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“Remember he named the thing Fido?” Jake was saying at that very moment, causing Logan and Houghton to laugh once again as Christina leaned towards him.
“You know she’s mad right?” Christina whispered, catching his attention immediately as he leaned towards her.
“Why is that?” he asked in a hushed voice.
“I can tell,” she said and nodded. “She’s watching me, and Gideon is watching you.”
“No offense, but…”
“Don’t say it,” Christina interrupted, flashing him a smile and then laughing aloud as she tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” he retorted and saw Daphne was now glaring daggers at the both of them. “My wife is watching, and you are making things look weird.”
“Maybe if they are both jealous, they can get whatever crawled up their…”
“I don’t want my wife jealous!”he hissed angrily, interrupting her in a hushed voice again, feeling a bubble of panic as Christina laughed again and slapped him gently on the upper arm. “I love Daphne, and we don’t play these stupid games.”
“Hey, Collins,” Logan interrupted, and he quickly looked at the other man, seeing the awareness in his eyes. “I brought your things from Afghanistan instead of shipping them. Got a second?”
“Yes!”
Max quickly got up and grabbed his crutches before leaving the table with Logan. The moment they got into the hallway; Logan grabbed his arm.
“Collins, you donotwant to play whatever game she is playing,” Logan warned. “Trust me on this one – it ends badly.”
“I’m not playing a game – I love Daphne, but Chris is trying to make Gideon jealous…”
“That guy can bench presstwoof you.”
“I know that!” Max gulped. “I need to sit somewhere else when we go back in there.”
“You need to call the man out and swap chairs with him – because how would you feel if he suddenly started talking to your wife?”
Max felt a boiling hot rage explode within him and heard Logan chuckle in awareness.
“Precisely my point,” Logan began and hesitated. “Look, Houghton told me about your marriage, and I hope you don’t mind, but I picked up a little something for the two of you as a gift.I fully expect you to take credit for this, okay?” he said bluntly, looking at him pointedly. “My wife Juliet loves sentimental stuff, and well, I thought maybe it could be a present for your bridefrom you… since you didn’t get a chance to have a ceremony, wedding cake, or flowers. Women love that emotional stuff.”
“You did?” Max began, shocked, and stared at his captain.
“Us guys have to stick together…” Logan grinned and grabbed the duffel bag. “It’s on top and packed carefully, so make sure she’s there when you unpack your bag – and like I said, take credit for it.”
“Thank you,” he said sincerely, holding out his hand and shaking the other man’s – and then hesitated. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Did you have something to do with me meeting Daphne?”
“Moi?”Logan said innocently, looking a little too surprised. “Why would you ask something like that?”
The two men just looked at each other – and Logan cracked a slight smile.
“Sometimes it’s just luck, brother,” his captain began. “Two people in the right place, the right mindset, and ready to finally be there for the other person. Not everyone gets struck by lightning, but sometimes you can shock yourself under the right conditions… same effect, different criteria.”
“There’s a big difference between the two,” Max chuckled, shaking his head as he realized that the captain never really answered him.
“When it’s right and that moment hits, the feeling is the same,” Logan said gently as if he was imparting some otherworldly knowledge from a Dad or an Uncle… except the man was barely ten years older than him.
The two men looked at each other.
