“You ordered me peppers?” Disbelief filled Luc’s voice. “Why the fuck would you order me vegetables on pizza? I thought you liked me.”
“I ordered you pepperoni,” Saxon genuinely hadn’t known there was a difference. In his head, pepperoni was pepperoni, but apparently in Italy, pepperoni were peppers. He also figured Luc deserved it for being a dick with the phone earlier. Still, he couldn’t let the man go hungry. Luc would whine to his momma about it for sure, and then she’d kick his ass the next time she spoke to him on the phone. That was not an experience he wanted to endure. “I didn’t know that meant peppers, sorry.” He held out his box to him, “Here, have some of mine.”
Luc reached into the box and picked up a slice, then dropped it again in disgust, “Pineapple does not belong on pizza.”
“Jesus, stop bickering like a bunch of babies and fucking eat.” Zenko ordered. “We’ve already had hits on the records we set up for you, Sax. Eat fast, we have shit to plan.”
“I get indigestion if I eat fast.” Shaun reached across Zenko, grabbed a slice of pizza, and stuffed it in his mouth.
Zenko frowned at his man, the damn Ghost was winding him up and from the way Shaun’s eyes were crinkled up at the corners, he knew it. “It’s a damn good thing you are pretty.”
Saxon ignored the twinge of jealousy that bubbled up inside him. Looking around the room, he was surrounded by freaking happy couples. Zenko and Shaun, bah, who’d have thought Zenko Marks would be one of the first of them to fall in love.
He could see Drax Mitchell tapping out a message on his cell. Red colored the tops of his ears. The blushing leaving no doubt that the team's resident badass was sexting Noah.
Even Lucifer, the man he had grown up with, had managed to rope and hogtie Roman Walsh. Lucifer, who hated most people and often stood alone in the shadows, was in fucking love. He was happy for them. But Luc and Rome, that had hit him out of the left field. He’d never seen it coming.
Maybe Rick…
Shut up.He stopped the thought that tried to sneak into his brain right in its tracks. Nope, he was getting Rick back because he was a good man, a friend, and not because he wanted to keep him. No matter what his subconscious tried to tell him. Rick and him? That would never work.
Keep telling yourself that.
He munched on his slice of Hawaiian and frowned, should he count Noble and Max in the happy couple numbers? They weren’t in the room, but their relationship was the linchpin, the start of the slippery slope of Red Squadron finding the other halves of their hearts. It still surprised the fuck out of him that Noble had pulled his head outta his ass and finally admitted that he needed Max to breathe. That he needed him to be human and not just a badass SEAL. Even if the rest of the team didn’t find it out until Zenko almost got himself killed, Noble and Max were the example of what he wanted for himself. He was happy for his friends, but some day… if he was lucky enough to survive the next few years and was able to retire, he wanted what they had for himself.
“You’re thinking real hard there, buddy,” Reese sat cross-legged on the floor beside him, his box of pizza balanced on his knees.
“Do you ever want what they have?”
What are you doing? Stop it, shut up.
He silently groaned to himself. He knew better than to ask questions like that out loud. Voicing those words was like tempting fate. Hadn’t he just told himself that he’d only consider looking when he retired?
“Nope,” Reese snorted. He nodded toward where Castiel frowned at his cell, “You mean end up like him and Mike? No fucking thanks.”
“There are more successful heart stories in this room than there are the opposite.”
“You going soft on me?”
“No.” Shit, he’d never quite learned to keep his thoughts to himself. Especially not with these guys.
“Where is your head at, Sax?” Reese kept his voice low, “You sure you are up for this, you want me to go in when we find him?”
“What?” He glanced out of the corner of his eye, making sure Zenko was occupied by Shaun and the food. The last thing he needed was their 2IC getting wind that one of them had doubts about where his headspace was. Zenko took his role as Second in Command of their field teams very seriously. He wouldn’t hesitate to pull the plug on this op if he got the slightest whiff that Saxon may just be losing his mind.
“You’re maudlin or some shit,” Reese tapped Saxon’s arm with the paper cup of coke before putting the straw in his mouth and noisily sucking it down.
“I was only asking a fucking question,” Saxon dropped the pizza slice back into the box. He wasn’t hungry anymore. “Don’t go reading shit into it. If you want to read something, buy a damn paper.”
“If you say so.”
Saxon didn’t bother to dignify that with a response, he closed the pizza box and got to his feet. “See ya in TOC.”
“Is he good?” Zenko frowned at Saxon’s back as he left the room.
“Yup, think so,” Reese spoke around the food in his mouth. “I was just givin’ him shit is all.”
Chapter Four
