“And, once we have established a rapport with your mother, it’s just a matter of time before me and your hot sister start talking,” Ty, whose nickname was Flirt for good reason, threatened.
Thatwas not going to happen. Not on his watch.
Stefan narrowed his eyes at them, his chest rising and falling as he drew in an angry breath as the situation spiraled more out of his control.
Then an idea formed.
He might have lost that sparring match against Ty, but there was one place he dominated. Always had, since BUD/S. The O-Course.
“Okay. How about this?” He glanced around at the group.
“Me against all of you on the O-Course. Fastest time takes it. If I win, no one calls me Pierogi ever again.”
“And if one of us wins, we can all call you that all we wantandwe get whatever is in that next care package,” Eric challenged him.
“Fine.” Stefan nodded. He wasn’t concerned. There was no way they were winning this.
“I’m in,” Mason agreed.
“Me too. When are we doing this?” Danny asked.
“Tomorrow. Zero-nine-hundred. Or do you slowpokes need a few days to train?” Stefan joked.
“No, we don’t need a few days to train,” Wyatt said, mimicking Stefan while screwing up his face unhappily.
“Sounds good.” Stefan glanced around for a waitress.
He needed a beer to celebrate. Tomorrow morning he’d be rid of this new nickname and he’d be the undisputed king of the O-Course. He couldn’t wait.
ChapterThree
“No.”
Shelly frowned. “What do you mean, no? I didn’t even ask the question yet.”
Brian shook his head. “I don’t need to hear the question. I can tell already that it involves me and you and SEALs from the base so the answer is no.”
Shelly pouted and looked to Alicia for help. Brian was Alicia’s boyfriend after all.
Her friend shook her head. “Don’t look at me. After the last disaster, I’m staying out of it.”
“It wasn’t a disaster.” Shelly pouted.
“It wasn’t?” Alicia’s dark brows shot high. “I got Brian to fix you up with one of his SEAL friends and you pretended to get an emergency phone call and ditched him halfway through the date.”
“Yeah. That.” Brian pointed to Alicia and nodded.
Shelly scowled. “That wasn’t my fault.”
“Oh? Whose fault was it? There were only two of you on the date and you were the one who left so…” Alicia wobbled her head back and forth.
“There were extenuating circumstances,” Shelly said in defense.
She’d already had a bit of a crush on another guy when the date she’d been pushing Alicia and Brian to set up suddenly was happening.
She’d gone and she shouldn’t have, because her heart and her mind were with another guy the whole time. So she’d decided to cut her losses and ended the night early. Before she’d ordered dinner and ran up the bill any higher, which she’d thought was nice of her.
As it turned out, she shouldn’t have written off Brian’s friend so quickly because the guy she’d thought she had a thing for turned out to be a two-timing bastard.
