“She went for a run. I’d have gone with her, but the doc said no.”
Devon laughed. “I stopped by Michael’s room, and he was doing walking lunges.”
“Yeah, I don’t blame him. I can’t be in that bed if I don’t have to.”
A knock at the door interrupted them. “Come in!” Braedon called.
Paige stuck her head through the door, then pushed it fully open. “There you are,” she said to Devon. “Graham has another VTC with the CENTCOM Commander in ten minutes. He wants us sitting in.”
“Sure. Where is it?” Devon asked.
“Fourth floor conference room. Have you seen Addison?”
“She left about twenty minutes ago for a run,” Braedon said.
“Shoot. Can you let her know your flight has been pushed up six hours? You’re leaving at zero three hundred now.”
“Sure,” Braedon said.
“Why the change?” Devon asked. That meant he had even less time to talk to Addison than before.
Now that they weren’t under fire and in a stressful situation, he wanted to hash out what came next. Whether she could take some time in Charleston after Braedon got settled? Or if she’d be okay with him taking some time in D.C. or wherever she ended up in the short-term? He wanted to talk about them being athemand he couldn’t even call her to let her know he wanted to talk to her because Braedon had her phone.
“It puts them in earlier in the day D.C. time—less traffic between Andrews Air Force Base and Walter Reed.”
“I’ll let her know,” Braedon said.
“Thanks.” Paige checked her watch and looked at Devon. “Six minutes.”
Devon stood and pulled Braedon up into a one-armed bro hug. “I’ll stop by again before you guys leave.”
“Thanks again. I owe you big time.”
“Nah, we’re even,” Devon said.
Braedon looked at him like he was crazy. “Even for what?”
“You remember that night we were out in Virginia Beach, a couple of my old high school buddies came down to party, and we got into it with some locals?”
“Kind of….”
“My buddies decided to follow them out of the bar, and you stopped me. Told me I didn’t need that kind of trouble and that if something happened, it’d go worse for me than for them.”
“Okay. I still don’t see how that makes us even,” Braedon said.
“What I never told you is my buddies couldn’t find those guys so they decided to try to find this party some girl had told them about. They wrapped their car around a pole. One died on impact, and the other died later in the hospital.”
Braedon wiped a hand over his face. “Shit, man. I had no idea.”
“I didn’t find out until a week or so later when I talked to my younger brother. If you hadn’t stopped me that night, I would have been in that car.”
“Damn.” Braedon looked down and shook his head. “Not to sound like a selfish asshole—I’m really sorry about your buddies—but I can’t help thinking I did myself a favor.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, think about it. If I hadn’t stopped you that night, you might not have been here to drag my ass out of that hellhole. So stopping you, saved me.”
“Huh. Guess everything happens for a reason.”
Braedon pulled him into another back-pounding hug. “Yeah, it does.” He released him, suspiciously watery-eyed. “Go to your VTC before you get fired.”
Devon laughed, which helped hide his own teary eyes. “I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
