Free SEAL Under Covers (SEAL Brotherhood Series Book 3) by Sharon Hamilton

faster was because Gunny was just too damn ornery.
    The older Marine wheezed and spat a wad of something thick and dark before he set his shaking hands on the keys, trying to thread the lock. Kyle looked worried.
    “You’re here early for a Saturday, you two. Have a frustrating sexual encounter, boys?” Armando could see Gunny’s attempt to change the focus fell flat.
    “Shut the fuck up, Gunny. How was your night?” Kyle asked.
    The front door opened, tinkling the tiny brass bell over the doorframe. Gunny punched a combination into a newly installed keypad nearby. The gym had nothing but rusty old equipment, but a string of vandalisms had Gunny trying to protect what little he had invested there. Duct tape repaired the display case, which now stood empty. The thieves made off with the T-shirts and a case of bottled water, leaving the old gym equipment behind.
    Gunny coughed up more phlegm and spit it into a tissue behind the display case. He discreetly dropped it into a trashcan. “Watched Dancing on Air last night. Double elimination. Reba, the one with the big boobs, made it, so all’s well.”
    Armando smiled and slung a towel around his neck as Kyle headed for the bathroom. “I shoulda come over and kept you company.”
    “Gee thanks. Nah, all you boys got your own lives these days. I’m starting to feel like a third tit on a stripper.”
    Armando felt the sadness and knew Gunny wouldn’t be around long enough to see him married and starting a family of his own, like Kyle and Cooper were doing. It made him a little sad.
    “So I take it you feel like shit, then?” He kept his back to the older man, working his first rep of free weights. He ended his set by throwing the dumbbells down on the rubber mat, which was the standard protocol. Placing them gently on the ground would get you tossed good and proper from the gym.
    “That pretty much sums it up. But I do have some good news.” Gunny was staring out the front plate glass window.
    “What’s that?” Armando asked as he began his second rep.
    “Got a son coming to see me all the way from Thailand.”
    “No shit? When?” Armando threw the weight down again as Kyle came back into the gym.
    “Next week. Says in his email he wants to meet me. He’s twenty-two.”
    “Didn’t know you had a son,” Kyle added as he walked over to pick up the barbell Armando had thrown.
    Gunny chuckled, which turned into a full-on hacking cough. “Well I knew the odds were 50-50 there’d be a son. He found me on Facebook through the gym. I sure as hell enjoyed knocking up all their mothers, and I understand I’m a virile son of a bitch.” He spit again into a tissue. “Just never met any of them.”
    “Well, timing’s good. We got a few days off before we go on the training mission.”
    “Yeah? Where to?”
    “I figure Alaska, Mexico or Vegas, baby. But they don’t tell us until just before. Sucks, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re always ready.”
    “Right you are,” Gunny said as he wiped down his rusty old equipment.
    “So what day is it, and we’ll come back you up.”
    “Wednesday. Probably scare the shit outta the kid, a bunch of SEALs showing up at the airport.”
    “Yup. That would be scary as hell. Not like meeting his crusty old dad for the first time. Nah, that would be a piece of cake compared to meeting the likes of us.” Kyle winked at the retiree.
    That got a snicker out of Gunny. “Not nearly as scary as the time I showed up with his mother in the wedding cart. First time most of her relatives met me, and I’m not so sure I left a good impression. Kinda happened real fast-like.”
    “Love has a way of doing that to a man, doesn’t it?”
    “You’ve never taken the plunge, even got close, have you, Armani?”
    “I’ve had relationships that have lasted longer than your marriages, Gunny.”
    “That’s not sayin’ much.”
    Armando knew in his heart that he wasn’t the marrying kind. He loved women and all the exciting sex