Carys choked on her first bite and started coughing.
A.J. poured a glass of water and handed it to Carys as she took the dessert from her hand. She and Chelle glared at Baily.
“Let me rephrase that, little sister, don’t be an asshole.” Chelle said.
Carys’ cough turned into a laugh. “Oh my God. Baily you’re awesome. You’re as protective as Cullen is.”
“No, she’s being a wench,” Cullen said as he walked into the kitchen, put his arm around Carys’ waist, and glared at his baby sister.
“Are you kidding me?” Carys beamed up at Cullen. “I would have given my right arm to have a family like this growing up. I can just imagine the amount of crud she gives you.”
“Pardon me, but did you just say crud?” Baily asked.
“She doesn’t swear,” Cullen explained. “It’s cute.”
Baily laughed. “It is. You swear enough for two people, so it’ll even out. You never told me, how do you get along with Aries?”
“He’s a total traitor,” Cullen answered. “I swear, in one day he has turned into Carys’ dog.”
Carys shook her head. “Don’t you believe him. He’s loyal to Cullen. He comes to him in an instant when he calls. But I’ve always wanted a pet.”
The Lyons all looked at her. “You never had one?” Chelle asked. “Our house was a rescue center. Both kids and animals—that was thanks to Mom.”
“Like I said, we grew up different.”
“I’m kind of like you, Carys, no pets. I think we should compare notes,” A.J. said as she plopped a tray into her hands. “Come on, let’s get the table set up. The hoards are waiting.” A.J. gave her a quick wink. She appreciated it. The woman knew that Carys didn’t want to talk about how different her life had been from the normal household of the Lyons family.
Cullen blessed A.J. for her tact at the way she had deflected the conversation for Carys. He could have kicked his own ass. It was clear that his woman had felt uncomfortable about the difference in their upbringings. Maybe even a little melancholy. That was not what he wanted. But like normal, she’d bounced right back. Here she was in the middle of all his friends holding her own.
“I hear you and Python are now friends,” Max smirked at Kane. “How does that work exactly?”
Kane grabbed both sides of his head and dropped it between his knees while he groaned. “Max, don’t get me started. He gave us a cat.”
“Be nice,” A.J. swiped at him with the back of her hand. “You know Paul is a sweet soul,” she said, referring to the aging eighties rock star.
“Honey, he’s always going to be Old Sex Snake to me. It’s not my fault you decided to make him your business partner. What’s more, I’ve been nice. We took the damn cat.”
“Are you talking about that panther that is roaming around the house?” Leo snorted. “Scared the piss out of me.”
“It’s a Maine Coon, right?” Carys asked. “He’s awfully friendly.”
“What are you talking about?” Leo asked. “I thought I was going to be lunch.”
“Carys is great with animals,” Cullen said with pride. “How’d you know the breed?”
She shrugged her shoulders. As she did, the cat they were talking about jumped up into her lap with a thud. The big brown cat looked as big as Carys. He let out a yowl, then bumped his head against Carys’ chin.
She laughed. “What’s his name?”
“Big Bastard,” Kane said under his breath.
“Viper,” A.J. answered.
Carys wrapped her arms around the big cat and Leo stared in amazement. “Seriously, Carys, that cat hissed at me when he first saw me.”
“You must have done something wrong. He’s a love,” Carys said as she scratched his jaw. Cullen started to get aroused. Kane saw and started to laugh. Now who was the big bastard?
“Hey, look who I found,” Chelle said as she escorted Marcia Zaragoza to the back yard. Zed’s wife was carrying her young daughter who immediately lit up when she saw Zed. She babbled something that sounded like ‘Dada’ and held out her arms for him, almost throwing herself out of her mother’s arms.
“Let me get you a plate of food,” A.J. offered as Zed got up and pulled out a seat at the picnic table for his wife to sit down next to him. He took his daughter who grinned happily up at her father.
Cullen glanced over at Carys who was still cuddling the cat and saw that she was watching the small family with avid interest. Yep, this was a woman who longed for the same things he did, even if she didn’t quite know it yet. But that was his job, to get her to see that their futures were bound together. But after all he had said in Africa about his Dad falling for his Mom in one day, and Carys shutting down, he knew he needed to take it slow.
Damn, I want to tell her I love her and ask her to marry me. Tonight.
Down, Lyons! You’re in it to win it. Don’t rush.
Cullen sighed, and Carys looked over at him. “You all right?” she whispered.
“Perfect. Just don’t think we’re taking that cat home with us, Aries wouldn’t like it.”
She pulled back, “I would never assume to bring home a pet to your house. I know I’m just visiting, Cullen. But I really do appreciate how welcome you’ve made me.”
It took a moment for him to be able to answer in a light tone. “Lady, I can’t wait to welcome you some more tonight.”
Her seductive laughter rang out into the night sky.
Soon, Lyons. Soon.
How in the heck had she become such a fixture at Cullen’s house that she was planting pansies in his front yard? For that matter, how was it that she had gone to the garden center with Cullen’s dad? Carys sat back on her knees and surveyed her handiwork. The flowers looked great bordering the walkway.
She was startled when a rope was dropped in front of her.
“You’re as stealthy as your dad is,” Carys laughed at Aries. “But I don’t have time for tug-o-war today. I’ve got a couple of calls I have to make.”
It was time to get back to reality. This extended vacation was coming to an end. No matter how much she would have liked it to last forever, she knew it couldn’t. Cullen had been wonderful, but like fish, a guest starts to stink if they stick around too long.
She pushed away what Cullen had said last week about wanting her to stay in his arms forever. She figured that was just normal pillow-talk. It wasn’t real.
Or was it?
Maybe she needed to sit him down and find out how he felt.
She got to her feet and snatched up the rope. Aries let out a yip of joy. She started to play an aggressive game with the dog, needing to get out some frustration. Darn-it-all, she wanted to stay. She wanted to stay in his arms forever, but he desired a family and the whole nine yards. But never once had he broached the subject with her. If he’d truly been interested in her, he would have at least talked to her about what she wanted in her future. But he hadn’t.
“He doesn’t want me, Aries,” she muttered. She pulled really hard on the rope.
“You’re being a wuss,” she complained. “Fight.”
Cullen drove up in time to see Carys and Aries really going at it in his front yard. It wasn’t often that Aries fought as hard as he was doing in a game. He knew better than that. He stopped his Jeep at the bottom of his drive and got out. He would have whistled to get Aries to heel, but that would just land Carys on her ass. Hard.
“Aries, play nice,” he shouted.
His dog immediately dialed it back. Carys didn’t fall, but she did end up lurching back a few steps as she gained ground with the rope. She looked up at Cullen and glared. She dropped the rope.
“Not cool, Lyons. I wanted to win fair-and-square.”
Nobody was due to come over, so Cullen left the Jeep where it was and sauntered up the drive. “The pansies look good,” he smiled. “Not as good as you, but good.”
“Stop with the sweet talk and tell me why you’re home early. It’s only four o’clock.”
“I thought I’d take my best girl out on a picnic on the beach.”
He saw her light up, but then she paused. “I really can’t, I have a couple of phone calls I need to return.”
He knew damn well what the phone calls were about. They were setting up job interviews across the country, and he’d be damned if he was going to let that happen.
“I have it all planned. Come on. It’ll be fun. I promised Aries this morning before I left for work. Are you going to deny that face?” He looked over at his dog who gave the appropriate mournful expression.
Carys laughed. “How’d you get him to look at me like that? He looks pathetic.”
“Trade secret. Now, are you going to come willingly, or do I have to carry you over my shoulder?”
She tapped her finger against her lip and gave him a considering look. “Willingly I suppose. But only for Aries, you understand.”
“Of course.”
“What do you need me to get?” she asked.
“You can change clothes. I figure you don’t want to go to the beach all muddy.”
She looked down at her dirty pedal pushers and frowned. “You’re right. Give me just a minute, and I’ll be right back. That should give you enough time to pack some sandwiches and put Aries in the Jeep.”
“I’ll be here,” he promised.
As soon as she was in the house, he pulled out his phone.
“Baily?” he asked. “You got things under control?”
“She got away,” his sister said.
“What do you mean she got loose?” Cullen couldn’t believe it. Not now. This couldn’t be happening. Not after all of his hard planning.
Chelle got onto the line. “Baily is screwing with you. Everything is under control. Just get Carys here, and everything will run like clockwork.”
“Put Baily back on the phone,” Cullen growled.
“No,” Chelle answered. “First, because she’s laughing too hard. Two, because you’re just going to swear at her. Just get here. It’s fine Cullen.”
He hung up his phone and once again cursed having sisters. Well at least having a baby sister. Chelle was mostly okay, unless she was dating losers.
“Ready,” Carys shouted out.
“Did you set the alarm?” Cullen asked as she came down the front steps.
Carys rolled her eyes. “Are you going to ask me that every time I leave the house?”
“How often do you ask me if I’ve washed my hands after I cook chicken?” he countered.
“Point taken. I set the alarm,” she said as she smiled up at him.
“Let’s go then. Something tells me this will be the best picnic of our lives.”
Something was definitely strange. Carys didn’t know what it was, but Cullen was acting anxious. Was he about to tell her that a mission was coming up and she needed to leave? No, that didn’t sound right, if that were the case, he’d probably arrange for A.J., Chelle, Baily, Marcia and his mom to do rotations to come and visit her while he was away. Still, she could tell something was up, and it was making her stomach churn.
“Have you talked to Sarah lately?” he asked.
“Yep,” she smiled. “Just last week. I thought I told you. The hospital where she works has a couple of vacancies.”
“Yeah, you did tell me that,” he said gruffly.
She shot him a startled glance. “I thought we agreed it would be good to get into a hospital where I could be around people I knew. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what you said.”
“Hmm-hmm.”
Carys leaned back in her seat. Yes, something was definitely off. Darn-it. She really wanted him to ask her to stay. Was that asking too much?
Is it time for me to man up? Or woman up?
“Cullen, there’s something I want to say.”
“Let’s wait until we get to the beach.”
“No seriously, there’s something I need to get off my chest.”
He turned to her, his eyes pleading. “Carys, we’re almost there. Just a few more minutes, and then we can talk all you want about job offers, okay?”
“Fine.”
She knew she was sounding petulant, but she couldn’t help it.
When they made it to the beach parking lot, Cullen put the leash onto Aries. Once again he came around to open Carys’ car door. It taken had a few weeks, but she finally learned to wait. Apparently, it was important to him, so she did it.
Okay, it was really kind of nice.
“Ready?” Cullen asked as he took her hand.
“Where’s the food?” Carys asked as they started walking toward the beach.
“You’ll see,” he said mysteriously.
“You do have a way of keeping things interesting Mr. Lyons.” Aries pulled at the leash, he was really excited to get to the water. They’d come to Chick Beach a couple of times before, and this was one of Aries’ favorite places to play. If there weren’t many people at the beach Cullen would let him loose and play fetch with him in the surf.
They came over the rise and she saw it was pretty much deserted except for a fire almost immediately in their line of sight. Beside it was blanket and a picnic basket. She looked up at Cullen and back at the set-up then back at Cullen. “Is that ours?”
“Damn right.”
“You’re good.”
He squeezed her hand as they made their way down to the blanket. She knelt down and looked at the plates all set up. Then she spied a bucket of ice with a bottle in it. She pulled it out.
“Champagne?”
“Dig deeper.”
She looked farther in the bucket, and grinned. There was a can of pineapple Fanta. “I wasn’t sure which you would prefer,” he said.
She leaned back on her knees and looked at the man she loved, as she held the bottle of champagne in one hand and the can of Fanta in the other. They were both wet and dripping on her jeans. “What’s going on?”
“Just one more minute, Beautiful.”
He let out a long whistle. Aries perked up.
“Not you,” he gave Aries the hand signal to sit. He sat down with his tongue hanging out. But then he stood up again, which was totally unlike him after getting a command. He barked once. A dog came bounding over the sand toward their blanket. It was beautiful. Carys couldn’t tell if it was a Malamute or a Husky.
“Good girl,” Cullen said as she skidded to a stop before the blanket.
“Come here, Betsey.” The dog daintily walked onto the blanket toward Cullen and put her face down onto her front paws.
“Oh my God, what a love,” Carys exclaimed.
“She’s a rescue. She needs a home. I thought you might like to be her owner.” For the first time since she’d known him, Cullen sounded less than confident.
“You want me to take care of Betsey? But I don’t even know where I’m going to end up living.”
“Check out her collar,” Cullen whispered.
With a trembling hand, Carys scratched Betsey’s head as she looked up at her with soulful blue eyes, reminding her of Cullen. Then Betsey put her head in Carys’ lap. Carys looked at the collar and saw it was engraved with Cullen’s address.
When she looked up at Cullen, he was holding a ring.
“I love you so much Carys. I think I’ve loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. Definitely since that night in the truck underneath the stars. Will you be my wife, have fun with me, and fill my house with dogs, cats and children and live with me forever?”
It was her every dream come true.
“Oh Cullen, I’ve loved you forever too, but I fell in love with you the night you held me at David and Sarah’s house. I would have lost my soul if I had to leave you,” she choked out.
“That’s never going to happen. There wasn’t a chance in hell you were going to get away from me,” Cullen said as he pulled her left hand toward him and slid the antique diamond ring onto her finger.
In the background she heard the barks of the dogs as they played in the surf, but that
was soon drowned out by his kiss. His kiss, that went on and on.
She was home.
Epilogue
“More mail for you, and it damn well better not be another job offer from out of state,” Cullen said grumpily. It was one of their rare Saturdays where they had no plans, and he had just come in from mowing the front yard.
“What are you worried about,” Carys asked as she caressed Cullen’s cheek. “I’ve got three job offers in Virginia Beach.”
“I hated the one you got from Cedar-Sinai in California. That was pretty damn prestigious, even I thought you should take it.”
Carys laughed. “Are you kidding? I would have been working eighty hours a week and your commute to Coronado would have been hellish. That is not the life I wanted to live.” She loved her man. These rare moments of insecurity always took her by surprise.
“Come on, let’s go into our office and shred any job offers, then go take a nap.”
His grin was huge. “I like the sound of a nap.”
So, did she. She loved napping with Cullen, he was always so inventive.
“Has mom called?” Cullen asked with an evil gleam in his eye as they headed to the office.
“You should have told me she had a wedding file for your sisters. My God Cullen, not in my wildest dreams did I ever think that someone could be so excited about planning a wedding.”
He pulled her to a stop in the hallway and backed her up against the wall. “Are you okay with it? I can tell her to back off.”
Carys smiled. She thought about her own mother who had barely had any reaction at all after she determined Carys was marrying a ‘soldier’. As far as Carys was concerned her parents could count themselves lucky if they got an invitation to the wedding. Heck, she might have Rosa walk her down the aisle.
“What are you grinning about?” Cullen asked, his gaze piercing.
“Nothing.”
“It’s not nothing.”
“Seriously, it is. Did you know how lucky I am to have you? To have your family? I love you Mr. Lyons.”
“I love you, soon-to-be Mrs. Dr. Lyons.”
Her Tempting Protector: Navy SEAL Team (Night Storm Book 2) Page 20
