Page 9 of Nails

“Never thought I’d see the day,” Nails muttered, shaking his head with a grin.

“What was that?”Snow, another teammate of Nails, asked from the chair beside him.

“Aussie settling down,” Nails replied, gesturing toward the trio.“Hell, when you look at it, there are only three of us bachelors left on the team.”

Snow chuckled.“True.Joker, Bear, Duke, Playboy, and now Aussie.”Snow looked at him and quirked an eyebrow.“Don’t tell me that you’re thinking about following in their footsteps?Mr.one and done.”

Nails scoffed, but his grin softened.“Nah, not my style.Although seeing them like that, I understand.”He shrugged his shoulders.“Who knows, maybe someday.”

Snow smirked, clearly amused, but didn’t push further.

As the party carried on and the conversations turned to wedding plans and starting families, a quiet heaviness began to creep into his chest.Family.That word always led his thoughts back to his mom.She wasn’t just part of his life; shewashis life.She was the only constant in a world that never stopped shifting.She’d raised him on her own, worked double shifts without complaint, and never once let him feel the weight of how hard things really were.And when he told her he wanted to join the Navy and work to become a SEAL, she stood right beside him, filling him with nothing but encouragement.

Now that he thought about it, it had been weeks, or maybe longer, since he called her.Not because he didn’t want to, but because his job had a way of devouring most of his time.Between deployments, training, and mission prep, the days blurred together.Still, he knew that wasn’t a good enough excuse.Not to mention, she lived only an hour and a half away from him in Gull Point, a small beach town in the northern Outer Banks.

He tapped his fingers against the table as he looked around.Everyone seemed to be in their own conversations, so maybe now was a good time to give her a quick call.

He pulled out his phone and excused himself.He headed for the back patio, where there weren’t many people, so it was quieter.

Leaning against the railing, he dialed his mom’s number.It rang a few times before she answered.

“Well, this is a surprise!My boy remembers his mother,” she teased.

Nails chuckled.“I’m sorry.Things have been busy around here.”

“Oh, honey.You know you don’t have to apologize.I understand.”

And that wasn’t a lie.His mom really did understand that there would be times when she wouldn’t hear from him.

“Anyway, I had some free time and thought I’d check in and see how everything was going with you?”

“Oh, you know, the usual.Staying busy with the garden club and keeping the neighbors in line,” she said with a laugh.

He smiled even though she couldn’t see him.Hearing her voice eased some of the tension deep inside him.

“You aren’t causing problems, are you?”he asked jokingly, knowing his mom could be full of sass when she wanted to.

“Well…I did catch Sharon trying to peek over my fence again.So, I waved to her with my middle finger.”

“Mom!”

“What?”she said, laughing.“That woman is a pain in my ass.She’s nosy and a gossip queen.”

Nails barked out a laugh.She wasn’t exaggerating.Sharon was like the neighborhood CIA.She was always up in other people’s business, whether they knew it or not.

“I get it, Mom.But everything else is good?”

“Sure,” she replied, though it didn’t sound convincing, and Nails wondered what she was hiding from him.But before he could press her further, she told him to hold on a second.

While he waited, he could hear her talking to someone.It sounded like a woman, though he couldn’t make out what they were saying because it sounded as if she had covered the receiver on the phone.He wondered who it was.

Another minute passed before she came back on the line.

“Sorry about that, sweetie.”

“Who was that?”Nails asked, his tone casual but laced with curiosity.

Again, she hesitated before answering, which only left Nails with more questions.