“Well, you’re a white, cis, straight man, so...” Dave shot back, and Rio had to laugh.
“So’d you lie to me about Luc, too?”
Dave was now intently focused on his mug of beer. “Lie about Luc how?”
Rio quickly did that math. “Are you’re telling me you’ve lied to me more than once about Luc...?”
Dave looked at him then, his eyes wide. “No! Well, you know, little, tiny lies of omission. Like everyone does. How are you? I’m fine. I just... I left out things I knew you didn’t want to hear.”
“Like...?”
“Like... I don’t know. Like, I didn’t tell you that dating Luc didn’t make me stop missing Jon. Which... I’m pretty sure fucked things up with Luc, because he knew that. He could tell, and... We only went out twice, two nights in a row, and I would’ve gone for three—but then, London, and they needed him to get there right away, so that was it. Like, I think he thought it was just sex for me, but, man, I don’t know, I don’t think it was—”
Rio couldn’t stop himself from saying. “You slept with my cousin...?”
Dave laughed a little. “See, the omission of that info was apparently a good call.”
“Sorry, sorry, no,” Rio quickly backpedaled. “The emphasis came out wrong. I mean, I meant to say, of course you slept with... I know Luc pretty well, and... I should’ve figured that. It’s a good thing. I mean, Luc’s not Jon, and I’m really glad you didn’t slip and sleep with that motherfucker.”
“Yeah, well, I’m pretty sure Luc thinks it was all just some kind of rebound, that I was just using him for the sex.”
Rio winced. He knew—too well—what that felt like. And suddenly Luc’s seemingly out-of-the-blue move to London made a little more sense. “But... it wasn’t?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Dave admitted as Rio spotted Thomas and Tasha coming into the restaurant.
Thomas was hard to miss. Tall and Black with a cleanly shaved head, he looked like the naval officer that he was, even when he wasn’t in uniform. It was in his walk, his regal bearing. Apparently, he’d always been that way, even as a kid.
Rio half stood and waved until he caught the big man’s eye. And then, yeah, it was time to surrender this full bench to the lieutenant and his bride. So he switched over to Dave’s side of the booth.
“I mean, I still spend way too much time thinking about Jon,” Dave confessed, “but now Luc... Well, he’s on my mind. Way more than I’d expected him to be.”
Rio had to ask. “Are you secretly pining for him?”
“Secretly pining for who?” Tasha asked as her husband let her slide into the bench seat first. Her long, red hair was slightly damp around her face, as if she’d recently showered. Come to think of it, Thomas was looking pretty damn fresh, too. No wonder they were late. Showering always took longer when it wasn’t a solo operation. Lucky bastards.
Rio and Dave both elevated themselves a few inches, as if they were going to stand and salute. “Lieutenant.”
Thomas waved them off just as they knew he would. “Yeah, yeah, as you were, permission to whatever. I texted we were running late. Why didn’t you order the beer?”
“Didn’t want it to go flat, sir,” Dave said. Unlike Rio, he hadn’t gone through BUD/S with Thomas. He was younger than they were, and it was hard for him to let go of the sir-ing and the Lieutenant-ing, even off base and after hours.
“Is Mikey coming?” Rio asked. It had been a long time since their other BUD/S swim-buddy, Mike Lee, joined them at ’Wulf’s.
“He’s got family in town tonight,” Tasha delivered the disappointing news as Thomas tried to flag down a server.
But Dave stopped him. “No, sir, it’s on its way. Alaskan Amber on tap.”
As if by magic, the owner, Greykell, appeared with mugs of beer for all of them, including a second for Dave. She knew them well. “Is it cheeseburger night?” she asked.
“It is,” Thomas told her. “Thanks, Grey.”
“Coming right up,” she said with a smile. She knew the SEALs who came into her restaurant were often on a tight schedule—and usually starving.
Tasha, meanwhile had turned her focus back to Dave. Her blue eyes were narrowed. “Pining for who?” she persisted.
“My cousin Luc,” Rio told her. With whom Dave had had sex. Which really was okay with him. Two consenting adults having some happy-fun-sexy-time. Love is love is love, although maybe that should be sex is sex is sex, which was also true and absolutely, supremely cool. He just wished Dave and Luc were still having sex—that they’d connected in the long-term, far more permanent way that Rio had imagined when he’d first set them up.
But maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t too late for that.
