Retreat Hell! She Just Got Here(2)

“Survey says, ehhhhh.” Kicking his feet up onto the polished table, Zach caught the score. The Cowboys were down by three. But they could still rally. “The date is for both of us and you agreed to it.”

“Only because I thought you’d come to your senses. What the hell kind of woman agrees to a blind, one-night stand with two men she’s never met?” Logan didn’t bother to wait for a response. “The kind who is going to be less than thrilled when she finds out one is a cripple and here for a pity fuck.”

Rubbing his right forefinger against his thumb, an old trick that helped him relax his nerves, nerves he didn’t have time for right then, Zach twisted to look at the stiff line of Logan’s back. He still stared down at the Strip. His brother missed the joke, poor one that it was. “Dude, you agreed. It’s both of us or neither of us. Just give it a shot.”

“Why?” Logan swung around, revealing the harsh twist on the left side of his face, the corner of his mouth permanently turned in a grimace. Scar tissue puckered from his cheek to his throat would never again allow the easy grin. He’d been more relaxed before his injury—a reminder of the burning, twisted metal coffin that led to five surgeries, three pins, one in his knee, one in his hip and the last one in the shoulder. Months of physical and mental therapy later, Logan walked and talked, but he refused to live.

After weeks in Germany, they’d relocated to Bethesda Naval Hospital until Logan took his first real steps twelve weeks ago. It took some cajoling—and no small amount of bullying on Zach’s part—to convince him to accept the offer from the recently opened Mike’s Place in Texas. Captain Luke Dexter—Marine and son of Colonel Dexter, Zach and Logan’s commanding officer who’d been killed in the same bombing that put Logan in the hospital—wanted to offer them the first berths in his new mental and physical health center.

Zach didn’t need the mental or physical therapy, but he and Logan were a package deal. So, he’d taken a job working with the children’s sports teams, coaching the sons and daughters of the service families currently residing on property or using the facilities. Logan benefitted from the therapy and the work.

“Because a deal’s a deal and we all signed up when the Captain did.” Dexter didn’t need the service anymore than Zach did, but they’d been in agreement. Some of the men, like Logan, wouldn’t even contemplate looking at another woman. Particularly after his bitch of a girlfriend, Rochelle, made a scene in front of the others, calling Logan’s impotence to light.

It didn’t help that every doctor called the condition psychosomatic. Logan had convinced himself sex wasn’t going to happen. But they’d shared girls before, twice in high school and once on leave in Germany. Logan would’ve turned down this opportunity solo, so a threesome it would be.

“Whatever. What’s the score?” He ended the conversation, his posture closed off and his expression remote. Zach left it alone. He knew fear when he saw it. Fear was a tangible part of the everyday life of a Marine. They’d done their tours overseas, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Iraq. Their ‘soft tour’ as diplomatic support landed them front and center in the Egyptian riots. Catching a bullet at any moment was their reality.

Fear didn’t stop a Marine.

And it wasn’t going to stop Logan tonight.

“Ten-seven, but we’ve got another quarter to go. They could pull ahead.” Zach glanced back down at the menu. “I’ll get us some of these appetizer platters, three steaks and maybe one of the fish and veggie dishes. I didn’t see anything on her sheet about being a vegetarian.”

Logan grunted, pacing the room behind him. The nervous energy pressed against the back of Zach’s head, but he did his best to ignore it. Pacing served as a coping mechanism. After the two and a half hour flight, Logan had to be stiff.

Ordering the food, Zach kept one eye on the game. The fumble gained the Cowboys ten yards, but not enough for a score. He glanced at his watch. The fifteen minutes since they’d arrived seemed a hell of a lot longer. Logan’s pacing continued, promising an even longer forty-five minutes until their date got there.

The paperwork described their date, Jasmine, as five-foot eight inches tall; she enjoyed sports, preferred baseball to football and wanted a night of total escape with two partners. The rest of the information focused on the Castillo Resort, their room reservation and the time of the date. It wasn’t a hell of a lot to speculate on.

The Cowboys lost the ball, Zach sighed. The Packers seemed intent on flattening his home team. His thoughts returned to their date. She wanted a night with two men. He only hoped that she lured Logan out of his shell or it would all be for nothing.