Page 7 of Keeping Laryn
That’s why she didn’t bother to look through the peephole in the door. With the way she was feeling—irritated and needing another fourteen hours of sleep—she wasn’t thinking about someone being there to do her harm. She unlocked the bolt and slid the chain off before wrenching open the door and blurting, “What?”
It took her brain a moment to catch up to her eyes.
What in the world was Tate doing on her doorstep? Panic immediately swamped her.
“Tate! Are you all right? The others? Are we being deployed? You haven’t had a chance to test the chopper yet! It’s not ready?—!”
“Breathe, Laryn. I’m fine. Everyone is fine. We aren’t being deployed, not yet, that will wait until after the trials. And I have no doubt whatsoever that the chopper is absolutely perfect. How could it be anything else when she hadyouworking on her?”
Laryn blinked in confusion. “Then…what are you doing here?”
To her surprise, Tate looked a little nervous. Had she ever seen him anything other than confident? She didn’t think so.
“Why do you call me Tate when everyone else calls me Casper?”
“What?” She was having a hard time understanding exactly what was happening.
“Sometimes—usually when we’re around my friends—you call me Casper, but most of the time it’s Tate. Not that I mind. I kind of like it, actually. Hardly anyone around here uses my real name. I was just wondering.”
If she hadn’t just had a nightmare, if she wasn’t still half asleep and exhausted, Laryn probably would’ve shut the door inhis face and gone back to bed. But since she was still off-kilter, she shrugged and gave him an honest answer. “You don’t seem like a Casper to me. You’re tan, and Casper the cartoon ghost is white. And so friendly. And smiley. And you aren’t like that.”
Tate chuckled. “I should probably be offended, but I’m not. You’re right. I’m not like that at all. But you know I got the call sign because I’m like a ghost in the sky. Showing up as if out of thin air to cause havoc on the bad guys.”
Laryn rolled her eyes. “Duh. Of course I knew that.”
“Can I come in?”
Her brain was having a hard time following his fast change in topics. “Why?” she asked.
“Because.”
Too damn tired to exchange quips, Laryn took a step backward.
Tate took that for the consent he was looking for and stepped over the threshold into her apartment. As soon as she shut the door behind him, Laryn knew she’d made a mistake. Having the man she had a huge crush on inside her apartment would forever change the space. She’d constantly envision him there from now on.
Walking through the tiny foyer into the living area, turning to lean against the counter that separated it from the galley kitchen, Tate stared at her for a long moment without saying a word.
“What?” she asked a little defensively. Looking down at herself, Laryn saw she was still wearing the coveralls she always had on while at work. Hell, the wrench she’d stuck in the pocket along the thigh was still in there too. Her hair was probably no longer in the neat and tidy bun she always wore to keep it out of the way while she worked. She felt grubby next to him, and that irritated her.
“You fell asleep as soon as you got home, huh?”
“Yeah. And I’d still be asleep if you hadn’t rudely woken meup,” she said a little peevishly. That was a lie. That dream had definitely woken her up even before he’d started knocking on her door.
“Right. Sorry about that.”
Laryn stared at Tate, waiting for him to explain why he was there. When he didn’t, she tilted her head in confusion. “If we aren’t about to be deployed and everyone is okay, whyareyou here, Tate?”
He ran a hand through his hair, and Laryn was surprised to see his cheeks heat.
Tate Davis was blushing.Blushing. It was confusing and…adorable.
When he met her gaze, his hair was mussed and his brows were furrowed. “I had this whole story about my car making a funny noise and wanting you to check on it, but the last thing I want is for you to tromp downstairs and work on something, only to find out that it’s nothing important. And you should know that I told Chuck I needed your address so I could talk to you about something being wrong with the hydraulics on the last test flight, that I hadn’t told you about.”
“Wait—what?” Laryn asked incredulously. “Something was wrong with the hydraulics? On the fast-rope rig? I didn’t notice anything when I was working on that today. Why didn’t you tell me before? Shit. Now I need to go back to the hangar and see if I can figure out what’s up before the next test flight. If you lose hydraulics in the middle of an op, that could have serious ramifications for everyone. I should?—”
She didn’t finish her thought, because as she rushed to walk by Tate to grab the boots she’d left against the wall, he took her upper arm in his hand and stopped her. “I said that’s what I toldChuck. But it was a lie. The hydraulics are fine. As is everything else.”
All Laryn could do was stare up at Tate as she struggled to process what he was saying.
