“Both.” He meets Gunner’s curious stare, and I notice a slight nod exchanged between them, almost as if Gunner is telling him it’s okay to tell me more. “I know Gunner is a hero because I was there. I was one of the ones he saved that day.”

“I had no idea. I don’t even know what to say,” I say below the noise of the bar. And I truly don’t. Gunner is so quick to squash any talk about heroics that I kind of assumed the comment Nix made that first night was more a bravado thing. Him saying it so I might like his buddy more.

But when I look at his face and see the somberness there, the admiration, I realize that Nix wasn’t simply being his friend’s wingman. He was serious.

“Nothing to say other than I wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for that man right there.”

“Do you mind telling me what happened or is that something I should ask him?”

“You can ask all you want, but Gunner won’t tell you shit. He’s not that kind of guy despite the fact that the events of that day still haunt him every night when he sleeps as they do me.”

“I’m sorry.” I don’t know what else to say.

“There’s no need to be. We signed up for it.” His chuckle is self-deprecating, almost resigned, before he falls quiet for a beat as we both smile when Gunner’s laugh sounds out across the bar.

“But still . . .”

“But still,” he repeats and snorts. “We were on routine rounds at the base of the Tora Bora mountains. We had some intel about one of the towns along the way. They were making IEDs or some shit,” he says as if he doesn’t remember. I know for damn sure he probably remembers every little detail. “Anyway, we went to suss out if the informant was telling the truth and walked right into an ambush. It was a firefight like we’d never seen before, coming at us from every damn direction.” Nix shudders and takes another sip of his beer.

“I can’t even imagine,” I say, thinking how surreal it is to hear about something you see in movies and know it happened in real life to Nix and Gunner.