Page 87 of Loving a Warrior

Shane’s heart started to pound. “Fall for me?” he interrupted. “You think you could fall for me?”

“Pretty much all I need at this point is one big push,” Matt snapped. “But you know I won’t take that fall unless I’m good and ready.” He huffed. “We’re talking about you, anyway, not me, so leave me alone.”

“Noted.” Shane bit back the stupid grin that threatened to break over his face. “And what’s number two?”

“Number two is you have to decide if life in the teams is really what you want. What you want, Shane.” Now Matt’s voice was achingly gentle.

“And what if I don’t? You gonna think I’m a quitter?” Shane held his breath, blowing it out in a rush when Matt shot him an incredulous look.

“Are you serious? I know you well enough by now to know you’re not a fuckin’ quitter of any kind.” He leaned over and kissed Shane’s cheek. “Whatever you decide, just promise me you’ll do what’s best for you, okay? Fuck everyone else, me included.”

Shane couldn’t hold back his grin anymore. “Hey. You really do care.”

“Yeah. Maybe. I guess.” With that, Matt pushed Shane away and stood. “Now let’s get out of here before I say something super mushy.”

He strode toward the car, Shane right behind him, and he hooked his fingers in Matt’s back jeans pocket as they walked. “Mushy Matt. I like it.”

Matt shot him a severe look. “Don’t get used to it, clown.”

“And the ‘clown’ is back.” At the rear of the car he stopped and pulled Matt against him. “I like that, too, you know. You can’t win.”

It was a little hard to kiss while they were laughing, but they managed a few decent ones, which left Shane with swollen lips and an ache in his groin. Judging by the bulge in Matt’s jeans he was in much the same state, but as the hours passed and they drew ever closer to San Diego, Shane could see Matt’s body language become more remote, his replies turning into monosyllables as he retreated into whatever space in his head was reserved for BUD/S.

Going from boyfriend to SEAL right in front of my eyes. This is what life’ll be like for us. Can we really do this?

He glanced at Matt, who was staring out the passenger side window, his left leg jiggling up and down a mile a minute. Shane reached over and put his hand on his knee to calm it, rubbing his thumb in a soothing circle over the bunched muscle.

“Don’t overthink things, okay? I’m good with one day at a time, Matt, really I am. I just want to try.”

After a few beats of silence, Matt nodded, then put his hand on top of Shane’s and left it there.

They rode the remaining way back to San Diego like that, fingers entwined.

* * *

“Three…two…one…execute, execute.”

Before the command could even finish echoing through his earpiece, Matt had the door to the kill house kicked open and was inside, in a combat crouch, his M4 at the ready.

“Clearing left!” He moved smoothly toward the left side of the first room, while Trey, his shooting partner, went right.

“Clear! Moving!”

They worked methodically room to room, confronting the pop-up targets. They blew holes in the bad guys, and put the good guys on the floor to simulate a nonlethal takedown.

After assaulting along all three floors, the order came to “safe ’em and hang ’em.”

Matt and Trey flipped their gun safeties on and slung the M4s along their backs as they exited the kill house. Stripping his Kevlar helmet off, Matt ran his hand through his sweaty hair and waited tensely for the range instructor’s verdict.

“Knytych, one hundred points. Jordan, ninety-eight points. Good work, gents.”

Matt and Trey high-fived each other and headed to the armory to replenish their ammo supply before waiting to take their turn again. All told, they’d be running a dozen different scenarios and room configurations before the day’s work was done.

“Knytych, a word.”

Matt turned to face the range instructor, a tall, lanky guy with a huge beaked nose.

“Hooyah, Instructor Owen.”