Beckett was pulled back to reality by the deep timbre of Digger’s voice, but it took a few additional seconds for the grumbled words to fully sink in.
“Call who?” he asked flippantly, shrugging one shoulder for good measure.
There. That sounded casual enough. Right?
His answer came when Digger carefully laid his rifle on the shooting platform before him and turned his steely gray-blue gaze Beckett’s way.
“Really?” The other man groused.
“What?”
Almost as if in disgust, Digger huffed out a breath and gave a curt shake of his head. “Just know, my ass gets shot up on an op because you can’t hit your fucking target, I’m going to return the favor…tenfold.”
If his ass gets shot up…
“Dude.” Beckett lifted his hands in defense. “Not sure what the hell you’re goin’ on about, but the only asses gettin’ shot up on one of our ops are those belongin’ to the bad guys.”
Digger ran a hand over his face, muttering something that sounded an awful lot like, “Swear to Christ” before his chiseled face twisted into a deep scowl. “Would you please, for one second, drop the innocent, southern-boy bullshit charm and just admit you’re still hung up on Evelynn Mitchell?”
What the…
Beckett’s brows turned inward, his denial automatic. “I haven’t talked to Evie since we were flown from that ship.”And it’s fucking killing me.“And that was like, what…three weeks ago?”
But who was counting, right?
“That’s my whole point.” Digger’s expression remained as apathetic as ever.
“There’s a point to all this?” He chuckled. “’Cause I sure ain’t seein’ it.”
“You need it spelled out for you, fine. Here it is.” The former SEAL’s gaze intensified, becoming locked with Beckett’s as he growled out, “Call. Her.”
Beckett blinked, taking a few seconds to appreciate the moment.
“Holy shit. Are you…” He rolled his lips inward and gave a slight tilt of his head. “Are you actually giving me advice on my love life?”
“Don’t be an asshole,” Digger snarled. “I’m trying to tell you to do whatever it is you’ve got to do to get your head out of your ass and back in the game.”
“The hell you talkin’ about, back in the game?”
“You haven’t been one hundred percent in since we got back from the HR op in Afghanistan. Your head’s so lost in the clouds half the time that you’re about two seconds behind the rest of us. And in our line of work, every fucking second counts.”
“Bullshit, I’ve been in the clouds.”
“I’m not the one shoveling bullshit here, Bones.” Digger seethed. “Brother, I’veseenit. So have Falcon and Apollo.”
“Seen what?”
The pissed off man began reciting his list.
“You’re quiet, for one. Only talking when you’re spoken to. You don’t smile or even try to act like you’re enjoying yourself anymore. I mean, Jesus, man. You’ve even quit with those annoying as fuck jokes of yours.”
The longer he spoke, the angrier Digger sounded. By the time his rant was over, the guy’s face had taken on a light shade of red.
Beckett didn’t say anything at first. He just stood there, staring back at his friend.
They’d worked side-by-side during some dangerous as fuck situations. Had witnessed cold-blooded murder, devastation, and heartbreaking loss.
And in all that time, no matter how dark things had seemed, Beckett couldn’t ever remember seeing this man express his emotions with any of the team. About anything.