Long, Lonely Nights (2 page)

He shook his head and huffed out a breath. Coffee. He pulled out his knife and cut through the packing tape like butter. He re-sheathed it and opened the box. Yep, coffee. It was as precious as gold to him. He lifted out two four pound bags of the treasured dark roast and put them in the fridge to keep the beans fresh. Then he broke down the box and set it next to the garbage can. He would take it out later.

Right now he needed to get back to what he had been working on before she’d interrupted him. Logan wrote training manuals for the Army. He started writing them during the last year before his retirement from the Army while he recuperated from his near death experience. They seemed to like them, and convinced him to contract out with them to write more. He figured it gave him something to do, and he was good at it.

This was his second one since he’d retired. He based them on his field experience in countries where he’d been stationed throughout his career. Once he finished this one, they wanted one based on Kuwait. He wasn’t sure he wanted to write that one. He lost some good friends there. Well, he still had another month on this one he figured. There was plenty of time to make a decision on if he planned to do it or not.

Three hours later, he stood up and stretched to work the kinks out of his back. The skin pulled along the scars that dotted his body. They weren’t really noticeable, he was told, but they were noticeable to him. Every time he moved, he remembered them and how they had gotten there. He checked his watch and groaned. It was nearly six o’clock. He was supposed to meet an old buddy for dinner and a beer at seven. He hadn’t seen Riley in nearly six months. Well, since he had moved to this house in fact.

Riley and Logan went through their first eight years of service together before splitting off to go in different directions. They kept in touch and got together anytime they were in the same city. Riley was still drifting around and hadn’t found anywhere he particularly wanted to settle down. Logan invited him to stay with him, but Riley wanted his own space and rented a room at one of the long-term hotels with kitchenettes.

Logan turned off the lights and headed to his bedroom to change into jeans and a shirt. He grabbed his truck keys off the dresser and turned to leave. Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

There she was, sitting outside on her deck in short shorts and a halter top reading a book. She had pulled her long auburn hair back in some sort of clip. He found himself just staring at her as if he had nothing better to do. Right. Riley. He huffed out a breath in disgust and turned away from the sight of her delicious body.

It took him nearly twenty minutes to make the twelve mile trip to meet him at the restaurant. Traffic sucked on Saturday nights. It would only get worse, too. Riley was already there leaning against his bike. The black machine suited the bad boy persona that surrounded him. From the top of his shaved head to the tips of his black shit-kickers, the man oozed bad-ass from his pours.

“’Bout time you showed your scrawny ass up. I’ve been sitting here frying for the last ten minutes.” Riley bumped knuckles with Logan.

“You get much uglier and I’ll have to quit being seen with you.” He grinned. “How the hell ya’ been?”

“Alive, buddy. Alive.”

They walked inside the restaurant and asked for seats in the back. It took nearly fifteen minutes until a table in the back came open, but it didn’t bother them. The two of them spent the time at the bar catching up. When their table opened up, Logan and Riley took their beers with them and positioned themselves to see the front entrance and the door to the kitchen, normal behavior for them. They watched each other’s backs more than once while in the Army. It came naturally for them.

“So, where have you been since I saw you in Dallas?” Logan asked.

“Hung around Dallas for a few weeks, then biked up to Stillwater, Oklahoma. Remember Dodge? He lives there now.” Riley took a swig of beer.

“How is he doing? He wasn’t adjusting to losing his leg when I left the hospital last year.”

“Hell. He’s a little better, but still hasn’t come to terms with it yet. He pretends nothing is wrong. Pisses me off to see him like that,” Riley said.

“He got family in Stillwater?” Logan asked.

“Yeah, got a sister and his parents. You can guess how that’s working out.”

“They’re smothering him, and he’s rebelling against them.” Logan shook his head.

“I tried to talk to the sister some. She seemed to listen, but who knows. Got a place of his own outside of town. Not sure being so secluded is good for him, but I’m not him.” Riley looked up when their waitress approached the table.

The pretty little thing looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there taking their order. He knew what they looked like to others. Two big, rough-looking men tended to scare the locals. It didn’t help that Riley was dressed all in black with his chaps, and leather jacket on the back of the chair. It was too hot for the thing but safer for riding a bike. He attempted a smile at the woman, but it must have looked scary because she took a step back instead of forward.

Riley sighed and shook his head.

“I’m not going to eat you. Just give me another beer and the twelve once rib eye, medium rare. Give me a baked potato with butter and sour cream. That’ll do me.” He looked over at Logan

“Same here.”

The waitress didn’t even bother to write his order down. She hightailed it back to the kitchen. He doubted new recruits could have kept up with her. He laughed.

“Still scaring them silly. How do you get laid, man?” Logan asked.

“Hey, it wasn’t me she was looking at. She stared at you like you had two heads, man.”

“So how long you planning to hang around?”

“Don’t know. I like what I’ve seen so far. I’ll let you know if I get antsy before I leave,” he said.

“You need to come by the house, and we’ll cook out and watch a movie.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

They talked about old times until the food made an appearance, but with a different waitress this time. Logan and Riley exchanged looks at the change in guard. It didn’t seem to bother Riley, but it grated on his nerves sometimes to get those looks. Hell, why care?

After they had finished eating they rode over to his favorite hangout for more beer and dancing. He figured Riley would be right at home since it was a biker bar. One of the few places he felt welcomed without everyone watching him like he might pull an Uzi out and spray the place. Here the women didn’t run screaming when they walked in. Instead, they actually came on to them and vied for their attention. It felt good. Until an image of his neighbor in her halter top and indecent shorts popped into his head. Shit.

He shook off the thought of her alone at her house, maybe enjoying a hot bubble bath. He grabbed one of the women and maneuvered her out on the dance floor. A little dirty dancing, a few beers, a few gropes, and he was ready for more grown up games. Riley had two ladies dancing a little bump and grind and looked set for the evening. He caught Riley’s eye and jerked his head towards the door. His friend smiled, gave him a little salute, and went right back to what he was doing.

Logan had his arm around his
date’s
shoulders and steered them towards the door. They made it to his truck. He pressed her to the side of it with his hands grasping her ass and his mouth playing havoc with hers. She wrapped her legs around him and proceeded to grind her pussy against the hard ridge of his cock. Damn, it felt good. He lowered his head to her more than ample breasts, biting her nipples until she moaned. He let her slide down his body and was about to open the door to help her inside when his thoughts once again turned to his neighbor, Tina was what she said her name was. His cock lost some of its hardness. He realized he wasn’t going to take this woman home after all. Well, hell.

“Okay, honey. Got to go. Sorry to leave you high and dry, but something’s come up.”

Baby, I
ain’t
dry at all. She proceeded to unbutton her jeans to show him. He stopped her and buttoned them back up.

“Nope. Not interested.” He turned and started to walk around to his side of the truck. She reached out a hand to his elbow and stopped him.

“What’s different about tonight, lover? You don’t usually back out on me,” she whined.

“Got something I need to take care of. I’ll catch you next time.” He kissed her and walked around and got in the truck.

He looked out the passenger window in time to see his
date
give him the bird. He grinned and waved as he started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot. No doubt she would bad mouth him inside, but it wouldn’t amount to anything. She would be all over him the next time he showed up for a beer.

So what in the hell was the matter with him, anyway?

Christine was what was wrong with him.