Page 20 of Keeping Laryn
“I just…Really, it’s fine. I’m good.”
She’d almost told him. As Casper pulled out of the parking lot, heading toward the base’s exit, he pushed a little harder. “Talk to me, Laryn. I can hear in your voice that something’s wrong. If you don’t want to tell me, okay, but don’t lie and say nothing’s going on when I can hear that something’s up.”
“You don’t know me well enough to be able to say something like that,” she told him.
Casper wasn’t thrilled she still wouldn’t tell him what he wanted to know, but at least she was talking to him. If she wastalking, she was breathing, which was good. “I know that you’re particular about your tools. I know that you’re a marshmallow when it comes to stray animals and trying to find them homes, even though you can’t keep them yourself. I know you’re a morning person and not a night person. I know that you prefer to eat a big breakfast and a light dinner, and you’d rather not socialize with the soldiers and sailors onboard the naval carriers—my team included.”
He could hear her breathing, but she didn’t respond right away. Relief hit Casper once he exited the base, because he could drive a little faster without worrying about being pulled over by the military police who strictly enforced speed limits on base.
“Laryn?”
“I’d love to have a dog. I want a beagle. I’d name him Waffles, and he’d be a pain in my ass, but so cute it wouldn’t matter. I don’t like the feeling of food sitting in my belly like a lump when I go to bed. And it’s not that I don’t want to socialize with people on the ships we end up on; it’s that no one seems to want to socialize withme.”
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know.”
She sounded so sad. So lost. It made Casper’s heart hurt.
“Well, things are gonna change on that front. You’ll eat with us, and I’ll see if we can’t get you a berth in a room near us.”
“It’s fine, Tate. I don’t expect to be best friends with people on the ships. I’m a big girl. I am who I am, and if people don’t like me, I don’t care.”
Casper had a feeling shedidcare. “Ilike you,” he blurted. “Buck, Obi-Wan, Pyro, Chaos, and Edge all like you. Chuck likes you. Hell, most of the mechanics you work with like you.”
She chuckled at that. It was a shaky sound, but it was definitely a laugh. “No, they don’t.”
It was Casper’s turn to laugh. “Right. Because they’re lazy assholes who don’t like working?”
“Or taking orders from a woman. One who’s not in the Army, at that.”
“Tough shit for them,” Casper told her. “You’re the best at what you do, and they’re idiots if they don’t take the opportunity while working for you to soak up every ounce of knowledge you have. Now…what happened tonight to make you so upset?”
He heard her sigh, but she didn’t respond.
“I’m on my way to you,” he informed her. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Is a guy there you can’t get to leave? If so, tell him to get the hell out or he’ll be dealing with me.”
Laryn snorted. “There’s no guy here.”
“Girl?”
“No girl either.”
“Good. So if it’s not someone physically there, what is it? Did you hear from the colonel? Is it the chopper or the trials?”
“No.”
“Talk to me, Laryn,” Casper pleaded. “I have to tell you, I’m low-key freaking out trying to figure out what happened that has you sounding as if you’re two seconds away from either bursting into tears or running from your apartment, screaming at the top of your lungs.”
“I’m not a crier,” she informed him.
“Doesn’t matter if you are or aren’t,” he said honestly.
As he turned on Little Creek Road, he heard Laryn let out another long sigh. “It was just a phone call.”
“It wasn’t ‘just’ anything if it rattled you this much,” Casper said. “Who called?”
“Fine. Altan Osman.”
