Page 50 of Men of Fort Dale: The Complete Series

“Are you staring at the wall?”

Dean’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Nice to see you’re still alive.”

“So I see.”

Dean shrugged, stepping into the office. “I had some free time, so I came back early.”

Troy groaned, slumping onto the desk. “I’ve only been here a couple of hours, and it’s been utter hell, and you go and come back before you’re supposed to.”

Dean snorted. “Do you want me to take the appointment instead?”

“Hell, no. Any excuse to get out of here is good. We’re sticking to the plan. You watch the clinic, I go and see General Winter.”

Dean flopped down in the other seat. “Alright, glad we got that settled.”

Troy looked his friend over. “You look...better.”

“Better.”

“Yeah, you don’t look like you have the weight of the world holding you down. You and Sloane make up?”

“We’re...I’m not sure where we are right now, but we’re figuring things out.”

“That doesn’t sound very good.”

“I think it is, well, pretty sure.”

Troy snorted. “You should have gone into sales, Dean, because you really know how to sell.”

Dean flicked a paperclip at him. “Don’t start.”

“You could always save us the trouble and just tell me what’s going on. I’ve been coming up with all sorts of theories, and some are just plain ridiculous.”

“Coming from you, I’m sure most of them are ridiculous,” Dean said dryly.

“Ass.”

Dean shook his head. “This is between Sloane and me, okay? Once things have been...dealt with, and I’m standing on firmer ground, I can talk about it, okay?”

That only served to make Troy even more curious, but he knew he wasn’t going to win if Dean was being stubborn and reasonable at the same time.

Troy sighed. “Fine, fine, I’ll leave you alone.”

Dean smirked. “But while we’re being nosy?—”

“I am not nosy.”

“Why don’t you tell me what was up yesterday.”

Troy blinked, his features going rigid.

“Let’s not,” he said after a long pause.

Dean’s brow rose, and he let out a low whistle. “Wow, that must be something.”

Troy cleared his throat, turning his attention back to his tablet. “It’s not really...it’s in the past.”

“Am I allowed to guess?”

Troy groaned. “Dean, c’mon.”

“Because I’m not going to lie, I was under the impression that Mr. Troy Boaz had always been ‘an independent woman who didn’t need no man.’ But I’m starting to think that what walked in here yesterday was, in fact, a man you did need once upon a time.”

“Wow, thank you. That makes me feel so much better.”

Dean’s smile turned sympathetic. “So I’m right, he’s an old flame.”

“The only flame,” Troy corrected.

“Considering how the two of you were acting yesterday, I think making it present tense was a good call,” Dean said.

Troy frowned. “I’m...no, Dean, no.”

Troy had moved past that point in his life and become his own person who didn’t ache because Oscar had so easily moved on without him.

Troy had come out to his parents, friends, and anyone who knew him in his junior year of high school, and he’d tried his hand at dating but never found anything to encourage further attempts.

People were strange, fickle, emotional creatures, and unreliable.

Troy had never been burned before he graduated high school, but he had been grazed by the teeth that love possessed.

Then Oscar happened.

The noise of the party bore down around him, enveloping him in the familiar sounds of drunken voices and bad music.

Troy was about as drunk as he was willing to let himself get, which, admittedly, was pretty drunk.

He was also enjoying the attention of the well-built, blond-haired private, who thought he was God’s gift to men and women, leaning over Troy as they talked.

Troy was more than willing to let the man think he was saying all the right things, believing he was going to score.

Not that Troy had an issue with having a bit of fun with someone, no strings attached was so much more fun than the pathetic attempts at dating during his high school days.

But it would be an insult if he let the guy actually get laid when his game was as weak as a broken wrist.

He was making a good show of pretending to listen while wondering when the man would cut to the chase and try to get into Troy’s pants.

Troy was seriously considering what he would say when the probably cheesy and arrogant pick-up line came when a shout brought him out of his thoughts.

Before he and whatever the guy’s name was could react, a huge shape barreled into them both.

The man smacked against Troy, sending them both sprawling on the ground.

“Oh, hell,” Troy muttered, wondering if he was sober enough and knew enough to try putting his medical knowledge to use for what was obviously a drunken brawl.

The huge man who’d collided with them lashed out at whoever had pushed him, catching his opponent across the jaw. Troy winced as he disentangled himself, watching the unknown opponent collapse backward into his friend’s arms.

“Tell your friend to learn how to fucking fight before he starts shit over some girl he just met,” the man above him growled.

“You tell ’em,” Troy muttered.

The man whirled around, though Troy couldn’t believe he’d heard him over the blaring music. Jesus, the guy was even bigger when he was facing Troy, looking like he’d spent years doing nothing but lifting weights that probably outweighed Troy. His dark eyes blazed, falling on Troy’s face.

“What?” the man demanded.

Troy’s heart skipped a beat, amused to find himself enamored with the stranger’s burning gaze. “I said, you tell ’em. Now, do you mind helping me up since you took me out?”

“And me,” the man who’d been trying to hit on him grumbled from the ground.

“Good, stay there because you were about to get rejected hard enough that you might as well have laid down anyway,” Troy told him, holding his hand out to the standing stranger.

The man smirked, taking hold of Troy’s hand and yanking him to his feet. “You got a mouth on you.”

Troy flew forward with a surprised grunt, almost smacking into the man’s chest. “Yeah, and you can call me Troy.”

“Oscar.”

Oscar.

Well, Troy thought that might be a name he’d have no problem forgetting. Just like he would remember the heat in the man’s eyes, and though it hadn’t been intended as anything remotely close to erotic, it had felt like it to Troy.

Oscar snorted. “C’mon, I’ll get you a drink to replace the one I spilled.”

Troy sighed, rubbing his temples. “It’s...a very long, very stupid story.”

“One you obviously don’t want to talk about.”

Troy eyed Dean. “You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

Dean grinned. “I might.”

Troy shook his head. “Look, Oscar and I were a thing once. We dated for about a year, and it was great while it lasted, but it ended. I wasn’t expecting him to come to Fort Dale, and it looks like he wasn’t expecting me to be here. We were taken off-guard, but that doesn’t mean a thing, okay?”

Dean held up his hands. “Alright. It just didn’t look like it meant nothing, is all.”

“How about you mind your own relationships?”

“Damn, ouch, alright.”

Troy sighed. “No, I’m sorry. I slept like shit last night, and I feel like if something doesn’t happen today, I’m going to lose my mind.”

Dean patted Troy’s shoulder. “You never were very good at sitting still. But if it makes you feel better, it’s time for you to get going.”

Troy’s head snapped up toward the clock overhead and gave a whoop. “Hell yeah, I can get out of here!”

“You’re going to be gone for, like, an hour. You realize you have to come back, right?” Dean asked dryly.

Troy snatched up his tablet and the bag of medical supplies. “Doesn’t matter that I’ve got a whole double shift ahead of me. I get to stretch my legs and pretend like I’m not coming back here for an hour. That’s worth everything.”

“Not exactly a long-term planner, are you?”

“You should know that about me. I live in the moment, for the moment, Dean, that’s how it works.”

“I bet your finances look amazing.”

“It’s really a lot of porn and beer.”

“Alright, so normal finances for the military.”

Troy laughed, bouncing out of the office and down the hall. It didn’t matter that he’d probably end up bored out of his skull again shortly after returning. At least he had a moment’s illusion of freedom.

His day was looking up.

The elevator to General Winter’s floor hummed, though Troy was pretty sure there was a rattle that shouldn’t have been there.

He also knew if he said something to the General, the man would undoubtedly hop to getting it fixed, and some poor bastard would be forced to drop whatever they were doing to follow the order.

General Winter was a stickler for ensuring things were done in a timely manner, except for his routine checkups.

Well, at least there wasn’t any music in the elevator.

When the car came to a stop and the doors opened, Troy got out with a bit of a skip.

It was a pleasure to visit General Winter instead of Dean, and not just because it allowed him the freedom to wander around.

There was the added bonus that General Winter was such a serious man, Troy delighted in being as playful as he could to see if he could draw a reaction from the older man.

Sure, it might have been a bit like poking a sleeping tiger, but he couldn’t help himself.

Troy all but bounced up to the front desk. “Hey, I’m here for General Winter...you...are not Christian.”

Oscar stared back at him with an expression that could not have been more pained if he tried.

Troy looked around in bewilderment as he tried to figure out what he’d done wrong.

The lobby looked like the one outside General Winter’s office, but there was no sign of the normal bright-eyed receptionist.

“You’re in the right place,” Oscar grunted.

Troy blinked, unnerved that Oscar had read his mind. That little trick might have been cute and endearing when they were dating, but there was something incredibly unsettling about the idea that he was that predictable or Oscar had that good a sense of him.

“What are you doing here?” Troy asked.

“This is my temporary position.”

“At the front desk?”

“For General Winter, yeah.”

“Where the hell is Christian?”

“He had to take a call.”

Troy’s head snapped up. “Shit, is his sister okay?”

“Uh, I don’t know?”

Troy knew from having spoken with Christian before that his sister had fibromyalgia.

It generally wasn’t a problem, but there had been a particularly bad moment where she’d been weak from too many sleepless nights due to her pain and had fallen down a flight of stairs.

She’d been alright, save for the broken wrist, but Troy knew Christian worried about her.

“Did he sound worried when he left?”

Oscar nodded toward the nearby door. “He’s been in there for about ten minutes but didn’t sound upset.”

Troy raised a brow. “Would you have even noticed if he was?”

Oscar scowled. “I’m not good with people, but I know someone who sounds upset and someone who doesn’t, okay?”

Troy squirmed uncomfortably and resisted the urge to peek into the room to see what was happening.

Oscar narrowed his eyes. “Don’t even think about it.”

“What?” Troy asked.

“You keep your nose out of his business. He sounded fine.”

“You aren’t the boss of me.”

“Yeah, but I’m allowed to keep you out of any room you’re not allowed in,” Oscar told him smugly.

Troy narrowed his eyes but couldn’t think of a witty comeback. The knowing smirk on Oscar’s face told him he knew it too, and Troy had to resist the urge to flick him on the forehead as he would have done in the old days.

Troy sighed. “Well, how are you feeling?”

Oscar blinked. “What?”

“Has it been so long since someone wondered how you were that you’ve forgotten the meaning?”

Oscar scowled. “Don’t be an ass.”

Troy chuckled, unable to suppress his amusement. “You can growl and stamp your feet all you want, but that’s not going to make me back down now any more than it did back then.”

Oscar’s scowl held for a few seconds before dropping. The gruff man averted his eyes, looking toward his computer screen as it beeped at him.

“General Winter says he can see you now.”

Troy’s smile flickered, and he hated the feeling of disappointment that rose in his chest. “Can see me but isn’t ready. The man is more stubborn about his health care than he is about ensuring the rest of us get it.”

“Yeah, I’ve been told,” Oscar muttered.

Troy pushed away from the desk and approached General Winter’s office door.

He hated the feeling that there was a gulf between him and Oscar after all these years, but he hated his disappointment at that feeling even more.

It was in the past, and it belonged in the past, and that tiny little hope and fear in his chest, born from the first moment he’d seen Oscar in six years, was stupid and unnecessary.

Oscar cleared his throat, glancing at Troy as he passed. “Hope you’ve been doing okay.”

Troy’s hand stopped on the door, resting there as he tried to think what to say.

Instead of saying anything, he kept silent and gave Oscar a warm smile.

It hadn’t answered Troy’s original question, but that was Oscar for you.

Few people could get him to talk about himself, and those that could walked away feeling like they’d tried to pull a tooth from a tiger.

But it was something.