Page 93 of Her Tempting Protector

“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.