used to call me Goldilocks?”
“Uh-oh,” Shay said.
“Yeah, a nickname like that would’ve clung worse than Stinky.” He laughed. “Okay, it’s stupid but…I got, I don’t know, maybeoneemail from Lisa the entire time I was doing a six-month WestPac cruise, right after I enlisted, and in it she called meG.Someone saw it and wanted to know what that G stood for, and I mumbled something likeIt’s a nickname.They pushed to know what my nickname was, so I said the first word I could think of that started with G that wasn’tgiraffeorgrapefruit—or freakingGoldilocks.”
“Not G for Greene?” Shayla suggested, her eyes dancing with amusement.
“I panicked,” he admitted. “There was music playing, so I just saidGrunge.” He smiled ruefully. “The Dumpster happened, but it was long after the fact. It definitely helped cement theGrungething, though. Which was fine with me. Way better than carryingGoldilocksuntil the end of time.”
Shayla laughed as she finished typing and finally closed her computer. “You’ve probably got more in common with Dingo than you think. I’d bet he made up his nickname, too, to steer people away from calling him Dingle or, God, Dingleberry.”
“Yeah,” Pete said dryly. “Me and Dingo. Two peas in a pod.”
She laughed, and then fell silent for…
Three…
Two…
One.
“So what’s up with the resignation?” Shayla asked him, right on cue. The question aboutGrungehad been just a warm-up. “I thought you loved being a SEAL.”
“I do,” he said. “I just…I see it getting more complicated, not less.”
“With Maddie,” she said.
“What else is there?” he said, but then realized how callous that was.
But she didn’t flinch or even blink. “Of course,” she said.
“You and me,” he tried to explain. “I see that as extremely simple. I mean, it’s sex.” Okay, that didn’t come out right, either.
This time she shook her head slightly as she said, “Can we please focus on the Navy and your plans to leave it because…? Why exactly…?”
“I intend to tell Maddie that I’m willing to move to Palm Springs,” Pete explained, “if she wants to finish high school there. And in order to do that, I’ve got to leave the Navy. I mean, I can’t be a SEAL and live in the desert.”
“She’s a child,” Shayla pointed out. “She’ll live where you need to live.”
“Said the woman who’s terrified of earthquakes who moved to California so her kids would be closer to their dad.”
“That’s different,” she insisted.
