“Wrong,” Gumby said seriously. “I know you’re embarrassed and trying to downplay it, but Phantom told Rocco exactly what happened. If you hadn’t been there and hadn’t done what you did, we’d be planning a funeral right now, and that’s not something any of us ever want to do for one of our own. In case you haven’t figured it out, we’re like brothers. I would literally give my life for one of them, as they would for me. Just because we’ve found women we love doesn’t mean our duty to one another is any less. You’re going to have to get over your embarrassment, because you’ve got at least three more people who are going to thank you, and I suggest if you want to put it behind you, just accept our thanks with that beautiful smile of yours.”
“Jeez. Fine,” Avery muttered. “You’re welcome.”
“Better,” Gumby told her. “Now, here’s the real question.”
“Yeah?” Avery asked when he didn’t continue.
“Did you get any sleep out there with Mr. Snorer McSnorenson at your side?”
Rex glared at his friend. “Shut up, asshole.”
“No, seriously,” Gumby continued with a gleam in his eyes. “Rex snores like a chainsaw. We draw straws to see who has to sleep next to him when we’re on missions. And when we have to be absolutely silent, he’s not allowed to sleep until we’re out of range of the bad guys.”
Rex snatched a pea from Avery’s tray and threw it at his friend. “Fuck you.”
Avery giggled, and the sound stopped Rex in his tracks. He stared at her as if he’d never seen her before.
In all the time he’d known her, including back in California, he’d never heard such a carefree sound come from her lips. She’d laughed before, and chuckled, but that girly giggle? Never. He was fascinated.
“I have to admit that I was so exhausted and mentally fried when we stopped last night that, once I closed my eyes, I didn’t hear a damn thing. An entire gang of insurgents could’ve come into camp and I wouldn’t have heard them,” she told Gumby.
“Well, you’ll find out tonight that I’m not lying,” he said with a smirk.
“Sorry again,” Avery countered. “I’m a hard sleeper. Always have been. Once I’m out, I’m out. You could all probably have a conversation right above my head and I’d sleep through it.”
“Shit, Rex, you’re going to have to marry her, because no other woman would be able to stand the noises you make at night.”
Seeing that Avery had gone from being amused to slightly uncomfortable, Rex scowled at Gumby. “Enough. You’re embarrassing her.”
He immediately looked contrite. “Sorry, Avery. I was trying to embarrass Rex, not you.”
“It’s okay,” she told him.
Just then, a lieutenant commander, a naval junior officer, sauntered up to their table. “It’s good to see you back, Lieutenant Nelson. We were all worried about you.”
Avery sat up straighter in her chair. “Thank you, Sir.”
The other man frowned at Gumby and Rex, then looked pointedly at Avery. “There’s space at our table over there if you’d like to play a few rounds of blackjack with us. It’s not seemly to fraternize with enlisted sailors.”
It took a second for Rex to understand what the man was saying as he’d been concentrating on Avery so hard. But when he did, his fingers curled into fists and he had to forcibly restrain himself from leaping up and beating the shit out of the young, conceited officer.
But before he could speak, Avery beat him to it.
“Seriously?” she asked. “You’re going to pull that bullshit after everything I’ve been through? And you can’t play dumb and claim you don’t know what I’m talking about, because the first thing out of your mouth was how happy you are that I’m back. So in case you really do care, and aren’t attempting something idiotic like picking me up, I’ll let you in on what I’ve been up to recently.” She leaned forward, glaring at the officer.
“I’ve been knocked in the head by a big-ass piece of debris when the building I was in was blown up by a stray RPG. Then I was hauled up a mountain and chained to the wall of a cave, after which, I was beaten. Repeatedly. I wasn’t given anything to eat and had to suck water off the side of a rock. Then my hosts blew up the opening of said cave and buried me alive. I went another week without eating a damn thing while I moved rocks one at a time to try to claw my way out. These enlisted sailors came and rescued me. Then we were chased into a fast-moving river and barely made it out alive. Then we had to leap onto a dangling rope while we were shot at in order to escape.
“So excuse me if I’m too tired to deal with your political bullshit. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if the two men next to me were piss-poor local tribesmen or seaman recruits. They saved my life, and that alone deserves respect. But just to make sure you know how much of an ass you’re being, they’re also SEALs…Sir.”
Rex saw the man blanch at that. He and Gumby weren’t wearing anything advertising their special forces designation, and he’d obviously only seen their rank on the camouflage uniforms they’d donned while waiting for Phantom to get out of surgery.
“So go on back to your stuck-up officer friends and get out of my face. I haven’t finished eating yet, and I’m not going to let you ruin the first real meal I’ve had in two weeks.”
Without a word, the man turned and scuttled back to his table, his proverbial tail between his legs.
Rex had been pissed a minute ago, but now he was just amused. He sat back and put his arm on the back of Avery’s chair and didn’t even try to hide his grin.
Avery looked over at him and scowled. “If you laugh, I’m gonna have to hurt you, Kingston.”
Rex blinked. “You know my last name.”
Now Avery just looked confused, which was better than the smoke that had been rising from her ears a second ago. “Of course I do. I told you I asked around about you.”
He shrugged. “I just didn’t think you knew my full name.”
“I don’t know how you got your nickname,” she said, then she shoved another forkful of chicken into her mouth.
“Rex means ‘king’ in Latin. I had a drill instructor who thought he was clever, and he started calling me that from the second he met me in boot camp.”
“It’s silly,” Avery informed him.
Rex couldn’t help but smile.
She swallowed, turned to look at Gumby, then back at him. “I appreciate the both of you not beating the shit out of the lieutenant commander. I’m so used to not seeing rank in the people I work with, it didn’t even occur to me that it might look funny for me to be hanging out with two enlisted men.”
Rex wasn’t going to let her go there. He leaned forward and put his hand on the back of her neck. She stilled and turned to look at him. “Between us, there is no rank. And by us, I mean my entire team. You’re Avery and I’m Cole. And that’s Gumby. And Phantom. The last thing we want is you holding us at arm’s length because of a fucking stripe on your shoulder. Got it?”
She nodded. “Ease up, sailor,” she quipped. “I wasn’t saying I wanted to put distance between us, just that I hadn’t realized how it might look to others. I didn’t give a shit what rank you were in that river, did I? Or when you popped into that cave to rescue me. And I sure as hell didn’t give a shit what rank Phantom was when I was holding his leg together with my hand. If other people have an issue with who I’m friends with, they can screw themselves.”