Page 14 of Loving a Warrior

With no hesitation Matt pulled up a chair and plopped down a few feet away with a tired grunt. The swim-buddy rule was second nature to all of them by now. In the two weeks since their own swim-buddy incident, he and Matt had been careful not to stray more than a few arm’s length from each other during training.

“What happened?”

Shane swallowed his gulp of water and glanced up at Salazar, who’d just pushed through the entrance to the tent. “Lost my grip, Instructor.”

“Because you were trying to go too fast and weren’t using proper form.” Salazar’s voice was stern. “We encourage competition here, and it pays to be a winner. But—”

“Safety first,” they said in unison.

Salazar nodded. “It won’t do you any good to beat Soup only to get injured and find yourself out of BUD/S.”

“Hooyah.”

Salazar glanced at the corpsman, who said, “Give him about ten minutes, Instructor.”

“Okay.” Salazar turned to Shane. “Take your ten and then you’d better get your ass back out there, sailor.”

“Hooyah.”

With a nod, Salazar disappeared back outside, and an awkward silence fell as Shane tried to look anywhere but at Matt, who’d kicked back in his chair, hands linked behind his head, legs stretched straight out and crossed at the ankle.

“Comfortable?” Shane couldn’t help but ask, his tone caustic. “Guess you should thank me for busting my ass, huh?”

“Guess I should.”

Was that a hint of amusement in Matt’s voice? Shane huffed to cover his surprise and made a get-on-with-it gesture. “Well?”

Matt made a mocking bow. “Thanks for busting your ass so I can get a break. Happy?”

“Yep.” Shane lifted his arms in a stretch, wincing as a bolt of pain shot through his head. “Because that hurt like a bitch.”

“I bet.”

The silence that fell this time wasn’t quite as awkward, and after a moment Matt cleared his throat. “Hey. I, uh, also want to thank you for the night you offered to help me clean my room. And to apologize for the way I acted. I was really out of line.”

Shane raised his eyebrows. “Wow. An apology two weeks later? Better late than never, I guess.”

Matt’s jaw rippled, but all he said was, “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.”

“Just so you also know, you destroyed a lot of trust when you treated those guys like wayward frat boys who’d pulled off a drunken prank. It’s not just me you should apologize to.”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Matt’s fists were clenched on his thighs, the knuckles white. “But I’m starting with you. I’ll figure out a way to make it up to the rest of the guys. Somehow.”

Shane studied him. These past two weeks hadn’t been easy on Matt in any way, shape or form. Some of their classmates wouldn’t speak to him, and the ones who did made it about business only. On their downtime, when the rest of the guys blew off steam by going to bars or barbecuing in the commons, Matt worked out. It seemed like whenever Shane saw him, he was either running or in the gym.

The other morning Shane had trotted out of his barracks room to see Salazar staring at Matt’s door. When Shane glanced over, he’d had a devil of a time not gasping in shock. Taped to the door was a piece of paper. Written on the paper were the block letters QUIT NOW. WE DON’T WANT YOU HERE ANYWAY.

Matt had come out of the room just then, and at the sight of the paper, he’d flushed a dark red.

“I didn’t do this,” Salazar said to him quietly, “and I don’t know who did. But listen to me. Team guys will pounce on any weakness. They’ll hammer at it until it either destroys you or you overcome it. This is the culture you want to be a part of, son, so you’d better grow a pretty thick skin and shape the fuck up, or yeah, quit now.”

Matt had shaken his head. “I’m not gonna fuckin’ quit. Ever.”

“We’ll see about that.” Salazar raised his voice to address everyone. “Go get your asses wet and sandy. Now!”

After training that night, the sign was gone. Matt had stood in front of his door for a moment, head bowed, then unlocked it and disappeared inside. Shane could almost feel sorry for him. Almost. But the memory of the unceremonious way Matt had tossed his offer of help back in his face had stiffened his resolve not to care. He was beyond done giving his friendship to people unwilling or unable to return it.

That didn’t mean he had to be a stubborn dick, though. “Apology accepted.”