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“He might have some more and…”
Captain Logan reappeared in the doorway, followed by Mitchell – who looked at Keyes who nodded. That caused Jake to pause as he looked at the silent exchange in surprise. Was the boy scout being tapped for something?
“Oh, and Morrison,” the captain began, smirking in the doorway in that loft way that he’d done with Jake only a week ago. Morrison shot straight out of his bunk, saluting immediately. “Your animal showed up. Bring some paper towels, because the little demon left a present for you in my office. She’s scared, so grab something from the mess hall, too.”
“Now?” Talbot hissed. “That’s some real timing…”
“We could have used the dog earlier!” Peña snapped – only to have Captain Logan frown at him, immediately quieting anything else he might have said.
It was certainly true.
They could have used the bomb dog earlier, but because they had gone into the city blindly? They had been slow-moving… which meant they were easily pinned down. They ended up having someone injured badly, and Jake had been grazed on the upper arm.
“Who’d you get?” Peña asked bluntly, looking at Talbot. “I saw your name on there. Did you get someone you know?”
“Yeah, I know her.”
“Selkirk? Who’d you select?” Peña continued, and Jake nearly rolled his eyes at how nosy the man obviously was.
“Her name is June.”
“Like the month?”
“Yup. I think I’m going to go email my Junebug,” Selkirk grinned, hopping to his feet. “No time like the present.”
“Keyes?”
Keyes looked up from the paper at hearing his name, and hesitated.
“Her name is Mia,” Keyes began – and Jake laughed openly, seeing Peña grin. The goody-two-shoes had uttered the name wrong and had no clue of what he’d been given if the curse still worked just like it had for the others. If he had gotten that sheet of paper, he certainly wouldn’t have screwed up the pronunciation.
“You mean, Mee-yaaa. It’s pronounced Mia, not the letters M, I, A,” Peña said quietly. Keyes winced, his face heated up with embarrassment at thefaux pasin front of the rest of the guys.
Jake sighed.
He didn’t even have it in him anymore to rag on the man about his obvious mistake. Instead, he lay back down, swallowing back the feeling of missing out once more… and offered up a silent prayer that they ended up with more of the exclusive emails that were doled out like gold bars from heaven.
Yeah, he had never been so close to giving up before and felt the yawning abyss of desolation before him – teetering frighteningly close to the edge.
Closing his eyes, he swallowed painfully.
* * *
Weeks later, Jake looked up and rolled his eyes to see some tiny medic carrying a bag nearly the same size as her walking up to the truck. He looked pointedly at Collins and Muldoon, who shrugged.
“Guys…” she said simply in greeting.
“‘Sup Doc!” Selkirk grinned. “You riding shotgun with us today?”
“Suns out, guns out – right, fellas?” she smiled as several of the guys laughed nearby – including him. It sounded so funny coming from a slip of a girl who probably never handled a real firearm before in her life. No, she’d probably chip a nail or get prissy because it was ‘too loud.’
“Heaven help me,” Collins muttered, climbing into the truck.
“Heaven help us all,” Jake agreed, grabbing the post and pulling himself upward into the cool shadows of the vehicle where the men were taking their seats to ride out on patrol.
* * *
As the day dragged on, Jake couldn’t help but wish someone would muzzle Selkirk and said as much, causing a few of the guys to laugh near him.
