Chapter Six
Monday
Rio’s cell phone rang as he was getting out of his car in the Team Ten lot on the Navy base.
Casey.
Her name came up on his screen—they’d exchanged numbers at the wedding. Because “Now we’re friends,” she’d proclaimed.
He still hadn’t quite wrapped his brain around the fact that he was friends with Casey freaking Esparza. Truth was, he hadn’t quite believed it, but here she was, calling him so...
“Rosetti.” Shit, he’d answered with his default—but fortunately he and Luc had the same last name.
“Hi,” she said, her voice bright and clear. “It’s Casey.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Wassup?” Wassup? What was he, in high school?
“I just wanted to thank you again for coming with Dave to the wedding,” she said. “I know that had to be... challenging.”
Good word for it. She had no idea. “I was... glad to spend some time with Dave, off-base,” he added. “Meet his fam—chosen fam.”
“Yeah, you probably don’t want to meet his real family,” she said.
Yikes. “Dave’s been kinda vague on that topic,” Rio said. “Are they really that bad?”
“Well, he lived with us his senior year in high school,” she told him. “We pretended it was all about his graduating in North Port after his dad got a job in Atlanta, but I’m pretty sure his parents didn’t want him to go with them.”
“Jesus,” Rio said. “They seriously didn’t know their kid is one of the greatest, nicest, kindest human beings on the planet?”
“They believe some stupid, false doctrine allegedly handed down from the nasty-ass god they worship, instead of what they witnessed with their own eyes,” she said. “Lotta that going around these days.”
What would Luc say to that? “So I love you,” Rio told her.
She laughed—a musical cascade of delight. “Well, that’s nice to hear, because I definitely love you, too. Hey, is there any chance you could take a few days off this week—Wednesday and Thursday. Maybe even Friday if you can manage it?”
“Uh...” He wasn’t sure how to respond. Rio wanted to say Hell, yeah, and then head immediately into the Senior Chief’s office to fill out the paperwork. Senior would be beyond ecstatic to give him those days. But Luc was Dave’s boyfriend, and wouldn’t want to squander his leave unless Dave could swing it, too. Although that would always be a challenge, considering they were both in the same Team.
And maybe Casey correctly read his hesitance as that—What about Dave? Because she quickly added, “That was a plural you. You and Dave. See, we’re heading out to Palm Springs for their local version of Comic Con, and Ella’s—my security person’s—dad just had a heart attack. I promised her I’d get Dave or one of his friends to take her place, so she’s already gone up to Seattle.”
“I’d love to come,” Rio said and it wasn’t a lie. “And I bet Dave would, too—although I don’t want to speak for him, so...”
“Of course not,” she said. “I was gonna call him next.”
She’d called Rio first. Why should he care? What the hell difference did it make? Yeah, but she’d called him first.
“Just to be clear.” Rio pushed his inner seven-year-old gently aside. “You said, we?”
“Yes,” Casey said. “And that may impact your decision, but Jon’s coming, too.”
“Oh, joy.” He let himself say that aloud because Luc sure as hell would’ve, and she laughed. As he’d hoped.
“I don’t want him to stay home by himself,” she admitted. “And I’m sure there’ll be moments—or longer—of awkward- and awfulness, but... I’ve learned not to go to these things without someone I trust—someone with training in security or law enforcement.”
“Or someone in the military,” he added for her.
“Yeah. Someone who looks capable, to walk and stand near me,” she said. “And Jon’s not it.”
That was for sure. “I get it,” Rio said. “And I approve.”
