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Will gave him a chuckle and shook out his shoulders before turning back to me. “You’re a good guy, though, Zac. For what it’s worth, I hope you and Layla can work it out.”
Hope and gratitude stirred in my chest. “Thanks, Will.”
Paul’s posture had relaxed considerably in response to Will’s words, but then he stood taller again. “Look, we’re not gonna stand here and act all big and bad and threaten to hurt you if you hurt her again … But, you know … Don’t hurt her again.”
I swallowed, nodding in understanding. “I won’t.”
“And don’t ghost us, either, brother,” Will added, holding out his hand for me to shake. When I put my hand in his, he pulled me in and hugged me with his other arm, patting my back before releasing me. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too,” I replied with a shaky smile. Then I hugged Paul and said the same to him.
When we stepped back, Will shuddered with a laugh. “Ugh, that was intense. Now that we’ve got that squared away, I want you to meet these guys.” He put a hand on one of their shoulders and shook him a little. “This here’s Chase, he’s a boot in my squadron, but after we deploy on Tuesday, he’ll finally be a legit member of the crew.”
I shook Chase’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“And this is my guy Brody,” Will introduced his other friend. “We were stationed in Yuma together and had one heck of a deployment where he literally saved my life.”
Shaking his hand as he humbly rolled his eyes at Will, I was again grateful thatthisBrody wasn’t the same Brody I’d served with.ThatBrody wouldn’t have saved someone’s life. He’d probably be too busy thinking about himself to notice someone needing help. I’d hated thinking Layla was hanging out with him, and itmayhave contributed to me wanting to come tonight.
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“You too.”
Will clapped his hands together and rubbed them up and down. “Okay, now, what do you say we get you a beer and lighten this mood a little bit? It’s a wedding, after all.”
I smiled, but I shook my head. “Thanks, but if it’s cool with you guys, I’d like to talk to Layla first. If she doesn’t shoot me down, I’ll come find you for that beer.”
“Sounds good, dude,” he replied, patting my shoulder. “We’ll leave you to it, then. Good luck.”
They started to lead me toward the reception, but then Paul turned around again. “I’m really glad this went well. It would’ve sucked to have had to punch you, man.”
