Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86556 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86556 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Wes stopped but shook his head. “Nope. Nothing for you to worry about, Lieutenant.”
Fuck. Dustin hated this wall between them, the one that seemed to be growing brick by brick each day. Wes shutting him out made his gut ache as surely as if he’d taken a punch.
“You sure?” Right as he asked, he saw another guy from the team, Donaldson, heading out of an office.
Wes must have seen him coming too, because he shook his head. “Yep. And I need to get going. Thanks.”
Wes was already down the hall when Donaldson passed Dustin with a comparatively cheery greeting. What was up with Wes? He’d seemed distinctly off ever since Dustin had run into him at the bar when he’d been out with Apollo.
When he got to their office space, the LT and the senior chief were deep in conservation.
“What’s up with Donaldson and Lowe?” he asked after greeting them, keeping his voice light. “Saw them in the hall.”
“Same issue,” the senior chief answered. “They want leave, but we’re not approving anyone, not with us liable to go wheels up any day now.”
It was standard procedure to go to emergency-only in regards to leave when approaching a deployment, so Dustin wasn’t too surprised. He nodded.
“Lowe wanted emergency leave. Family situation, but we had to deny it. He’s too vital to what we need to do,” the LT added, in reasonable tones for once.
“Bereavement leave?” Dustin asked, heart in his throat as he said a quick prayer that Wes’s sister was okay.
“No, which is why I had to decline. Family emergency just isn’t reason enough in this situation.” The LT leaned back against his chair. “We’ll be back in eight to ten days, and we can reevaluate then.”
“Are we wheels up in the morning?” Last Dustin had heard, they were still waiting to hear if their mission would be a go. Not that it would be the first time that he’d learned right along with the men of an impending deployment.
“Within forty-eight hours, I’d say.” The LT scratched his chin. “Get everything in order.”
Which Dustin did, spending the rest of the day on housekeeping tasks related to the mission going off without an issue. He headed home, made sure he had a full tank of gas in the truck for getting to the base fast in the night if needed, and prepared to enjoy one last night in his own bed. However, he couldn’t get Wes out of his head.
What would it hurt if... He’d grabbed his phone from its place beside him on the couch before he could even finish the thought. Wes probably wasn’t online anyway.
But there he was, Saucer-Man icon illuminated on Dustin’s contacts. It was a sign, right? A sign that Dustin should at least check in?
You okay? He typed before he could second-guess himself.
Wes’s reply was near immediate. I’m fine. LT ask you to make sure I’m not going AWOL?
Dustin rubbed the back of his neck. Fuck, it sucked that Wes no longer trusted him. Nope. Just saw you online. Thought I’d check. As a friend.
He swore he could hear Wes’s sigh all the way from base. Well I’m fine. And thought we can’t be friends, not anymore.
Dustin’s heart felt like a full pack, weighing his chest down. I’m not sure I know how to stop, he admitted. I’m worried about you.
The phone buzzed with the reply. Don’t be. I’m handling it.
Oh fuck this noise. In for a penny, in for pound, Dustin’s grandfather always used to say. He hit the call button.
“I don’t believe you,” he said the second Wes picked up. It took the picture a second to catch up, but there was Wes, hair all askew, bags under his eyes. He seemed to be sitting in bed again, but there was a sci-fi movie poster behind him that hadn’t been there last time they’d chatted.
“Okay, fine. I’m lousy. That what you want to hear?” Wes’s jaw was as sharp as Dustin’s utility knife.
“No. Of course not. But tell me what’s going on.”
“You got some magic powers over the LT to get me leave?” Wes rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“You know I don’t.” God, Dustin wished he could make this right for him. His hand fisted around the throw pillow on the couch, squeezing tight. “But I can listen. It’s not the same thing, I’m sure. But I got denied leave to go to my grandfather’s funeral. I was down for weeks about that. Made it hard to concentrate on my deployment.”
“I’ll concentrate.” Wes’s laugh was as bitter as the kale juice Dustin’s mother tried to get him to drink. “And I’m sorry about your grandpa. Navy fucking sucks sometimes.”
“Yeah, it does,” Dustin agreed. His mind flashed to his friend Paul and their dinner the other week—Paul didn’t have to beg for leave anymore, and with raising a family, that had been important to him. He traveled a lot, but it was all scheduled out. God, there were days when that would be nice. As would picking his own team—not that the LT was a bad guy, but there were times... Yeah, his dinner with Paul had brought up more feelings of jealousy than he would have figured on a few months ago. “Love the job, but hate the hoops and the unpredictability.”