Vaughn
It was so nice having Brooke in my bed last night. I’m not sure what it was, but it was great to sleep all night without a nightmare. I may have to have her stay over more often. She would be a beautiful cure to my problem. Today’s my first day to work since I brought Brody home and I want to take him to meet Callen for our morning run. Brooke is staying back to make coffee and get herself ready for work as well. She’ll need to leave shortly after I return.
Brody did a great job keeping up with us, although I did ask Callen to go easy today. I needed to see how he does before we work him too hard, and I have to say I was proud of him—he did great. I’m willing to bet he’ll have no problem keeping up with us even at our normal pace.
When we got back, Brooke was standing in the kitchen all dressed for work sipping her coffee. She looks beautiful in her business attire with her hair pulled back. She’s wearing a lab coat that says the clinic’s name on it. I walk into the kitchen, her eyes rake me over, and she licks her lips like she wants to devour me. I give her a quick kiss. “I have to shower.”
“I have to get going,” she responds, dumping her coffee into the sink and putting her cup into the dishwasher. “I’ll talk to you later?”
I nod and watch her pet Brody quickly before she walks out the door, locking it behind her. I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face as I make my way to the shower. “You like her, huh, buddy?” I pet him. “Yeah, me too.”
Now that I’m set for work. I grab my keys and kneel down to pet Brody one more time. He’s lying in his bed, pretty beat from the run. I’m hoping this means he’ll sleep for a bit and just chill until I get home. “You be a good boy while I’m gone and we’ll have some fun after work.” He licks his face and closes his eyes. Not even a bark. I chuckle and walk out of the room. I need to get moving. It’s Callen’s turn to grab coffee, but I still don’t want to be late.
When I pull in, I discover I’m the first one here. For me, that’s a good thing. I can get to my office and get through some emails before I brief the guys on what we have to accomplish this week. Summer is upon us, and that means even more missions, and more missions mean more preventative maintenance, and more breakdowns. I settle in and boot up my computer. While I wait, I decide to send Brooke a text.
Vaughn: I hope you have a good day at work.
As I hit send, there’s a knock at my door. “Good morning, sir. What can I do for you?”
The Major steps into my office. “I know it’s early and the guys aren’t even here yet, but as soon as they get in, I need you guys to head out to recover a broken down Humvee. There’s hell to pay because it’s been sitting since early this morning.” He leans on my door.
“Yikes.” I shake my head. “Whose head is rolling for this one?”
“Not my problem.” He laughs. “It’s not my ass and it’s not anyone in our section. Just make sure it’s recovered as soon as possible.”
“Yes, sir. Any idea what’s wrong with it?”
He shakes his head. “None. It was a brief email stating it wouldn’t start. They gave us the location with orders to recover it as soon as possible. I promised them you’d get someone on it immediately.”
“No problem, sir. If it’s okay with you, I’m going to go out on this one and leave Callen here with the rest of the team. I want to observe the guys and see how Callen handles the shop.”
“Your team. It’s your ass if he screws up.”
I chuckle. “He won’t screw up, and we’ll figure out what’s wrong with the vehicle and report back to them on a return date immediately.” I scribble a note on the pad sitting on my desk. This is going to be a job for Callen.
“Thanks.” He nods and walks out of my office. I hear a faint “good morning, sir,” in the distance. It sounds like Callen just got here, but I pay it no mind because I have emails I need to respond to, and I need to get the location of that vehicle so we can recover it.
“What was the Major doing here? He never comes in here at this time of day.” He peeks his head out the door to make sure no one is lurking.
“We have to recover a Humvee. He didn’t say why, but they need it back ASAP. That means you have to drop what you’re doing and check out what’s wrong with it. They said it won’t start.”
“God only knows with the MPs on this base,” he mumbles under his breath as he walks out of my office. I chuckle and shake my head. My phone pings to notify me of a text.
Brooke: So far, so good. I hope you have a good day as well. Call me tonight. I want to know how both your and Brody’s day was.
Vaughn: Will do.
I put my phone back into my belt clip and go into the bay to see if everyone is here. We don’t need a ton of guys to do a recovery on base, but I want to observe one of my specialists do a recovery. That means it’s going to be me, Max, and Liam on this mission. Callen usually goes with the guys for this stuff, but I want him to stay back and keep an eye on things here and help Nolan and Tommy.
“Good morning,” I call out to the guys. Callen hands me my coffee and I thank him. “Gather around here for a minute.” The guys all do as I ask and settle down. “The Major was in to see me this morning. It appears one of the MPs has a broken down Humvee that we need to recover here on base. We need to get it off the side of the road immediately because someone’s ass is on the line. It was abandoned early this morning.” The guys start laughing. “All right, all right, listen up. Recovery will be handled by myself, Liam, and Max.” I turn to Callen. “Callen, you’re in charge here while I’m gone. You’ll work with Liam, Nolin, and Tommy on getting one of these vehicles done and out of here so we can check out the Humvee as soon as we get back. I’ve promised the Major that we’d get on it immediately and let them know when they can have it back.”
Max and I grab a truck. He jumps into the driver’s seat and I tell him where the vehicle is. “Hey, Sarge, are you going out with us on Friday?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” My brows furrow confused.
“Callen says you have a girl now. He thinks you’re going to stop hanging with us.”
I laugh. “He does, does he? Don’t you say anything to him, I’ll fix his ass.”
Max laughs as he drives in the direction of the Humvee. “So, what’s up with the observation?”
“Come on, guy, you know how this goes. Of my three E-4s, you’ve been here the longest. That means I need to make sure you know your shit. I’m promotable, as is Callen. That could mean you make sergeant in the near future, and for that to happen you need to prove you can handle everything you need to without help. This is your mission, you tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” He shakes his head. “You got this. I know you know what you’re doing, now it’s time to prove it. But do me a favor, no shortcuts. You do it by the book.” He nods and I can see the wheels are spinning while he drives. He’s going over the steps in his head. I sit in silence the remainder of the ride so he can process everything.
***
Brooke
I’ve had a really long day. I’m beat and my feet are killing me. It’s five thirty and Vaughn should be calling me any minute now. I run up to my room to change into some comfy clothes, no longer wanting to be in my work clothes. Dr. Kramer is adamant that we dress in professional attire. He’s usually in slacks with a button down shirt and tie with his lab coat. Now that I’m an actual vet, I’ve been wearing slacks and dress shirts, but it’s so hot for that. I need to figure something out because I do not like wearing skirts. No sooner do I slip on a t-shirt than my cell phone rings. It’s Vaughn. “Hey, big guy. How was your day?”
“It started out okay and got progressively worse.”
“Oh no, what happened?”
“Well, first I had to recover an abandoned vehicle. Then I get it back to the shop to look at it and the thing is a mess. We don’t have the part we need to fix it, and then to top it all off, Brody tore up the house. I have trash everywhere.” He sighs into the phone. “I totally didn’t expect this and I don’t know what to do.”
“He’s looking for attention. He missed you and was probably lonely. He went from being in a home where he was with his owner all day, to being in the shelter, to spending an entire weekend with you. He didn’t expect to be alone all day. I’m not telling you it’s okay that he did it, but I want you to understand.”
“That’s fine, but what do I do now?”
“What did you do when you walked in the door and saw the mess?”
He lets out a deep breath. “I yelled at him and sent him to his bed. He whimpered and ran off.” He sounds so sad and it breaks me.
“Do you want me to come over?”
“No, it’s fine. I think I need to handle this on my own. I’m going to clean up and then take him for a walk.”
“Are you sure? We can go for a walk together.” I’m trying to cheer him up because I have a feeling he’s just as sad as Brody right now. He chuckles into the phone, telling me my sing song voice works. “I’m not taking no for an answer. You better let the MPs know I’m on my way.” He starts laughing and cuts the call. My man and his dog have had a rough day and they need some cheering up. I shoot him off a quick text telling him I’m grabbing dinner on the way, but he never responds. He’s probably trying to clean Brody’s mess.
I pull up to Vaughn’s house almost an hour later. I had no problem getting on the base, which means he listened and called over to the gate. I picked up some chicken, mac and cheese, and corn on my way over. I’m hoping he will like it. The place I got it from is fast and the food is good. I climb out of the car to find Vaughn at the door with a much happier Brody. Too bad Vaughn still has a look of defeat on his face. He grabs Brody’s collar and opens the door for me. “You have good timing, I just finished cleaning up.”
“Good, we can eat and take this bad little boy for a walk.” I pet Brody’s head talking to him in a baby voice. He barks at me and wags his tail. “Go lay down while we eat.”
He follows us to the kitchen and sits at our feet. “Brody, go lay down.” Vaughn points to the living room and he takes off. When he lays down outside the kitchen as he was asked, Vaughn rewards him. “Good boy.” He pets his head. “Now stay and we’ll go out soon.” The dog stays and Vaughn heads to the sink to wash his hands before we sit down to eat. He finally joins me. “Before I forget, do you have any plans for Friday?”
“No, why? Do you have something in mind?”
“Would you and Courtney be interested in joining us guys for a night out again?”
I shrug my shoulders. “I can ask her. She could use another night out. She broke up with her boyfriend a few months ago and is having a hard time of it. She found out he cheated on her and it’s the second time she’s been cheated on. She swears she’s never going to find the right man.”
“Well, she and Callen seemed to hit it off pretty good, and the guys and I make it a point to get together at least every other Friday. We try weekly but stuff often gets in the way. We usually go to that bar I saw you at to have a beer or two and grab some food.”
“That’s cool.”
“Yeah, it’s a good way for the new guys to feel welcome and we’ve all become friends. Plus, the guys on base get bored. I have three guys who don’t get as much freedom as Callen and I do.” He digs into his plate.
“How come?” I have no idea what military life is like. Why would some guys get more freedom than others? That’s not very fair.
“While you’re a lower enlisted soldier, you have restrictions, plus the kids can’t usually afford a car. It’s expensive to store if they get called on an overseas mission or if your duty station changes, it can be hard to transport your vehicle to the new location, so most of them deal without one. The base has stuff for guys to do, but after a little while it can get old. The guys live in the barracks, and hanging there gets old, especially if you’re with guys you don’t get along with.”
“I can’t imagine that’s easy.”
I shrug. “That’s why I try to get together with them. It boosts their morale, and for a short time we’re just a bunch of guys hanging out.”
“You’re so sweet.” I lean in and kiss him on the lips. His tongue darts out, licking across the seam of mine. I open to him and our tongues explore one another. He tastes of Vaughn and fried chicken. Not a bad combo.
“Let’s clean up and take him out before we get out of control.”
“Good idea. I can’t stay too late. I have to get my clothes ready for work tomorrow.”
“Yeah, me too. I have no idea what I’ll wear.” He laughs mocking me.
“You’ll pay for that.” I toss my dirty napkin at him. He throws it back, missing me completely. Brody jumps up and starts to bark but never sets foot into the kitchen. I run over to calm him down. “It’s okay, boy.” I pet the top of his head and he sits back down. We quickly pack up the leftover food and get it into the fridge.
When we’re about done, Vaughn pulls the dog’s leash from the drawer and hands it to me. “Can you get him hooked up for me?” He grabs our dishes and starts to rinse them for the dishwasher.
“Sure.” I hook up his leash, and because he knows we’re going out, he gets excited.
Vaughn dries his hands and comes over, patting his head. “Are you excited to go out? You need to be a good boy tomorrow while I’m at work, though. No more playing in the trash.” He takes the leash in hand and my hand in the other and we take off on our walk.
“So, what’s up with Courtney?” he asks as we walk down the street hand in hand.
“Like I told you, she’s been cheated on a few times. The first time he had given her a key and she showed up at his place to surprise him and found him in bed with two other women.”
His brows shoot up. “Holy shit. That’s messed up.”
“Tell me about it. She had just started working at the clinic with me. I felt so bad for her. She was a mess for the longest time. She dated a few guys and said it wasn’t working out. Then she met Ted. He was really nice to her and treated her well, or at least she thought. Her friend Tiffany sent her a picture of him kissing another girl on the sidewalk outside a restaurant.”
He shakes his head. “What is it with men? It kills me. Guys like that give us a bad name.” Brody pulls us to the side of the road where he finds a tree to do his business. “Thank god he didn’t leave me any messes like this to clean up.” He bends over with the bag wrapped around his hand to clean the mess. Being an apartment community, there are receptacles set up to dispose of things like this. I can’t help but giggle at the face he makes when he ties off the bag. We turn the corner to head down the next street. “That’s where Callen lives.” He points to Callen’s building.
“Cool. What’s the plan for Friday?”
He shrugs. “We usually meet up around six. I’ll try to get the same big booth we had last time.”
“Sounds good. We’ll plan to meet you about the same time. I’m on-call this weekend, so I can’t go too far in case there’s an emergency.”
“Does that mean I won’t see you this weekend?”
“I honestly haven’t thought far ahead, but I’m sure we can do something.” We walk back up to his place, he opens the door, and Brody darts into the house. I pause on the porch. “Listen, I think I’d best be going.” He smiles down at me. “I think it’ll be good for you spend the rest of the night with your buddy, and maybe tomorrow he’ll be a good boy for you.”
He nods but he looks concerned. I press up on my tippy toes and grab his shirt. He lowers his lips to mine and I instantly open to him. He moans into my mouth and the sound awakens the butterflies in my belly. I pull away. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Drive careful.”
“I will.” He and Brody stand by the door, watching me get into my car. I wave and drive off, feeling a little bit better. He still seems a bit off, but owning a new dog can be overwhelming. I can tell he’s really happy with Brody, though. They’ll be fine. My phone chirps and when I pull up to the light I see it’s a text from Vaughn.
Vaughn: Thanks for coming over and bringing dinner. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
I smile and put my phone in my purse to finish my ride home.