He weaved through the crowd, searching for the familiar faces. After a few moments, he finally caught sight of Boone’s large frame over by the pool table nestled in the back corner. In a military town, they barely stood out among the other buzz cuts and Top Gun mustaches, but there was no hiding Boone’s hulking body.
He made his way over to the men, greeting Kole first with a slap to the shoulder and giving nods to the other guys. Maverick and Connor had been in his squad along with Boone and Kole from the beginning. He’d only seen them, aside from Kole and Boone of course, a handful of times since Jace’s funeral.
Kole and Boone got out of the service at the expiration of their four-year stint, which was a short two months after the accident. Maverick and Connor had signed on for another four-year tour and had lucked out with getting stationed out of Norfolk. It was nice having them all in the same area.
Kole signed on to the police department. Even though he was out of the service, the kind-hearted bastard still wanted to do all he could to protect and serve. Boone, on the other hand, was still struggling to find another full-time job. He gave Dylan a solitary nod before returning to staring into his whiskey glass. Dylan made a mental note to check in on him and make sure he’d still be okay to head up to Oyster Shoals in the morning to watch over his and Kelsi’s moms.
Kole suddenly tilted his head sideways and squinted his eyes at Dylan. A smile slowly spread across his lips, and Dylan narrowed his eyes at him, knowing that he was not going to like whatever Kole did next.
“So, who’s the girl?” Kole asked. Smug fuck already knew who it was of course, but this was his way of needling Dylan and getting him to confess so that all the other guys knew too—that way they could join in on roasting him.
Three other heads whipped toward them immediately, sensing blood in the water.
“Bro, you finally got over Kelsi?” Maverick asked, shock evident in his voice.
Dylan had told them all of his and Kelsi’s history. They had been there in the early days, when he was trying to pick up the pieces of his heart after thinking she and Tom had gotten together before the bar exam.
In spite of himself, a smile slowly unfurled across his lips. “Actually, I didn’t.”
Kole was the only one of them who understood immediately, other than Boone. He smiled and clapped Dylan on the shoulder. “Attaboy.”
Maverick and Connor stared at Dylan with eyebrows raised, and Boone was still staring morosely at the sticky table in front of him, so Dylan put them out of their misery.
“You all know Kelsi and I have been working together on this case I’m in town for. She and I talked tonight, finally, about everything. We’d both jumped to the wrong conclusions in the past. We were stupid. So, once we got everything out there, I kissed her.”
At three smirks, another loud “attaboy” from Kole, and the barest hint of a smile from Boone peeking through the unkempt facial hair he was currently rocking, Dylan quickly rushed to add, “And that is all you perverts are getting out of me.”
Maverick jostled Dylan’s shoulders in celebration before throwing an arm around him to face the other guys.
“That’s great dude.” Connor looked at him seriously. “But if you two made up, why in the blazing hell are you here with us right now and not with your girl?”
“That rat bastard”—Dylan pointed his beer at Kole—“interrupted us. But Kelsi has some routine she likes to do before a jury trial, so she was heading out to do that anyway. It sounded like one of those weird superstition things baseball players do before every game. Plus, I guess I missed you idiots a little bit. And I wanted to be here for Jace.”
Kole nudged him a fresh bottle across the table and gestured for all of them to raise theirs. Solemn for once, Kole held his own bottle high and said, “To Dylan and Kelsi, may they be disgustingly happy.” Dylan rolled his eyes at that, and Kole continued, swallowing hard, “And to Jace, God rest his soul.”
“To Jace,” they all echoed, draining their beers in salute to their fallen friend. All except Boone, who remained silent,drinking his beer in under five seconds then slamming the glass bottle down on the table.
Dylan met Kole’s concerned eyes and clapped his hands together to draw the others’ attention and lighten the mood. “Now, I got here in under fifteen minutes, so I do believe I’m going to break this round.” He caught the pool stick Kole lightly tossed to him.
“All right, man. Break.”
Dylan smiled, bending over the table, focus narrowed on the target, and felt lighter than he had in a while as he shot the pool stick forward, making solid contact with the lead ball. Several balls sunk into the holes on the table and he called out “stripes” as he lined up for his next shot.
CHAPTER 40
Kelsi
1 Day to Trial
After parking inAbby’s driveway, Kelsi rested her forehead on the steering wheel with a squeal, recalling how his lips had felt on hers. No kiss had ever felt so perfect. Kelsi grabbed her phone from the cupholder and called Abby.
Abby launched immediately into conversation when she answered. “Hey, girl. Look, I’m stuck in my car waiting for this man to leave a motel room. It’s looking like I won’t be home until later, so don’t wait up okay?”
“No, that’s fine. But, uh, something happened with Dylan earlier.”
“What!” Abby screeched. “Spill. Now. Do you need my help hiding the body? I keep a shovel in my trunk so give me ten minutes to drive over there and we can get it taken care of no problem.”
“Jesus, Abby, no. I’m going to leave the shovel comment alone for now, but we will revisit that later. We talked about everything, and—”
