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Glancing beside him as they stood awkwardly outside of the robin’s egg blue Bronco, Bradley readjusted his suit jacket.
“If you don’t want to—” Jake started to say.
“—no, I do. I want them to know. I just . . . I guess I’m nervous.” It was the first time all of the Daggers were back together since the mission two years ago. The mission he nearly died on . . . twice.
“Why? Are you afraid one of them is going to pop off and say something about us?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“They’re going to ask, Jake. Ask when we started this thing between us. What do we say? That it’s all the way back from flight school but that I walked out of your life because I was too chicken shit to admit that I cared for you?”
“Say whatever you want, Rooster. You and I know the truth. That’s all that matters here.”
“What if they ask why I left the team?”
Jake dropped his hands down onto Bradley’s shoulders. “Darlin, breathe, will you? It’s not going to be near as scary as your mind is trying to convince you it’ll be. Will they be curious? Sure. Let them. It’s going to be okay, though. I’ll be right there beside you. And anytime you need me to step in, I will.”
“You’re not nervous about this?”
“Nope. I mean, I was the other night at dinner, sure, but not with these assholes. Their opinions don’t really matter much to me honestly.”
“Not even Coyote’s?”
“Oh, please,” he scoffed. “Javy already knows about us, remember? So does your girl friend Trace. The rest of them, though . . . eh. Doesn’t matter. Not to mention, this is supposed to be a night with friends. I mean, Mama Mitchell put a lot of hard work in pulling this off for us. To give us something good to distract ourselves with before, you know, the past starts biting us all in the ass. You don’t want to disappoint her, now do you?”
“Why do you always call her Mama Mitchell?”
“Because I used to call her Mama Penny before she and Cap married, and she loves hearing her name with Maverick’s. But if I called her Mama Kazansky, I’d be fed to sharks, which we all know and I’m too pretty to be fed to sharks.”
Bradley laughed, shaking his head lightly.
“She might swear until she’s blue in the face that she loves Maverick and Admiral Kazansky equally, but we all know she and the admiral are just platonic soulmates who are hopelessly in love with Cap equally.”
“Yeah, that’s my thoughts, too.”
“I know. I speak chicken, remember?”
He shoved Jake back hard enough to cause Seresin to take half a step back. However, they were both smiling over it.
“You’re such an asshole, you know that?”
“What can I say? It’s a gift,” Jake quipped before he tugged on his suit jacket as if he was about to pop it up like he was a cool person in the 80s. “Now, you need me stroking you more, Roo, or you good to go in and see our friends and family?”
Bradley heaved a loud sigh.
“You need to stop caring so much, Bradshaw.”
“Yeah, pretty sure that’s an oxymoron,” piped up a voice from behind them.
They turned back to find Amelia approaching in a bloody white dress.
“Jilted bride?”
“Vampire bride,” she replied, turning her head so they could see the bloody ‘fang’ marks on her neck. “My sire is a little late unfortunately due to practice running late . . . again.”
“Ooh, he’s your sire now, is he?” teased Seresin.
“For tonight at least.” She glanced at their costumes and scrunched up her face in deep concentration. “What are you guys, though?”
“Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice.”
“Miami what?”
Jake scoffed, shooing her towards the front doors. “Oh, get inside already.”
“Aren’t you two coming in?” Her eyes darted from Jake to Bradley skeptically.
“We’ll be there in a second, Mel.”
She frowned for half a second before she sighed dramatically. Her hands went to her hips before she stared Bradley down. “You better not be thinking of running again, Bradley,” she warned. “So what if you and Jake are sneaking around with each other again. Literally no one gives a damn about that, bird brain. In fact, considering how you two act around each other, it’d be a miracle if they didn’t already know. So, take a deep breath, hold his hand, and walk inside the bar. Are you going to get shit from people? Sure, probably. But they do that because they love you, Bradley. I know you think you’re unlovable for some stupid reason, just like Dad gets sometimes, but that’s the truth. They love you. I love you, you big dork. And I know, okay, I know,” she sighed with an annoyed look. “You aren’t there yet because of all your childhood trauma rooting around. But take it from me, Bradley. It gets better when you start fighting against that voice that tells you everyone leaves you. When you instead march into places and prove its lies are nothing but loads of crap. Cause otherwise if you don’t, you’re going to end up sad, alone, and miserable. And I doubt that’s what your parents wanted when they named Dad your godfather all those years ago.” She then whirled away and headed inside the Hard Deck.
Bradley shook his head silently before he glanced at Jake. “Don’t say it.”
Seresin mimed that he’d stay silent.
Together, they walked inside the bar a few moments later together.
“Whoa. She went all out this year for this.”
Bradley had to agree. There were red twinkling lights strung up on the ceiling, giving the model planes overhead a soft creepy glow. The jukebox played old Halloween songs, namely the “Monster Mash” currently he recognized. Each table had a smoking dry ice caldron in the middle.
Jimmy was dressed up as an old-time sheriff, it seemed. His costume gave off Andy Griffith vibes the more Bradley watched him.
Meanwhile, Penny looked amazing in a flight suit with her long hair pulled up into a bun. She had Maverick’s aviators resting on top of her head at the ready to slip onto her nose at a moment’s notice if need be. She had two wings pinned to her chest proudly, which Bradley would bet his life were Mav and Ice’s.
In front of her sat Cyclone, who wore a brown suede shearling coat, plaid button-down shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. He was sipping from a glass, looking like an old, weary cowboy who came in from a long day out in the pasture. A cowboy hat rested on the bar next to him.
“Damn,” muttered Seresin beside him.
“What?”
“Not that, darlin,” Jake quickly replied. “Just . . . Simpson looks like he and Dad would be old friends is all back at home. Never really thought of him as the cowboy type.” He then smacked Bradley’s chest twice. “Luckily for us, I’m more into pornstaches and flashy Hawaiian shirts.”
“You don’t need to say that.”
“I know, but it’s true. You’re it for me, Bradshaw, like it or not.” He turned away a moment later, after having stolen all oxygen from Bradley’s lungs.
Bradley hung back for a moment, watching Jake greet Javy warmly as if no time passed at all. Long ago, as horrible as it was to admit it now in hindsight, he knew he had grown to be jealous of Javy once, of how easy the two moved around one another whereas Bradley and Jake were all teeth at times. Natasha had called him out on it, asked Bradley what the hell he was doing—picking petty fights with a guy like Seresin. It had taken five beers before Bradley found himself standing outside of Jake’s housing unit, pounding on the door wildly. They never did take any of this slow.
So, when he woke the following morning to find himself curled around Jake like he belonged there, he did what he always would—he panicked. It didn’t take for his panic to turn into him pulling back hard from everyone, giving in to his fears of being let down again, of being hurt by someone who supposedly cared about him.
“Sorry, Lieutenant,” a familiar voice called out as someone bumped into him while racing in.
Bradley’s eyes met Penny’s in that moment from where she stood behind the bar, observing him. She didn’t seem to pay any attention to Ethan, who had been the one to run into her bar just now. His eyes swept around the room to avoid hers, taking it all in for a moment. Of them all being together again two years after the mission that should have filled six graves but didn’t.
Amelia’s words from earlier echoed in his head.
He knew she was unfortunately right.
His running never got him anywhere but a bad case of loneliness.
He watched Mav greet the others with Ice at his side, recalling so many memories of them together while growing up just like this. They’d walk up to someone and say hi, only for that person to become a bumbling fool at the sight of Iceman at Mav’s side . . . like he belonged there.
The team looked no worse for wear from what he could see of them. Fritz was still hanging around Harvard and Yale, who were acting like their usual frat boy selves. Halo had her arm draped around Phoenix’s shoulder while they talked with Bob, Fanboy, and Payback. Omaha was losing to darts to Jake while Coyote was laughing into his bottle of beer. They were all laughing, all happy, all alive.
“Strange, isn’t it?”
His eyes darted to Penny’s new hire, Dean. He almost did a double take as he swore Dean looked just like some character on some show Jake watched religiously. The flannel was right, so were the jeans . . . and the boots. Even the hair was done the same.
“What is?” Bradley replied, not wanting to seem rude.
“How quickly they all wiggle inside when you aren’t looking and become people you care about.” He flashed a warm smile before he patted Bradley on the shoulder and continued up to the bar.
A chill swept down his back as he watched Dean greet Penny warmly.
It was true, though, wasn’t it?
Despite his best efforts, they had all become family to him in some way.
“All right, Bradshaw,” he muttered to himself. “Time to do it Mel’s way.”
What could it hurt?