Off Base(51)

He shrugged. “It’s Wednesday. What’s so unusual about me being here?”

Not that unusual, but she hadn’t expected it. She’d already seen so much of him lately, and with Beck here he didn’t need to hold himself up to the same standard of watchdog-ness. She thought she would have been safe.

She had the insane urge to throw a coat over Greg as though that would somehow hide him. Ridiculous, of course. She had no reason to hide the fact that she was on a date. In fact, let Cullen see she was dating. Then he’d know she wasn’t clinging to last night … that everything was truly fine and normal and there wasn’t any lingering weirdness between them.

The decision was taken out of her hands when Greg returned, stuffing his phone back in his blazer pocket. “Ah, sorry about that.” He stopped at her side, his hand coming to rest at her elbow.

She pasted a wobbly smile on her lips. “That’s okay.”

Cullen tensed, his gaze moving from her to Greg, his cold eyes pointedly dropping to the hand that clasped her elbow.

“Here you go, Cullen,” Sheridan’s voice intruded as she offered Cullen his usual coffee.

Cullen dug into his pocket and removed his wallet. Without removing his gaze from Huntley and Greg, he offered a few dollars to Sheridan. “Keep the change.”

“Cullen, this is Greg.” Huntley motioned to Greg. There was no getting around introductions now. “Cullen is my … friend.”

She could kick herself for the pause there. She almost had said her brother’s friend, but the way she had paused he probably thought she was looking for some other filler word. This is Cullen, the guy I made out with last night who gets all my girl parts torqued up.

Cullen stared hard at her for a moment before shaking hands with Greg.

Greg did a quick assessment of Cullen, not missing the cropped dark hair or glint of dog tags. If she wasn’t mistaken, Greg’s nostrils flared as though he had encountered something tainted.

She shifted on her feet, feeling a surge of defensiveness. As though she needed to protect Cullen, which was crazy. He was the least vulnerable person she knew. Even hurting over losing Xander, his veneer was rock solid. Greg’s opinion of him wouldn’t affect him in the least.

“How about the table by the window, Huntley?” Greg suggested, urging her along, his gaze on her, Cullen forgotten.

“Sure.” She nodded, reminding herself this was a date.

“See you later, Cullen.” Together she and Greg weaved between tables and took their seats.

She tried to focus on Greg as he dove into a story about himself. The back of her neck prickled. She reached a hand there and rubbed self-consciously, trying to concentrate on Greg. A good half hour passed and the situation was unbearable. She told herself it was because of Cullen. If he wasn’t here, she could enjoy herself on her first date in forever.

She felt Cullen behind her. Felt his stare. She heard the higher feminine tone of Sheridan’s voice and the deep rumble from Cullen as he replied, and her stomach pitched. Huntley crossed her legs and then uncrossed them again beneath the table, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder.

“So I know this town is full of Army meatheads,” Greg was saying, “but the cost of living here is great, and there aren’t too many dentists to compete with.” He stopped for a breath and it looked like he might let her get a word in. “What about you? How did you end up here?”

“Well, my twin brother is a meathead actually. He completed his training here and helped get me a job at the hospital on base before he was deployed.”

“Oh.” An awkward silence fell between them. She rubbed at the back of her neck again, still feeling Cullen’s eyes drilling into her.

She forced herself to swallow the last bit of her latte. She tapped the rim of her mug idly. “Well, this has been nice.” Her voice squeaked a little at the end of the lie in an attempt to sound perky. As though this really had been nice and not all shades of uncomfortable. She reached for her handbag looped around the back of her chair.

“Yeah.” Greg pushed to his feet the same time she did. “I had a really good time, too. Maybe next time we can do dinner? There’s a great French bistro that just opened.”

“Sure.” She lifted one shoulder even though staying home alone and curling up on the couch sounded more tempting. “Just email me.” She supposed she should try at least one more date with him before calling it quits. She wasn’t going to meet anyone if she was too picky.

“Great.” Beaming, he settled his hand on the small of her back and led her from the coffeehouse.

As she stepped from the building and out into the warm sunshine, she risked one final glance behind her to the bar where Cullen sat perched on a stool.

He was still there as she knew he would be, one palm pressed flat on top of the counter beside his cup, his other arm hanging loosely at his side. It was a casual pose. Almost listless. And yet it wasn’t. Tightly leashed energy radiated off him as he sat there. He reminded her of an animal, frozen for an endless moment before he sprang into action. The sight made her pulse thrum faster at her neck.

She squared her shoulders. He had no reason to be angry, and she had no reason to feel like she had done something wrong. They were friends, moving on from one little misstep.

Greg stepped closer. His face was near enough that she could make out the slight overlap of his front tooth over its neighbor and she couldn’t help thinking it ironic that a dentist would have less-than-perfect teeth.