Page 48 of Keeping Laryn
Laryn’s mind drew a blank. She’d completely forgotten that he’d insisted he’d be staying with her, just in case Altan tried any funny business. Which was hilarious, because normally she wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about him being in her apartment, especially after sleeping next to him all night the previous evening. Well…this morning.
Her brain felt foggy. With lack of sleep, with hunger, and with everything she still needed to do swirling around in it.
“Hold on to your arguments…I’ll be there in a second and we can discuss face-to-face.”
The phone went dead in her ear, and at any other time, with any other person, she probably would’ve been extremely irritated he’d hung up on her. But she preferred to talk about him staying over in person. He needed to know that she could take care of herself. Had been for a long time now. She didn’t need him to protect her as if she was some damsel in distress. Her dad had raised her to be confident and independent. Shedidn’t want anyone swooping in on a white horse to save the day.
In fact, the way she was feeling right now—on edge, confused about where she and Tate stood with each other, hopeful yet skeptical that he’d somehow, after one night, decided he wanted to go out with her when he’d practically ignored her for years before—shehopedsome bad guy dared to break into her apartment to try to “convince” her to take the job in Turkey. She’d bash his head in with the giant wrench she kept in the apartment for that exact purpose.
“You look fierce. What are you thinking?” Tate asked as he entered the hangar from the open side door.
“I don’t need a man,” Laryn blurted.
“Okay.”
“And I don’t need you to babysit me. Because I can take care of myself.”
“I know.”
In a much less defensive tone, she said, “I don’t know what you want from me.”
Tate walked into her personal space and simply pulled her into a bear hug…which felt amazing.
Laryn closed her eyes and sagged into him. She was at the end of her rope for the day, and as much as she wanted to be the tough woman her father had raised, who needed nothing and no one, the truth was…this man was her weakness. And she was so damn tired. Andhungry.
“I didn’t get a proper lunch today. I’m assuming you didn’t either, because we’re a lot alike. We’ve both been on the go, go, go today. So what do I want from you? Right now, I want to feed you. Then I want to take you home and tuck you into bed and stay nearby, so you can rest peacefully, knowing if anyone dares try to use nefarious means to force you to work for them, they’ll have to get through me first. I know you’re independent and you can take care of yourself. This isn’t about that. It’s just taken metoo damn long to get my head out of my ass and see what was right in front of my face, and now that I have, I want to see if two people who are a lot alike can make a go of things.”
Everything he said, she’d dreamed of him saying to her. Resisting the urge to blurt out, “Yes!” she lifted her head, and instead sighed, “Iamhungry.”
“Yeah, me too,” he said with a grin. “It’s not ideal, and not what I wanted, but how about we go on that date I promised you?”
“Now?”
“Sure. Why not? The guys and I usually go out the night before we’re deployed, if we have enough advance notice. It’s kind of our last hurrah…just in case. It’s a little morbid, but we’re nothing if not practical. We all know how short life can be.”
Laryn smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t say that!” she exclaimed.
Tate shrugged. “It’s true. We like to go out, not talk shop, and enjoy each other’s company one last time before we deploy. You’ll see, it’s not morbid at all. It’s more a celebration of friendship.”
“I’ll see?” she asked with a tilt of her head.
“Yeah, because you’ll be joining us if we’re able to go out tomorrow. It’ll depend on how late we get out of here. But that leaves tonight for me to take you on a date, just the two of us. What do you say?”
Laryn suddenly felt a lot less tired. Then she frowned and looked down at herself. “I’m a mess.”
“You are. And it’s adorable.”
She scrunched her nose. “No, it’s not. I smell like oil and grease. And I look like I’ve been crawling around on the floor, which I kind of have.”
“I do admit that I like the vanilla cookie smell better, but this is us,” he said with a small shrug. “You in your coveralls. Me in my flight suit. Wrinkled. Dirty. But still standing. Besides, noone is going to look twice at us where I want to take you. We aren’t exactly going to a five-star restaurant or anything. Not this late, after such a long day…although Idowant to splurge and do that with you at some point. But we don’t have the time before we head out to the Middle East.”
“Wherearewe going? You don’t even know what I like.”
“Salmich’s Burgers and Hoagies.”
Laryn’s mouth immediately started watering. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Why? You been there?”
