Page 1 of SEAL's Harmony
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Navy SEAL Ryder “Ry” Purcell took a swig of his beer and checked the time, hoping his teammates wouldn’t notice. Weddings weren’t his thing. Though as weddings went, this one wasn’t too bad. Rafe Buchanan and Meghan Henley’s ceremony on Virginia Beach had been short and sweet. One he might like for himself if he ever went down that road someday far in the future. He’d planned to skip the reception and just wander down the shoreline with Whiskey, his German shepherd teammate and constant companion. Basically, walk off into the proverbial sunset and no one would be the wiser.
It had been the perfect plan until Cam Patterson, the K-9 handler on the Black Eagle team, suggested they let their dogs burn off some steam before taking them inside for the reception.
Ry had agreed, even though it meant he’d lost his window of opportunity to make his escape. The reception had been going on for over an hour, and he was ready to get the hell out of there. It’s not that he was antisocial, but his team just finished a mission and got home yesterday. After spending the last month cooped up with these guys, he was ready for some alone time chilling at home. Instead, he was sitting at a table with all of them, nursing his second beer, and listening to his teammate Luca “Lucky” Rossi going on about his countless conquests.
Zoning out, Ry tilted his chair onto its two back legs and gazed up through the glass solarium ceiling. A cerulean blue sky dotted with puffy white clouds floated overhead and reminded him of the opening sequence of the Simpsons. For a moment the music and buzz of conversation disappeared, and he was somewhere far away.
“Hey, Ry, could you at least try to seem like you’re having fun? Your grimace is frightening the women away,” Quinn Gallagher said. He was the leader of the Red Falcon team.
Quinn’s voice pulled him right back into the noisy room and ended his virtual escape. Ry leaned his elbows on the table and shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, what’s your problem? Free booze. All you can eat food. Single women. What more could you want?” Josh Hartman, another one of his teammates asked.
“Seriously? You’re telling me you wouldn’t rather be on the couch in your civies with a beer and your feet up watching the game? Or at the Ready Room? Fuck. Anywhere, as long as we’re not in our dress whites.” Ry sighed. He sure as hell would. Getting dressed up and sitting around was not his idea of a good time.
“Are you worried about catching the bouquet?” Lucky laughed and waggled his eyebrows. He was the team clown and could make them laugh even under the worst conditions.
“Men don’t catch the bouquet. It’s the garter, you idiot. But I’m keeping my happy ass right here when it happens.” With the way his luck had been going today, he’d probably be the sorry loser to catch the damn thing.
“You’re being such a pansy-ass, I figured you’d get up there with the single women.” Lucky smirked and tossed a wadded-up napkin at him.
“Go piss up a tree, Lucky. If it’s so much fun, why are we all sitting at this table instead of out there with all the single women? It’s not just me at this table.” Ry lifted his beer in a salute then took a long swig and finished the bottle.
“I guess you schooled us, huh?” Quinn chuckled. “But you have a point. We’re not in high school hiding from the girls. Time to stop moping and have some fun. These are our friends. The least we can do is get our asses up and mingle.” His gaze met Ry’s. “And no sneaking out before they cut the cake, or you’ll have extra PT for a month.”
“Got it, boss. Whiskey and I won’t leave the building. You don’t have to worry about us.”
Quinn tipped his chin in acknowledgment, and after a brief look at each of the men, he headed toward the bride and groom.
Ry eyed Whiskey as he rested his head on his knee. “I guess I need to mingle. You need to stay here, bud. I promise I’ll bring you back something good.”
The dog made a low woof and laid down with his head on his front paws.
“You heard the boss, you guys coming or what?” Ry chuckled as Fergus “Doc” O’Brien flipped him the bird.
“What I want to know is how did the Black Eagle team have time to find their women?” Josh asked.
“Seriously, bro. They got sent on all the good missions and found them, rescued two of them. I think Knox likes them better than us,” Lucky replied.
“I don’t know about that,” Ry said. But maybe Lucky had a point. Their missions were in Africa dealing with Boca Haram and rescuing kidnapped schoolgirls. Not exactly dating material.
“Rafe didn’t meet Meghan on a mission. He met her at Norfolk Airport on his way to see his sister. You need to just chill. Keep your eyes open, ya bums. You never know what will happen,” Doc added.
“You mean it’s like Mom used to say? ‘You’ll find the perfect woman when you’re not looking for her.’” Lucky smirked.
Doc pushed back from the table and straightened his uniform. “Why not? If you’re not open to anything, you won’t find jack shit.”
“I guess it can’t hurt to mingle a bit.” Josh finished his beer and got up. “You fuckers coming or what?”
“Yeah, I’m coming, bro,” Lucky said.
“If anyone is going to find a woman today, it’ll be you, Lucky.” Josh rolled his eyes as his friend slid his hand through his wavy black hair.
“Stick with me and I’ll show you how it’s done.”
Ry shook his head. Josh was right about the attraction thing. If there was a woman within a three-hundred-foot radius, Luca got lucky. He’d earned his nickname on one of their first deployments. But he also was a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy. Some thought that made him lucky, too, but Ry wasn’t so sure.
