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“Well hell,” Mason muttered.
“Are you telling me you didn’t have an idea?” Drake asked him seriously.
Mason sighed. “I had an idea. After all, there is a kid named after you in Jasper Creek, so it was bound to happen.”
Everybody laughed.
Mason turned to Clint. “You?”
“I’m staying in. Cyber-security.”
Again Mason nodded. That made total sense. The papers hadn’t crossed his desk yet, but they would.
Dare jogged back up the stairs, snagged his beer, and sat back down in one of the deck chairs. “What’d I miss?”
“Everybody’s just discussing what their next plans are since Midnight Delta is breaking up,” Finn explained.
“I’m retiring and becoming a househusband. Rylie is in charge of going on all of the missions.”
“Are you going to adopt another kid?” Jack asked.
Dare scowled. “We’ll see. How about you, Aiden?”
“Well, I’m the oldest of the bunch of you. I should have retired ten years ago, so I’m retiring now.”
“What kept you so long?” Jack asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“I don’t think I was ready to move full-time to Tennessee. Now I think I can handle being away from the ocean.”
“What the fuck, Aiden? When were you going to tell us?” Clint sounded angry.
“Today.”
“Do you know how pissed Lydia is going to be when she finds out that Evie is going to be moving permanently to Jasper Creek?”
“She already knows.”
“Well, I didn’t,” Clint said. “You should ease into these things.”
Aiden shrugged and took a sip from his water bottle.
“Drake, maybe you should start practicing meditation,” Finn suggested.
“What about you, Finn? You’re not retiring. You’re getting pretty old to stay in the teams.”
“What are you talking about? In SEAL years, I’m one-hundred-and-five,” Finn laughed. “I’m going to go teach at sniper school. They’ve been trying to get me over there for years. But I’ll have you know, I’m not that old.”
“Bullshit, you’re a year older than me,” Drake teased.
“I’m telling you, I can’t be that old. Angie’s pregnant.”
There was a long pause.
“Are you shitting me?” Drake asked.
“Would I shit my favorite turd?”
Drake burst out laughing. “Well, when you put it like that, no you wouldn’t. So you’re going to be a father again. To an infant.”
