Page 10 of Her Loving Hero

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He needed a beer,for oh so many reasons. He’d been delayed getting to the out-of-the way bar near Dog Beach. He’d wanted to just ride his Ducati along the coast and get his head on straight before meeting up with his team. Wyatt gave a chin tilt to his mentor Dex Evans when he saw the Pacifico waiting at an empty seat beside the man.

“You doing okay?” Dex asked quietly as Wyatt sat down.

He shrugged as he pushed the lime wedge into the mouth of the beer then took a long sip.

Heaven.

Wyatt looked around the table and saw there were two more empty seats near the end of the table next to Hunter Diaz. Since his whole Black Dawn SEAL team were here, he lifted an eyebrow in question to Dex.

“Night Storm is in town. They’re doing some training. While we were on the range getting our asses handed to us by Liam, they were on the obstacle course.”

“Zed?” Wyatt asked hopefully.

Dex’s grin was wide. “Yep, my guess is we’ll actually get a chance to see him Facetime with Marcia and Luella, so we won’t just have to see pictures of his little girl, we’ll get to see her in action.”

“Lord help us if the girl is a stick of dynamite like her mom,” Wyatt said.

There was a loud ‘whoop’ from three tables behind them. Wyatt turned and cringed. It was four newly minted SEALs and one of them had just managed to knock over one of their chairs.

“Shit,” Aiden muttered. “Are we going to have to start drinking in Encinitas to find some peace and quiet?”

Wyatt looked over the crowd, it was mostly locals and surfers, the few military that were in the crowd were Marines from Camp Pendleton. It had never been formerly discussed, but as his team had matured and Dex had found Kenna, more and more of the team’s down time had taken place at places that weren’t Navy SEAL bars in Coronado. So, seeing the youngsters made his shoulders ache. It was too much like looking into a mirror five years ago.

“Hermano!” Hunter shouted out.

Zed Zaragoza practically filled the doorway as he stood there zeroing in on Hunter’s face. “So, when were you going to tell me?” Zed asked.

“What?” Dalton turned to look at Hunter. “What does Zed know, that we don’t know?” Dalton demanded of Hunter.

Wyatt’s lieutenant, Gray Tyler merely cocked his head, looked at his subordinate, then back up at Zed, and smiled.

Hunter dropped his head into his hands. Zed came over and patted his younger brother’s back. Hunter looked up at Zed who was on the Night Storm SEAL team from Virginia. “Dammit, you better act surprised when Aliana tells you the news, okay? She wanted to tell you the news about the baby tonight at dinner.”

The chorus from ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ blared from Aiden O’Malley’s phone. Wyatt struggled not to spit out his beer. Dalton started to chuckle.

The way Zed and Hunter behaved together stirred up a lot of feelings. Biological brothers were special. Hunter had changed when he found out that Zed was his big brother, he became a little more settled. It was subtle, but Wyatt had watched as the change had taken place. He’d been a strong team member to Black Dawn, but it was as if having that connection to Zed made him walk taller.

“I promise to act surprised.” Zed’s voice was solemn. “Little sister’s feelings are safe with me.”

“So, Zed, you still doing your voodoo shit?” Dalton asked. “What other things do you ‘know’ besides your brother’s fertility?”

A big man with piercing green eyes came up from behind Zed and laughed. “We wouldn’t survive half our missions without Zed’s intuition, so don’t give him a hard time.”

Zed straddled a chair and lifted his hand to call over the waitress. “Does everyone know Kane McNamara?” he asked.

“Only by voice,” Gray said as he reached over the table and shook Zed’s companion’s hand. “You did an outstanding job on the Abu Dhabi mission.”

“I was just happy to be of service,” Kane replied as he sat down beside Zed and Dalton.

“So, will you and Dex have time to do a little knowledge sharing while you’re in town?” Gray asked.

“Max is setting me loose tomorrow, I’m supposed to talk to you about that tonight. He’s also calling Mason Gault to see if Clint is available.”

“I’d also like you to pull Wyatt in.” Gray nodded Wyatt’s way.

“You planning on putting Dex out to pasture?” Kane asked, then his eyes narrowed. “Or perhaps there’s something else on the horizon for Evans.”