Safe With You (3 page)

Running Away

Since I had a running date with Wyatt the next day, I had hoped to get as much work done on my paper tonight as possible.  That plan took a flying leap out the window when I arrived home to Lindsay weeping on the couch with an open bottle of wine and a box of tissues.  I immediately dropped my bag and kicked off my shoes on my way to pull her into a hug.  “Linz, what’s wrong?”  She shook her head on my shoulder and blubbered something about joining a convent and becoming a nun.  Now probably wasn’t the time to remind her she wasn’t Catholic.

I soothingly rubbed my hand up and down her back and waited for the tears to stop so I could find out what happened.  Several minutes and many tissues later, Lindsay was calmer and took a few sips of wine before
bringing her red teary eyes up to mine.  “I slept with him, Taryn.  I’m such a whore,” she whined and nearly broke down again.

I grabbed her shoulders and
even shook her a little.  “You. Are. Not. A. Whore.  Don’t ever think that.  I’m going to assume you are talking about
Professor
Edmunds.”  I said his name like it was a swear word.  She nodded and covered her face with her hands, peeking out from between her fingers.  “Do you hate me?”

“No, Lindsay.  Of course I don’t hate you.  I hate him for taking advantage of you. 
You can do so much better than that.  I mean you are so beautiful and smart…” I trailed off not wanting to upset her any further.

“I know I always tease you about your romance novels and
your happily ever afters, but I want it too, Taryn.”  Now my eyes were filled with tears, and I grabbed a tissue and Lindsay’s wine glass.  “Linz.  You’re not going to find it with Asshole Edmunds.”  She laughed at that, and I was relieved to see her smiling.  “I hope you’re not going to see him again.”  She flopped back against the couch and sighed dramatically.  “I don’t know.  But I do know we need to go get mani/pedis and come back for lots of wine.”  I thought about my paper that needed to be written, but I couldn’t refuse Lindsay when she needed me.  Ever since the first day my parents brought me home, Lindsay had taken me under her wing.  If she needed me, that was more important than getting a head start on my homework.

During our trip to the nail salon, I told Lindsay about my running date with Wyatt the next day.  Insisting that I needed to wear something sexier than my usual yoga pants and t-shirt, Lindsay convinced me to go shopping after our nails and toes were perfectly polished.  I was happy that Lindsay’s mind was
temporarily off her problems, so I let her drag me into the Nike store and choose the perfect running outfit – very short black spandex running shorts and a hot pink racer back tank with a built in sports bra.  We picked up Chinese food on the way home and stayed up late drinking wine and watching reality TV.  There were no more tears, but I could tell that Lindsay was still stewing over Professor Edmunds.

I got up early the next morning so I
could work on my paper, and I actually got quite a bit accomplished.  Normally I would wait to take a shower until after running, but today I had a super sexy running companion and I wanted to look my best.  I smiled as I got ready for my run, thinking that it took someone really special to make me give up sleeping in on a weekend.

There was a knock on the door at exactly 4:00, and I silently thanked Lindsay when I opened the door and saw Wyatt’s reaction to my running outfit.  H
is lips parted slightly as his eyes ran down my body and lingered on my legs.  He recovered quickly and snapped his eyes back up to mine, but not before I caught the flash of desire in them.  “Hi.  You look….great.”

I smiled, “Thanks.  You look…great…too.”  And he did.  He was wearing black shorts and a gray t-shirt that fit snugly over his broad shoulders and chest and hung loose at his waist. 
I stepped back and held the door open as an invitation to come in.

When he walked in I noticed he was carrying a duffel bag.  “Planning on staying a while?”
I asked.  He smiled at me sheepishly and set the bag on the floor.  “No.  I just thought I might be able to convince you to join me for dinner later, and I wanted to be prepared.”

“Oh, sure.
  Makes sense.  Marines are always prepared, right?”  He smirked at me, “I think that’s the Boy Scouts, Taryn.”  I laughed and smacked him on his rock hard chest as I walked by.  “Whatever.  You ready to run?”  He held the door open and gestured for me to go ahead of him, “After you.”

Wyatt insisted we follow my routine, so like I always do, we walked the few blocks to the park and stopped to stretch before starting our run.  He pulled one foot up behind him to stretch his quads, and I sat down on the ground in a straddle and leaned over to touch my nose to my right knee.  I could feel his eyes on me as I stretched, and instead of feeling self-conscious, I enjoyed the heat that
was coiling low in my stomach.

“You’re very…flexible,” he commented in a husky
voice.  I winked at him and stood up just to bend over and press my palms flat on the ground.  “Yeah, it’s the yoga.”  We stretched for a few minutes more, and I asked him something I had been wondering ever since I had found out he was in the military.  “So, have you ever killed anyone?”  His eyes flew to mine, searching my expression to see if I was serious.  He snorted, “Yes, but they were all bad.”

“Ha ha,” I said, getting his reference to Arnold
Schwartzenegger’s character in the movie, True Lies.  “Seriously.  Have you ever killed anyone?”  I asked again, really wanting to know the truth.  He sighed and simply replied, “Yes.”  I wanted to ask more questions, because I wanted to find out what it was that put that sad expression on his face sometimes.  Maybe it was what he had seen during his service.  But I sensed that now wasn’t the time.

We didn’t talk as we ran along my normal route, which made a big loop around the park and ended right back where we started.  After we stretched again, we walked the few blocks back to my apartment.  “That was a good run.  I’m impressed,” he said.  I flipped my ponytail over shoulder
and rolled my eyes.  “I’m sure you’re used to a more strenuous workout.  You barely broke a sweat.  Sometime you will have to do yoga with me, and then we’ll see who’s sweating,” I teased.  He raised an eyebrow and his eyes skimmed quickly down my body.  “I’m game if it’s anything like the stretching you were doing earlier.”  I laughed and smacked his arm with the back of my hand.  He was definitely flirting with me.  It seemed like we might be making progress and moving from friendship into something else.  At least, I really hoped we were.

I hadn’t taken my keys when we left, because I knew Lindsay would be home by the time we got back.  And, really, where would I have put them in this
tiny outfit?  I knocked twice and Lindsay opened the door with a bright smile on her face.  I knew she was looking forward to meeting Wyatt after I had been talking about him nonstop for the last two weeks.  And the way she was grinning at him like an idiot, I could see it wasn’t just me who found him insanely attractive.

“Hi, I’m Lindsay,
Taryn’s cousin and roommate.  You must be Hot Coffee Guy.”

“Lindsay!”
I gasped and gave her my best death stare.  Wyatt chuckled at my nickname for him and shook her outstretched hand.  “It’s nice to meet you, Lindsay.  My real name is Wyatt Hunter.”

I
shoved past Lindsay with a huff and stalked to the kitchen to grab two bottles of water out of the fridge.  Before I could turn around I felt Wyatt come right up behind me and rest his hands lightly on my waist.  “Hot Coffee Guy, huh?”  He murmured in my ear.  My body stiffened in response to his unexpected closeness, and I turned around and took a step back right into the counter.  Now I glared at him and slapped the bottle of water against his chest.  “That’s what I called you before I knew your name, because…you were drinking hot coffee.”  He opened the water and took a drink, keeping his eyes on mine.  “Sure, whatever,” he chuckled again.  I rolled my eyes, and thought two can play at this game.

I took a quick sip of my water and put the cap back on, before tipping my head back and running the cold exterior of the bottle slowly down one side of my neck.  I let my eyes flutter shut and
my head fall back and continued moving the bottle over my collarbone and down to the deep V of my tank top that showed just a hint of cleavage.  I heard Lindsay cough to cover a laugh and opened my eyes to find Wyatt staring at the trail the bottle had just traveled with his mouth hanging slightly open.  I could tell he was breathing just a little harder now and he had a dangerously tight grip on his own bottle of water.

My cell phone rang then and Lindsay picked it up from its place on the coffee table.  “It’s your dad.”  Wyatt snapped out of his
daze as I brushed past him to take the phone from Lindsay.  “Hi, Dad.  What’s up?”  I listened to my dad fill me in on how things were going in DC, and then he asked me what I was doing this weekend.  “I just got back from a run with a friend.”  My dad was always worrying about me going anywhere by myself, so I was expecting him to be overjoyed that I had company on my run today.  Instead he said simply, “Okay, sweetie.  Your mom wants to say ‘hi’ before we head out to dinner.”  Hmmm, weird.

Even weirder was the strange expression on Wyatt’s face while I was on the phone with my dad.  He had been easy going and playful a few minutes ago, but now he had that very serious guarded expression that I hadn’t seen on him since before we had officially met. 
I chatted with my mom for a few more minutes before hanging up.  “So, do you still want to grab some dinner?” I asked Wyatt, assuming he would say yes since he had brought a change of clothes.  He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at the ground before answering me.  “Actually, I just remembered there’s something I have to take care of this evening.  Raincheck?”  I shrugged, because I didn’t know what else to do, “Oh, um sure.  No problem.”  He grabbed his duffel bag and was opening the door before I had a chance to take a breath.  “It was nice to meet you, Lindsay.  See you later, Taryn.”

His gaze lingered on me for just a moment before he closed the door behind him.  I stood not moving, completely confused by what had just happened and the regret I had seen in his eyes
right before he closed the door.  Whirling around to Lindsay with my hands in the air I asked, “What just happened?”  Lindsay looked as confused as I felt.  “I have no idea.  One minute he was practically drooling over your water bottle performance, which by the way was completely unexpected from you, Taryn.  And then your dad called, and he bolted.”  I plopped down on the couch and tried to blink away the tears that were filling my eyes.

In the week
s since I had met Wyatt, I had felt more emotions than in the rest of my life combined.  The signals he was sending today had definitely been flirty, but clearly he wasn’t that into me.  I sighed and wiped my eyes, fearing this thing between us – whatever it was – would be over before it had even begun.

Walk With Me

The rest of my weekend had been spent moping around the apartment with Lindsay, both of us a tad bit weepy over our love lives, or lack thereof.  I had replayed every moment with Wyatt over the last two weeks, and I could come up with nothing that explained his bizarre behavior on Saturday.  Something about my dad’s phone call had flipped a switch in him, but I couldn’t for the life of me make sense of it.

By Monday morning I gave up trying to figure him out and focused all my energy on taking notes in class.  I hadn’t decided yet if I would go to Starbucks as usual or if I would find another coffee place to frequent.  Shaking my head at myself on my walk to Starbucks, I rationalized that it was silly to change my routine because of Wyatt.  I mean maybe he really did suddenly remember something he had to do on Saturday.  I had just come to terms with acting like everything was normal when I walked into Starbucks and found our
table empty, no sign of Wyatt.

The tears that involuntarily filled my eyes made me feel pathetic, so I blinked them back and stood up a little straighter while I waited in line to buy my own coffee for the first time in two weeks.  I gave the girl my order and just as I was pulling my credit card out of my bag, I felt Wyatt’s hand on my lower back.  “I’ve got this. And add a tall black coffee too
,” he said slipping the girl his credit card.  I looked up at him in surprise and smiled in spite of myself.  He tucked his wallet back in his pocket and whispered against my ear, his breath rustling through my hair, “Sorry I’m late.”  A tremendous sense of relief rushed through my body when I realized he wasn’t avoiding me.

Once we were seated at our usual table, he leaned forward and said, “I’m sorry about rushing out on Saturday.   It’s just…”  I interrupted him, wanting to give him an out and not make him say he just wasn’t that into me, “
It’s okay.  You don’t have to explain.”  He took a deep breath and exhaled in frustration, “Yes, Taryn.  I do need to explain.  I…I love having coffee with you every day.  It’s honestly the highlight of my day.”  I rolled my eyes and snorted, “Yeah, right.”  He shook his head and looked even more frustrated, “Seriously, Taryn.  I love spending time with you.  I just can’t…I’m not free to be anything more than friends with you right now.”

Whoa, that was not quite what I was expecting.  A sense of dread rushed to the pit of my stomach. 
“Oh my God.  You’re married!” I accused him.  “What?  No!”  He laughed humorlessly.  “No, I’m not married.  I don’t have a girlfriend.”  Now he laughed for real at the look of sudden understanding that passed across my face.  “And no, I’m not gay.”  I frowned.  If he wasn’t married or involved or gay, then what was the problem?  I guess he really wasn’t that into me.