Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 102282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 511(@200wpm)___ 409(@250wpm)___ 341(@300wpm)
Not that anything was going to come of it—Renzo wasn’t looking to start anything, and he had a feeling that Canaan hit on a lot of customers without being particularly serious about the follow-through. Besides, Renzo didn’t hook up with base people. He liked to keep that part of his life as separate as possible, just like his videos. No need to have to give up smoothies just because things went sideways.
“So I took your advice.” Shiny wasn’t one to work in silence, and Renzo made an encouraging noise to let him know he was listening. “Texted my girl. Told her I wanted to go out tonight.”
“Good for you.” Renzo straightened another canister. He liked everything facing the same way, straight rows of evenly spaced equipment.
“Think I’ll tell her I want to be exclusive.” Shiny’s cheeks turned more than a little green at the prospect. And this was why Renzo didn’t do relationships—too much time being nauseous waiting to see how the other person wanted to drop-kick your heart. “You wanna come?”
Not a chance. No way was Renzo getting in the middle of a state-of-the-relationship talk. “Think I’ve got plans.”
“You sure? I can probably get Mary to bring a friend. Her friend Katie thinks you’re ripped.”
“I don’t need a setup.”
Shiny frowned. “Is it because she’s a girl? I can ask Mary—”
“Dude.” Renzo rolled his eyes at Shiny. “I go all ways, but I don’t need help getting laid.”
Setups like what Shiny was proposing were particularly challenging. Tons of people were SEAL chasers—only interested in him for his trident and potential as arm candy. And while appreciation of his physique could be fun, it got old after a while.
“Fine. Suit yourself.” Shiny sighed. “So what are your plans for tonight?”
Unbidden, an image of Canaan popped into Renzo’s head. We could get into trouble. Wasn’t that what he’d said? And trouble sounded damn good. An antidote for the restlessness that kept sneaking up on him. He did not deal with downtime well, and the lull their team was in wasn’t helping and neither was his sorta-self-imposed dry spell. Maybe he did need something, but not an evening watching Shiny dance around talking serious to his girl.
“Might find some trouble.” He grinned at Shiny to try to defuse the tension.
“Better not.” The senior chief appeared in the doorway. “You men about done? I need to talk to Bianchi for a minute.”
“We’re just finishing up. Would have been done an hour ago except Petty Officer Perfectionist here had to straighten every little thing,” Shiny complained even as he stood up taller in the presence of the senior chief, who had a way of bringing them all in line.
“Nothing wrong with Bianchi’s attention to detail. You could learn from that.” The senior chief gave Shiny a stern look. “You set everything to rights while Bianchi walks me back.”
“Yes, sir.” Shiny gave a sharp nod. His eyes slid toward Renzo. You in trouble? He mouthed.
Renzo gave a little shake of his head. At least, he didn’t think so. Following the senior chief out of the dive locker area, he kept his voice upbeat. “Tell me you’ve got something good for us next week.”
“Tell me you’re taking leave sometime soon,” the senior chief countered, face ruddier than usual in the fading sunlight. “You heard the LT last week—rest up while you can. Everyone else is taking their R&R, but I don’t have a leave request in for you. You won’t be fresh when we ship out if you don’t take some downtime.”
“I hate downtime,” Renzo groaned. “Don’t they need us on a training mission? Any other teams down a guy? You could loan me out.” That happened some, and he’d be only too happy to ship out with another team, see some action. He’d been moved onto this team under similar circumstances a while back.
“And that brings me to the other thing I needed to talk to you about.” The senior chief’s tone had Renzo slowing his steps. “What’s this I hear from the billet office about you putting in for a change of duty station? You not happy here?”
“I’m plenty happy, sir.” Renzo turned so the older man could see he was serious. Overall, being on this team had been a fine experience, and the senior chief was a good guy who always put his men first. “But my whole family’s East Coast. Navy asked for my preference for duty stations, and I had to take the chance to go to Little Creek, get closer to my parents in Philly.”
“Understandable.” The senior chief sighed. “I just wanted to make sure there weren’t any...lingering issues I needed to be aware of.”
“There’s not,” Renzo said quickly, assuming he meant the team recently figuring out that Renzo was bi, but he really didn’t want to discuss it further with him.