Page 6 of Keeping Laryn
“Seriously, bro. You need anything, you call me. I’ve got your back,” Pyro told him.
“I know, and I appreciate it. Go get some rest. We’ll have our hands full with the trials the day after tomorrow.”
“I’m just gonna check things over here then head home. Go, Casper. Assuage your curiosity about Laryn. Don’t think I haven’t noticed something about you has changed when it comes to her. Go see if you can figure it out. Because the last thing we need is your head somewhere other than behind the stick in two days.”
“I’m always focused when I need to be, and you know it,” Casper complained.
“Except when we were flying and you heard about your brother’s team being taken out,” Pyro reminded him.
He nodded in recognition. He wasn’t wrong. He’d felt Nate’s despair that day.
“Or when he was being tortured in Iran.”
“Right, point made,” Casper said irritably.
“Throw a woman into the mix? Someone who means something to you? You’ll be a hot fucking mess in the pilot seat if shit goes south with her. And hey, I’m not warning you off or nothing. I’m thinking you could use someone to iron out your rough edges. We all could. Go. And don’t be a dick like you usually are to her. Be nice…Youcanbe nice, right?”
“Fuck off.”
“Right, maybe youcan’tbe nice,” Pyro teased.
Casper turned and walked away from his copilot and the chopper, throwing up his hand with his middle finger extended as he did.
He could hear Pyro chuckling as he neared the large hangar doors. But he couldn’t deny his friend had a good point. He and Laryn had fallen into a kind of routine. They sniped at each other, but Casper had never really meant anything by it. It was just how they were. But when he thought about Laryn being exhausted from working double shifts just to make sure the chopper he’d be flying was in as good a shape as it could be, it made his belly clench.
He didn’t want to simply be the asshole pilot who flew her choppers anymore. Whatdidhe want to be to her? He wasn’t sure. But he needed to find out. And this evening was the perfect chance to make the first move toward changing their relationship.
He wanted to be her friend…for now.
For three years, wherever the Night Stalkers went, Laryn went. Why he and the others had never invited her to have a drink with them, to eat with them, he wasn’t sure. He and his fellow pilots bunked together, ate, shit, showered together. They were connected at the hip. He hadn’t thought twice about where Laryn was sleeping, when she was eating, or what she did during her down time.
When they debriefed after a mission, she was usually there in the background, listening as the performance of the choppers was discussed and learning what kind of enemy fire they’d faced, if any. Then she’d leave as the debrief continued, off to do whatever she needed to do in order to make sure their choppers were ready to perform perfectly once more. Casper often wouldn’t see her again until he was headed out on another mission.
He felt like shit now for not really thinking about where she was, what she was doing during the days, weeks, or even months they spent on naval aircraft carriers during missions. She was simply always there, in the background, reliable as the men he flew with.
A relationship with Laryn wasn’t off the table. She wasn’t in the Army any longer, she was a contractor. There were no actual barriers to them being friends…or more.
It was that thought that had Casper picking up his pace as he headed toward his Ford Taurus.
His buddies gave him crap about his nondescript car, but he liked his helicopters flashy, not his vehicles. He wanted to blend in on the road. A thought occurred to him—maybe he could use his car as the excuse he needed to be knocking on Laryn’s door. It was making a funky noise, and he could ask if she’d take a look at it. It would still be weird, him showing up out of the blue and asking her to look at his car, but it was better than lying about the performance of his helicopter or admitting that, after three years of knowing her, he was suddenly concerned for her welfare. If she was getting enough sleep. If she was eating.
Feeling better now that he had a plan, even if it was lame, Casper unlocked the door to his car and slid into the driver’s seat. He put Little Creek Road into the map on his phone and started the engine. It wasn’t until he was halfway there that he realized his heart was beating fast and he felt the same way he usually did while on a mission. Adrenaline was coursing throughhis veins and he was looking forward to what was about to happen.
Casper smiled. He hadn’t felt this way about seeing a woman in a very long time. He hoped that boded well for what was to come. If not, he was about to crash and burnhard…and he could ruin the relationship he and his fellow Night Stalkers enjoyed with the best mechanic they’d ever had. His friends would never forgive him.
But then again, maybe things would work out. Time would tell.
Casper pushed his foot down a little harder on the accelerator, eager to see how this evening would play out.
CHAPTER THREE
Laryn was dreaming that she was somewhere in Africa after being kidnapped, standing in front of a pile of miscellaneous car and airplane parts. She was ordered to put them together to make a helicopter. All the while, the elders of the tribe were beating drums behind her while they prepared a huge bonfire to use to cook her if she didn’t succeed in two hours.
Gasping, she sat upright and blinked. Her apartment wasn’t too dark, so it hadn’t been very long since she’d collapsed onto her couch and obviously fallen asleep immediately. But that dream was fucked up.
It wasn’t until she’d blinked a few times that she realized how hot she was. The blanket that had felt so good earlier now felt as if it was suffocating her. And the drums she’d heard in her dream were actually the beats of someone knocking persistently at her door.
Annoyed, and still feeling off-kilter from just waking up and from the crazy-ass dream, she abruptly stood and stalked over to the door. She had no idea what time it was, but it had to be too damn late for someone to be knocking so obnoxiously. She didn’t have visitors. Ever. So it had to be someone trying to sellsomething. She didn’t know her neighbors, so she didn’t think it could be them. And if there was an emergency at the base with her choppers, someone would’ve called. Not come over in person.
